SCIENCE NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 114, 17 May 1927, Page 9

SCIENCE NOTES

MEDICAL DEATH SENTENCES NON-FERROUS METALS

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

■XONDON, 12th March.

Speaking at the 1 annual dinner of the Institute oE Metals, Sir Alfred Moml, M.P., said that one thing was becoming abundantly clear, namely, that it was to the non-ferrous metals that they must look for the materials of first-rank importance. It was significant that the two.principal elements to which each class of metal' lurgista looked were nickel and chromium. The problems of aerial navigation Were immediately connected with the problems of non-ferrous metals. -

The president, replying, said that Btrongei" aijd much better metals were required, and this country could not afford to let America or any other country do the research for us.

Sir Ernest Rutherford (president of the Royal Society), replying to the toast oh "The Guests," remarked that there had been a greater advance in the knowledge of metals during the past ten years than in imy preceding period since the Bronze Age. Within the next ten years ho thought they would find that the real lino of development in many directions would depend on a study of the properties of i the individual crystals in metals. CHEMICALS IN FLOUR. How flour for the production of white oread is bleached nnd "improved" by the introduction of chemical substances is described in the report of the Ministry of Health Departmental Committee, who were appointed to inquire into the subject so long ago as July, 1923. While they are not prepared to recommend the complete elimination o£ bleaching ugents and improvers, the committee think that flour should be treated only with the less objectionable substances, and they urge that .the system of improving flour by physical rather than chemical elements should be developed and extended.

Dealing with the question from the point of view of the public health, the committee state that, while their view is that .Hour should bo a product of the milling of wheat without the addition of any foreign substance, they are confronted with the fact that to bring the great bulk of flour sold for bread-making at the present time within that description would involve interference with practices which not only have been widely adopted) but are claimed by traders, with some reasonableness, to be necessary unless wheat supplies are to bo wasted and flour prices inevitably raised. Moreover, it seems to them that so long as a great demand exists in this country for very white breads, some form of bleaching process must be permitted. , ■ Summing up, the committee state that while they consider that a staple and indispensable foodstuff, such as flour, the purity and wholesomeness of which are of cardinal importance* to the community, should be jealously guarded against unnecessary treatment with foreign substances, they arc not prepared, on the present knowledge available, to recommend the complete elimination of the bleaching agents and improvers now in use. Their view is that in the first instance it should suffice to limit the use of these substances to those which appear least open to objection. "We think that it should be compulsory for the manufacturers of chemical substances for use either as bleaching agents or improvers, or both, to declare to their purchasers the nature of the ingredients of which they are composed, and that millers should be required to inform their customers whether their flour hflß undergone a process of chemical bleaching or improving, or both, and if so with what substances and in what proportions." PATIENTS KEPT IN IGNORANCE. Sir Thomas Horder, the eminent physician and cancer specialist, described in Manchester Chancery Court the effects of a person receiving ''a medical death sentence." He gave expert evidence in ths resumed action in which the Public Trustee, as legal personal representative o£ the late Mr. Henry Cundale Lloyd, asked the Court to set aside an agreement dated 20th August,. 1925, whereby Mr. Lloyd, at that time a dying man, left l;is family unprovided for, and signed away tho goodwill ot a largo business. Mr. Lloyd was informed on -25th August, 1025, that he was suffering from enneer, and.had only two months to live, and the following day he made :in agreement with Mr. Beswiek, by .which' Mr. Berwick would secure the goodwill of the business on Mr. Lloyd's death. Mr. Lloyd died a fortnight later.

Sir Thomas Holder said that a innu who was told that he was dying from cancer Fould suffer grave mental shock ami depression—a curtain came down on a man's judgment. "A patient may say that lie wants to know the worst," said Sir Thomas. "Actually it is: the last tiling ho wants to hear/and we do not toll him. Dr. Goll, of Harley street, suiil that ho never told a patient lie had cancer. "If I did," lie added, "lie would mcvc: 1 have another moment's happiness, ami probably his life would be shortened."