THE B.M.A. AT AUCKLAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1914, Page 6

THE B.M.A. AT AUCKLAND.

BRITISH INSURANCE ACT. [Per Puess Association.] Auckland, February 9. hi the course of his address on the British Insurance Act. Dr. G. A. Mae Donald, President of the British Medical Association, indicated how the medical profession resented having this Act thrust upon it. There could be no objection to a scheme which presented the worker with the cost of medical benefits, but many objections to a system which itself provided medical benefits. Let the worker have the money, said the doctor, and let him have liberty to make a contract with any medical man he might choose. In conclusion, Dr. Mae Donald gave the meeting some hints as to the course to be adopted if the profession were called upon to face an attempt to introduce such an Act here. First of all they must be organised, and nobody was so capable of dealing with such a question as the British Medical Association, to

which every member of the profession should belong. They must at the outset consider their plans clearly and carefully. In the Old Country the doctors had issued a report which was not carefully considered, and in the campaign this was used strongly against them. An essential part of the campaign was a defence fund, which must be ready before j&ny action was taken. Dr. Mae Donald said that from his observations ol the.lnsurance Act, it was needed even less in the Colonies than it was in Great Britain. THE ADVANCE IN MEDICINE. Auckland, February 10. This morning Dr. Sinclair Gillies, president of the Medical section, read a most important paper on the advance made in medicine. He dwelt upon the discovery of what had been termed ultra microscopical or filterable viruses, to whose action he put rabies and yellow fever in man, and pleuro pneumonia and foot and mouth disease in animals. He enlarged upon the necessity of tackling consumption, and said he feared a satisfactory cure by anti-toxins had not so far been discovered. The time had arrived when steps should bo taken to stamp out syphilis like any other contagious disease. Dr. Pullein, of Adelaide, delivered the presidential address in the rhinology, olology", and laryngology section, and introduced two new methods in the conservative treatment of chronic suppurative ear disease. He exhibited, and explained, the appliance for carrying on' each of these procedures and the results quoted in the opinion of those present proved the value of the methods recommended.