June In these days when the impression is formed that the ingenuity of man is largely devoted to discovering methods for his own destruction, it is comforting to learn that, in some branches of research at least, strenuous work is being done in seeking means for the prolongation of human life and its protection against the many perils with which nature has surrounded it. The thought comes from the perusal of a statement made by Sir Edward Mellanby, secretary of the Medical Research Council at the Rede House, Cambridge recently. Those who have been living during the past half century have been able to witness many triumphs of mankind, but it is doubtful whether more progress hat been made in any science than. that of medicine and surgery. When, in 1902, the! coronation of King Edward VII had to be Postponed because of an operation for ap= Pendicitis the British Empire waited with trembling breath upon the outcome; now such an operation has become almost everyday affair. And so it is in. other branches of medicine. The discovery of responsible organisms has, in many once extremely dangerous discases, led to means whereby their invasion of the human system can successfully, or at least to a very large extent be overcome. Typhoid fever, which so short a while back as 1900 killed' no fewer than 5,000 persons yearly in the British Isles, has been brought so much under control that a mild epidemic nowadays causes a public scandal. Pulmonary tuberculosis "not 30 very long ago was responsible for nearly 3,000 deaths for every 100,000 of the popula tion, the ratio in 1937 having dropped to 690. Again, although Great Britain is lagging behind other countries in its, applica tion of new knowledge, diphtheria is being rapidly overcome by ' suitable preventive innoeulation, while for medicine in general it may be pointed out that in certain Canadian and American towns it has been reduced to minimal proportions, so much so. that in Hamilton, Ontario, @ town of 175,000 inhabitants' not a single case has been report ed for the last five years, that in itself no slight proof of the efficiency of the technique in dealing with the trouble. io-chemistry has shown similar advances. Notably the discovery of insulin has saved thousands of lives of diabetics, and enabled many more thousands of sufferers to lead more comfortable and active lives than. would otherwise have been the case, while with regard to pernicious anaemia the discovery and application of liver and certain stomach extracts has brought hope where formerly. very little existed. Of late the recent discovery of the sulphanilamide group of compounds has brought a new, and already proved weapon into the field against the large group of bacteria-caused diseases. Astonishing reductions have been effected in the mortality rate of puerperal fever, while in cases of what were almost invariably fatal forms of pneumonia and meningitis "many lives have already been saved, with the promise that as the application of these drugs further studied even greater progress will be made in combatting these scourges which cannot fail to torvity mankind. Sir Edward Mellanby goes on to point out. that in the field of surgery, particularly of the brain, chest and thyroids' there have been similar iumphs. Tumours in portions of the brain, which five decades ago were considered to be inaccessible, are now being removed with the restoration of patients to health and norm= al life. Modern surgery of the lung, which much less than fifty years ago would not have been possible, ha' restored what were considered incurable eases and sent them back into the world in health and comfort, while the modern technique of partial removal of the thyroid gland has been the chit development of the past fifteen years. Complete victory has not yet been obtained in the unceasing struggle against cancer, but, even here, considerable progress has' been noticed, and additions made to human knowledge on the subject. The fight is not so] hopeless as it was but a few years ago, and there is now every reason to expect that if the disease in some of its phases is taken ly enough cures can be effected. At the' present time the fear of the individual seems {o be one of the chief obstacles in its treatment, but adequate propaganda should serve to overcome that, and give medical men the opportunity. of applying knowledge "which even now has deprived that dread disease of some at least of its terrors.
Thus in thousands of laboratories throughout the world men and women are continuing, the fight against those ills which aMict. the human flesh. Victories are being gained which form the bases for future advances, lund, one by one, the forces of evil are being reduced. Science has been cutting the death rate of the world, eveh though certain branches ave been busily engaged upon devising means of making death-dealing methods more effective than ver before.
Other branches of research have been devoted to improving production to such an extent that gluts and surpluses are the order of the day, while that one line of investiga~ tion coneetning the utilizing of the greater obtained seems woefully to have That docs not appear to be a charge which can be levelled against medicine. The noble men and women who
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.