MEDICAL CONGRESS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1929, Page 5

MEDICAL CONGRESS

BURDEN OF MATERNITY

(Australian Press Association)

SYDNEY, Sept. 6,

Dame Janet Campbell, Director of the Maternal Infant Welfare, of the British Ministry of Health addressing the Medical Congress, obstetrics section, appealed to the profession to endeavour to lighten . the burden of maternity. She said she envied the records of Scandinavia and Holland in this respect,, but was unable to obtain comparable records of other countries. Britain was trying to make antenatal work more general as on tliis must depend a reduction of maternal mortality.

It was hoped in England that an insurance scheme would be adopted under which women would obtain proper, attention dining confinement.

Dr Henry Jellett said there was a tendency in modern times to adopt new methods and neglect men and women. They were eternally looking for new advances that must be built on knowledge and neglecting the, foundation on which that knowledge must be based. They made medical practitioners and midwives but failed to provide them with sufficientknowledge of midwifery. The .present system of caring for prospective mothers Was essentially 'wrong. By-the adoption of a different system, the present rrjte of maternal mortality could roughly be halved. Medicals should concern themselves more with antenatal oare, diagnosis and postnatal oases, leaving other work to midwives.

Doctor E. S. Morris pointed out the problem of the untrained nurse did not affect New South Wales. Ouj; of 3246 midwifery nurses registered, only 150 were nob hospital trained.

In the course of a discussion on nervous disorders and their relation to claims for compensation for accident, Doctor MacDonald, of Dunedin, expressed the opinion 'that functional nervous disorders could not be caused directly by trauma or by emotion. French wartime treatment in neurology centres not far behind the front line, of men who developed nervous troubles, showed that there were practically no cases of men suffering from neurosis only, came, to bace hospitals. Functional nervous disorder, said Dr MacDonald, is not the result of injury. There must be something sillier added, something that, will reach the patient in a condition of suggestibility. lnsui-aii.ee companies would be wise and save money if they would submit all such cases to neuio logical examination. i Doctor, Minoque, of Sydney, submitted remarkable figures relating to neryous disorder cases, which were the subject for compensation claims. In twenty-three of such,- there were only four complete recoveries, recovery being rapid after, compensation claims were settled for lump sums. In seventeen cases in which no claim for compensation was involved there were twelve complete recoveries. There was a distinct tendency among unskilled workers of low intelligence to regard such illnesses ns a haven of refuge, and despite the remedial measures many clung tena-nciously to their symptoms. We may , suspect some of our patients as humbugs and plausible rogues, but how can we prove it. If a man swears he has a pain can we swear he has not. Our humanitarian laws have capitalised the infirmities of the neurotic. CAUSE OF ASTHMA. SYDNEY, Sept. G. At the Medical Congress to-day, Dr Ivan Maxwell, of Melbourne, discussed asthma. He said hay fever was frequently the precursor of athma. House dust was also a factor in asthma, similarly kayok, wool or pollen. People who reacted to dust should sleep out of doors or in a room devoid of window curtains and other collectors of dust. i , DR MACDONALD S REPORT. (Received this day nt 10.30. a.m.t SYDNEY, Sept. 7. At the Medical Conference, which has concluded, a review of the results of war nephritis in naval, military and air section ! by Doctor MacDonald, of Brisbane, disclosed a grave position in regard to invalid soldiers. Dr MacDonald described his investigations into the oases of 104 former soldiers who were affected with kidney disease. Of these ‘tweny-nine died.' With the exception elf gas and shell shock during the few years alter return, kidney disease was commonly quoted as the cause of an illness justifying pensions. Probably a Australian soldiers'in France suiferqd from respiratory affections. Jt was probable that the pensioners examined represented a very high pvoDortion of. those who actually suffered from nephritis. Sir Richard Seawall described the position as seven times more serious in Australia than in England. Doctor Henry before the neurology and psychiatry section explained the treatment of general paralysis of the insane with malaria. The organism of malaria was introduced into the olood of the paralysed person and the patient was allowed to have twelve acute at tacks of fever, when the treatment was suspended by the administration of quinine. The patient suffered no ill effects. About two hundred cases were dealt with in New South Wales. Doctor Noble speaking on mental hygiene, said the movement had commenced recently m this state and New Zealand and it was hoped to extend it. An organisation would be formed with the object of protecting the mental