The End of a Strained Relationship

September in the year 1987 heralded my retirement both as a reader in the University and also that of my honorary appointment as a consultant physician to Addenbrooke's Hospital. At that time I had been unable to make any satisfactory arrangements for the continued specialist care of my patients. A solution was offered in the following summer when Dr Gerald Stern invited me to set up a Wilson's disease clinic at University College Hospital (UCH) in London. One problem had to be solved as to who would do the specialist studies of copper metabolism The UCH laboratory was not able to undertake the preferred method of caeruloplasmin estimation but Scheinberg agreed to do this for me if I mailed him suitable samples to New York. My clinic ran in conjunction with Dr Stern's out patient clinic until we transferred to the Middlesex Hospital and Dr Lees took over from Dr Stern on his retirement. My expenses for the travel to London were met by Aldrich Chemicals, who had taken over the production of Trientine. There were problems over the account of an overseas patient and also a major problem when two Cambridge doctors published results culled from my case notes.. Eventually I tendered my resignation on reaching the age of 80 years and handed over the clinic to Dr. Godfrey Gillett who had joined me some years before. There is also an account of my somewhat unhappy relationship with the University of Cambridge.