THE DOCTOR AND LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 249, 20 October 1924, Page 4

THE DOCTOR AND LIFE.

The British Medical Association in England has decided that in future a member of that body may publish articles in hia own name in the general Press without being considered guilty of self-advertisement. It is not very many years since journalists commenced to spread a knowledge ot medical matters of special interest to the public, but always the non-medical writer has laboured under the disadvantage of gathering his news from authorities whose name and standing were necessarily suppressed, or from the columns of medical journals sometimes influenced by what the late Sir William Gull denominated "trade winds. The pen is mightier than the sword—or the scalpel, and if there is free collaboration between the Press and the medical profession, and the newspaper columns arc open to the expression of possibly conflicting medical opinions, the public will realise more clearly than it has done how much it has gained

hy medical research and the daily work of the profession, aud how thoroughly each new discovery is questioned, doubled, sifted and tested, before receiv- ! ing the final approval of the whole medical body. The journalist must he i trusted to exhibit no haste in the publication of medical suggestions which arc not based upon experience and success. Many tragic disappointments have had their origin in the premature i announcement of some new specific 1 which has eventually proved a disas- j trous failure, and whilst the more lion- | • ourahle members of the medical pmfes- ■ ' sion have been debarred from public f statements made through the Press, ' quacks and cranks have, hy devious methods, obtained the public ear. The comparative statistics of hospitals never : j vet available to tho Press, are one of the ■ mysteries which should go down before j ' tliis frank union of puhlic, Press, and j 8.M.A., for the clean wind of truth ! ' blows only when publicity is thorough i and complete. We are all seeking deli- j . nite assurances upon such subjects as I foods, wholesome or otherwise; serum j treatment: the use of radium; the dan-i gers of X-rays; the cause of dental. rarios: and the incidence of cancer, and , cue looks forward with hope to I he pub-j r lished opinions of those in the fore- .' front of the medical profession. j J