Liverpool Area Research Articles

Prevalence of dental caries of Chinese in Liverpool.

The dental caries prevalence of adult Chinese immigrants in the Liverpool area is considerably lower than that of the native British. This is in contrast to Chinese children born in the U.K. who appear to have a higher prevalence compared to the same age group of British children.

Resources and Systems

As the health services in developed countries continue to expand, their demands increase on skilled and expensively trained manpower. Already they employ approximately six per cent of the total manpower in some countries, ranking as the second or third largest employers. As a matter of fact, at the present rate of growth the health industry could be the biggest employer of labor well before the end of the century. On the one hand, the consumer wishes to have the latest and the best, in the way of treatment and specialties, of the technologic revolution in medicine. On the other, there has been little measurable payoff during the past three decades in terms of reduced death rates in any age group and little evidence of benefit in reduced disability; indeed, often the very advances in biomedical science simply mean that more people survive into old age, frequently on maintenance therapy and at further risk of an even more critical episode. Thus, most developed countries now proclaim a shortage of skilled manpower, some admit to having to ration resources, a few are considering a ceiling on training specialist physicians, and at least the United Kingdom is reducing the supply of acute hospital beds by one-third. In the Liverpool area, the present and related studies have contributed to such a radical redeployment of resources. This paper presents a preliminary budget of investment in the twelve study areas of the World Health Organization/International Collaborative Study of Medical Care Utilization. It gives

Liverpool civic and social centre: preliminary wind tunnel testing to determine environmental conditions

A series of preliminary wind-tunnel tests have recently been carried out on a model of a proposed Liverpool Civic and Social Centre (for which the architect is Colin St J . Wilson). These tests were primarily concerned with investigating one aspect of the wind pattern around the building— how it affects the pedestrian. The value of initial, or exploratory, testing has been that the opportunity could be taken to use a short (2- or 3-day) availability of a wind tunnel, in this case offered to us by courtesy of the University Engineering Laboratories at Cambridge, to place in it an existing model of the scheme. From this has been obtained a guide to the types of detailed testing that will be necessary as the design progresses. The form of the building complex in the study model (figures 1 and 2) can be separated out vertically into three main elements: (i) Five upper floors of offices, which house 4500 members of the Corporation Staff and, in the centre block, connect to a public reception hall handling up to 8000 visitors on a normal day. (ii) At mid-level a pedestrian route system across the site in the form of a covered arcade with attached commercial accommodation. (iii) In the four to six lower levels of the podium a social and public realm with sports and swimming centres, restaurants, multi-purpose hall and adult education facilities. The overall dimension of the pinwheel forming the upper office levels is 244 m (800 ft) from east to west and the centre hall section is 73 m (240 ft) square. The first testing of environmental conditions has been carried out on a 1/500 scale wood and polystyrene model which allows for the Civic Centre together with its immediate surrounding area of Liverpool to be assembled on a baseboard 1.3 m square

Community Adult Education

Mr Lovett is a WEA organising tutor working as one of the Educational Priority Area team in a poor area of central Liverpool. This article is a personal report on his first fourteen months' work, and should be read in conjunction with Mr Keith Jackson's article in our last issue

St Johns Park

The suburb of St Johns Park was part of the traditional land of the Cabrogal people, a subgroup of the Gandangarra clan. They are thought to have lived on the lands that stretched between what became the Fairfield district and the Liverpool area for more than 30,000 years. The heavily wooded land provided the shelter of gums, silver oaks and swamp oaks, along with a ready source of fresh water and fish, eels and shellfish in local waterways, including Clear Paddock Creek.St Johns Park is now a suburb of Fairfield City, situated 35 kilometres west of Sydney. It is named after the Old Parish of St John in which it is located. When Liverpool was established in 1810, St Johns Park was within the Liverpool boundaries. In 1892 it became a district of the Municipality of Cabramatta and Canley Vale, and finally a part of Fairfield Municipal Council area upon its merger with Cabramatta and Canley Vale Council in 1948. The suburb is bounded by Smithfield Road, Canley Vale Road, Humphreys Road and Edensor Road (formerly Parkes Road).

INCREASED INCIDENCE OF TETRACYCLINE-RESISTANT PNEUMOCOCCI IN LIVERPOOL IN 1968

Tetracycline-resistant pneumococci have lately become more common in the Liverpool area. In 1968, 23% of pneumococci isolated from patients at Liverpool Royal Infirmary were tetracycline-resistant. At least half of these infections were acquired outside hospital. From patients at home and from children newly admitted to hospital, the proportion of tetracycline-resistant pneumococci isolated at a Public Health Laboratory increased from 9% in 1967 to 14% in 1968. Infections caused by resistant pneumococci did not respond to treatment with tetracyclines and many developed during or after administration of these antibiotics. It is important that infections which may be pneumococcal and fail to respond to tetracycline treatment should be investigated bacteriologically to establish the nature and sensitivity of the infecting organism. When this is not possible, and in severe infections, treatment other than tetracycline should be used. Among pneumococci, resistance to the penicillins has not been observed and resistance to erythromycin and lincomycin is rare.

