PROGRESS IN MEDICINE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8653, 11 February 1914, Page 9

PROGRESS IN MEDICINE

REMARKABLE ADVANCE IN RECENT YEARS. Press Association. AUCKLAND, February 10. At the Medical Congress, in the section- of medicine, a brilliant address was delivered by Dr. Sinclair Gillies, who dealt in a general way with the wonderful advance made in medicine and particularly with bacteriology and preventive ! medicine. ’ Of ordinary bacteria two of the most interesting were those' responsible for enteric and tuberculosis. Enteric’ fever was- nowfast disappearing, thaukfe to the recognition of its bacteriological nature and mode of conveyance. Tuberculosis still bulked largely as a curse of civilised man. In Great Britain it accounted for one death in every three between the ages of twenty and fortyfive, and in Australia some 3700 persons died from it every year. Therefore, it wa» no wonder we had been thoroughly aroused to its importance and the need for its extermination. In England and tho United States tho death rate had been considerably reduced, the factors including improved general hygiene, improved housing, improved! standard of living and regulation of the sale and inspection of foodstuffs (especially milk), recognition of the necessity of fresh air and efficientventilation by day and night,’ -'and regulation of occupations exposing men to irritating dust _ airfl~gascs. Eyery advance -in sanitation had had its share, but of late the attack had been more direct.

The doctor dealt briefly with the modern sanatorium system of combating the disease. He argued that oases must be diagnosed and treated at a much earlier stage than was formerly taught. The stethoscope was yielding some of its priority in diagnosing to the thermometer, the weighing machine, the microscope, the X-rays, and the specific reaction, and the. tuberculin test. Dealing with the subject of specific immunisation, Dr. Gillies said that since Dr. Koch first brought tuberculin before the profession there had been preparations too numerous to mention,- and they all had their advocates and detractors. Where there was a long list of drugs credited with the cure of any disease, it might be assumed, in the first place that the disease frequently recurred, and, in the second that none of the drugs was a satisfactory cure. So it was, he feared, with tuberculosis. Fortunately, tho tendency- had been towards recovery, but no bacterial preparation had so far established its claim to C’-'.rn.