OUR HOSPITALS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 62, 10 September 1924, Page 6

OUR HOSPITALS

FAMOUS SURGEONS' VIEWS

AFTER VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND

DR. MAYO AND DR. FRANKLIN

MARTIN.

It will be remembered that Dr. W. J. Mayo, tho famous American surgeon, visited New Zealand in March last,- and spent several weeks touring.tho Dominion. During his brief, visit he attended tho,-.annual meeting of the New Zealand branch of tho British Medical Association at Auckland, and inspected the general lv«pitals in the. four main centres. Dr. W. J. Mayo, with his brother, Dr. C. H. Mayo, was the founder of the world-famous Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, United States. . Sinco his return to America, Dr. Mayo has. written an article on his visit to New Zealand and Australia,' in which article-he has made some - interesting comments on our hospital system. The observations of so distinguished an authority will no doubt, bo read with interest. The article, which appears in the American medical journal, ' ''Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics", of Juiie, is as follows :—' •. •

MEDICAL PROFESSION OF HIGH

GRADE.

"Land of adventure and romance! What boy, of any age. reading the. voyages of-Captain Cook, has not promised himself tho pleasure of a trip to New Zealand and Australia, those far-flung provinces of Great Britain in the Antipodes? Six days out by boat from Vancouver, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, lie the Sandwich Islands. One should give, himself a few days■to visit this group,-the volcano of JCilouea, and, in beautiful Honolulu, should see the Queen's Hospital. From Hpuolulu to Suva, Fiji Islands, is a sea journey of seven days; Suva is well worth a 1 visit. Iti is fortunate in its Government hospital, under Dr. Montague, chief of the Government Health Service, and Dr. Harper. Full-bloodecl Fijians here receive a, two-year course in medicine/ and are taught to care for their own people. Three days shipboard south from the Fiji's; brings one to Auckland, the northern port, or North Island, New Zealand: In three weeks one may visit briefly the two. great islands, which are the size of Groat Britain, with .one and one-third .million fine people. To .the west of New Zealand, three and one-half days; by,'boat, is Australia, about the size of the United. States without Alaska, and with about six million people. From Australia ■. or 'New Zealand the return trip to" the United Stales may be' made by way :of Tahiti and the Cook Islands to San Francisco; or, by way of I'anania Canal.' The medical profession oE Australia and New Zealand is of a high grades and compares' favourably with that of any country of the world. Medical men are highly esteemed'-by'.'the people, and politically are very influential. Quackery, while./not unknown, is not in evidence. At Auckland we had the pleasure of attending a most ■instructive- and interesting meeting of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, Garriek Robertso n, the president presiding, with nearly four hundred in attendance. Many excellent scientific ..papers were read. ; A-number of the medical, profession'of-.-Australia, in eluding the well-known surgeons, Worrall and Craig, of Sydney, and Russell and Ewing, of Melbourne, were in attendance. .'At Napier we inspected the excellent general hospital, with Dr. Leahy, and ia fine hospital conducted by Dr. Moore.- Wellington/ a city of about 100,000 people, is the capital. With Dr. Herbert, Dr. Young, and Dr. Elliott, the talented ' editor of tho "New Zealand Medical Journal," we visited the hospitals. We were greatly impressed with the work of Colonel Hunter, of the Department of: Health, who gives' to classes of-.- thirty, girls, planning to -work in the outlying districts, a two-year course in tho\care: of children's teeth which includes prophylaxis, extractions, reconstruction, and permanent filling.

IN THE SOUTH ISLAND

From. Wellington we crossed Cook's Strait, and travelled down the east coast of the South Island to Christchureh; an English settlement of about 80,000 in the Canterbury Plains. "' Here, also very good work is done 'in medicine arid surgery. Dr. Fox is chief of the splendid general hospital, where Dr. Foster, a most accomplished surgeon,' gave several clinics. We were sorry not to see- Dr. Acland, who was .in England. From Ghristchurch we went by train to Dunedin, a Scotch town with 50,000 inhabitants,; on the south-eastern coast. of the South Island. In Dunedin is the splendid medical school.! of New Zealand, of which. Sir Lindo Ferguson. -is the dean, and Professor Barriett surgical chief; where we saw,much interesting surgical work. Several fine pieces of research work: were shown to us, notably that by Projesspr Hercus,' on the relation of the absence, of iodine in the soil, especially ;on : the Canterbury Plains, to the incidence of goitre. 'Another research on the various tests for echiiiococcus disease, which is extremely common in this sheep-raising country. .: At the Anatomy wo were shown.by Professor Gowlaucl some dissections .of the tuatara, an"animal found only in New Zealand, which, throw interesting s,ide lights on the development of the fore-brain. . ' ' ; .

SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.

