MEDICAL CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1929, Page 5

MEDICAL CONFERENCE

OJ’ENJ NG PROCEED]NGS.

(By Telegraph —Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON. Feb. 19

The annual conference of the Now Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association was opened to-day by the Governor-General

The proceedings will continue till Friday. ’l’lie President-elect, l)r J. S. Elliot; presided. Sir Charles Forgusson, in a characteristic speech, said he was present to show respect and do honour to then: as representatives of one oi the most noble of professions and give expression to the .appreciation all must have, not only of the magnitude of their work, but of the importance to country and humanity at large of such a gathering.

ADDRESS ON CANCER

WELLINGTON, Feb. 19

In an address to the New Zealand brunch of the British Medical Association to-day, Dr Samson Handlev, an eminent London surgeon and an authority on cancer, said if the public could be induced to seek prompt advise for suspicious symptoms, , the cure of cancer would become a very common event. It must be confessed that the efforts of medicine to control cancer had not yet been successful, nor could they be expected to succeed, while public opinion, with the support of some doctors, maintained that cancer was incurable and turned from the subject with horror and disgust. People who suspected they had the disease concealed their condition anil in very many eases only sought medical advice when the disease had passed the curable stage, and when an operation could do no more than ease their sufferings or prolong their lives

Taking a large number of his private patients, lie found the delay between the time the patient first noticed that something was wrong and the time when medical advice was first sought, amounted to an average of six months. /

The menace of cancer to the human family was no more dreadful than others medicine had laced and finally overcome. The public must he taught the elementary facts about cancer and learn to he on the look-out for eailv signs. They must realise early cancer was curable, when it occurred in accessible positions and that the worst pain was connected with most operations. .for cancer was a pain of anticipation. -Tlii' actual danger of the operation was now small. He mentioned there was a good prospect., that within the next few years the knife would he largely superceded by electrical methods of’ removing cancer. perhaps even, that radium treatment would in many cases replace operative treatment

The problem of cancer would not he solved without the help and support of educated public opinion. Finance was an important aspect. The amount spent on cancer research was small in proportion to the importance of the object and with the results already obtained, it must be conducted on an adequate scale.