Consumer motivations: examples from the grocery trade

Endeavours to show that a variety of motivations govern consumer actions and concentrates on the grocery trade for its information – nevertheless its findings and reasoning have some pertinence for all retail business. States the study is based on a particular study carried out in the Liverpool area in 1967 and highlights problems of differentiating between motivations and goals. Proposes that in the grocery trade consumer motivations be examined with great emphasis on the findings of a study. Believes general problems of differentiating between motivation and goals may lead into a testable hypothesis. Concludes that developments await the results of basic research into fields such as buyer behaviour, but lack of knowledge may invalidate general measurement.

Epidemiology of acute leukaemia of childhood in the Liverpool area.

Aetiological factors known to influence the devel opment of leukaemia in man include ionizing radiation and chromosomal abnormalities (Miller, 1964). Viral agents have been demonstrated in laboratory animals and although virus-like particles and mycoplasma have been found in affected marrow cells (Negroni, 1964; Grist and Fallon, 1964) attempts to show a direct causal relationship have so far been unsuccessful in man. Epidemiological studies have become of increasing importance, and interest in the distribution has been stimulated by reports of clustering within various communities. The outbreak in one parish in Niles, Illinois, in which eight children developed the disease within 4 years, was thought to be due to an infectious cause, especially as there was an outbreak of a rheumatic-like illness during the same period (Heath and Hasterlik, 1963). Other reports of smaller clusterings (Wood, 1960; Pinkel and Nefzger, 1959) were more open to interpretation as being due to chance distribution, although infection could not be excluded as a contributory factor. Studies of varia tion in San Francisco (Mustacchi, 1965) supported the view that cases tend to occur in a non-random way referable to the presence of previous cases. As the incidence of leukaemia in the population is very low, it is necessary to develop statistical techniques of suitable sensitivity and validity to detect clustering, if it exists, especially within communities where the overall incidence is not obviously different from that expected. Ideally the same method should be applied to as many sets of comparable data as possible. The procedure of Knox (1963), which was first used to study the epidemiology of childhood leukaemia in Northumberland and Durham (Knox, 1964) and later in Oregon (Meighan and Knox, 1965), has recently been assessed indepen dently (David and Barton, 1966) and shown to be an effective method of revealing space-time interaction. The object of the present study is to examine data from the large conurbation centred on the port of Liverpool where clustering was not apparent.

The Central Area of Liverpool

The Central Area of Liverpool

The origin of the Mersey anD Dee Estuaries

AbstractThe present coastal configurations of these estuaries are contrasted with known fluvial drowned estuaries and attention is drawn to their non‐fluvial characteristics. Two other sub‐parallel depressions in Wirral and southwest Lancashire are described, together with the sub‐glacial surfaces of all four. Their floors are found to contain irregular rock‐bound hollows, and other features reminiscent of glaciated areas. It is suggested that they are escape routes taken by Irish Sea ice hemmed in by the mountains of Wales and the outliers of the Pennines. The term “iceways” is suggested for such ice‐gouged features. A rock shelf in the University area of Liverpool is also tentatively attributed to the same ice erosion.

Zoology in the University of Liverpool: Prof. J. H. Orton, F.R.S

THE retirement of Prof. J. H. Orton from the Derby chair of zoology in the University of Liverpool is announced Prof. Orton has had a distinguished zoological career and is the doyen of marine biologists in Great Britain. He was on the staff of the Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association from 1910 until 1929, when he was appointed to Liverpool. Before the First World War he had already done pioneer research on the ciliary feeding mechanisms of marine animals and on temperature in relation to breeding. After his return from war service, he devoted most of his attention to the biology of molluscs, more especially the oyster, on which he became a foremost authority. While at Plymouth he conducted for many years the Easter courses for university students, and many biologists will remember with gratitude his enthusiastic and inspiring encouragement in their student days. In recent years his influence has been very noticeable in the Liverpool area, especially in much ecological work which is being done on the shores of the Isle of Man and the surrounding waters. His wide knowledge of the biology of marine organisms, and especially of the British marine fauna, makes Prof. Orton a much valued member of the zoological community. All will therefore wish that he may be able to continue his researches for many years during his retirement.

Merseyside Fauna and Flora

THERE is much that has more than a local interest in the recently issued Portfolio Vol. 2 of the Merseyside Naturalists' Association, covering mainly field work in 1942. From the botanical interest, J. D. Massey discusses in a lengthy paper the changes in the flora of the Liverpool area from 1838 to 1943, during which period fifty-nine plants have become extinct, forty-six native British species have become naturalized in the district, there have been seventy-eight naturalized alien incomers, while some 250 casuals have been recorded.

