N-Acetyl-para-aminophenol as an Analgesic

sea-the results of keen young chaps operating in destroyers had been so bad. During eight years in big ships (750-1,500 souls aboard) I have had about 40-50 cases at sea and have not operated on any of them. Often there have been reproachful looks from fhe nursing sister, and even indirect hints from the captain: "Will you want me to stop the ship, doctor ? " None have died or had serious trouble. But is this conservative policy right in English hospital practice ? I should say no, for the following reasons: (1) A case treated thus will occupy an expensive hospital bed longer and demand more total nursing attention. (2) It should be admitted later for interval appendicectomy; again a hospital bed occupied and again work interrupted. (3) In many who do not undergo interval appendicectomy recurrence is likely, perhaps at a most inconvenient time and place. I suggest the time has come for dogmatic teaching in the schools: (1) in general hospitals, operate at once, if safe; (2) anywhere else, do not operate. It is an amusing speculation whether appendicectomy may not become, like circumcision, a victim of the National Health Service.I am, etc.,