225

ROBERT DONALD TEARE

M.A., M.D. Cantab., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Path.

Dr Teare, professor emeritus of forensic medicine inthe University of London, died on Jan. 17 at the age of

67.

He was educated at Gonvilleand Caius College, Cambridge,and St George’s Hospital, Lon-don. After qualifying in 1936 heheld house appointments at St

George’s, becoming medical

registrar in 1938 and pathologistin the Emergency Medical Ser-vice the following year. In 1946he was appointed pathologist toSt George’s and lecturer in for-ensic medicine at the medicalschool and at St Bartholomew’sHospital Medical College. In1963 he was appointed to a

readership at St George’ s and he

became professor in 1967. At various times he was examinerin forensic medicine for the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge,London, Oxford, and Riyadh, and for the National Universityof Ireland. He was a past president of the Medico-Legal So-ciety, the British Association in Forensic Medicine, and theMedical Defence Union. The Society of Apothecaries of Lon-don conferred on him one of the first diplomas in medical juris-prudence in 1963; and in 1976 he was Master of the Society.M. R. C. writes:

"Many obituaries list their subjects’ activities and interestsand imagine how the various institutions, professions, andorganisations would have fared if he or she had not been as-sociated with them. Were we to do this for Donald Teare, wecould say without any doubt that medicine and especially path-ology would be far less rich for the absence of this dis-

tinguished figure; and forensic medicine would be an underde-veloped subspecialty, compared with the soundly establisheddiscipline it now is. St George’s Hospital Medical Schoolwould be without a section of its history; and its students, forwhom Donald Teare had a warm friendly concern, would haveleft without one of their most agreeable memories of theschool’s staff. The Central Criminal Court at the Old Baileywould be without the ghost of this grey-haired and imposingexpert witness, well remembered and respected by so manycounsel. The Society of Apothecaries and the Medical DefenceUnion would be much the poorer. And the writer of thistribute would not be a forensic pathologist."

FREDERICK JOHN NATTRASSM.D. Durham, F.R.C.P.

Professor Nattrass, emeritus professor of medicine atthe Universities of Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne,died on Jan. 19 at the age of 88.He graduated from the University of Durham in 1914 and

was awarded the gold medal for his M.D. thesis in 1920. Afterservice with the R.A.M.C. he joined the staff of the Royal Vic-toria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1921, becoming fullphysician in 1935. He was professor of medicine at the Univer-sity of Durham from 1941 to 1956, and professor of medicineat the University of Lagos, Nigeria, from 1962 to 1963. Hewas an examiner in medicine for the Universities of Bristol,Manchester, and St Andrews, Trinity College, Dublin,Queen’s University, Belfast, and the National University ofIreland. From 1950 to 1952 he was censor of the Royal Collegeof Physicians, and senior censor from 1955 to 1956. He waspresident of many societies during’ his career, among them theAssociation of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland, the As-sociation of British Neurologists, and the section of medicineat the Royal Society of Medicine.

H.A.D. writes:"To generations of students Fred Nattrass was a model of

the courteous and careful physician from whom they learnedas much by example’ as by his lucid precepts. The apex of hiscareer was probably when he was Newcastle’s first full-timeprofessor of medicine and also senior censor of the Royal Col-lege. Even to have been failed by him in the M.R.c.P. examina-tion was perhaps remembered as a privilege, because he was askind as he was discerning.

"His post-retirement activities were remarkable. He madesuch an impact as professor of medicine in Lagos that for longafterwards Nigerian ex-students could be seen wending theirpilgrims’ way down the High Street of Burford to visit him.He took great interest in the Muscular Dystrophy Group, ofwhich he was chairman. He continued to attend meetings ofthe Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland andin 1974 he became the only person to have twice given the his-torical account of the hosting medical school, a practice whichhe had himself instituted during his presidency twenty-oneyears before. As president he attended nearly all the meetingsof the Association of Physicians of the Newcastle region, untilat 85 years failing eyesight prevented him travelling. In hisseventies his lifelong interest in wild life took him to the Seren-geti National Park and also to the Galapagos Islands. Hisfriends were everywhere. No sooner did word get around thathe was in some town or even continent than they would appearto greet him."

Diary of the Week

Monday, 29th JAN. 28 TO FEB. 3

INSTITUTE OF DERMATOLOGY, St. John’s Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, LisleStreet, Leicester Square, London WC2H 7BJ

4.30 P.M. Dr M. F. Spittle: Radiotherapy of Malignant Skin Disease.INSTITUTE OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY, Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, Gold-

hawk Road, London W6 OXG12.30 P.M. Mr I. MacKenzie: The Use of Prostaglandins in Modern Obstetric

Practice.MANCHESTER MEDICAL SOCIETY

5.30 P.M. (New Medical School, Architecture Building.) Odontology. MissHilary Hodge: Adolescent Oral Hygiene—A Fresh Approach. MrG. D. MacKeaggan: Telemetry.

Tuesday, 30thROYAL POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12

OHS4 P.M. Prof. Michael Sela (Rehovot, Israel.): Molecular Basis of Antigenicity.

Wednesday, 31stROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND

4.30 P.M. (Hope Hospital, Salford.) Mr T. E. O’Brien: Fibrinolytic Activityin the Gastrointestinal Tract.

ROYAL POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL11.45 A.M. Prof. Sela: Some Medical Aspects of the Synthetic Approach.

INSTITUTE OF DERMATOLOGY4.30 P.M. Dr R. H. Meara: Atopic Syndrome.

INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGY, National Hospital, Queen Square, London WC1N3BG

6 P.M. Dr J. Hughes: Neurochemical Aspects of Sensory Transmission andPain.

7 P.M. Prof. P. D. Wall: Pain—Central Mechanisms.INSTITUTE OF PSYCHIATRY, de Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5

5.30 P.M. Dr Bruce Sloane (Southern California.): Is Psychotherapy Alive andWell and Living in America?

NORTHWICK PARK HOSPITAL, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3UJ1 P.M. Dr J. M. Gumpel: Therapeutics in Rheumatology.

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG5 P.M. Dr W. W. Addington (Chicago.): Sequelm of Heroin Abuse.

RADCLIFFE INFIRMARY, Oxford5 P.M. Dr Basil Morson: Preventing Colorectal Cancer.

Thursday, lstROYAL POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL

4 P.M. Prof. Sela: Synthetic Approach to the Immunology of the Future.INSTITUTE OF LARYNGOLOGY AND OTOLOGY, 330/332 GRAY’S INN ROAD, LONDON

WC1X8EE5.30 P.M. (Royal College of Surgeons.) Mr Gerald Westbury: Management of

Tumours Involving the Tongue.Friday, 2ndSOCIETY FOR THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE

6.30 P.M. (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.) Mr Eric Bax-ter : The Famous Dr Henry Jephson of Leamington Spa.