THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1924, Page 4

THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

AUCKLAND. March 3. The Medical Conference was resumed to-day. The Council decided that the next nicotine; of the Australasian Medical Congress he held in Dunedin in 192(1. M r r,. E. Harnett, of that city, was clo<ted president. The classification of arthritis and the principles of treatment was the subject before the medical section nf Professor D. W. Carmalt Jones, who dealt with the classification and genoial principles of the pathology and treatment. He also referred to nonspecific therapy in connexion with this disorder.

Dr. Duncan, Rotorua, dealt with hydro-therapeutic therapy in the treatment of joint conditions as practised it, the (lovernmcnt Balneological Department at Rotorua Sanatorium. He described the character of the waters •it Rotorua, and indicated the iinj-.ort-unt fact that Rotorua possesses the only free sulphuric; acid water in the world. and to this element he largely attrih'utod the wonderful results obtained there in such a large proportion of cases.

Dr. Bartram, Rotorua, .spoke from a. v. ide experience of joint conditions. He referred to changes occurring in the blood as a direct result of the baths at Rotorua, and attributed this to the (enir benefits of the baths. Dr. Hamilton Marshall, physician to the Plincc Alfred Hospital. Sydney, advocated the thorough investigation of a patient to locate a possible source of infection which may he located in any part of the body. He emphasised the importance of the alimentary tract. Dr. Staley, a woman doctor long resident in India, raised the importance of malaria as a preceding factor in aithritis. She stated that inflammation of the joints was a common sequence to malaria in Tmlia.

Dr. E. B. Clunson, oi Auckland, in reply to Dr. Staley’s questions, mentioned that in Salonika the same thing had been observed where it was attributed to post-malarial ulceration of the bowel, which was treated by local irrigation. Professor (.'urinal t Jones, in reply, sa'd the feeling of the meeting was apparently strongly favourable to colon lavage as the routine treatment in arthritis, on the grounds that there was practic'd!lv always a serious condition of the bowel which was responsible largely for the persistence of the joint symptoms.

The surgical section heard a pnepr by Mr Gordon Craig, of Sydney, on renal tumours. Mr Craig described in particular a new operation lor the removal of the kidney

Air Barnett devoted his remarks to a new operation which he strongly advocated.

Dr. Mayo supported Mr Barnett's contentions, and said he found the operation a good one in the majority of kidney eases requiring removal. Mr Kenneth Mackenzie, Auckland, gave examples and clinical demonstratioi.ts of cases recently investigated l.t re, and dealt particularly with a new method of diagnosis in which the kidney is injected and X-rayed. Before the special section. Dr. R. Spencer Godsall. Sydney, road a paper discussing the frontal sinews operating through the orbitosinns wall, with srecial reference to open treatment.

Dr. G. K. O. Fenwick, Auckland i, m| a paper Fiv Dr. WolfT lieiulan thal. of New York on laryngeal tuber eiilosis.

The greater the development of the forepart of the brain, the greater the intelligence of the human being concerned, said Dr. S. A. Sewell, o! Melbourne 1 , lecturing on ‘Cerebral Tumour’’ Indore the general meeting of the Conference this afternoon. Dr Sewell showed a series of lantern slides illustrating the development of Hie brain. He traced its development 1 lirmigh the lower types, such as amphibians to mu m:il in iif. There occurred iii the mammal For the. first time an area of bruin substance set, apart for the storage of impressions of sense, such as taste and smell. When the animal assumed an upright position in the ascent of the scale toward man,

tl-.ere "as an increase in the storage capacity coincident with the growth of intelligence. In the higher apes there was a well-developed area in the posterior part of the brain on the surInee. When tlie human brain was reached, this area had extended furtliei and occupied the greater part of the back of the brain. In human! beings there were large conuol areas m the front pait of the brain which wore more highly developed than any other part of the brain. In pn portion to the development of tins put of the brain, so was the development of the intelligence of the human being concerned. There was a tremendous diflcrnce in this development in mental defectives. This portion of the brain wai small and ill-developed compared with normal individuals. Dr. Sowell proceeded to apply remarks on the anatomy and physiology of tlie brain to the problem of the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumour. By means of special tests it was possible accurately to localise cerebral tumours so teat a surgeon could with confidence decide upon the exact area of the skull through which the operation could give tic most ready access to the tumour. Professor Emerson, of Boston, refe-r----yed to the association of ear disease and brain abscess and Ho differentiation of such abeess from cerebral tumour.