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J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-76-02-01 on 1 February 1941. Downloaded from 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ l'hoto by ,. C~dl G"uld, tv~ybrjdg~ 'rH" LA,]," ;;,,< IVJLLlAM HORIWCKI:l. on September 25, J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-76-02-01 on 1 February 1941. Downloaded from 3 THE LATE COLONEL SIR WILLIAM HEAT ON HORROCKS, K.C.M.G., C.B., A.M.S. EDITOR OF THE "JOUR~AL OF THE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS," 1908-1940. IT must be very seldom that a scientific journal continues to be edited by the same man for a period of thirty-two years. Yet such has been the good fortune of the JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS. Colonel Sir William Heaton Hbrrocks was an active Editor from 1908 until the very day of his death on January 26, 1941. He worked with zest and enthusiasm at papers for the Journal on the last day of his life. "In his last years his absorbing interests were the Journal, to which he 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. was devoted, and his garden where he spent endless happy days among his flowers." So writes his daughter; and the Royal Army Medical Corps knows well that his devotion led to a publication not only highly interesting but extremely efficient as well. Such an Editorship might well occupy the whole time and attention of one man; and yet, when one sets out to read the story of Sir William Horrocks, the Journal appears to occupy a relatively small place in his life and work, so great was the inspiration, the drive and the industry displayed. Let us begin at the beginning and attempt to follow, through the stresses of a long period, the exertions and successes of a thoroughly accomplished and highly efficient officer of the Corps. Horrocks was educated at Owens College, Manchester, where he matricu lated at the age of fifteen and took his B.Sc. He graduated in Medicine later, taking his M.B. of London in 1883. For a time he was a Resident at the Brompton Hospital for Chest Diseases and then went to the Guildford Hospital. "It was there," says his daughter, http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ " that a purely chance conversation with a patient made him think of the Army and he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, a step which he never once regretted." He entered the Army Medical Service as a Surgeon and became a Surgeon Captain on passing out of Netley on February 5, 1887. While in India in 1895, he married Minna, daughter of the Reverend J. C. Moore of Connor, Co. Antrim. By her he had two children, both of whom survive him, a son, Brian Gwynne, and a daughter, Jean Moore. His wife died in 1921. Their life together had been one of unclouded happi ness. The son is now Brigadier B. G. Horrocks, Commanding an Infantry on September 25, Brigade. / In 1899, Captain Horrocks, who had returned from India and had been posted in 1897 as Assistant Professor of Hygiene to the Army Medical J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-76-02-01 on 1 February 1941. Downloaded from 4 School, Netley, was promoted to the rank of Major. He continued to be an Assistant Professor until 1903 when he was transferred to Malta and served as a Member of the Royal Society's Commission on Mediterranean Fever. "Malta Fever," "Mediterranean Fever," "Undulant :Fever "--the disease is really an almost universal scourge-was then known prin cipally as a disease of Malta and, as such, had long defied all efforts to check its prevalence. Excellent accounts of it had been written by various doctors. Its causative organism had been isolated by Colonel David Bruce. Everything seemed set for the rapid termination of the infection. And yet the disease continued. The Mediterranean Fever Commission, working under a distinguished Chairman, Colonel Sir David Bruce himself, at once embarked on many lines of research. The Members, including Major Horrocks, Captain Crawford Kennedy, Dr. T. Zammit, Staff-Captain E. A. Shaw, R.N., and others detailed from time to time, did wonders of bacteriology in the study of how the Micrococcu8 (now Brucella) melitensis escaped from the infected human body, whether it could be transmitted by mosquitoes, whether 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. lice or other ecto-parasites might play a part. Monkeys were found to ,be very susceptible and were proved to be readily infected by the gut or by injection. But it was not until Horrocks and Zammit started to investigate the Maltese goat and proved, with the help of Captain Kennedy, that about 41 per cent of these animals were able to agglutinate the germ and that 10 