AUSTRALIAN MEDIICA ASSOCIATION C ONR1SS
ADELAIDE. 19TH 1.7 l7 T
j. peech by he inster the Rt on, , Go enzie.
Sir, If there is one thing olitirian likes to be it is
safe. Those of you who are not politicians wouldn't understand
that. But what I mean is that this meeting has, so far as I can
make out tonight, been open for at least two or three days.
Therefore I run no risk of a Censure motion if I now declare it
open. ( Laughter) There is another thing that I would like to say to you
and that is that I compliment, if I may, Dr. Colville a r. I: L of
eminence from my electorate ( Laughter) on having been elected as
the first President of the Australian Medical Association; and I
am delighted to think that he should succeed, not technically but
substantially, Sir Henry, about whom all I want to say is this:
that I think my grandchildren will be inclined to boast that
' granpa knew him'. ( Applause)
Now having said that I want to tell you that I have a
slight grievance; and the grievance is that, as so many of you
may have found in your time, I find myself naked before the
medical profession, ( Laughter) I have stood in this lovely Hall
( Bonython) more than once indeed once I was counted out much to
my pleasure ( Laughter) wearing the garmats appropriate to the
unearned honours that I have acauired in my life. Tonight here I
am, you know, looking like a well-fed penguin ( Laughter) while all
the rest of them are here manifesting themselves in robes of
glory. And I don't think this is right, because I would have you
know, ladies and gentlemen, that I m. a, for some reason that
escapes me, a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of
Plysicians ( Laughter)( Applause) not that I have ever noticed
any fiscal results of such a position; and, what is more
remarkable is that I am, I'm happy to say, as I was astonished to
discover, a Fellow of the Royal College of Gynaecologists.
( Laughter)( Applause) Now you would think, wouldn't you, that a
man with these all-round qualifications ( Laughter) would have been
given a bit of coloured something or other ( Laughter) to wear
tonight? No, The medical profession, having been crossexamined
by the lawyers so successfully for so many years, is
jealous of us and so they said tonight ' Who is this follow?" " Well
he's the Prime Minister"* '" ihat was he in private lifo?"
Somebody generously said " A lawyer" and the result was that they
all said " Let him stand up undccorated:" Take your coat off,
Sir. WeTll I don't need to go beyond that point. So here I am,
But I stand here, not only as a species of lawyer, and
as a species of Prime Minister, but as one of the millions and
millions of people in the wcrld who say " Thank God for the
medical profession". It isn't so long ago that having we don't
have a 40 hour week in my job; nor do we have Saturday morning
off but it wasn't so long ago that having finished what I had
set myself to do on Saturday afternoon in my office, a time of
peace and quiet, the spirit moved me to have a look at the Year
Book. Have any of you ever read the Year Book? I'm astonished
at the illiteracy of people. How many people read the Year Book?
Only the people who want to confound me, in my expirience. But I
road the Year Book and then I wont back and I picked up one ; many
years ago I won't toll you how many years ago in ord.; r to find
out what the expectation of life of a male child was in the year
in which I was born. You may think that this exhibited a
melancholy state of mind, but it didn't really, because I found
out that in the course of this relatively brief span of years the
expectation of life had gone up by 16 years. And, may I say to
you, rather more in the ccse of womren. ( Laughter). Now whether
that is purely a psychological factor or not, I don't know. But
there it is 159 lo, 17 years.
We take all. those tlaIngs forr grntd d t we? I f we
riappen to live longor 4Jhan g,, rnnpa-, pa,, we sa," c1 wyntV
rath-er attrbu bc it to ouYr own ; irtue,, u c yuta h
groat physical revolution in our timei has, '. eori what the medical
peo hIv don,[ hat thie bio-. ohernists have done, what all thec
people have done wh!, o have beoen preserving hium~ an life, and exendiing
it. This romarkabl-r-evolutionary fact is perhaps not very w, 31l
. known; and not vcery miuch appreciated. dhat we will some day coe
-to the medical profession is noi& yet lanown-, but I think I knov
something of it myself.
