MEDICAL SCIENCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 28 December 1927, Page 9

MEDICAL SCIENCE.

PROGRESS OF THE YEAR. VIEWS OF SURGEONS' AND PHYfoiULANS.

Few discoveries and advances of major importance, state several ojf tlie> city’s leading surgeon# and physicians, were made ciuriug 1927, but that the year has mot been barren of effective research work is indicated. “There has been a material elaboration of X-ray work,” said an Auckland specialist in this medium of diagnosis. Particularly was this the case in its wider application to investigation ol internal troubles. No longer was tilie use of X-rays restricted tO' photographing of fractures. Tip-day it wa® a valuable medium in revealing the extent and progress of disease in many forms. What was, perhaps, one of the most gratifying features of modern Xliay exploitation was the increasing degree of -safety with which it wa® used.

“In the realmi of medicine,” said a leading physician, “ithe year ha® been disappointing in its failure to realise the hopes of important, advances. There has, however, been a great deal achieved in innoeulative treatment of scarlet fever .and diphtheria.” At a. recent meeting of the British Medical Association in England, he mentioned,, papers of interest had been read oil the treatment of pernicious anaemia by liver extract. In some oases in the treatment of this common disease' ordinary calf’s liver had been used, but a successful attempt had been made to isolate from the livens the active ingredients for curing graver forms of anaemia. It was, he believed, the outstanding event of the year of medicine. Incidentally, the result' of this branch of research had been successfully exploited in New Zealand.