N.Z. MEDICAL CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16315, 23 February 1915, Page 6

N.Z. MEDICAL CONFERENCE

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. MEDICINE AS A CAREER. (Pia United Puess Association.) CHRISTOHUItCH, February 22. Tlie Now Zealand Medical (Jonierenoe whs opened to-night, 'i'he presidentelect (LV Irving) delivered a most interesting address, dealing with tho medical profession as a career.

in the course of the addrose Dr Irving' sai^: " 1 should like- to say a little aboui our New Zealand University medical gradu> atts. Some are inclined, being members o( an older and larger university, to rather belittle the local qualification, but having had considerable experience of the New Zealand graduate I can say without hesitation that this view ie quite erroneous, and that the men which Dunedin turns out are, at anyrato ae far as theoretical knowledge ia concerned, in every way equal to those who are turned out by the older British schools. Tlie experience to be obtained from a large hospital, of course, they cannot hope to get here, but their ground work and scientiiio training arc excellent and solid, and the experience must perforce come with later years.

" A doctor can do a great deal towards educating , the public, and by that means prevent to some extent the tremendous amount of self-drugging and taking of quack remedies which undoubtedly goes on. Legislation cannot compel people to lefrain. from taking drugs or being influenced uy reading advertisements of a complaint which always seems to be the very one they are suffering from. I should like to say here that I consider that the legislation passed in the dominion and carried out bj the public health authorities has done a great deal—far more than is realised by tha public— to put down some of the worst types of quacks, and our newspapers, too, compare most favourably with many of those coming from Great Britain, which advertise in the most barefaced way drugs, etc., calculated to do the utmost harm to the moral and physical condition of their dupee. The mediioal knowledge of most people, as far as there is any, is a survival of the theories formed of doctors in the dark ages, and tho teaching thai when there is any doubt aa to the nature of a disease the liver should bo mwlo the scapegoat. » still deeply engraved in the pubho mind. There should b<: no mystery hn medicine. Tho state of a case as the doctor sees it should be explained to iho patient as far as possible, taking care not to go to the other extreme and jnafce confusion worse, confounded by using long technical names or persisting in telling him gruesome details of the operation."

In conclusion Dr Irving said:—"There is at present strong reasons why as many young men as can should tako up medicine, and tiiat is the teirihdo loss in the war of doctors, members of the R.A.M.C, and civil surgeons serving temporarily. The response of the medical men and medical students in England and el*where has been no whit behind the combatant branches, and in co:isequenoe there is a great shortage of both. At present the numbers of students preparing to qualify in the United Kingdom is over 1000 lese than in 1913, which means that for the next few years there will be between 200 and 300 fewer names added to the medical register each year. The president of the General Medical Council, reviowing the situation, sa?t:— ' In vi«w of the additional losses amonj Hie senior practitioners, due directly or indirectly to the war, the prospective diminution *of our reserve supply calls for serious consideration. Let us hope, then, that as many parents as can see their Vay to it will put their sons into medicine as a career which has always had great possibilities, and r.ow D.ore than ever—though, as one might, say, it is only in its infancy—and that our sons in the future will go to swell tho number which has already gone from these shores —many of whom Eave done briUJarrfcfy—to become members oi >thaib honourable profession, the profession of medicine. , "

Dr W. H. Parkee (Auckland), the retiring president, made a strong appeal on behalf of the hospital for soldiers at Trentham, and said there was an urgent need for thai! institution. It was a perfectly erroneous view, he said, to think that the Defence Department was shirking its responsibilities in thp matter, He had it on the highest authority that the Government would build a soldiers' hospital, and the money raised by the medical profession would be earmarked for medical equipment and special comforte for the men.