Misplacement of the elderly in hospital. A study of patients admitted to geriatric and mental hospitals.

patients. No matter how thoroughly a new drug has been tested in experimental animals, possible species differences must never be forgotten in assessing its precise effect in man. As Mr. Hanbury, of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, has recently said, " there are innumerable examples of drugs of the utmost value, even penicillin itself, which have brought life and health to millions of people but serious trouble to the few. Vaccination against smallpox involves a grave risk to a tiny minority, considered worth taking for the good of the majority. Even the use of the homely aspirin is by no means devoid of danger. Those who say that nothing short of complete safety will suffice are crying for the moon, and if their clamour were taken at its face value stagnation would be the sequel. The public which demands therapeutic progress must be prepared to accept some risk, though its degree and extent can be minimized by intelligent safeguards."