A GOOD TIME COMING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 79

A GOOD TIME COMING.

NO FUTURE FOR PHYSIC^ - Sir^ Frederick' Treves says: "I am certain it is safe to prophesy that -the time will tome when hospitals for infectious diseases will be empty, and not wanted." He was speaking at the opening of an isolation hospital at Preston. "The argument of facts," he said, "showed t£iß to be inevitable, as was shown by the great success in dealing with these.'diseases. Very little, however, could be done by the legislature, but everything by the progress of medical science, and in a much larger degree by the intelligence of the people and m the interest'they took in it. ?;- v ' , -fA Fight With Microbes.— "The of the present . day .waa against "millions of microbes, and' the weaipom' were sanitary regulations, municipal government, the sanitary inspector, and theniodical officer of beaftfc. Tubercule at .-this moment was killing 50,000 people every year, not one of «hhom need die, foij. the disease was preventable. It could nc^ be djaaft with; by/jfiymc, but by:, fresh a% sunlight, arid «uci-Uke. . 'I *■> "Consumption and -similar", diseased codJd be curedVby very simple'methods, which -would be v efficacious as soon as the education of tfie. -public on matters of thi kind was complete. These methods •werS'Simpry notification cf disease,, isolation, disinfection, and, la^bf 4 ._piw£en'tive or protective treatment. ' W4* looked' forward to the time when peOpferw^duld leave off the extraordinary tabi^ of taking medicine when, they were sick, and- wiben it would be as anomalous for persons to die of scarlet fever, typhoid, cholera, and diphtheria as it would be for a man to die of a wolf's bite in England." A well-known West End consulting physician, when asked by the "Weatmiaeter" what he had totsay to Sir-Frederick's statement, replied v "Medical' science, for the first time in history,-is a long way in advance of the general education of the people; and if we wish to see the benefits which, it is in tibe power of medicine to j confer thoroughly and fully applied, we > must advance the general aduoation—•teach, . •ibe people of all classes to appreciate what ] is known and- what the application of this knowledge can. do. Ignorance and! scepticism are the foes to be overcome. Before sanitary science can be thoroughly applied, those whom it is intended to benefit must be educated up to tihe point of appreciating it; otherwise they will not accept, much less apply, it. —The Doctor of tihe Future. — "When medicine is no longer required, the doctor's power and influence will in- ] crease every day. The doctor of the future , will be a sanitary officer for the prevention. , of disease. His busings will be to prevent his patients from harming themselves, and it would be a great mistake to imagine that that is an easy task. The complex nature of our civilisation, tihe increasing demand made upon the people's 'energy and power of endurance, the constant attack upon the health of the people either by themselves or by tbeir JeHows, will give the doctors of the future plenty of work to do, though it will be done in a better and far more efficacious way, with far less \ dependence upon drugs than characterised the healing art in distant or recent days."