VENEREAL DISEASES

Southland Times, Issue 14581, 23 November 1910, Page 5

VENEREAL DISEASES

LOCAL DOCTORS’ VIEWS DR. FINDLAY CHALLENGED. The proposals of Dr Findlay under the Public Health Amendment Act, to repeal the C.D. Act and to make all cases of venereal diseases reportable by doctors and chemists to the Public Health Department officers ip order that the Department may register such cases and keep the patients under surveillance was discussed yesterday at a meeting of the Southland Medical Association. Dr Cantrell was in the chair and there were present Drs. Young, Snow, Hendry, Macdonald, Pottinger and Stewart. The Chairman referred to the statements made' by Dr Findlay, and he stated that the statistics he quoted were absolutely untrue so far as the town of Invercargill was concerned. That was his experience, and he would ask members to state thejr experience in the matter. On looking up his case book he could not find a single case of venereal disease among many hundreds and he would ask members to state their experience. If it agreed with his, he thought limy should say so in no uncertain voice.

Dr Hendry said that Dr Findlay had stated that 36 per cent, of the outpatients applying for treatment in the hospitals of New Zealand were affected with venereal diseases in one form or another. Then he jumped to America and stated that 80 per cent, of the males were affected with venereal disease before they reached the age of thirty. He also said that from 65 to SO per cent, of the abdominal operations on women (he did not say where) were undertaken for the cure of affections due to venereal diseases, and that thirty per cent, of infantile blindness was the result of gonorrheal affection. Also that onesixth of the whole population of the' United States was affected by either congenital or acquired siphyllis. The only fair and reasonable conclusion of Dr Findlay's statement, said the speaker, was that at least 90 to 95 per cent, of the males In America were of most immoral character. He also said that the New Zealand population was no better or worse than other Anglo-Saxon countries, and that revelations in Australia had caused a shock of most distressing character. Dr Pottinger The purpose of this meeting is not to protest so much against the legislation as against the statistics on which that legislation if? based ?

The Chairman: We can't accept the statistics as referring ‘to Southland. I think we should state our experience in the matter. Bocal Experience Reassuring.

Dr Hendry stated that his experience in the hospital was that of 500 consecutive cases among in-patients front Ist January of the present year, he had treated two males for siphyllis and five for gonorrheal affections, one female for congenital siphyllis and one for gonorrheal disease —a total of nine. That was an average of 1.8 per. cent. Taking 500 out-patients covering the same period, there were 472 males and 878 females and there was no case of venereal disease among the latter. In the niales there were two cases of siphyllis and six of gonorrhea, an average of 1.7 per cent. This made 17 cases out of a total of 1300, or an average of about 1.4 per cent.

Dr Young said that taking 100 consecutive cases at random from his casebook, he had two oases in males that might have been gonorrhea, and one in a female which probably was siphllytic in origin. There were, however, three doubtful cases. He stated that he had not known any hospital in the world except perhaps a “lock” hospital (specially for venereal diseases) where the statistics would amount to anything like those stated by Dr Findlay. In gynecological operations, too, the cause was in very small proportion due to the remains of what was called venereal disease as compared with the cases resulting from the use' of chloroform. The public had no idea how important the personal equation was in the matter. He had seen very good surgeons who had suspected venereal disease In every case until the contrary was proved. It would be disastrous to have statistics compiled on the word of cranks of that kind ; and such cranks were not at all uncommon. He considered Dr Findlay’s statistics preposterous. At any rate out of one hundred cases taken at random he had only three doubtful cases in which he had reason to suspect gonorrheal origin. Dr Snow said that he had gone back for a hundred consecutive cases and had found two recent and undoubted cases of gonorrhea in women. They must remember that a good number of those cases went to chemists, though Dr Findlav got none of his statistics from chemists. In any of the hospitals he had known anywhere in the world the results would have to he exaggerated ten times to agree with Dr Findlay's statistics, except a hospital entirely for venereal diseases.

