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confirmed smokers once they have contracted the habit.Backsliding was common, and for the usual reasons-adomestic tiff, the sudden illness of a close relative, con-vivial occasions, a holiday, and so on. A few memberswho had failed to curb their craving, but who wereanxious to stop, were offered hypnotherapy. Under

hypnosis they were able to recall the disagreeable sen-sations of their first smoke. The posthypnotic suggestionthat tobacco would continue to have this effect seems tohave worked successfully over the period reviewed.

Clearly there is no royal road. As with other addictions,the greatest hopes for progress must rest on the nextgeneration. Surprisingly, of the 22 teenage children ofthe anti-smoking clinic, only 1 smoked, which suggeststhat the young are more responsive to anti-smokingpropaganda and more capable of resisting the lure of theweed.The experiment, nevertheless, was worth while. The

organisers believe that a mixture of group therapy,medication, and individual interviews should be tried forsubsequent clinics.

Infectious Diseases in England and Wales

Appointments

Barlow, A. M., M.D. Manc., M.R.C.P. : consultant in pathology, Huddersfieldand Storthes Hall Hospitals.

DUNSMORE, ROMOLA D., M.B. Lond., F.R.C.S. : consultant E.N.T. surgeon,Doncaster and Rotherham hospital groups.

EMANUEL, R. W., M.A., D.M. Oxon.,M.R.C.P.: consultant physician, cardiologydepartment, Middlesex Hospital, London.

FIRTH, HELEN, M.A., M.B. Cantab., F.F.A. R.C.S., D.A., D.OBST.: consultant inanaesthetics, Ilkley and Otley and Hichroyds hospital groups.

HYAMS, D. E., M.B. Lond., M.R.C.P. : consultant in geriatric medicine,United Cambridge Hospitals and East Anglian Regional HospitalBoard.

LEwIS, H. B. M., M.R.C.S., M.C.P.A. : regional director (consultant), NorthEast of Scotland Blood Transfusion Service.

McKENZIE, PETER, M.B. Glasg., M.R.C.P. Glasg., D.P.H. : consultant physicianin infectious diseases, in charge of the infectious disease wards atBelvidere Hospital, Glasgow.

MEIKLE, J. A. K., M.B. Edin., M.R.C.P.E., F.F.R., D.M.R.D.: consultant radio-logist, Perth and Perthshire area.

OKOLSKI, S. T., M.B. Polish Sch. Med. Edin.: senior casualty officer, Mans-field and District General Hospital.

STEVENSON, JOHN, M.B. Glasg., M.R.C.P.E., M.R.C.P. Glasg.: consultantphysician in charge of the infectious diseases unit at Ayrshire CentralHospital, Irvine.

THOMPSON, NOEL, M.B., B.D.s. Durh., F.R.C.S. : consultant plastic surgeon,Middlesex Hospital, London.

WAKEFIELD, G. S., M.B. Lond., M.R.C.P. : consultant neurologist, RoyalNational Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London.

WINSTOCK, DONALD, M.B., B.D.s. Lond., F.D.S. R.c.s.: consultant dentalsurgeon, Middlesex Hospital, London.

In England Now

A Running Commentary by Peripatetic Correspondents

OUR new instruments are to be satin finished, thus relievingour eyes of the strain and dazzle induced by the traditionalmirror polish. In this the wheel has turned a full circle, forour most venerable instrument, a lithotrite of great antiquity,has a finish which reflects no trace of light. Like some ancient

bell-buoy moored on a sandbank, it has come to terms with theelements and its smooth, brown, slightly pitted surface isimpervious to further corrosion. It is indeed an instrument ofa former age, created by some master lithotrite-maker of thepast. The elegantly fluted handle, the delicately curved andtwisted spokes of the wheel, and the ornamental catch tell ofa time when beauty and utility walked hand in hand. It wasborn into a world of plush-lined, leather-covered, silver-mounted cases, and looks cold and forlorn in its corner of the

glass instrument cupboard. As though by mutual consent, aspace is left between it and our modern stainless-steel impedi-menta, and there it lies, brooding on past glories and the daysbefore the chloroformist and lithotomist began to discouragethe art of litholapaxy.

Its history is unknown, but it is an instrument of whichLord Lister would, and possibly did, approve. What stones itmust have crushed between those elegant jaws, and whatopportunities must have been taken and missed thereby. Inthe capable hands of Dr. Peter Blood, Judge Jeffreys’ stonemight have yielded to it, and many a stout Westcountrymanmight have been saved from the gallows in the Bloody Assize.It is in vain that we search for any evidence of its date and

origins. The former might well be determined by a radioactivecarbon test, for the springiness of the carbon-steel shaft is adelight after the dull and solid purity of its stainless successors.But is this really necessary ? Surely, on the shaft, in the positionof the ubiquitous Government broad arrow, traces of theletters S.P.Q.R. can be made out.

* ,. ,.

Camels, as another great writer may well have alreadyremarked, is curious creatures. Before I came to my particularcorner of the Middle East I knew, of course, that they werelarge, hornless, ruminant, long-necked, cushion-footed quad-rupeds with (Arabian) one hump or (Bactrian) two humps. Iwas acquainted with references to them in literature: Saki, forinstance, described a predicament in which one of his charactersfound himself as being one which

" like Town in August or thebite of a camel " might with a little care and forethought havebeen avoided, and I have long been fond of that quaint littlerhyme which records the vain love of a camel for the EgyptianSphinx and suggests that its habitually lugubrious expressionmay be due to unrequited affection. Be all this as it may, itwas in the happy expectation of ample opportunities to form acloser acquaintance with these animals that some years agoI took up a new post in the Middle East, only to be ratherdisappointed. Indeed it was many months before I saw oneat all, and then only because the beast had lost it way and founditself in our residential area. It was dusk and I was withoutmy spectacles, and to tell the truth it was only when I got noanswer to my inquiry whether it knew where a certain ladywas that I looked more closely and realised it was not herhusband. I was embarrassed by this mistake, which couldnever have happened in daylight, as I should certainly havenoticed the tail.

What I really wanted to know, however, was whereaboutson the beast the native Arab rides-on the hump, or in frontthereof, on the neck. Again it was some time before I found outit was the former, though, curiously, all the riders I actuallysee are clinging insecurely to the rump, resembling nothingso much as a motor-cyclist who has been jerked by someoutsize pot-hole back on to the pillion of his machine, whencehe tries desperately to retain control. Now that little piece of