BEST AVAILABLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 January 1939, Page 5

BEST AVAILABLE

LORD NUFFIELD AND IRON LUNG

| REPLY TO SIR F. MENZIES. HOPE OF SAVING LIVES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (.Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) LONDON. January 13. “If I waited to produce the perfect car I would be bankrupt. We must get on with the best available iron lung and improve it as we proceed,” was Lord Nuffield’s reply when he was told that experiments probably would result in improvements. This was disclosed by the Professor of Anaesthetics at Oxford University, in a letter in the "Medical Journal” in reply to Sir F. Menzies. It reveals that Lord Nuffield consulted Sir F. Menzies, asking if there was a reasonable prospect of three lives being saved if many hospitals throughout the Empire had the irong lung, and when this was answered in the affirmative. Lord Nuffield said: "I will immediately order one thousand. It seems a pity to think that some are used as coal scuttles, but it would be more tragic to think that a life was lost because I had not spent £25 to £30.” RESULTS OBSERVED. DESIRE TO HELP YOUNGSTERS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) CAPE TOWN, January 13. Lord Nuffield, replying to Sir F. Menzies, said: “I have seen what the iron lungs will do, and I am satisfied. It is the youngsters I want to help.”

Sir Frederick Menzies, medical officer of health of the London County Council, who introduced the "iron lung” to Britain, in a letter to the British Medical Journal apropos Lord Nuffield’s gift of “it;on lungs” to hospitals throughout the Empire, said: “It is incredible that such advice was given by anybody with practical experience of mechanical respirators. It is a thousand pities that the munificent generosity of one of the benefactors of medical science should thus be exploited.

“I .hope it is not too late to prevent such a wanton waste of benevolence. Mechanical respirators are passing through an evolution in which we are learning continually that it is the height of folly at present to standardise any one type, but perhaps the worst mistake is general distribution when the majority of hospitals have not the slightest idea of their proper' use.”