SURGEON’S VISIT

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30219, 26 August 1963, Page 3

SURGEON’S VISIT

Importance Of Science

“Young surgeons entering the specialty today need a far greater knowledge of basic science than my generation of surgeons did when we trained 30 years ago,” Mr E. G. Muir, surgeon to King’s College Hospital, London, and dean of the Basic Science Institute at the Royal College of Surgeons, England, said in Christchurch yesterday. Mr Muir is on a private visit to New Zealand before going to Sydney to take up a five-week guest professorship at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. The institute already ran a course in electronics; other branches of physics, as well as mathematics, statistics, and biochemistry, were also of use to the surgeon, Mr Muir said. A scientific background was something which must be acquired before the surgeon could become really expert in his handicraft. Mr Muir said he hoped more facilities would become available for those engaged in clinical surgery to undertake research. Although he recognised that, while some were particularly fitted for research, others were more interested in clinical practice, he thought it desirable that in the education of any surgeon he should learn sufficient to have at least an appreciation of research. Mr Muir’s special interest is in abdominal surgery, and he will discuss developments in this field, as well as more general matters, with Christchurch doctors when he visits city hospitals today and tomorrow. He is looking forward particularly to seeing over the Princess Margaret Hospital, which was being built when he was here six years ago. He is staying wirti personal friends, Mr and Mrs P. W. Cotter. Mr Muir is surgeon to the Royal Household.