The Birds of the Liverpool Area

FIELD ornithologists will appreciate this publication, first for bringing within the confines of a single volume a mass of records hitherto scattered among numerous publications, and secondly for its list of localities where the bird-lover, month by month, can view many of our common species. Part of the preface could, with advantage, have been omitted, as the author devotes it to criticisms of local societies, inappropriate to any scientific work. There is a brief list of local ornithological collections and a short account of Wild Bird by-laws. The Birds of the Liverpool Area By Eric Hardy. (Merseyside Naturalists' Association Handbooks, No. 1.) Pp. 279 + 10 plates. (Arbroath: T. Buncle and Co., Ltd., 1941.) 8s. 6d. net.

Disappearance of Submerged Forests

THE disappearance of the last traces of the ‘submerged forest's at the old peat beds of the Lancashire and Cheshire coast, where the tides have now washed away all trace of the prehistoric tree stumps that littered the shores so abundantly at West Kirby, Hoylake, Dove Point and Leasowe on the Cheshire shore, and Hightown and Blundellsands on the Lancashire shore, has robbed geologists in particular of one of the most extensive of these collections on the British coasts. The submerged forests near Liverpool have perhaps been more closely studied than any others of these remains, and a generation ago the stumps that littered parts of the coast numbered many hundreds and were widely known. None now remains. Numerous remains of the antler deer (Cervus elaphus), wild oxen (Bos longifrons and B. primigenius), the metacarpel of a roe deer (Capreolus caprcea) and of domestic animals as the horse, dog, and in 1873 the skull of Homo sapiens, have been taken from these submerged forests in the Liverpool area. Smith (Proc. Historic Soc. Lanes, and Cheshire, 18) describes an unusually fine pair of horns of the larger form of the red deer taken at Leasowe, 1863, each antler forty inches long and the pair measuring seven feet from tip to tip, while Liverpool Museum received a large number from Hightown in 1916 (Proc. Liverpool GeoL Soc., 14). Roots of Osmunda and shells of Buccinum, Turritella, Scribicularia, Tellina and Nutica have also been obtained from the blue silt below the peat beds.

State Afforestation

SIR JOHN STIRLING MAXWELL in three recent articles in the Times (June 19, 20, and 26) deals with State afforestation, which will probably prove to be one of the best means for the settlement of soldiers and sailors on the land after the war, and at the same time be effective in utilising the large tracts of waste land which are unsuitable for tillage and unprofitable for grazing. In spite of the numerous official Commissions, and Committees which during the past twenty years have all agreed on the urgent need of national afforestation, little progress has been made. The Development Grant was instituted in 1909 for the express purpose of “the purchase and preparation of land for afforestation and the setting up of a number of experimental forests on a large scale “; but these objects have not been achieved. Sir John points out the probable reasons for this failure. In the past poor management and irregular sales on the majority of privately owned woodland estates, in conjunction with an unorganised timber trade and heavy and unequal rates of freight by rail on home-grown as compared with imported timber, have all combined “to turn profit into loss, and give forestry a bad name.” This influenced the Development Commissioners, who limited their encouragement of forestry to “certain small but useful grants in aid of education, and in finding money to provide local forestry advisers. Of actual afforestation, a few acres planted in the water catchment areas of Liverpool and Edinburgh are the only instalments.”

The Liverpool Museum and Progress

OUR attention has been directed to a correspondence now taking place in the Liverpool press, à propos of a recent meeting of the Biological Society, at which questions were raised as to the disposal of space in the newly-erected extension of the city Museum and the rearrangement of the collections which must thereby ensue. The subject was introduced by Mr. Isaac Thompson, a past president, and continued at length by Prof. Herdman, in his capacity as the founder and leader of the Liverpool Biological School; and the undisguised theme was a protest against the non-communicativeness of the Museum Director and his committee of management, as to their intentions for the future development of their work. These gentlemen, it appears, who, with the sole exception of the Director himself, are in ho way scientific, do not choose to consult Prof. Herdman and his co-workers, by whose long years of devoted labour the Liverpool School of Biologists have come to occupy a foremost position among the schools of the United Kingdom, more especially in matters pertaining to the fisheries and of economic importance. The claim which the local scientific men now raise is that their body shall be adequately represented on the Museum Board, and that immediate provision shall be made by this Board for the establishment o.f collections bearing on the nature and progress of oceanographic research and the fisheries, as more particularly representing the Liverpool area, regarded as a centre of local activity. And they also desire the display of objects of local interest, which shall in some measure reflect the latest advances in our knowledge of nature's operations.