MEDICAL CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12523, 16 March 1904, Page 5

MEDICAL CONFERENCE.

; DR. COLLINS' ADDRESS. [BY TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.] .... . .Wellington, .: Tuesday. ' The alarming increase of cancer was one of the subjects dealt with by Dr. Collins in his address to the members of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association. .He said it would appear from statistics that the time of life at which deaths from cancer began to be numerous, was 35 for males and 30 for females. The maximum of deaths was reached at the period of 60 to 65 for males, and 55 to 60 for females. If he were asked by a healthy man how he should direct his life in order that he might live to an old age, he would advise him to ascertain if possible to what disease he was most liable by heredity, and by care and study delay as long as possible or altogether prevent its advent. He would also advise him to be moderate in all things, in hit eating and drinking and smoking, in his exercises and amusements, in hi 3 studies and occupation. There was no doubt that abuses and excesses caused deterioration and loss of vitality, and susceptibility to disease, and that injury and constant irritation of a part in a debilitated person, can convert a normal cell into a malignant one, a healthy tissue into a diseased one, and a normal structure into a cancerous one. To arrive at the true nature and origin of cancer, and eventally its cause and its prevention, it was necessary to have constant and numerous examinations made after death by skilled pathologists. The present treatment of the disease was very unsatisfactory. It almost invariably consisted ot excision. where excision is permissible. The treatment by the X rays and the violet rays seemed to relieve pain, and in many instances to cause retrogression of the disease, but, unfortunately, the disease was apt to recur. The serum treatment was of too recent application to give any decided results. ilie definite results produced by radium and helium were at present unknown. Speaking of puerperal fever, Dr. Collins deplored the fact that it was impossible in New Zealand at the present time for any woman to qualify as an obstetrical nurse. To obtain a certificate she lad to go either to Melbourne or ■Sydney, or to Great Britain, and this entailed a much greater expense than most women could afford. An effort should, therefore, be made to establish either in one or in all the four principal centres of the colony a school for the instruction of women in obstetrical nursing. For such a purpose it would be necessary to build either a special hospital for the benefit of the poor, or convert such a home as they had now in Wellington, namely the Alexandra Home, into an obstetrical hospital. The maintenance of such a hospital might bo .borne partly by fees paid by the patients, by zees charged to the nurses for the course of instruction, by public subscription, and possibly the addition oi-a subsidy from the Government. The period oi instruction should be at least 12 months. There should be a weekly lecture given by medical men, and daily lectures by a qualified matron. These nurses, before receiving a certificate, should attend at least 10 cases in the hospital, and 10 cases under medical supervision in private houses. They should also be. taught the care oi infants, especially relating to the causes and treatment of infantile diarrhoea. The examination of these nurses might very we! be held at the same time as the examination ot the ordinary medical and surgical nurses, which is held yearly under the Government Nurses' Registration Act.