NEW WORLD SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 141, 11 March 1930, Page 10

NEW WORLD SPIRIT

OLD MATERIALISM PASSING ADVICE TO MEDICAL ' STUDENTS Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, March 10. A rather unusual note was struck by Dr. Colquhoun in the course of an inaugural address which he delivered at the opening of the year’s sessions at the Otago Medical School to-day. Dr. Colquhoun was appointed as lecturer in medicine at the university in the ’eighties, and he retained the position for 36 years. He now resides in England, but at the present time is on a visit to the Dominion. After briefly tracing the history of medicine and saying a word of encouragement to the country praettioner, Dr. Colquhoun said the whole trend of modern knowledge was towards a belief in other existences, a belief that they were not mere magnetic mockeries; in short, that they were living souls. Those who taught that the life of man did not end with this life seemed to be reinforced in their'opinion. The old'materialism was passing away and a newer and larger view of the world in which they lived was coming daily into the minds of all. He did not think that in starting life they could have a better foundation of principle tha nthat God was a spirit, that nothing was of value to a man if he should lose his own soul and gain the whole world. His advice to those who were starting out on the career of' medicine was that their attitude in carrying out their life’s work was to be just, to love mercy, to walk humbly, and to be pitiful to those who came under their care as patients and in other ways.