IN MIDDLE AGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 8

IN MIDDLE AGE.

MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS.

WOULD PROLONG LIVES. DOCTOR STRESSES THE NEED. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. A plea for the introduction of somesystem of routine medical examination of the healthy, in order to prolong life, was made by Dr. A. G. Waddell in a lecture to tbe Workers' Educational Association last night. Dr. Waddell said there was a routine examination of school children at present, with excellent results. It was well to know that sickness was relatively more common at the extremes of life, and a routine examination, especially of those passing from their prime, say, beyond 45 years, would be of considerable value. Dr. Waddell quoted figures compiled by the actuarial and medical departments of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of America, showing that as a consequence of spending £12,000 on medically examining 6000 people in six years the company had gained, through the premiums of people whose lives were extended, £24,000. The advantage, of course, was mutual. Any medical man could tell of cases of young people being put to occupations for which they were not suited by reason of their general health, and of the consequence. The various trades and professions could be grouped into classes according to the environment and the manual or mental nature of the work. He believed this would be a great aid in the campaign against tuberculosis, while the periodical examination of the supposedly healthy at middle age would be of importance in restricting the increasing death rate from cancer.