. Sydney, our first stopping place in Australia,, witli its 1,000,000 inhabitants and splendid harbour, is the London, of Australia. Here we attended many .excellent surgical clinics. We were unforUmateVin not .seeing Sir Alexander. M'Gormick," who Was in England, but wo were fortunate in seeing- Dr. Clubbe, whoso work'in. intussusceptions and pylorie obstructions iv infants has done so much "to encourage early: operation. ■ One is impressed after meeting Dr. .Toddy secretary' of the Australian branch of the British Medical Association, with the high calibre of .men who take on themselves .the .direction ,o! these societies. Professor John Hunter, who holds the Chair of-Anatomy of the University of Sydney Medical School, a young man of only twenty-six years of age, has made a-most important contribution to the study -of. the sympathetic nervous system in relation to muscular tone, which supplements the investigations, of Gaskeir and Lnngley. Professor. Boyle, of the Orthopedic Dftpavlment, acting on this new knowledge, has divided "the raroi comniiinicunt-es which connect the s|iinal cord with the sympathetic ganglion., and has had some extraordinary ■results in the relief of spastic paraplegia, Little's, disease, and certain .Parkinsoninn syndromes. Melbourne, about six hundred miles south, of Sydney, is a Lcnutiful city of 800,000 inhabitants. "We had-the pleasure of attending the niaiiy line clinics and were greatly impressed with the surgical', work. Devine has •mule notable contributions li> surgery of tin; stomach. Profespor Syine'. senior isviur.cr. jn sfakatj aurgsv^^MejbpaiTps

University, and Dr. Hooper, president of the Melbourne Medical Society, contributed to the interest of our visit. Professors M'Kenaic, Derry, and OsboTiie are adding greatly to our knowxdge of comparative anatomy, especially of. the nervous system and the gas-Ivo-intestirial tract, by dissections of some of the mostancient animallife now extant. It is interesting to note that the small Australian bear, which lives on the leaves of the eucalyptus tree, has only rudimentary adrei'al glands. This fact may have a bearing on adrenal deficiency disease. The American visitor to New Zealand and Australia receives the most' cordial welcome from these kindly people, who represent the purest ftrains of the Anglo-Saxon race. Immigration is confined exclusively to the ■vhite r.ace.—W. J. Mayo.

NOT BREAKING AWAY FROM

THE OBSOLETE.

Dr. Franklin 11.- Martin, DirectorGeneral, American College of Surgeons, who accompanied Dr. Mayo, and who is a recognised authority on hospital systems, writes as follows in regard to our hospitals :— "In looking forward to my visit to New Zealand and Australia, I had anticipated with, iuterest the pleasure I would derive from a comparison of their hospital system with . that of Canada and the United States. -The medical men of the world, especially those who travel, are almost unanimous in the belief that the most satisfactory system of hospitals is that which prevails in the United States and Canada—from tlio standpoint of serving the best interests of all patients, the welUo-do, and the poor, and as well as the best interests of the entire . profession. It was our hope that the great island continents of the South-west Pacific, which nave shown so much independence of action m the, establishment and conduct ol their- governments, had exerted tho ■same initiative in the organisation of .their. hoa pl taJs by breaking away from tie obsolete traditions of Europe. Alas,; that is not true; but the' medical profession of.-these countries, especially those who. have served hospitals elsewhere, are fully aware that their hospital S y S t em i s hampered by traditional d aw.backs and they are extremely anx«rv O ir°?M Ut- a pk" that wi'u Pre"; MnH niff • ii c ' advantaees of «'c old and obtain the advantages of the new. will evolutionary rather than with re%o vt lonai . y thodS) aii _ * ourriiig prohibitive expense ' '

A CURSORY SURVEY.

fiver o fU^ e>r d hospitals in vL A iT gTClixes of ATew Zealand, Auckland, Wellino-tnn I"1),,.; » church Dunedin and N p^er? two e^ n Honoh 1,, UVu' '* V 1 IslaU(ls '""and °»6 111 Jionoiulu. Almost every eenpril lme of tlhe m s^V Z^lal3d C»it by tht P JPe; V 1Z '' s«»Ported. either by the._Governments, the Statbs the mn "icipoHtws, and, in some instances by morethanoneofthesegovernii™^ \Tn\v'r/ V i- , Seneral hospitals of c^Uofrof 11 d' aV d. A'»t^, w -fh-tho-«-' ioSSdn^he^S: : .cons t ; Iyj , devote P o.essio „ who

: . , THE ALTERNATIVE II c : inconsistencies and the difficnltiW tuildin folV the P°ol' «co«i|grig"fc building of more comprehensive private l.osp.tals, or they will do-what lo PulTbe much more advantageous-combine with then- largo aiici expensive equipments of general hos Pl tals, pavilions equipped to care for patients bf means who may then pay not only for their. hospital "treatment, but also for the. professional, services which they receive from their physicians or,-.specialists. ■ : ', . . - , "During our one day at Wellington the hospitality was boundless. -A laree dinner was given by Dr. James Sands Elliott .the. editor of "The New Zealand Medical Journal," and Dr. William Mward Herbert, the leading surgeon of New Zealand. Later, in the same evening we were-the. guests of the Englishbpeakmg Society."