The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1915. THE MEDICAL CONFERENCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 48, 27 February 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1915. THE MEDICAL CONFERENCE.

At the Medical Conference, which met at Christchurch this week, Dr. Irving, in his presidential address, alluded to the fact that war is making immense demands upon the medical profession, and Dr. Irving’s advice to young, New Zealanders, who are at a pi-ofession-choosing age, is that the call for medical practitioners and medical students should offer a career to an increasing number. There is already a shortage of doctors in the Old Country, and, commenting on Dr. Irving’s address, the “Otago Daily Times” expresses the opinion that such shortage will hardly be merely temporary, and that to those who are in a position to follow it, Dr. Irving’s advice is excellent. Deferring particularly to the President of the Medical Conference’s remark that “there should be no mystery in medicine,” the Times says this is a sentiment which most people will cordially endorse. In his presidential address to the American Medical Association, Dr. Vaughan recently endeavoured, not perhaps to throw more light on the subject, but to dissipate what he considered erroneous impressions regarding it. He attacked with some vigour the idea Unit dis> eases operating on large masses of people act selectively, leaving the strong and weeding out the feeble. Taking up the position that diseases fall more frequently upon the strong and well, he quoted with approval an old saying regarding the Black Death that it “left the rotten bodies and took the sound,” Dr. Vaughan encoyraged the idea that the selective action of disease is of negative significance and is detrimental to the race. The British Medical Journal, commenting on his utterance, concludes that, though there is some slight elimination of the unfit due to the degree that the incidence of disease may be considered selective, “the advantages so purchased are.bought at an enormous price.” The Times writer goes on to say: Most people will no doubt be quite prepared to accept this view as sufficiently near the mark. It is pointed out that what minimises the selective action upon which social reformers are apt to lay undue stress is the fact that the element of chance enters .so largely into the incidence of disease. L

“This clement of fortuity,” we read “enters into every disease caused bj animal or vegetable parasites. Even day of our lives we swallow or inhale germs which are the causative agents of tuberculosis, pneumonia, and a host of fevers. Often we are injected hypodermically by prick or cut with the. microbes of lockjaw or gangrene. Our bodies are fortunately able to cope with these pernicious visitors when they come singly or in small detachments. But should a large number be admitted at once, or should'the invading parasites possess special virulence, which generally means that their structure is such that our mechanisms of defence cannot seize them, the body suffers an initial defeat and disease starts on its course. The element of chance here in the number or quality of the attacking parasites leaves little scope for selection, though again it will be put forward that a higher percentage of the strong will recover.” Another course that has been suggested for the 1 feeble selective action of disease is that the strong members of the community are in many instances more open to attack in the respect that the healthy, vigorous type often takes greater risks. It is a fair conclusion that if disease operates by selection only to a very slight extent and that any beneficial results thereby accruing are, as the British Medical Journal says, far too dearly bought, there is little room' left for the argument, sometimes heard, that medical science is increasing the degeneracy of the race by sheltering the unfit. What is manifest is that disease is the enemy against which unceasing and relentless war must be waged with every effective weapon. And, as Dr. Irving has observed, the less mystery about medicine—which represents, broadly speaking, our defence against disease—the better. ■ii mmmm mi !■■■ mill I