EMINENT DOCTOR

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 157, 29 March 1939, Page 8

EMINENT DOCTOR

Queen Mary’s Surgeon Visits Wellington

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CANCER TREATMENT

Surgeon to Her Majesty Queen Alary since the death of King George V, Sir Alfred Webb-Johnson, of the Middlesex Hospital, London, arrived at Wellington yesterday by the Awatea. He will spend eight days in New Zealand, motoring through the North Island with Lady Webb-Johnson. Sir Alfred said he had been in Australia, where be attended the congress in Melbourne of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He delivered the Syme Oration at the congress, an historical address tracing the development of English surgery. He also delivered the Mackenzie Oration, of the Mackenzie Institute of Anatomy at Canberra. He was the guest of the Government at the commemorative luncheon at which Rudyard Kipling’s manuscript of ‘‘The Five Nations, in which appear his famous “Recessional” and “The Young Queen,” was presented to the nation. “The Young Queen” was written in honour of Australia’s attainment of Dominion status.

The biggest advance in surgery in recent years, said Sir Alfred, was in chest operations. This had been brought about as a result of the war, when surgeons were constantly required to deal with deep chest wounds, and considerable knowledge and experience was added to the science of surgery. Today tumours and infections of the lungs, and tuberculosis, were much more frequently treated with complete success. Treatment of Cancer, His subject in the Mackenzie Oration was cancer treatment. The most Important development in that was in educating the public to seek advice early and not to dread the disease unduly. Then they could feel assured of successful treatment. The longer the disease was left to run its course, the harder it was to catch up—indeed, often impossible. Big advances had been made in recent years in radiology and’' X-ray treatment of cancer. In California, Professor E. O. Lawrence had invented the machine known as the cyclotron, which produced neutron rays many times more powerful than X-ray or radium, and it was hoped, by using those in conjunction with various chemical elements, to control their action on the tumour. For instance, if used with radio-active phosphorus, a salt which was likely to find its way to the bone, it. would be possible to attack a tumour in the bone, and so forth. But all this was still in the experimental stage. It would be necessary to carry out further purely physical researches, and ascertain more definitely the precise properties of neutron rays, before it would be safe to apply them to human ailments. Incidence of Cancer. • The incidence of cancer appeared greater at present than in the past, because of the greater average expectation of life and the greatly increased number of people who attained the “danger age”—middle age or over. Formerly a greater proportion of the population succumbed to infantile mortality, or youth ailments. Sir Alfred possesses the distinction of having been knighted by King Edward VIII, having figured in the only Honours List of his brief reign. With Sir James Walton, he was appointed surgeon to Queen Mary’s household on the death of King George. He is also surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital and an advisor'to the director of the Army Medical Service, of which be is honorary colonel. He is a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, councillor of the Royal College of Surgeons, and consulting surgeon of the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, London.