ADVANCEMENT OF MEDICINE

Southland Times, Issue 23180, 22 April 1937, Page 9

ADVANCEMENT OF MEDICINE

Australasian College Of Physicians FORMATION IN SYDNEY An Australasian College of Physicians is being formed to do for medicine what the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has done for surgery since its foundation a few years ago. It includes both the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand and is modelled on the lines of the Royal College of Physicians of England. Among its objects is the management of post-graduate study in medicine, requiring of candidates evidence that they have given intensive study to the advances in knowledge in medicine that have taken place since their graduation. Regular scientific meetings will be held at which the latest discoveries will be discussed, and in this way the most recent knowledge will be propagated throughout the profession at large. It was unanimously determined at a meeting of representative physicians from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia that Sydney should be the site of the college. In order to bring the college into being it is necessary to find funds in the Australian states and in New Zealand. A committee consisting. of Sir Charles Bicker ton Blackbum, Sir John McKelvey and Messrs A. C. Davidson, Martin Mcllraith and Frank Packer was formed at a meeting of citizens at the Town Hall, Sydney, and it was decided to proceed to raise the necessary funds for a building. The Government of New South Wales offered to provide £25,000 towards the foundation of the college, and the University of Sydney offered a site on which a building could be erected, within the precincts of the university. It was, however, subsequently decided by the Committee of Physicians that it would be more suitable to have the college situated in a central position in Sydney. An opportunity presented itself when the old home of the Warrigal Club in Macquarie street was offered for sale. The committee negotiated for the purchase of this building of brick and stone, which consists of four stories. It has a frontage of 45 feet to Macquarie street, with a depth of 106 feet. The purchase was effected by trustees for the college for the sum of £23,000. The situation is considered ideal for. the requirements of the college, which will now have its home in the centre of the foremost medical activities of the state. Certain Victorian donors whose names will be made public at a later date have signified their intention of providing at least £20,000 to start a fund for the permanent endowment of the college, when it is completed. Considerable progress has been made in raising further sums of money for alterations to the building and for the provision and maintenance of the college when its activities begin. •It is felt that the foundation of the College of Physicians will be of great benefit to Australia and New Zealand by the advancement of higher medical education throughout the Commonwealth and the Dominion, and especially by affording better opportunity for and stimulus to post-graduate study. The need for such an opportunity has long been emphasized by those practitioners who have been unable to go abroad. There will be a close connection between the new college, the Hospitals Commission of New South Wales, and the Charities Board of Victoria in order to strengthen the standard of honorary service on city and base hospitals scattered throughout the Australian states.

It is a nation-wide appeal. In Australia, Victoria has already contributed generously and is still doing so, and movements are being started .in the other Australian States and in New Zealand. The honorary treasurer, Mr A. C. Davidson, general manager of the Bank of New South Wales, has appealed to the citizens of New Zealand to support liberally a project which will be of such lasting benefit to the peoples of Australia and New Zealand. The following donations have already been given:—Sir Charles Blackburn, £500; M. Mcllraith, £500; Dr Muriel McIlraith £500; Anonymous, £300; Bank of New South Wales, £250; Dr. R. J. Pope, £250; Commercial Banking Co., of Sydney, Ltd., £250; Dr M. Mclntyre Sinclair, £105; H. S. Thompson, £105; James Burns, £100; Dr. Geo. Bell, £5O; Dr. A. Murray Will, £5O; Professor K. Inglis, £5O; Burns Philp and Coi., £5O; Queensland Insurance Co., Ltd., £5O; David Jones Ltd., £5O; Sir J. McKelvey, £52 10/-; Dr. A. J. Hood Stobo, £26 5/-; Dr. A. H. Tebbutt, £25; Dr. F. S. Hansman, £25; J. M. Dunlop, £25; Walter and Eliza Hall Trust, £25 W. P. Dunlop, £2l; Sir H. J. Braddon, £2l; Dr. E. M. Stephen, £lO 10/-; O. E. Friend, £lO 10/-; H. B. Selby, £lO 10/-; A. McVernon, £lO 10/-; H. J. Gordon, £lO 10/-; S. S. Cohen, £10; Dr. K. Maddox, £10; Professor H. K. Ward, £5 5/-. Further donations will be received by the manager of the Bank of New South Wales, Wellington, on behalf of Mr Davidson.