THE PROGRESS OF MEDICINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4418, 22 February 1930, Page 3

THE PROGRESS OF MEDICINE.

“The last four or five decades have seen the development of knowledge in the sciences contributing to medicine that has no parallel in previous history,” said Sir Walter Morley Fletcher, secretary of the Medical Research Council, in a lecture in connection with the British Science Guild. “Surgery has advanced by steady degrees, until almost the whole territory of,the 'human body has fallen within its easy mastery. We appear to have seen already the zenith of surgery in the world’s history. Every step forward in medical science is a step toward the abolition of surgery. Yet it is a com-mon-place to epmplain that a common cold can be neither prevented nor cured. Every human child obtains a lesson'about the; state of medicine by, discovering that, as each infectious disease comes in its turn, the doctor has no magic beyond that of giving rest and warmth in bed. 'The general case-mortality rate for grave infections like those of pneumonia or puerperal fever has remained almost stationary for many years’. The cause of acute rheumatism in children with its pitiful tale of subsequent heart disease is still unknown to us. . . .

Yellow fever is still entrenched in West Africa, where it broods as a continual menace to the rest of the tropical world, its potential dangers being greatly increased by the modern possibilities of rapid transport. As to malaria, we know enough to free a limited area from the disease if enough money be Spent. Much more knowledge is required before we can hope for wider success in a general campaign. A hundred million sufferers in India alone must wait for relief until some generations of . betterment have been traversed or until some increase in our knowledge brings, as we have every right to hope, some.new kind of power.”