MEDICAL CONGRESS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 79, 23 September 1911, Page 5

MEDICAL CONGRESS

YESTERDAY'S PROCEEDINGS.

By Cable—Press Association—Copyright, Sydney, September 21.

Dr. Gibson, in a paper on the subject of opthalmology, declared that plumbic optic neuritis in children was contracted through playing on painted verandahs, and urged that paint should be prepared with zinc instead of lead as a basis.

Dr. Barrett said that syphilis was a predominant disease among mankind, and raised the question whether, if it were, suppressed, which was quite possible, human beings would usually live to old age; certainly there would be less eye and ear disease.

Dr. Purdy, in a paper on goitre, was, as the result of investigations in Tasmania and New Zealand, inclined to the opinion that goitre was prevalent where people drank glacier water, or lived on Hats through which glacier water drained.

Discussing a paper on syncope, collapse and shock, Dr. Martin, of New Zealand, declared that the influence of fear had a decided bearing on shock, and was a great mental factor to be combated and allayed. Referring to battlefield injuries, he said the mental state of soldiers had influence on the production of shock. After the battles, of firaspan and Belmont patients entered the hospitals in excellent spirits, but after the disaster of Magersfontein they were depressed and miserable; the shock was more pronounced and the suffering greater.

CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.

Received 23, 12.20 a.m. Sydney, September 22.

' The Medical Congress discussed the value of the tuberculin cure for consumption.

Sir Phillip Sidney Jones said that tuberculin was very useful in certain cases that, were hanging fire, but its indiscrimiiiiite use was possibly harmful. He had seen it used in unsuitable cases with disastrous results.

Dr. Finch stated th.it he had begun the use of tuberculin in tlic Sydney hospital autbnmtically, and the result was such that instructions had been given to the general staff for its employment in all oases of tuberculosis. Every member of,the staff favored it. This course had been decided upon after observations extending over four years. PULMONARY DISEASES.

Dr. Simmons read a paper which dealt with pulmonary diseases amongst quartz miners in Uendigo. The total deaths from lung disease had risen from 77 per 10,000 in the first quinquennial period to 100.l in the last. This was largely accounted for by the increase of those certified to as due to tuberculosis. TROPICAL DISEASES.

Dr. Breiul gave a paper on tropical medicine investigation of the past twenty years. He was convinced that the unsnitahility of the tropics depended mostly on the prevalence of diseases carried by intermediary hosts, which nourish in certain parts of the tropics. Yellow fever and malaria were both combatable by the use of mosquito nets. FLIES AND TYPHOID. -

Another paper dealt with the spread of typhoid by house flips. .It stated that the American Army Commission found that during the Spanish war Hies inflicted greater loss on the American forces than did the arms of Spain. .There were similarly great losses in the Boer war. The use of kerosene and blue oil for keeping down flics was advocated.