PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 12 February 1914, Page 2

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.

A BRILLIANT ADDRESS. TOE CURSE OF CIVILISED MAS". A DIRECT ATTACK. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Tuesday. In the section of Medicine at the Medical Congress, a brilliant address was delivered by Dr. Sinclair Gillies, who dealt in a general way with the wonderful advance made in 'medicine, and particularly with bacteriology and preventive medicine. Of ordinary bacteria two of the most interesting were those responsible j»r enteric fever and tuberculosis. Enteric fever was now fast disappearing, thanks to the recognition of its bacteriological nature and mode of conveyance. Tuberculosis still bulked largely as a eurse of civilised man. In Great Britain it accounted for one death in every three between the ages of 20 and 45, and in Australia gome ,nOO persons died from it every year. Therefore it was no wonder we had been thoroughly aroused to its importance and need for its extermination. In England and the United States the death-rate had been considerably reduced. The factors working for this result included improved general hygiene, improved housing, improved standard of living and regulation of the sale and inspection of foodstuffs (especially milk), recognition of the necessity of fresh air and efficient 'ventilation by day and night, and the regulation of occupations exposing to irritating dust and gases. Every advance in sanitation had had its share, but of late the attack had been more direct. The doctor dealt briefly with the modern sanitorium system of combating the disease. He argued that cases must be diagnosed and treated at a much earlier stage than was formerly thought. The stethoscope was yielding some of its priority in diagnosis to the thermometer, the weighing machine, 1 the microscope, the X-rays and the specific reaction (the tuberculin test). Dealing with the subject of specific immunisation, Dr. Gillies said that since Dr. Koch first brought tuberculin before the profession there had been preparations too enormous to mention, and they all had their advocates and detractors. Where there was a long list of drugs credited with the cure of any disease it might be assumed in the first place that the disease frequently recurred, and in the second that none of the drugs was a satisfactory cure. So it was, ho feared,' with tuberculosis. Fortunately the tendency had been towards recovery, but no bacterial preparation had so far established its claim to cure.