The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1914. THE MEDICAL CONGRESS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1981, 11 February 1914, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1914. THE MEDICAL CONGRESS.

' A very interesting programme has' been prepared for the Australasian Medical Congress, which, opened its proceedings in Auckland oh Monday, and the deliberations of the doctors, cannot fail to be helpful to them in _ their own special Work and also in that wider sphere of influence in which they are brought into contact with many urgent problems of social reform and race betterment. ■ The medical profession plays a greater part in the modern world than it did in former times. Almost every civilised Government now. has its special Health Department, and the doctor is also required to give a lead in other branches of social service, A glance, at the programme with which the present •Congress has to deal affords an excellent illustration of this fact. In addition to a .comprehensive review of the present state of knowledge regarding the prevention ind cure of various forms of disease, the Congress will be callcd upon to consider such questions as eugenics, town-planning, radiology and medical electricity, naval and military medicine and surgery, the mental measurement of children, health in the school, and sanitation iu mines. A system of medical inspection has been introduced into our schools, and the doctor occupies aft important place in the scheme- of national defence. He is with us from the cradle to the grave', and there can bo no doubt that the griat extension of his sphere of activity which has. taken place in recent years has been amply justified by results. The infantile death-rate has been enormously reduced, the average duration of life has been increased, and the influence of medical science in various phases of social reform has done much to raise the general standard of human existence. Stime. people tell us that the physically unfit should be allowed to die, and that efforts to uplift them are worse than useless; but the medical profession, taken as a whole, has never endorsed this'view. The great aim of scientific research in the sphere of medicine and surgery has always been to prolong life, and to improve the physical and mental fitness of the race; not to crush the weak under foot, but to help them as far as possible to become healthy and uspful members of society. Of course, the welfare of the community has also to be considered in this connection in order to prevent the diseases of the unlit from reducing the virility of the nation as a whole, and this aspcct of the problem is not being overlooked by the medical profession.

The increasing activity of the doctor in the.matter of public health has in no way lessened the import.

anco of the. part he has to play.in the private life of the people. In a striking uddress in connection with the International Medical Congress held in London last year the Dean of St. Paul's (Dn, Inge) declared that the doctors had succeeded to some of the functions of the priest. "It is they who now hear the confessions of anxious and conscieneejstricken patients," he said; '-'it is they who prescribe dietary disciplines and. various quaint penances; it is they who send people on penances to distant lands." The Dean went on to say that "owing to the state of neglect into which'"the art of spiritual therapeutics has fallen in Protestant countries, the physician usually knows more than the clergyman about the real springs of action, the secret causes of sin and sorrow, tho subtle and delicate influences by which soul and body affect each other, the mysterious and melancholy trammels of morbid heredity, and the. unrecognised heroism of struggles against it." One may possibly disagree with some of the details of this comparison between the work of the physician and that of the clergyman, hut it is impossible to gainsay the general truth of the Dean's impressive sketch of the manner in which the doctor's in* fhtence penetrates into the most sacred recesses of individual and family life. For this and other reasons, the standing of the medical profession in the eyes of the community ha? been steadily improved, and the fast that surgery antl medicine'' have been "placed upon a thoroughly scientific basis has also increased i tho confidence of the public in the work of the doctor. In this respect- a great change has taken place since the latter part of tlie first century for instance. Things pointed out in the Lancet iff an interesting article by Dr.: Crawford, Physician to King's College Hospital, London, who remarks that in fchoso early days the profession of medicine can hardly he said to have existed, though practitioners were all too numerous. The calling was too ignoble for adoption by Romans of culture and breeding, and was almos-t exclusively in the hands of foreigners, some of whom were very ignorant. In ths Middle Ages the work of the physician was probably ,held in more ret\»eet, and tho priest was often entrusted with the care of both body and soul. Active minds were at work throughout the. centuries preparing the way for better things; but it was not till- the application of modern scientific methods to the art of healing that tho medical profession attained itepresent high position-in the community.

In his presidential address to the Auckland ' Congress, Dr. Puhcjias drew attention to the fact that in spite of the wonderful achievements in medicine and surgery much still remains to be done. A wide field for investigation and distinction is Still open, and "there is a long list of specific infections which, like the poot, we have always with us." Though smallpox can be , held in check, recent events remind us that it has not ,vet been conquered, and cancer and insanity are -said to be increasing. So-called "cures" for eancer aj'e announced from time to time, •but when nut to the . test'they have not been able to justify their claims. Same striking results have been secured by radium treatment, and still greater things arc being expected from it, Important discoveries may be announced ai' aiiy moment, but the time, is not yet rips for a- definite decision as to its. exact place in modem healing. A distinguished German authority resent-', ly declared that not much more can be looked for from the use of serums and prophylactic vaccination, and that the great medical discoveries of the future will probably be in the chemical and radial treatment of disease. This view is in a measure supported by Dr. Abbs, of Kew York, who is of opinion that surgery has expended its utmost efforts in cutting out every vestige of'cancer, or destroying it by cautery, caustics, or. freezing; but, although these procedures frequently cure the patient, they never cure the .disease; they ©lily remove it- For a cure, he thinks it is necessary to look to forces like organic chemistry or bio-chemistry l , or to agents like the Roxtgbn" rays and radium. , It is interesting to know that one of the sections at the Auckland Congress will deal with radiology, and the discussion of this latest phase of modern medicine -should be especially valuable at the present time, in view of the publicspirited movement, in favour of the establishment of-a Radium Institute at- Palmmtoi! North. This movement deserves the sympathy, and support of . the public, for though w«! may not yet know all that radium can do, it is certain that it has wonderful curative properties, and enough is already known to convince reasonable men that it is highly desirable that radium treatment on the most approved scientific lines should be obtainable in New Zealand,