MEDICAL CONGRESS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1927, Page 3

MEDICAL CONGRESS.

OPENS AT DUNEDIN

[*Y TELEGRAPH —PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

DUNEDIN. Feb. 3

The Australas-ian Medical Conference was officially opened to-night. Dr |, Barnett, after he had been installed to the office of President by the retiring President (Sir George Syme) delivered his inaugural address. . - Community service in the domain ot the incidence of disease, the President said had been rightly placed in the forefront of the recommendations of the General Medical Council, and the British Medical Association. At this and at every British .Medical Association Conference, lie said, public health questions would be given the greatest prominence. They anticipated that their discussions on goitre any 0,1 thydated cysts would result m a very decided lessening in the frequency of these troublesome and vot largely preventable maladies. They would endeavour to stimulate and correlate cancer research in the various Australian and New Zealand Centres. Althoith far more eases »f cancer ueie cured now by operative and radiological means than in former years—chiefly because the patients were Icarn"ing the wisdom of seeking treatment when the disease was ill its early stage yet owing fo the increasing prevalence of this mysterious malady, the total death' rate from cancer kept mounting higher and higher. The cancer problem, he said, was still "ith them, but it ever was nearing a solution as the result of extensive labour in a hundred fields. Ho took this opportunity of congratulating the Sydney University on the generous response of the people of New South M ales to its appeal for a Cancer Campaign Fund with a sum of well over £IOO,OOO. A splendid plan of research could he instituted, and lie only hoped that other scientific centres in Australia and New Zealand. including Dunedin, might have the same good fortune. Cancer was only one of the many devastating diseases that called for intensive study. The Governments in overv civilised country now ie-

•raided it as tlieir bounden duty to encourage research that bad for its object the betterment of public health. The It oval Commission on Health for Australia, so ably presided over by Sir Genre Svme bad recently reported the conclusions of one of the most valuable investigations into public health matters that had ev«- been made, and one of tile recommendations —a very significant one—was that a Health Research Council should he established and provided with an endowment of £30.000 per annum. They would at their meeting, give detailed attention to the important subjects of maternal and infantile mortality, of tuberculosis and of certain tropical diseases of

great public concern in Northern Australia and the Pacific Islands to questions concerning diet in health and sickness, and to many other matters of special interest, from the preventative medicine point of view. The second session of the Australasian .Medical Congress was opened tonight. The ceremony followed on .scenes of activity in the .Medical School. During the day. the work of registration and business of a formal nature kept a hire secretarial staff busy. Sir George Syme, the. untiring president, presided over a very large attendance, tie had on the platform with him the Hon AV. Downie Stewart, the Hon J. A. Young (Minister of Health), Dr E. L. Barnett (tho new President), and other Government representatives of the medical profession. and prominent citizens. Sir George Syme called on the Hon. Downie Stewart to declare the session open. In addition to the Presidential address, there were speeches h.v the Hon. Downie Stewart, Hon J. A. Young and Sir George Syme. who installed Dr L. E. Barnett as President. At the conclusion of the session, a reception was held by Dr and Airs Barnett in the Art Gallery Hall.