WAR ON DISEASES.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1923, Page 4

WAR ON DISEASES.

I! E„SEA lf( 11 WORKERS HANDICAPPED. LONDON. May i". ,1 1 ilm l.'itllli anniversary Jui la' ■ n Tin sdiiv of till' .Medical ’• a ■ \ . I Li l.doii, Lord Dawson in a plea loi ■ i.me generous --iqipun of •nf'i 1 a 1 " - tiili »!i said: “Th** linttli* bid.mg.Ml at tlio iiininenl' exclusively lo ili.-covcry. If eon timi'.'d ii Would be Won, but an army needed >u|'.pli'.The teaching b.us|iitol - were another asjieet oi the sanu problem. . . To starve them was to damage the whole nation. The chief sources ( ,f income by workers aL present are iho Government grant to tin* .Medical Research Council a mount ing in £130,(100 a year, the Bit Memorial Fellowships yielding about er.uOO, ami Ibe fellowships of iho universities. Manv cm.iiisiast ie doctors in the great hospitals, who could earn Cl.dim or £.3.000 a year as |>hysieians and surgeons, are working on research into tbe jit'eveui ion and cure oi disease on salaries of £211!) to £30(1. .The Medical Research Council is financing many investigations, and one oi them saved the Ministry of Pensions an amount exceeding three years rf the Government grant. This shows v.bat could tie done if research work were adequately supported. Jn the United States wealthy men I have given large slims of money for I this object; the German Government lias always liberally supported it. England, where the first great discoveries 'of vaccination and antiseptics were | made, has fallen into the background ' because neither tlie Government nor j rich men will supply the necessary funds.

"I wish,” said a physician, io me. "the Government would spend onehundreilth part of tlie expenditure on preparation for international war on war against disease. "It we could conquer tuberculosis alone, which kills 00.000 and disables abuiit 200,000 people every year, we would save the community £10.000,000 or C30.000.0t 10 a year. Cancer, rheumatism. rickets, decay of the teeth, and other diseases cost colossal -inn-, apart from the suffering they cause. "We can prevent them only by finding their causes and cures, and research on a large scale cannot be carried our on tbe present endowment. "The research worker in medicine does noi ask for any ultimate reward All he asks for is thai he shall he paid an adequate salary while at work. In>tead oi the £130.000. the Government should give £1.000.000, and this expenditure Mould be repaid to the comniunitv tenfold.”