"STRATFORD EVENING POST." WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST, 28, 1926. MEDICAL SCIENCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 69, 28 August 1926, Page 4

"STRATFORD EVENING POST." WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST, 28, 1926. MEDICAL SCIENCE.

The development of medical science is consistent with the progress in the more obvious wonders of this

age, and it is therefore not surprising to see a general abandonment of the old drastic and questionable remedies. The modern physician has less use for drugs than any physician since the days of Aesculapius. The family doctor in the Victorian novel who "sent in a dozen of modicine to be drunk on the journey" is, says an English writer, too preposterous to amuse us. In spite of the inherent desire of .the patient for a bottle of medicine the medical man of to-day orders diet, physical exercise, inoculations, baths, sunshine, fresh air. And medical science very properly aims at prevention as being better than cure. "The first duty of medicine is not to cure disease but to prevent it," says Sir George Newman, the Chief Medical Officer of the British Ministry of Health, in the interesting memorandum which was published last month. The memorandum gives an account of the immense progress which has already been made in protecting mankind against, disease. A civilised population which pays reasonable attention to medical advice is now practically immune from some of the worst scourges of the past. Leprosy, plague, cholera, sweating sickness, and typhus no longer decimate the population of civilised countries. Tha extraordinary advance which was made between the South African War and the Great War—a period of time comparatively short—is (indicated by the enormous reduction of typhoid in the British Army. In the Boer War, among perhaps 250,000 men, .there were 60,000 caseß. In the Great War, during the first two years among over 2,000,000 British soldiers who served in France, there were only 4571 cases. Such is the aid which science can render when faithfully applied. Among the greatest discoveries of the last decade of the nineteenth century was Sir Ronald Ross' detection of the mosquito as the nursing mother of malaria and yellow fever. And who shall say what the world owes to Sir William Leishman, who devised methods of preventing the malignant disease common in Egypt known as bilharziosis ? ■"" TTie 4 advance' of"'' medical"! science is steady and continuous, but much remains to be done, as Sir George Newman's memorandum points out. "There is still a vast burden of sickness and disease involving much suffering and the loss of millions of pounds of wages and production every year, and of millions more on expenditure for treatment and insurance. We cannot forget, too, that in this relatively enlightened age it is estimated that 6,000,000 lives were sacrificed to the plague in India In 1901-1910, that 4,000,000 died from cholera in India, 1902-1911 that upward of 6,000,000 dfed from influenza in India in 1918, that 100,000 persons died of influenza in England and Wales alone in 1918, that 1,000,000 children of school age arc unable to derive reasonable benefit from the education the State provides, and that 1,000,000 recruits were found to be unfit for effective enlistment. Some striking figures are quoted illustrative of the prevalence of invalidity. It is estimated that not less than 1,000,000 children of school a*ge are so physically or mentally defective or diseased as to be unable to derive reasonable benefit from elementary education. Again, official inquiries show that of some 13,670,000 insured persons in England entitled to medical benefit in 1924, between 45 and 50 per cent, received medical treatment. In other words, nearly half the insured population came under review by insurance practitioners within the twelve months. '

In England and Wales there was lost to the. nation In the year, among tho Insured population only, and excluding the loss due to sickness for which sickness or disablement benefit is not payable, the equivalent of twelve months' work of 447,115 persons. The success of preventive medicine, however, has been so great in England that it is affecting the balance of population and the conditions of life. The birthrate has been halved in .the last fifty years. Tho death rate per thouasnd has dropped from 21.4 to 12.2. Tho average ago of tho people is increasing. Thero is no sign of deterioration. But the time hag come, Sir George Newman states, "the time has more than como for taking further steps in the organisation of a systematic and ordered attack on tho strongholds of preventable disease —particularly that mass of crippling morbidity and minor invalidism which is undermining the capacity and efficiency of the people—an attack which will depend for its achievement upon a close partnership and 00-operation between all branches ffiftss* figy TJZ2

of medicine, between the medical profession and the public, and between the governing authorities and those who are governed. If the nation desires ever to rid iteslf of the common enemy there must be unity both of purpose and action—and even so the task will be a long one."