The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1930 NEW CURES FOR OLD DISEASES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 992, 7 June 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1930 NEW CURES FOR OLD DISEASES

ll' it \\ ere not for the common spectacle of an inanimate body * motoring to its grave in keeping with the rapid spirit of the times, one might well fancy that this is the age of wonderful healing. There are new cures for old diseases, while almost every month at the longest the discovery of something even better than the best of former remedies is flashed around the vrorld as a message of hope for sufferers, attracting more attention than the Elizabethan beacon fires. The realitv or result is rarely ever so good as the prospect. All the world over mortality rates are high.

But faith in new cures goes on and grows. This is a good thing for those who cannot find the right remedies for their wrong ills. A few weeks ago it was broadcast throughout the world that indisposition again had assailed King George, the beloved monarch among men, a revered man among monarchs. r ortunately, on this occasion his Majesty’s enemy merely was rheumatism—a bad rebel, of course, but not necessarily an assassin. Immediately, in many lands, thousands of rheumatic people not only took a special interest in the King’s twinges, hut were fortified in pain by a regal companionship. It is a solace to suffer in the best of company. What was the treatment that, m quick time, enabled his Majesty to ride in State to the Derby and cause a multitude on the alluring Downs to forget in a tumult of grateful welcome the aches of rheumatism? On this occasion the King s doctors did not tell. Their remedies have not been disclosed. They may not be blamed for their discreet silence. Unlike pneumonia, which only experts may treat with safety and the promise of the patient’s recovery, rheumatism is so common that a million sufferers would have accepted the medical, formula for the King and ignored the panel doctors. . ~ , an interesting coincidence that King George’s sharp indisposition almost synchronised with the official opening bv the Queen of the Red Cross Clinic for Rheumatism in London. This is an extensive institution furnished with an extremely costly* and i aried equipment, but (as a medical commentator has noted) none too much for its purpose. Its establishment has been hailed as an essential need “marking another step forward from the competitive individualistic medical practice of the past.” Here one may digress for a moment to observe that the increasing introduction, of new cures for old diseases and the building of special institutions for treatment threatens to revolutionise the whole science and art of medical healing. Few, if any private practitioners will ever be able to afford the wide range of expensive apparatus and radiological equipment, and must look forward to more institutional practice. This means that, in the near future, the present system of honorary* service in public hospitals by* medical and surgical experts, will have to be reviewed and materially altered in order to recompense practitioners on an dequate scale. Already, the family doctor who managed to keep our grandparents hale and hearty till they slipped away rather than died, has passed by*; the private practitioner is on the same road: the doctor, of the future will acquire fame mostly in great hospitals, equipped like magicians’ parlours. No wonder the profession, peering ahead, is striving for the introduction of private wards in public hospitals and payment for skilled service. What is the new cure for rheumatism? It really is not new at. all. The best remedies are based on the lines laid down by Hippocrates over two thousand years ago. The only* thing that is new is the method and manner of apply*ing the old cures. These, in medical jargon, now are called physical therapy. It is the ancient rule of Jieat for the relief of pain with, in certain eircumstances, an alternate use of cold. As one doctor phrases it. instead of that horrid mess, a linseed poultice,” high degrees of heat are applied to pained tissues by novel means, by electricity in its many remedial forms. Then there are the X-rays, radium bombs and needles, ultra-violet ray*s, visible octave or luminous rays, infra-red rays pouring heat and energy into the tissues ; and the generous rays of the sun. Moreover, there is the heat of competent hands, a very ancient remedy and still a good one. The latest discovery* is a new X-ray treatment, which is believed to render persons immune from cancer. It is to be welcomed hopefully*, but with restrained enthusiasm, for cancer has become one of the worst scourges of civilisation. The Christian world this week has celebrated the nineteen-hundredth anniversary of Pentecost. Prayer and praise might well have included a devout plea for a cure for the dread disease of cancer, which smites one in every six men. and one woman in every five of her sex. Great Britain alone inters fifty* thousand victims a T“ r - Other countries are even worse. Beautiful open lands like ae.w Zealand and Australia also know the scourge and its increasing menace. Hitherto, the surgeon’s knife has been the principal curative agent, and splendid work has been achieved. But it is time for the passing of that horror. Wise countries will spend freely* of their wealth on radium.