SHUTTING THE STABLE DOOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19255, 18 February 1926, Page 8

SHUTTING THE STABLE DOOR.

The appeal by the president of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association for more attention to preventive medicine should do more than arouse publio interest. It is a challenge to action. As Dr. Gibbs says, much attention is being given to scientific research in other directions: why not to medical research, and particularly that modern form of medical research which tracks down the cause of disease and seeks its elimination ? To find £500,000 for the establishment of something comparable to the Cawthron Institute may seem to many a large order; but, when the fundamental importance of the people's health is considered, if only in relation to industrial efficiency, the setting apart of even that sum may reasonably be viewed as a profitable investment. An enormous sum is spent annually on efforts to cure disease : it is reasonable to suppose that wise expenditure on means to prevent disease would save at least its equivalent. As to the effect on human happiness, there would be a i gain incalculably gi*eat. It is proverbial that a fence at the top of a cliff is better than an ambulance at the bottom, and the old saw about the futility of shutting the stable door after the horse has got out has as obvious an application. In its effort to cope with this need, one which all the world is feeling, the Health Organisation of the League of Nations has already achieved some notable successes. The danger threatening Europe through the spread of disease immediately after the war was brought to the notice of the League in the first Assembly, and the steps then taken to establish international standards of health and to prevent invasions of such ills as typhus have been followed by the development of research in many quarters. The Epidemics Commission, founded to deal with Eastern Europe, has extended far afield: in 1924 a centre of investigation was instituted at Singapore, and there a medical conference was held last year to discuss preventive measures in the Orient. Nothing is more urgent than that this Dominion should take its share in advancing research and practice along these lines. Dr. Gibbs' appeal, to the members of his own profession, to the Government, and to the general public, merits serious and favourable heed.