When Doctors Disagree When distinguished medical gentlemen enter into heated
controversy in the Press about a scientific question they should not be surprised if the Press itself becomes heated about the practical application of that question to matters of daily life. What is the issue ? Between two highly expert committees, one advising the Ministry of Health, the other the British Medical Association, there is a difference of opinion. One gives 3,000 calories and 37 grammes of protein for the daily needs of a normal man, the other 3,400 calories and 50 grammes. If that had been all, there would have been no big head- lines in the popular Press. But it was not all. The Ministry of Health sent a circular to local authorities stating that the B.M.A. minimum allowance for weekly diet of 5s. 101d. was too generous. This is a fact, concerning the border-line of hunger, which inevitably comes within the province of the popular Press. The B.M.A. may have exceeded their rights as experts in translating calories into pence. But the fact remains, with all respect to the scientific purism of Professor Greenwood, that the larger number of calories will cost more in pence than the smaller number. Lord Dawson's suggestion, that the two committees should hammer it out together, is sensible.
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