Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 7 January 1939, page 17


"IRON LUNG NOT

PERFECT."

Lord Nuffield's Gift.

DOCTORS CRITICISM.

LONDON, Jan. 6.

Claiming that the "iron lung" has

not yet been perfected, Sir Frederick Menzies, medical officer of health of the London County Council and the in-troducer of the "iron lung" In Great Britain, refers to Lord Nufficld's gifts of similar apparatus to every hospital in the Empire as "a wanton waste of benevolence."

In a letter, which appears In the "British Medical Journal," Sir Frederick Menzies

says:-

"It is incredible that such advice (to use the 'iron lung') could be given by anybody with practical experience of mechanical respi-rators. It is a thousand pities that the munificent generosity of one of the benefac-tors of medical science should be thus ex-ploited. I hope it is not too late to prevent such a wanton waste of benevolence.

"Respirators are passing through an evolu-tion, in the course of which we are learning continually regarding their design, construc-tion, and use. it is the height of folly to standardise at present any one type, but, perhaps, the worste mistake was the general distribution of the respirators when most hos-pitals have not the slightest idea of their proper use."

[Lord Nuffield announced in November last that he had decided to provide every hos- pital In the Empire with the new "iron lung'' of plywood which has been designed by Mr E. T. Both, a South Australian engineer, The respirators, it was said, would be manufac-tured at Lord Nuffield's Morris works at Oxford for perhaps one-thirtieth of the cost of the American type. It was expected then that 5.000 of the respirators would be avail-able by March next. The cost was estimated at £500,000.]

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