NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18567, 27 November 1923, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

COMMUNITY MIGRATION. Some striking observations on Empire migration were , recently made , by Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in a letter to Commissioner Lamb, of the Salvation Army. "It looks to me," Mr. Kipling wrote, "as though the average English emigrant »* not used to raw land, and does not as a rule care to go far from bis neighbours. He is more easily planted by the hundred than by the head, and that is where I think the Army's system is so sound, if, as is usually the case, there are good understanding officers to meet and explain things to the new arrivals. Perhaps the best plan now might be to press forward settlement by townships or villages, sending out families to an already half-devel-oped section, and, if any of them chose to get away farther off on their own initiative, to let them go and not to worry them too much to pay their advances. The trouble is that when the able-bodied man has been planted in a new country, the very strangeness of itclimatic differences, variations in tools, equipment, and methodsoften throws him into a sort of bewildered daze which lavs a long time— an additional reason why he ought to be handled at some Army settlement*or settlement under it my influences before going up-country. It is not much more trouble, after all, than one would take for an imported horse or dog which one wished to see do well. I think, too, it often ■ happens that families imported en bloc will, by their clinging together in their loneliness,, confirm each other in their unwillingness to accept new conditions, and the lonelier they are the more will they face inwardsjust like a mob of strange horses on a run. They also need to be worked over in an Army settlement by people who will not laugh at them or tell tales of their pride (which is only their shyness) behind their backs. So for single men and families the Army settlement on its own lands seems to me most useful at present. Of course, the cry would go up at once, 'You are draining England of its best blood!" but isn't there something to be said for the idea of drafting out the first eleven and so giving the second eleven a chance. There never was an Empire that offered such opportunities to all men as ours, and I sometimes think that there never was an Empire whose people took less advantage of those, opportunities."

THE LANCET CENTENARY. A century ago was first published the medical journal bearing the significant and rather menacing title of the Lancet. Nor was this title chosen merely for its surgical significance, says the medical correspondent of the Times. The founder, Thomas Wakley, a young man of 28 years, who had but lately settled in practice near Regent Street, believed that his own profession required the offices of a surgeon to rid it of certain noxious growths and practices. The chief hospital appointments went by favour or influence; the lecturers did not always trouble themselves to deliver their lectures; the students were forced, to pay heavy fees, and were often neglected when they had paid them. The Lancet attacked in a such a manner that reforms began to take place in every hospital in London. Even the Royal Colleges grew alarmed, end, reluctantly, began to mend their ways. Within a comparatively few years nepotism had become a thing of the past, the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons was instituted and made the reward of merit alone, and t ! ' i great body embarked on a new course -j*' honour and usefulness. By this time Wakley had become a member of Parliament, and was fighting for a new Medical Act, for better teaching, better experience, and, generally, better doctors. His efforts were crowned with success. A Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the State of the Medical Profession was set up, and as a consequence of its findings, a new era in medical practice began. That service alone would entitle the Lancet to the thanks of every citizen. But in the years which followed other achievements,, not less important, were added. To the great credit of the journal is the fact that it dent early and substantial support to many new discoveries. Lister published his first paper on antiseptic surgery in its pages, and was staunchly supported against a host of critics. So also were the several discoveries of anaesthetics. Thomas Wakley, in short, achieved a bigger purpose 0 an he set out to achieve. He brought the influence of public opinion to, bear on medicine and, as a result, began the development of that " health conscience" which to-day is our greatest bulwark against disease.