Dr Macdonald said (hat of all his cases only one per cent, might he called venereal.

In the course of general discussion it was mentioned that none of (hose present had seen a blind child in Southland, and also that a houso surgeon of ihe Dunedin hospital had stated that Dr Findlay’s figures were preposterous and totally inapplicable to Dunedin. A Ticklish Question.

Dr Hendry stated that the proposal was to amend the Public Health Act in such way that it would be compulsory for doclors lo report every case that came under their observation of the sexual affections included In venereal diseases. To his mind, instead of the proposals affecting the object in view they would probably act in exactly the opposite direction. The principle on which they were passed was bad. The principle manifestly was that the measures which would he effected in lessening the spread of infectious disease ought to be useful in lessening the spread of venereal disease. Such was not the case, because ordinary infectious disease was ( looked on as a misfortune. In the case of venereal disease the public not only looked on it as a phvsical ailment, but also as a moral ailment for which the man himself was held responsible and on account of which he was esteemed an undesirable member of society, and was placed under such disabilities as would interfere with his position in society and with (not infrequently) his business concerns. That was an element which prevented individuals who had contracted venereal disease from looking near a docior's house. It operated now' in that' direction without any notification. It, was a very easy matter for a man who had gonorrhea to walk into a chemist’s shop; there were fifty other reasons why he might go there. Hut it was very different for him to walk into a medical man’s surgery. There was only one reason why he should go there, and the effect on his mind was that the individual who said "good evening” to him as he went in the gale or in the waiting-room was that that individual suspected his trouble. It made him pass the doctors door, and the effect of the proposal to make venereal diseases notifiable would cause a larger number of men (and women) to pass the doctor's door ; and also to pass the chemist’s door, to get into the hands of quacks. The result would be to intensify the evil Dr Findlay wished to minimise. Another effect would be that a great number of young people of good character, who did not even know of quacks, would endure the trouble without any treatment at all, jyilh the inevitable consequences. Further. the Health Department, as at present constituted, would never satisfy the medical profession as a whole. It simply meant handing over the case so far as the part of it that most intimately concerned the patient was concerned to the tender mercies of an unqualified individual. He was not making any personal reference lo the officer in charge in Southland, who was as good (so far as he knew) as any in the Department. They had had experience of this trouble in regard to infectious diseases, and the results would be less satisfactory if the same provisions were applicable to venereal diseases. Dr Young thought that it would make very little difference. In six months the lav/ would become the dead letter that it had become in regard to infectious diseases. Probably not a twentieth of the scarlet fever and measles cases were notified, and the authorities knew nothing about them.

All Against Dr riadlay. Dr Hendry contended that the trouble would be caused by the fact that the diseases were notifiable. They did not know they were not reported ; but they knew that it was the law that these cases should be reported.

Dr Pottinger said that he could hardly imagine a more futile thing than the proposals were. In the case of a family

what trouble a doctor would bring by reporting a husband or wife ! It would break up happy homes ail round. Dr Snow remarked that the main point was that the doctor b5 r reporting would lie doing no good. He would simply prevent a man going to him for treatment ; it would be absolutely doing harm, as Dr Hendry had said. The treatment of venereal disease had improved so greatly, that it would be a great mistake to prevent anyone from taking advantage of that treatment. In a general discussion, the members agreed that the proposals were Impracticable, and that to make them law would result rather in a greater dissemination than ever of venereal trouble than in restricting it. One member stigmatised Dr Findlay’s methods of propoganda as a low-down method, which consisted of terrorising the public by telling them lies. On the motion of Dr Hendry, seconded by Dr Snow, the following resolution was unanimously carried That the members of the Medical Association of Southland are of opinion that Dr Findlay’s statistics are absolutely misleading and incorrect and certainly not (in the light of local experience) in any way applicable to Southland ; they consider it Inconceivable that any authority in the world could sanction the figures given ; and further they believe that the Attorney-General’s remedy, instead of achieving the object in view, will unquestionably increase the evil sought to be prevented/]