The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 28, .1939. NEW IDEAS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 255, 28 October 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 28, .1939. NEW IDEAS

'pHEKE is a natural tendency for the human mind to be suspicious of new ideas. This does not mean that the world does not desire to progress, but reveals an anxiety not to adventure upon thin ice. Insofar as it represents the operation of the instinct of self-protection, it is a good trait; but when it closes 1 be mind altogether it becomes a danger in itself. There has recently been displayed in Wanganui a film entitled “The Strange Case of Dr. Meade.’ the burden of which was lite escape of the doctor from the applauding world only to find a challenge of ignorance among a mountain community. The doctor accepts the challenge, establishes a clinic, inoculates the children against, typhoid, and because of their unwillingness 10 accept the immunity offered by modern medicine, the. adults suffer severely. The plot of the film was skilfully constructed, the characters-well drawn, and yet the stript-writer lost, excellent opportunities for driving home his point without sacrificing artistic unity. When the girl who went away to become, a trained nurse returns to make her gifts available, the old horsedoctor refuses the new-tangled ideas. \\ hen she is charged with •'breaking with her kin" she fails to be given an adequate speech explaining how the sell-same kin had refused what she had to offer. When the doctor is confronted with a mob that is anxious lo run him out of the country, he meets obstinacy with obstinacy, a course which, if adopted in real life, would lead to disaster. The doctor had an excellent opportunity of asking the crowd whv they did not come after him with bows and arrows instead of with guns, ami then to have followed that up by saying that ihev were still preferring surgical bows and arrows for guns ami rilles. That appeal to the audience was not made, but it would have heightened the action of the play had the writer thereof thought along those lines. The film, however, does recall how -difficult u has been to persuade people Io accept the application of the principle of inoculation for the prevention of diseases. Now that battle lias been won such opposition seems to be senseless, but it was a very difficult step indeed to persuade people to accept one infection to prevent a more dangerous infection. For instance, inoculation for smallpox was first described as the method of “engrafting’’ which was practised by the Turks, Edward Wortlcy-Montagu was Ambassador to the Porte in 1717. and his wife. Lady Mary Montagu, sent home reports: "Everywhere thousands undergo this operation, and the French Ambassador says pleasantly that they take the smallpov here by way of diversion as they take the waters in other countries, wrote Lady Mary. Queen Caroline, the recipient of the eorrespoudimee. considered that further experiments would be useful, so she begged the lives of six condemned Newgate criminals who had not had smallpox. She persuaded Afaitland. the phvsieiaii. grown diffident from abuse, to inoculate them and invite eminent doctors as witnesses. He succeeded perfectly, and dedicated a diary to the Prince and Caroline describing his patients’ progress. This encouraged Caroline to have six children inoculated\melia and Caroline were inoculated in April 1772. “without danger at the time or the least illsymptoms since.’’ The next year Maitland went to Hanover and inoculated Frederick of Prussia, who gave him an anxious few days but made a good recovery. Maitland received £.1000 for his services. Caroline's courage revived waverers and confounded the gloomy prophets. Inoculation became an established practice. Less than a century after 1771. Jenner discovered vaccination lo be safer than inoculation ill giving immunity. and the battle against smallpox was won. The foregoing-facts have been culled from "Caroline of Ansbach. George the Second's Queen.’’ by IL L. Arkell (Oxford I niversity Press i which Ims just been published. Kings and criminals, therefore, combined io establish the new idea concerning the inoculation against smallpox, a scourge, incidentally, which was widespread throughout Europe. While it is easy to point to the opposition which was marshalled against good and beneticient ideas, it is also to be borne in mind that this spirit of opposition has laid low many dangerous ideas. An idea or method is not io be commended simply because it is new. and this applies io the practice of medicine more than anything else. The reserve which is practised by the medical profession toward innovations is not due to conservatism. interpreting that term as a natural opposition to change, but to a desire not to make fatal mistakes. A drug, for instance, may affect persons of different types and conditions in various ways, and there, are some drugs which are being used to-day which are known even to the layman as differing in their effects with diffrent people. It is still wise to move with caution when dealing with the health of the people, and in this respect there is still much to be said for leaning to the side of orthodoxy.