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Presents a short study, based on primary sources, of the origins in 1884‐1887 of the Public Library in Bootle, Merseyside, now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, but up to 1974 a separate borough, adjacent to Liverpool. Includes references to Liverpool’s own Victorian enthusiasm for public libraries, largely dependent on W.E. Gladstone and Sir James Picton, as well as to the more local generation of interest in such matters by Dr R. Tudor and others. The history is outlined up to the year 1901.

Anyone approaching the subject of the training of senior staff in industry in an analytical frame of mind cannot avoid being perplexed by the lack of definition in the terms used by experts in this field. Is management training intended exclusively for managers and who precisely are ‘managers’? Training institutions run indifferently under such titles as Business School, Management Training Centre, Administrative Staff College, Executive Training Centre, Administrative Staff College, and so on. A famous business school in its brochure offers an ‘executive development programme’ to assist companies in their task in developing competent ‘managers’; a University provides both an ‘executive programme’ and a ‘senior executive programme’ for men with substantial ‘managerial’ experience. A business journal simultaneously carries advertisements for the posts of personnel officer, personnel manager, head of personnel administration, and personnel executive, all with comparable responsibilities. Confusion of terminology thus abounds.

Outlines the aims, purposes and contents of the various reference guides to the manuscripts, poems and novels of Sir Walter Scott, to the dramatizations of the novels, to contemporary and subsequent reviews and critiques of his literary work, and to bibliographical studies.

Surveys of mental health services users consistently report stigma as a major barrier to recovery. Service users from black and other minority ethnic groups, of course, suffer double discrimination. This article describes a pilot project in which service users and staff from two voluntary sector organisations organised an awareness‐raising event for pupils in an inner city school to challenge and inform them about mental illness.

AMONG new problems faced by design engineers of supersonic aircraft and missiles is the destructive effect of rain. At transonic and supersonic speeds, rain erosion of aircraft materials may prove to be a limiting factor in all‐weather flying conditions.

The case of food poisoning which affected some 150 persons at Derby appears to be undoubtedly a genuine case of ptomaine poisoning. During the last few years many isolated deaths have occurred, after the consumption of some particular kind of food, which have been attributed to ptomaine poisoning, but the evidence put forward in support of this view has not unfrequently been open to grave doubt. At Derby, however, the nature of the outbreak and the symptoms presented by the patients were characteristic, and if further proof were needed it would be contributed by the interim report of Dr. SHERIDAN DELEPINE, of Manchester, who made an examination of the suspected pies and their ingredients. Most people are fully acquainted with the history of this out break, which was not confined to Derby but extended to various parts of the country, in every case the persons attacked having consumed portions of the infected pork pies. Dr. DELEPINE has issued an interim report in which he states that he has isolated a bacillus belonging to the colon group which is, in his opinion, undoubtedly responsible for the pathogenic properties of the pies. The evidence as to the relation of the bacillus to the epidemic is, says Dr. DELEPINE, absolutely clear. The bacillus in question has been isolated from a pork pie, from a pork bone pie, from the blood, spleen and intestines of one of the persons who died, and from the blood, spleen, bile and intestines of several animals which have died in two or three days from the effects of feeding on a pork pie. The bacilli obtained from all these sources were identical in appearance. Animals inoculated with this bacillus have died, and in their blood the same bacillus has been again found; and four specimens of blood obtained from patients who had been ill after eating a portion of a pork pie have given, on examination, a clear serum reaction, but the blood of normal persons and also of patients affected with typhoid fever has given no similar clear serum reaction. Dr. DELEPINE has also been able to ascertain the presence of the same bacillus in a pork pie which Dr. ROBERTSON, of Sheffield, had sent him. This statement appears to leave no room for doubt as to the dangerous nature of the pies, and Dr. DELEPINE's complete report will be awaited with considerable interest.

AN ESTEEMED correspondent points out that there are about two dozen library magazines of all sorts and sizes in circulation, whereas when he started his career there were no more than three. Our correspondent has himself had considerable editorial experience, and it may be that he is still in harness in that regard. One of his earliest efforts was in running the magazine of the old Library Assistants' Association, and it is not likely that that magazine has ever reached the same heights of excellence as it attained in his day. He observes that there are far too many library magazines now in circulation. We agree.

I feel therefore that the estimated calcium intakes of children and adults may probably be too high. It has been stated that if we take all our rations of milk and cheese, then our calcium intake now is no worse than it was before the war. That is probably true, if we eat all our rations. The point I would like to make however, is this. Assuming our calcium intakes are the same now as before the war, they are still below optimum. The correction of this calcium deficiency cannot at present be done by increasing the rations of the calcium foods, and so some other means had to be found. The Government decided, in the interests of national health, to fortify bread with calcium. With this extra calcium they considered that the majority of people, rich and poor alike, would be able to ingest at least a bare minimum of calcium. By adding it to bread, a cheap staple food, it brought this important mineral within reach of the poorer classes who were and are in need of it most. This step has aroused a certain amount of controversy, so let us examine the facts.

The review of food consumption elsewhere in this issue shows the broad pattern of food supplies in this country; what and how much we eat. Dietary habits are different to what they were before the last War, but there have been few real changes since the end of that War. Because of supplies and prices, shifts within commodity groups have occurred, e.g. carcase meat, bread, milk, but overall, the range of foods commonly eaten has remained stable. The rise of “convenience foods” in the twenty‐five year since the War is seen as a change in household needs and the increasing employment of women in industry and commerce, rather than a change in foods eaten or in consumer preference. Supplies available for consumption have remained fairly steady throughout the period, but if the main food sources, energy and nutrient content of the diet have not changed, changes in detail have begun to appear and the broad pattern of food is not quite so markedly stable as of yore.