Abstract

JUNE 1952

Princess Elizabeth ascends to the British throne, Winston Churchill is the British Prime Minister, Newcastle win the FA Cup, ration books are still in use and a pint of beer costs 3p. In the USA, Eisenhower (with Nixon as Vice President) wins the Presidential Election, the Invisible Man is the best seller, and the New York Yankees win the World Series. Selman Waksman is awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his role in the discovery of Streptomycin. Following a coup, King Farouk is ousted as King of Egypt. Two consultant physicians are appointed; Dr Mandela to a hospital in Central Africa and Dr Joseph Bloggs to a London teaching hospital. Their first consultant ward rounds are conducted with a mixture of nervous excitement and trepidation. The first five patients Dr Mandela sees have just been admitted and are suffering from cerebral malaria, TB meningitis, tetanus, epilepsy and