I esteem it the greatest honour to have been invited to deliver this Inauguration Lecture. It is not only the distinction and importance of this College and its members which make the invitation one to be proud of: I have the additional pleasure of being well acquainted with your new and distinguished President. Having worked with him on tasks closely associated with the welfare of the whole medical profession, I know from personal experience how deep is his learning, how clear his understanding and how abundant his common sense. As an outsider I would respectfully venture to congratulate the College on its choice.

The spate of suicides and riots in unemployment-stricken towns has recently brought to public attention a feature of joblessness which had not figured in the minds of those that thought that it would only have financial and probably minor social consequences. Since then, a flurry of interest has been spurred by the media; they regularly report on studies that show some association between unemployment and ill health, quite often, and not surprisingly, to make party political meal of a long-term problem that is bound to have implications for health provision in this country, at least over the next two decades. As psychiatrists we all know the central role played by regular, satisfying employment in the mental health of our patients, and I am sure many of us are affected by our total inability to secure adequate rehabilitation alternatives on which we are sure our patients' future, and that of their families, depend to a great extent. Some of us may also have been aware of the increased demand on mental health resources over the past few years and of the worrying tendency for admissions into psychiatric hospitals to be prolonged because of the time it takes for an ex-patient to re-enter the labour force.

The Annual Meeting of the MPA in 1881 was held at University College, London; it coincided with an International Congress of Medicine and so there were an exceptional number of foreign visitors. A group photograph of members and visitors was reproduced in the Journal for June 1978 (132, facing p. 530).

In anticipating the consultative paper A Review of the Mental Health Act, 1959 the College's Public Policy Committee prepared a report in 1974 (News and Notes, October, November 1974). The second of six points covered in the report related to compulsory detention and treatment. It reads:

The issue of patients' rights, particularly with regard to psychiatric treatment, continues to be a major concern in California. There have been at least two recent pieces of legislation that restrict psychiatrists' clinical freedom in managing their patients.

The first Scottish Trainees' Day was held at the Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow, on 26 June. It was organized by two Scottish representatives of the Collegiate Trainees Committee, and about 40 trainees attended and heard talks given by Professor Gerald Timbury, Dr Angus McKay, Dr John Cox, Dr S. P. Sashidharan, Dr Richard Williams and Dr Sue Philips, Secretary of the Collegiate Trainees Committee. In the afternoon the meeting broke into small groups to facilitate the expression of views over a wide range of issues. The plenary session at the end of the afternoon brought together the main themes discussed in the small groups and these are summarized below.