MEDICAL PROGRESS.

Western Star, 9 April 1920, Page 3

MEDICAL PROGRESS.

The demand for a. vigorous up-to-date Health Department is a growing one. Tho Great War did much to show the necessity of keeping iu the van of medical progress. The influenza epidemic, which threatened to attack the country, proved the necessity of the Government being alive to tho welfare and health of the community. During the war national dangers and! national necessities of all the combatant countries made large demands on the inventiveness and the organising capacity of the medical fraternity. How these demands were met has not yet been, fully chronicled. The organisation and treatment was not new. All that had to be done was to make provision on a largo scale. Some idea of the magnitude of preparations may be gained from) consid'erations of the fact that for the Battle of Messines the British Second Army had bO,OOO beds equipped and available for casualties in the army area iu France alone. The maximum number of equipped beds for British casualties on all fronts must have been well over the million, mark. Tetanus or lockjaw had to be overcome, but the surgeons rose to the occasion and anti-tetanus serum was introduced, and deaths from this cause practically ceased. The nniodern treatment of bone, nerve and muscle injuries is not all new. The student learned much for examination purposes, but they were soon forgotten. Their elaboration and devising of suitable and convenient electrical apparatus has been a real step forward, as the application of this forth of treatment to fractures and muscle injuries in civil life has obvious benefits. Army methods and army discipline gave medical science a grand opportunity and the results obtained will no doubt bo reflected in future public legislation. Any legislator who does not advance with the times must be thrown aside and this Dominion must enact laws and regulations based on experience.