THE BEST DOCTORS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4927, 18 January 1926, Page 1

THE BEST DOCTORS.

OLD-TIME PRACTITIONERS.

TRIBUTE FROM DR. BALFOUR.

Are modern doctors as good as, the phypisians of old? This was one of the points brought forward by Dr. Andrew Balfour, Director of the London School of Hygiene ana Tropical; Medicine, in his presidential address delivered to the Royal Society of Tropical. Medicine and Hygiene at the Medical Society of London.

"In certain directions,”• Dii Balfdur declared, ‘‘l very much doubt if the modern doctor with the Laboratory at his back and with his brain crammed full of scientific and semi-scientific knowledge, is. as good at the bedside or can use his remedies so effectively as those who had to. trust their poweris of observation, their reasoning faculties, and their intimate acquaintance with the materia medica. which .they ha,d usually gained in the pursuit of their studies and during their careers as apprentices in practice.” “We modern doctors when practise ing,” continued Dr. Balfour, “have obtained the greater part of our knowledge from these pioneers, and we cannot but wonder at some of these clinicians who in former days, relying on ‘the seeing eye and the understanding heart,’ were able to grapple so successfully with intricate problems and to handle disease in a way that even tp-day commands the utmost respect.”