MEDICAL STUDY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 36, 11 February 1926, Page 9

MEDICAL STUDY

POST GRADUATE TRAINING

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. MEDICAL

ASSOCIATION

(From Our Own Correspondent)

LONDON, 24th December. Major H. D. Gillies presided at the Australian and New Zealand Medical Association dinner held at the .Trocadero. Among the guests were the famous surgeon, Sir Arbuthnot Lane, Bart, (president of the Fellowship of Medicine) and Mr. W. Girling Ball (secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine). Dr. Bernard Myers was also present, but • otherwise New Zealand was not well represented. As a matter of fact, about eighteen New Zealand medical men had mot on the previous evening at a dinner

of their own.

Dr. J. H. Anderson, C.8.E., C.M.G., previously Chief Medical Officer of the Australian Forces, and now engaged at a medical institution in. North Wales— Duff House, Ruthven Castle —proposed the toast of the Association. Australians and New Zealanders, he said, owed a great debt of gratitude to the physicians and surgeons of England, who, while building up their own practices after the war, stjll found time to lend a helping hand to their humbler brethren from overseas. This postwar post-graduate work had many farreaching effects. In the first place, it tended to restore London to its old position as the chief eentro for the post-graduate work so far as the southern Dominions were concerned. Prom 1910 to 1914 more and more were drifting to. America. That drift had largely ceased, and it was up to England entirely to stop it. Then again it was a great education .to overseas men to meet the teachers who wrote the text books. It also showed the British; teachers that while our graduates might lack some of the .graces they had at least one essential, namely, .the capacity for hard work. It was when the military organisations were leaving London that the present Australian and New Zealand Association was formed, and it had carried out splendidly the work which had been started in the year following the close of the war. Every Australian and New Zealand graduate who had been in London could bear witness to the enthusiasm and keenness of the officials of the Association, and was grateful for help received. The Association had 320 members, some of whom had paid their subscriptions. , (Laughter.) It should be their endeavour to make that number 620. . POST-GRADUATE ASSOCIATION. He had read with great interest the •xccllent suggestions for overseas graduates set out in the December number of the "Post-Graduate Medical Journal." He would like to see an official representative of the Australian and New Zealand Association on the Central Committee of the Post-Graduate Association. Australians and New Zealanders were worth enlisting. They wandered about a lot, they talked a lot, and made good propagandists. Given an independent central executive in close tonch with the teachers, and with control over them on 'the one hand, and the post-graduate graduates on the oth«r, who would give the post-gradu-ates what they wanted, and not what the executive thought they should have, he could see nothing to stop the Fellowship of Medicine and its allied associations becoming the most powerful post-grsiduate organisation in the world.

Mr. D. Denham Pinnock proposed the toast of "The Guests." In the course of his speech he said the overseas men Might to consider themselves very fortunate in being able to obtain so many hospital posts in this country. In accepting those posts they were taking I upon themselves a great!responsibility, and they ought not only to giv« of their very best work, but make it their business to serve for the full time for which they were appointed. • It was only fair to those who , came after £hem. AMERICAN TUTTIOH. Sir Arbutimot Lane, replying to the toast, spoke very highly of the medical men of the Dominions. As an instance, their charming chairman, Major Gillies, was good in everything he did. Whether ho was playing golf or the violin ho was excellent. Queen's was one of the greatest hospitals because of the work done by men from the Dominions. The speaker mentioned his recent visit to America. They'had lots of money there, he said; they had. i the buildings, but Great Britain had ; the brains. He believed most thoroughly they had the finest post-graduate-schools in England. After ajl, it was only natural that they should find better brains among men whose fathers before them had been educated for generations than among men whose fathers were at the plough. la America they wese mad on technique. They had vast theatres, where operations were watched from a distance. In England the student was brought into close contact with the patients. They were very fortunate in having men from' the Dominions to stimulate the people here. He had no doubt that the future of' medicine and surgery was perfectly safe in the hands of the Dominions. Dr. E. T. C. Milligan, in replying to the toast of"Thai Honorary Secretaries of the Association," mentioned the tendency of post-graduates to be satisfied with the lesser degrees. Some of them were the sons of rich men, or were married to rich wives, but they felt they must rely entirely on their own efforts. They had limited means, and tried for the Edinburgh Fellowship, or they handicapped themselves by taking work in this country. This was the time at the outset of their •career when money was of most value to them. It would be of little use to them later on. Even if they got money from their relatives on loan it would be a good investment for the leaders. They would then be able to devote all their energies to their studies, and take the highest degrees which he advised <11 to try for.