RESEARCH WORK IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22072, 21 April 1937, Page 10

RESEARCH WORK IN AUSTRALIA

NO POSITIVE CONCLUSIONS BEACHED (PRESS ASSOCIATION, TELEOBAK.) WELLINGTON. April 20, Reference to the rapid headway Australia was making in medical re-search-including research into infantile paralysis—was made by Dr. E. F. D’Ath, Professor of Pathology at the University of Otago, who returned by the Awatea after having attended the eighth Australian conference on cancer. Hospital organisation in Australia was developing, and research work was expanding under many endowments. he said. A research institute had recently been built at Sydney Hospital, the money for the Institute, about £IOO,OOO. having been given by Japanese merchants. Research into infantile paralysis had been carried on in Australia for several years under the direction of Dr. Jean McNamara, who was well known to New Zealand as a research worker. Much had been done, but the stage had not yet been reached when anything positive could be said regarding prevention and treatment. The work was being carried out in Sydney and Melbourne. The main research work into infantile paralysis was being done in the United States, where there were cases practically all the year round. One result of that work was notification by the United States Department of Health that good experimental results had been achieved on monkeys by the use of a nose and throat douche, which had been found to lower the incidence of the disease in animals. Research into -infantile paralysis was commenced in New Zealand about 1925, said Dr. D’Ath. but was not continued because of-the depression.