MEDICAL MEN AND HEALTH.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18917, 4 February 1927, Page 16

MEDICAL MEN AND HEALTH.

—• —- FIGHT AGAINST DISEASE. CONFERENCE OPENS. [THE FBXSS Special Service. 1 DI'NEDIN. January 3. Speaking at the inaugural session of the Australasian Medical Congress to-night, Dr. L. E. Barnet: president), after welcoming the delegates and outlining the constitution and aims of the i congress, said that community service ! in tho domain of the incidence of dis- [ ease had been rightly placed in the fore- | front of the recommendations of the j General Medicnl Council and the I B.M.A. At thi* and every H.M.A. I Conference public health questions vould be given the greatest prominence. | They anticipated that their discus- ( lions on goitre and hydatid cysts would result in a very decided lessening in the frequency of theie troublesome arid yet largely prcvcntablo maladies. They would endeavour to stimulate and correlate cancer research in the t various Australian and New Zealand tcntres. Although far more cases of cancer were cured now by operative and radiological means than in former year;, chiefly because the patients were learning the wisdom of seeking treatment when the disease was in its early •tagc, yet, owing to the increasing prevalence of this mysterious malady, the total death rate from cancer kopt mounting higher and higher. The cancer problem was still with them, but ever nearine solution as a result of extensive labour in a hundred fields. He took tho opportunity of congratulating the Sydnry University on 1;ho generous response of tho people of New South Wales to its appeal for a cancer campaign fund. With a sum of veil over £IOO,OOO, a splendid plan of reMarch could be instituted, and he only hoped that other scientific centres _ in Australia and New Zealand, including Donedin, might hare tho same good fortune. Wile Field* for Besearch. Cancer was one only of many devastating diseases that called for intensive study. Tho Governments in everycivilised country now regarded it as their bounden duty to encourage reMarch that had for its object the Ibetterment of the public health. The Royal Commission on Health for Australia, so ably presided over by Sir George Syme, had recently reported the conclusions of one of the most valuable investigations into public health matters that had ever been made, and one of the recommendations —and a .very significant one—was that a health research, council should be established and provided with an endowment of £30.000 per annum.. .They would, at their meetings, give detailed attention to the important •objects of maternal and infantile mortality, of tuberculosis, and of certain tropical diseases of great public concern in Northern Australia and the | Pacific Islands, to questions concerning diet in health and sickness, and to many other matters of special interest from the preventive medicine point of view. Australian College of Burgeons, ,He must refer also—and he did it in optimistic vein—to tho proposed inauguration during the currency of this congress of the Australasian College of- Surgeons, because he believed that such a college was likely to hare a' Valuable influence on the public welfare, and because he had for some years been trying to mould professional feeling in New Zealand towards Homething of this kind. The promoters would endeavour to combine the good points of tho Royal College of Surjjeons of the British Isles with those of the more recently founded American ColJeg„v The aims were to, raise the standard of surgical'efficiency, surgical en- . deavour, and surgical ethics, in both . liospiialrand private practice, arid to encourage the provision of facilities in . hospitals whereby a sufficient number of suitable men could be specially trained to undertake' the responsible duties of. a surgeon. In Great Britain M was; quite exceptional for anyone without special training and experience to do major operations, but in the. newer countries, like America, Australia, and New Zealand, there wits not tb» same restriction. In these coun- „, irk» major operative work was quite commonly undertaken by men who, though.adequately equipped with what ,*«», popularly called "nerve." Hacked m varying degree that knowledge and experience which were requisite in deeldwg such questions as (1) Was an operation really necessary? (2) When should the operation be performed? (8) How were the unanticipated difficulties and complications to be handled? (4) Hop should the scope of the operation be limited or extended according to rircuißstance? Ho did not insinuate that the only competent surgeons would no those who were Fellows, of a college. For various reasons a rwin who really was : a good surgeon might not Wish; or might not be in a position to otrtain, a hallmark of this kind. The patient's choice would be unfettered. If hr selected an operator who was not a Fellow of a colleno he miidit or might not get a properly trained man, but if he- chose, a Fellow of a coTlepe he could rest assured that he had the serticeii of a fully-trained and experienced surgeon. To Make a Surgeon. The making of a surgeon was to take a young man who showed, both intellectual ability and manual dexterity, and p!aco him in an approved hospital, first as a bouse surgeon, and then as assistant surgeon for several years. The passing of a high-grade academic examination was desirable, but was not essential to the performnnce of highgrade surgery. The main thing was good,'hospital work, at first under supervision, and later independently. It was often alleged that doctors gave their gratuitous services, to tho sick poor' in hospitals for purely selfish ■motives, that it paid them indirectly, that the experience and prestige they gained were splendid advertisements ' for a lucrative practice, und that consequently these honorary positions were eagerly competed for. There was a measure of truth in all this, but it was not the whole trnth. Painstaking, ' t>kilful, and kindly hospital work materially helped in the building up of the very best class of private prae- . tice, but the kind of advertisement a hospital, gave war similar to that of a/shop' window, exhibited, howciver, not to the public generally, but to those only who knew the worth of the articles displayed. When a surgeon or a physician habitually showed work of a good quality within a hospital, it was abpraised accordingly by competent observers, that was to sty hv his colleagues, his students, and his nurses. If, on .the other hand, Ms work was habitually faulty, then, instead of a good advertisement, he got a had one. \ A hospital appointment might olare a man in consultant r»nk, but only if It* was worthy of it. The nubhV benefited • ehormounlv by thi« a"tomntic w>*«thod of grading medical nractitioners ■ through the medium of their gratui- . tious hospital service. .. ' . . Hospital System. .Modifications in their hospital system were now receiving scrilms conftiaeratlon. largely stimulated by the Investigations and reports of Dr. Hae-