So there you have medical science and the prolongation
of' the oxpectati. n of life, I have sometirnes tirought of it, Sir,
in these terms-, that in the last ton yoars it hans become a r-hor
mancabre fashi on to road, 6 and th-ink and talk about sputniks, aboub
the marvellous technological achiever. ecnts of the0 people who
develop piropollants and who send thinigs whiizzing around above the
atmospheore. Isnd no doubtu thope are marvellous things. But I
would evoiry h-uma-n being, -to r, oTembcr thrat of ail! the people who
have scen those flaming objcts -and m not using that in the
co~ lloquial sense passing across the low horizon at night, of' all
thle people who have see~ n that, probably a thircd Drould not ha-ve
been alive but for the immense in me-dicine and reskearch in o-ur
world. This is seothing: that -) tght to be realised -Jith c-L-' ity,
and remembered with rie, Therefore I rvaznt to say that I an
hore bocause. theo medi4cal profecssion h-as an irmmens-cl-aim on. my mind
and my gratitude on your mini and Your gratitude.
it doesn't 3lways got thnis recognition0I woulC~ rlt lk
to go back too far0 but in my oar. ieor dnys,, in my -mo* re respectable1
days at the ,30r, I not infreq i'uentl y a Lpcered as Counse': l for some,-
wretced doctor who was acc~ use-d of ncjgligerico Oh1 I couj1-d tel-l
you sto) ry after story ( haurater) about th_ is and mny he,: art ' las in
33cause, you knaew.., it* is ono of the ironies of life thia-. wha-r.
we feel ill, when i~ ro feel. 1 off, when something Lhappens to somebody
in the family, the flxst ma,. n turn to is the docotkor! he brings
with himi an aura of ski. Il and o-f knorlodge and for us,
oo0n f~ eneut I soothng oes wrong he is the first mn to be
ckod. LeA-t us ronree,, bcr that.-
1hiL1s proiession Ilivos in the middle of 1. i fe. it sees
huLman nature---at it-4 worst and9 thian i t s es human nature
at its best;.. It boconte3-familiuar ix. iti ' frights-it bacomos
fanailiar with courage. It bcmsfan-,. liar withK gratitude it
becorios fani'Liar with t'Lhanklessnoss. will-J never think of the
r~ edcal rofession as a prfssion in w.-hich men, hvnpasse..
u. rough a period of trLaining, Lave a liconce to ear., n agreeablC
incomes and that's t. bat. No-c at all. Any meodical mnan who thinks
of it in * that sense may be medi1cal but he is not a great citizen0
Buit this Alssociaition hias L1-ad in. it, year after year after
year-in my own tine, people of inmenseD distinctioDn, ., ithi an
immeianse se nse of rea * Ponsi bltlit-ly, whio have neve\ Tr tho-ught of their
profeDssion xce-pt in term-i~ s of thei co-untry in tJ'ich that profession
serves0 I havev rjfe red * toLn-oidn . t -to a most famnous mian in
thi city Si Hn-ry Neland, xrhlo deserves to be famous all, over
the world0 I look. L down and I sa c not fi.-r ahead of meo Siry Charles
3ickerton Blackburn, the CL'-r!, nc1lo-!, if' IUTihvee t oVSdy
a zr-an of immeinse distinction in the meldical. world who Las boon,
yea-r in and year out a m nL In and d votcd servant of th
people, zand of the natiu-n0 ' 1ase are, get tings0
DSir, spea-king ivith all the inbred feelings of a * lai. er)
. Tho l1ovcd the prac tice o-f t awT na d hoegraat regret is
that h.-o will 1n..-V* er roo.. t, T j:' s wan tn cv t, . ant t hereo are
someo asp,, ects of thie reeapofsontihat hina Y~ uatly co) ncorned
mo in recent years0Cue,(, T z. z-Ixn~ s~ yr~ pathotic fashion,
HTOW can you today, 2 w th the vast accretions of
k-nowledge in new techniquas, aind ne--T b3iancils of appl.-Aed Science,
hu-v can you compress a period of medical trairnng uithin. an-y
reasonable period of time? This must be a tremendous problem,, T
can reomember whien I was an unde rgraduate it used to be said bY
peopl. e withi high brows that ' really it was nonsense to think athe
modical students werent educated!, -JeJll there Is something
to be said for that you know,, if you look at i~ t in thatfsin
LvJhy couldn't they do a year 6f Arts, or, as I would hiave though;.
