TOLL OF DISEASE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 August 1924, Page 5

TOLL OF DISEASE.

MEDICAL SCIENCE. CHANGE OF STRATEGY. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COP f BIGHT OTTAWA, Aug. 6. “Medicine in the future must change its strategy. Instead of awaiting an attack it must assume the offensive,” declared Major-General Sir David Bruce, chairman of the governing body of the Lister Institute, who, as president, delivered an inaugural address to the British Association of Science at Toronto on the subject of the prevention of disease. He drew attention to the enormous toll of disease, and prophesied redoubled efforts. Science would eventually eliminate this waste by an examination of apparently well people to determine an incipient departure from the normal. Most disease was preventive. He deplored the unsatisfactory state of knowledge regarding tuberculosis, and praised the achievement of Dr. Koch, who had described the influence of bacteria. Tuberculosis was mainly a disease due to the environment of sunless, ill-ventilated and overcrowded rooms, and prevention was dependable on the provision of better environment, the education of the people, and physiological Jiving. The speaker hailed the discovery of insulin hv Drs. Banting and Best, of Toronto, as the latest victory for obtaining knowledge on ductless glands.