MEDICAL PRACTICE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4889, 12 October 1925, Page 4

MEDICAL PRACTICE.

THE ERA OF SPECIALISM. DANGER OF OVERGROWTH. Dr. J. Basil Hall, M.C11., F.R.C.S., President of the British Medical Association, honorary consulting surgeon, Bradford Royal Infirmary, in an address to the Academy of Medicinei in Toronto, discussed the growth of specialism. “Specialism,” lie said, "has become a necessity in our modern scheme of medical practice, but surely it behoves us to be careful lest our profession becomes nothing more than a community 01. craftsmen, each in life own water-tight compartment, with little or no general knowledge of the problems which lie outside it. Specialism may be a great art, but it may be very soul r destrpying. It may bring great weal,th and notoriety, but it is a poor thing to live for,' itself alone.

■'When I was a very email boy I was taken to a great exhibition in the Old Cloth Hall in Leeds. It was not long after Nasmyth had invented the steam-hammer; and I gtJll remember watching a man regulating a model of that wonderful invention. He was cracking Barcelona nuts with it I I was too young at that time to appreciate the wonderful scientific accuracy of the machine; but Ido remember thinking that I could crack them equally well with my teeth. “Viffiat-is the real reason for this modern desire to adopt extreme measures ? It is .the love of something new; the love of a great idea; and—yes, I am afr,aid that I must als,o add —the ambition for the notoriety of specialism ; specialism as the lay public conceives it—a miraculous gift Which enables a man to do something bigger, and incidentally more expensive, than his neighbour. . . . “It is not easy to draw the line between reasonable and extravagant methods, but surely .there is much in the surgical practice of to-day which is purely theatrical. Moreover, pur concentration upon technique is deadening our sense of the supreme importance of .cultivating clinical wisdom and judgment; the shrewd estimate of the vital capacity of our patient, and the. great principle that we (Should nevei 1 forget that .the, greatest artist is he who does the least possible to secure the desired end. “The surgeon who can grasp essentials, and who is gifted with ‘vision,’ because he has viewed Nature from a broad standpoint, lives in the memory of future generations. His work remians, because he has studied the great essentials of life. The other obtains a passing notoriety oh account of his perfect technique. It is. all very pretty, and attracts the eye for the moment, but it lacks that sterling quality, which marks real genius. Genius is not a heaven-sent gift. It is the infinite capacity for work —a capacity for using pur brains in the study of everything which enters into bur existence.

“If I may make an appeal to the. embryo snrgeonis of to-day, !■ would beg them not to be narrow in their ambitions. I would ask them not to be counting' Up' the worldly wealth that specialism may'bring, ■ but remember; that the parsing of an examination;' however high its standard may be, and a year .or two of special experience, will, never s achieve greatness. Theatrical display 'of elaborate technique, and the noisy advertisement of the latest methods will obtain notoriety, but chain them to a life of comparatively joyless work. I would tell them that while it is a great thing to be'able to do something better than anyone else, it.is a.much greater thing to be known .as a great (scientific worker, who can’ bring, to bear upon his special, craft a knowledge of human nature and .all those attributes which make nieh truly great. I would ask. them to 'realise that if, .they work for; the love of working in the first place, to work for the advancement of knowledge ', and' the universal benefit of mankind, .they will obtain a great recognition' and an ultimate worldly success. I would commend tp. them the words, of Thoreau when he says: ‘lf a man advance confidently in the-direction of his dreams and endeavours to live the life which, he has imagined lie {will meet with a success unexpected?, in common hour’s.”’ \