IN MAY 1973, 'Health Trends', a publication of the Department of Health and Social Security and the Welsh Office, included an article by the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards in Great Britain on the work of the Committee with particular reference to the Procedures of Selection. In Northern Ireland, with its number of consultants rather less than one-thirtieth that of Grea...

This book is a collection of experiences and perceptions by senior British officials about their role in the Northern Ireland peace process. It does not take account of the long history of British association with Ireland and Northern Ireland, which has been extensively researched and analysed already. Nor does it contextualise the peace process within the historical tensions and difficulties t...

Thirteen patients were identified as receiving assisted ventilation at home in Northern Ireland in 1994. Two patients have since died. An increasing number of patients are starting home ventilation, especially by nasal mask. Recognition of the needs of these patients and provision of care require further consideration.

SET againist the background of all malignant disease, neuroblastoma is rare, but it is one of the commonest tumours of childhood, and while it fulfils all the accepted criteria of embryonic malignancy its course is peculiarly unpredictable and the efficacy of a variety of treatments remains uncertain and controversial. Referenice to textbooks and the literature meets with many points of confusi...

Statistics on the registration of blind and partially-sighted patients in Northern Ireland underestimate the true extent of visual impairment within our community. In comparison to other UK regions, where between 0.53% and 0.59% of the population avail of blind or partial sight registration, only 0.35% of residents in Northern Ireland appear on the respective registers. Most patients on the com...

THE Health Advisory Council for Northern Ireland (1946) has drawn attention to the very great increase which has occurred in the cancer death rate during the last hundred years. When the Council's memorandum was prepared, the crude rate was four times larger than it was in the decade 1851-60. More recently, the Registrar-General for Northern Ireland (1949) has emphasized that until 1931, the an...

IT WAS shown by Ullmann as long ago as 1902 that it is possible to transplant the kidney of a dog from its normal site into the neck and renal function will result. He was also able to demonstrate that a kidney taken from another dog, or even from a goat, would also function, but he does not appear to have carried his experiments further. Carrel, working from 1905 to 1910, confirmed Ullmann's r...

The aim of a local historical society should. .. be to find a meaning in the past which all may share and to try to communicate it widely to our society. If history is the memory of that society, it must be a memory of experience shared, even if it is shared in different ways.

"In Northern Ireland there is no Mental Deficiency Act, no institution, no community supervision and there is only one special school (in Belfast) which is unable to meet even local needs. Apart from the inadequate provision made by the Education Acts and the Poor Relief Acts, the responsibility for dealing with mental defectives has not been placed by statute on any authority and, for the most...

A postal questionnaire was sent to all gynaecological consultants and senior registrars (n = 50) in Northern Ireland to establish the prevalence of prophylactic oophorectomy. Forty three (84%) replied. 72% performed prophylactic oophorectomy (28% unilateral), 28% did not. With reference to the world literature, there appears to be no benefit from the unilateral procedure but a consensus that bi...