per cent passed it in their milk, that the disease was really brought under control. Nothing in epidemiology is more striking than the contrast between the incidence of Malta Fever before and just after the stoppage of the supply of goats' milk to the Garrison and the Military Hospitals of Malta. In 1908, he demonstrated the passage of anthrax bacilli into the milk of a cow dying of the disease and was able to bring about a similar condition in. a female goat to which the disease had been transmitted. He had also published in the British Medical Journal (1900) a paper on the agglutination test as a means of diagnosis between B. typhosu8 and the coliform organisms; http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ in the Journal of Hygiene (1901), " A Comparative Study of the Varieties of B. coli isolated from Typhoid and Normal Digesta "; in the British Medical Journal of 1902, " An Enquiry into the influence of Soil, Fabrics and Flies in the Dissemination of Enteric Infection," written with Colonel Firth; and, from the start of the Journal of the R.A.M.C., a number of articles from 1904 onwards, on the activities, of the Mediterranean Fever Com missiQI}., enteric fever, and other subjects of first-rate importance to the soldier. While Assistant Professor of Hygiene, he published his" Introduc tion to the Bacteriological Examination of Water," for long the standard on September 25, work on the subject. He edited, with Colonel Firth, Parke's "Theory and Practice of Hygiene," and the second edition of " Notter and Firth." In 1914, he became a King's Honorary Surgeon. He was awarded the Chadwick Gold Medal and Prize of £50 in 1915. J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-76-02-01 on 1 February 1941. Downloaded from 5 But it was in the preparation for and the actual waging of the War of 1914-] 8 that Horrocks found his greatest role. As a Member of the Army Medical Advisory Board, Member of the Army Sanitary Committee and Chairman of the Anti-Gas Committee, he played a conspicuous part in some of the major episodes of the War. In his capacity of Member of the Army Sanitary Committee, he co operated magnificently with those responsible for the sanitation of the Armies in France and Belgium. He was instrumental in sending out the Mobile Water Sterilizers, the Mobile Hygiene Laboratories, in the super vising and altering of the Water Carts, and in the issue of the Test Case for Water Supplies, now universally known as the" Horrocks Box." This Test Case" contains a graduated pipette, a standard spoon, one cup holding 250 C.c. of wa.ter, six cups containing 187 C.c. of water, and a test solution of zinc iodide ;:tnd starch. The pipette is so graduated that one drop of a solution containing the contents of the standard spoon in 250 C.c. of water when added to 187 C.c. of the water to be tested, produces 1 part per million of free chlorine; and one standard spoonful of chloride of lime in 110 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. gallons of water, the contents of one water cart, produces approximately the same quantity of free chlorine in the contents of the cart." (" Official History of the War," Medical Services, Hygiene of the War, Vol. I, p. 75). A War Office Economy Committee in charge of Sir Napier Burnett was established. This Committee worRed in collaboration with Colonel Sir William Horrocks and Lieutenant-Colonel E. V. Cathcart and was thus able to judge of the various articles of food in which it was desirable to exercise economy. It was Sir William Horrocks, too, who advised the Army Council to put Professor H. Brigg's method for testing fitness into full use by setting up in Edinburgh University the Military Physical Test Station. Colonel Horrocks and Lieutenant-Colonel G. S. Buchanan with Dr. Mervyn Gordon, after visiting the Canadian Camps which had suffered most from cerebro spinal fever, recommended the attachment of Colonel R. J. Reece for service with the Army Medical Directorate, in connexion with the disease; a duty which led to his drawing up, under the direction of Colonel Horrocks, a scheme for the control of cerebrospinal fever, which was at once put into operation. http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ But it was as Chairman of the Anti-Gas Committee that Horrocks played, perhaps, his principal role. The Anti-Gas Department, which was to control both the design and commercial production of respirators and other defensive equipment, was under his direction and, in this duty, he was assisted by a small Anti-Gas Committee composed of officers of the Medical Services, an officer representing the Ordnance Department, and civilians with expert knowledge of chemistry, physiology and pharmacology.