THE MEDICAL CONGRESS

Evening Star, Issue 17284, 24 February 1920, Page 2

THE MEDICAL CONGRESS

DELEGATES WELCOMED

PRESIDENT ON STATE

SERVICE.

Tho conference-of tho New Zealand branch of the British Medical .Association began formally last evening with an at homo tendered" the delegates by the president (Dr H. L. Ferguson) and Mrs Ferguson. The function took place in the Art Gallery Hall, which had been made a veritable bovver of greenery and flowers for the occasion; and probably 500 guests were present, including a full attendance of the visiting and local doctors, members of the sister profession of dentistry and the auxiliary arm of- nursing, representatives of the Church (including Bishop Richards), and of all the professions, as well as a number of prominent business magnates. The Mayor (Air W. Begg) spoke a few introductory words welcoming the visitors to the City, and expressing the community's sense of the service and sacrifice given and endured by the profession during the war. .Or Irving (of Christchnreh), the late - president, spoke -briefly, introducing the new president, Dr Ferguson. He said it was ilttincr that the first conference after the war should be held in Dunedin, for the profession always looked to this City as the centre of medical learning. He congratulated the Otago division on the number of delegates that had been attracted to this conference. It was an excellent thing for all doctors to attend the . conferences, and especially here, whence . was turned out the annual quota of men to swell the profession's ranks. This conference" had an association of sadness in the fact that many old members would be here no more. Some had given their lives for the country in the Great War, others had died for {heir fellow-men in the epidemic period. As to the presidency, Dr Colquhoun, who had done so much for the medical profession, was 'unfortunately un- • able to take the presidency at the last moment, and Ms place was being filled by Dr Ferguson, who had the welfare of tho association and profession deeply at heart, and who needed no introduction. (Applause,) One of the most important things they had to discuss was a suggested system of State medical service. Dr Ferguson, as dean of the Medical School, had been at the birth of many graduates, and it was an excellent- thing that he was to preside, because he would be able to look at the question from the point of view oi the nwn just getting through. j I)r Ferguson, who was warmly received. • said that no meeting of the 'association ■■ had been held in Dunedin for 13 years, and the last general association meeting held here before that was in 1896—Hie final year of the existence of the old Medical Association. Ho was president of the association that year, and they carried through the arrangement by which the association became merged into th: : British Medical Association as a bran.: The negotiations were not completed'ti:;' year, so lie was not the first president <. the branch, that- honor resting with i>' Irving's father. This present meeting. \ ■ was a very/mportnnt one, because it ivus the first held since the war, and the war had made an enormous difference in medical wcrk and medial standing. In surgery, in medicine, and in public health there had been greater strides made in the past four years than in the 40 preceding. The explanation was that e>:periments were made on a vast scale, and laboratory work and research work was carried out under stress of great emergency, with the whole finances of the associated Pow-ers behind it. The profession had learned and Governments had learned that it, paid to spend money in research and in sanitation. Knowledge x>i public health had advanced in leaps and bounds from the way that our Armv medical men learned to deal with epidemics in camps. In no previous war y had there been proportionately such a small mortality from sickness as, in the Great War. There had been 4k> war oefore this one where there had nofe "been snore; deaths from typhoid than from bullets. If there was one thing the war had tatight, it was the value of team work: and team work was going to be carried to even _ greater intensity. We had nu organisation for a, medical force when the war came, and dependence had to be placed on the civilian medical men. The organisation grew under the greatestdifficulties, and the men who put in on a_ working basis, together with the civilian doctors who came forward rs volunteers, merited tiie highest credit the Community couM give. "The work of the New Zealand Medical Service was Soghry spoken of, and the sister service »~thG dental department—earned a iisnu for itself that absolutely threw into the ehfcdc the dental departments of the cli-.c forces engaged. He was proud to se *monget them Colonel Hunter, the man tSyhom that organisation was duo. (Ap- j s>lause.) When the question arose of conscripting the medical men the British ' Medical Association stepped in, and <>b- I viated a haphazard choice of men, which ' would have left many communities with- I put medical service. Tho Tesult was that they sent 400 men away, and yet main- ' iained the medical service of the. country And now they had to face the fact of ,c State medical service. It was comin<* As surely as tho next day's sun. What mad • this week so important was that on tlr Rsult of the meeting's deliberations d; Bended the farm, the State service won! foke. If It took such a form that th profession had a voice in the directie ' M the futuro of its successors, nil would ' B3 welL But if a State service wei©Breed on them against the will of the \ frGJesfrion, it con id only spoil disjs-icT it all Refreshments were served luring tho ■veiling, and musical items rendered by Captain Zeisler, Miss Foster, and Mr glint's orchestra. Miss. Vera Moore vis ©Ksoropankte.