Calendar: 1974-1975 Page 451

lxx Annual Report of the Delegacy Departmental Notes Professor D'Silva retires as Halliburton Professor of Physiology at the end of the session He will be greatly missed by all in the Depart- ment not least by the medical students whom he understood so well He was taken seriously ill at the end of the summer term The Department has continued to develop and maintain links with the Sherrington School of Physiology at St Thomas's Hospital despite uncertainties concerning the proposed King's-Thomas's-Westminster Biomedical Centre These links involve combined research projects common research seminars and interchange of third year Sc students Dr Band left the department in January on his promotion to Senior Lectureship at St Thomas's He continues to collaborate with Dr Stella Rowlands of the Department on the development of ion- selective electrodes and with Dr Phillips on the investigation of 'in vivo' pH fluctuations in pulmonary venous blood Dr Bradbury joined the Department as Reader in October 1972 He is developing his work on the ionic environment of the brain with the support of Medical Research Council grants The placental barrier between the maternal and foetal blood-streams shares properties in common with the blood-brain barrier controlling influence on the composition of the foetal environment This function of the plac- enta is being actively investigated in combined project by Dr Brad- bury Dr Venetia France and Mr Bailey of the Department and Dr Saunders of University College In connection with this work Dr Bradbury has been appointed Honorary Research Fellow at University College Dr Venetia France continues her studies of transport across epithelia in the foetus In association with John Wood Sc student in the Pharmacology Department the discovery was made of the presence of gall-stones in foetal sheep This discovery is of medical interest since gall-stones are especially likely to occur in women who have borne children The endocrine or metabolic changes of pregnancy may be causative factor Dr Joan Abbott has been awarded substantial grant by the Scientific Research Council for 'Electrophysiological Study of the Blood-Brain Interface in Invertebrates and lower Vertebrates' The proposals were considered to be outstandingly good by the Council The work is being actively pursued and the possibility of an electro-physiological study