SURGEONS AND CANCER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 11

SURGEONS AND CANCER

VICTORY SEEN, PERHAPS IN THIS GENERATION

GOITRE IN NEW ZEALAND

(Australian and K.Z. Press Association) Reed. 1.36 p.m. HONOLULU, Friday. Dr. Russell Wells told the PanPacific Conference of Surgeons that it was hoped to introduce iodine treatment for goitre in New Zealand. This treatment had been highly effective in the American north-west.

Dr. W. A. Osborne (Australia) led a discussion on neuro-surgery and paid tribute to Dr. Royle’s achievements in this field. I-Ie described Dr. Stewart’s (America) conceptions as sympathetic to this theory, and declared that the world owes a debt to Dr. Norman Royle, of Sydney, for having effectually introduced it to the sympathetic nervous system. Dr. Osborne’s physiology paper caused much discussion among the surgeons, as developing a new theory regarding surgical shock. Dr. Osborne said the idea, widely held by American surgeons, that a combined local and general anaesthetic prevents shock, was Incorrect, because the real cause of shock is a poison called hystamine, which is freed whenever a tissue is injured. Prevention should be obtained by a maximum avoidance of injuring tissues. Dr. Osborne addressed a large public session on the cancer spectre, comparing cancer to an invading army, to which one in five persons falls a victim. He described the Australian fight against the disease, and predicted victory, perhaps within this generation.