ANNOTATIONS5

As ophthalmologists it is our obvious duty to press for a proper
ophthalmic service for all classes of the community by qualified
medical practitioners with ophthalmic training who should receive
an adequate fee for their work. ,A revision and extension of the
National Ophthalmic Treatment Board would seem to be the ideal
solution of our part of the problem.
We view with alarm the prospect of state control of the voluntary

hospitals and we think that free choice of doctor must be accorded
to the patient for the success of any scheme of re-organization of
the health services. And, lastly, a similar freedom should be meted
out to the medical practitioner. May we not agree with that great
Scottish physician who, in one of his prefaces, said'he thought, with
Adam Smith, that a'mediciner should be as free to exercise his
gifts as an architect-or a mole catcher ?

A Singular Error

Madame de Stael's well known epithet vulgaire, applied to the
writings of Jane Austen, was a blow which staggered lovers of
the Hampshiie novelist's books until some one suggestedihat the
adjective in this case meant "commonplace" rather than "low."
Thence onwvards everything was comfortable. Our own comfort is
often disturbed round about the beginning of each month by the
fear that we have missed some dreadful howler in reading the
proofs: Could a graph of our feelings be constructed it would show
a regular rise and fall each month over a good many years with
occasional excrescences above the common level where we have
blundered more than usual. We regret to have to -record that this
happened in our October number, where, on page 436, occur the
words "There is little or no data." We understand that this slip-
shod construction is increasingly common in physical literature.
That such a monstrous error should be prevalent is indeed a flaw in
a centuries-long system of classical education.' There is, however, no
reason to despair, all will be well when the new Education Act is'
passed'and we may look forward with confidence to the time when,
in the words' of our erudite Minister of Education, the boy well
grounded in Latin-will "take" (not only) "the internal combustion
engine (but also the whole range of phYsics) " in his stride."

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