mucht bettor, a year in Jurisprudence? No". medical jurisprud nce;
TI don't think: th-at would have done them any good0 ( Laughrter) But
anyhiow . Thv shouldn't they? se at th-at time there was a
disposition to think that within four years of technical teaching
a man might encompass a medical d.-gree. ' loll -4ti gone on,
hasnt i? It stretches out. Not to the crack of doom, but it
stretches out. I just don~ t kniow how you solve theo problem,
except by post-graduate instruction, of enabling a medical student
to be2come a norme2. ly qualifCied raedical practi4tioner when the
boundaries of the knowledge thnat ho must rcach to are extending so
tremendously overy year.-L I dcn~ t solve that problem: I merely
say-that I think tha t I roalise that it oxists,
I hve ad,, comparatively recently2 another problem,,
Th3re ore teaching hospitals in Aust. a, h'pAtl whc r
conducting cliniCal studies,~ in clinical teachLing work that is
properly considered the task of' the universitics0Pnd as many of
you know I hnave de voted a fairn~ m of m-. y declining years to
doing-something for thie Luniversitios of thi~ s country. ( Applause)
So Vrc establish a-special. corimittee, a very powe. rrful cmite
to oz cofatcerctei ghspitals. And I am happy to say
that -the last cormpieted ac-6 beforeo I lof~ k Parliar. me. nt : it thej end of
Thtco. sday night, theo last comrplcted act wa an Act * opod o
grants from the Co., rionweealtha in conjunction with thne 3tate
Governments who haoe behaved magnificently on these matters, to
encoura toaeh. ing h.-ospi1tals in their capital equipment, and. when
we resumeu 111 P.. rliaaent t1-heir recurreOnt ( jxperiditures, ( Applause)
The on) i0. y other thing., Sir that I want to say to you is
that I havori7t yet reached the poin of time at which I believe
that thle relations-hip between thec doctor and hL-is p:, tient is purely
obje ctive_, or sclontific., I don't believe it,. I don't believe -Lt.
The doct'ovs who are hero, 3; theoy t obe inteore. sted in this, but the
retof us. isn't i~ t a i~ iond.,_-, ful ting to have a man comec in to
see you whiom you -trust, whiose j-adgmant you respe_-ctL? This has a
thecrapy if its own. Y,) u ca,, n br~ ing alonlg saestranger, he1 m1ay
hcve all the gadgets in the world, he; r. ay do -, 11 these things andt
theacy are vastly important but I still reim-ain of the opinion that
theire are few things to equal theo therapeutic va-luea of the
confidence that the patient has in theo doctor. This means that
the persona-l rc2l-tien: ah,-* p betwee3n the doctor and the patient m.-ust
neve; r be destrod3 Aplme
My own Go-v.-rriaent hais tried to recognise this by this
rich voluntary element in what we do, But in particular I was
intere sted, I wias m,-ore, than interested the otheor day when Sir
Douglas arrived fron New Zee,, Lm_-d and had a i-. ord to say for the
general practitione r. ( Ap iauso) qTho an.-I tGo iaave a word to say
against the specialists' I balieve in theo spci-a]. ists. But the
esse-nce of medical practice4the wh-ole sub-strratum of meldical
pratic inourc~ utry ci n a~ ithr, is the en ral
practitioner who knovs the i'anily, and who is knovmr by them, who
is wise, whlo doesn't atter.-pt to go beyond his course because
there are some peo.-pl-wh haveo sp: ciaol] 1: noTw" ledge! rr in ?; his way or
th'at, but whc. has a wise, rich., informaed. 2xp,.: iencc. d juda~ ont
which enables him to say '" This thei p: asition. If I need some
. ore this is it. You r-aSf1-gE.) itl", vo wi-i faL inoVh
r-icst infinite clait. sif vical beom scientists, or things
t ha: it are expe. rim7ent. % d afbout0
We must remain abovev all th,, ings humn boings. becauso hi-an bein~ gs,
Put all scionce on o. ne si. cI still remLain the most ir.-portant thing
an the iw. orld, don't tLhey'? This is it, hiaan. ' oings. -if ncdic-e, 1
1-th practice of moiiewore ever to become soe dctacliedl that'
it becamue a rmore ntter of test tubes instead Of an incidenta. l-
, ate of tes tue, than ,. Te wauld ro-ach a stage of life in which
much hope, rmuch expectation, would g-o out of hurian ~ ives; and a
great%-doal of anguish would come into th. eri.
So we thiLnk to) night of the miarvellous things thLat have
boon done by theo experts, the marvollous t'l. ings that will bo done9
the superb Awo: rk of the bio-chemiists. I an the last man not to
wish that in all these 7refined fields of research this country
should do evorything in its power to produce the rosult., And
having said all thiat I just want to end up by saying to you " Thank
God fa: r tho G. P. Thank God for the I.: 2-n who comas into the home
and 7 kio gives it cheer and com,. fort and a -Oipe skill," And on all
those grounds I am singularly honoured to declare this meeting
open, ( Applause)