Evening star., 1925-03-10

IHi'SiehI americans were AFFLICTED d
with most of the ills and ailments
from which their modern successors
now suffer, DR.. A. c. Christie demon
strated to delegates to the American
congress on Internal Medicine at a
clinic In Garfield Memorial Hospital
today.
examination of a number of bones
round In the graves of re-historic
mound builders, who populated Ohio
and adjacent territories centuries be-
fore the beginning of the Christian
era, has disclosed unmistable evi-
dences of tuberculosis and kindred
diseases that medical science is still
hghting to conquer.
These disclosures were regarded as
or significant interest because they
demonstrated that even the healthy
outdoor life the ancients followed
before the coming of white races to
this continent failed to save them
from ravages of the plaques that
still beset mankind. Evidences of
number of diseases that were once
supposed to have originated in pre-
historic Europe were discovered.
Skilled In Setting Fractures.
The bones at the same time proved
that the aborigines, even with their
crude flint and bone implements were
no novices at the science of surgery.
Several instances where ancient medi-
cine men set fractured bones with a
skill that compared faborably to that
of today were called to the attention
of the delegates who attended the
clinic.
The arrows that enemies had shot
into the bodies of victims were still
imbedded in a number of the bones,
and in a number of cases the bones
bore evidence of disease, which indi-
Gated that the hardy warriors might
have lived in some cases for a long
time with the flint weapons still in
their bodies. finally succumbing to the
ravages of disease.
Examination of these ancient bones
was merely incidental to the main
feature of the clinic, which was on
the subject of roentgen rays and
radium in the treatment of cancer.
DIR. f. A Merritt and DR.. Frederick
o. Coe, with whom DR.. Christie is as
sociated as specialist in that branch
of medical science, assisted at the
clinic, which was regarded as one of
the most important at the morning
ssessions of the congress.
Value OF x-Ray shown.
The delegates were shown pictures
of remarkable results that had been
obtained in the treatment of cancer
with the Roentgen and X-rays. Two
patients, one of whom apparently had
been cured of a malignancy of the
face, and the other, woman, who
had been relieved of an inoperable
cancer of the breast, were brought in
to personally show what astonishing
advances had been made in that line
of the science.
Pictures of other cases were exam
ined by the delegates. In two of these
the tumors, or cancers, were plainly
visible. Later pictures, taken after
the patients had undergone several
months of X-ray treatment, showed
no trace of the growths.
Bombarded with questions from the
deegates, DR.. Christie said that in an
extremely large number of cases the
X-ray treatment was far more val
| liable than the radium treatment,
which he also gives.
In every hospital and Army and
Navy center clinics are being held
throughout the day. More than 1000
delegates, representing every gov
ernment on the continent of North
America, are here at the Congress.
The congress will remain in session
| through Saturday. Mornings and aft
ernoons will be devoted largely to
special clinics in the various hospi-
tails and medical centers, and the
evenings will be given over to gen.
eral discussions and addresses.
Education Is Needed.
Closer cooperation between the
physicians and surgeons of the coun-
try and education of the public in
what the profession is doing for man.
kind were urged as the present need
in combating the advance of cultism
and fanaticism in addresses last
night.
DR.. Charles H. Mayo of Rochester,
Minn., president of the American COL
lege of Surgeons, outlined advances in
the sciences of internal medicine and
surgery in recent years, and cited the
growth of his organization and the
American College of Physicians as an
fession. He said that physicians,
however, are not doing their full duty
in participating in the life Of the COM
munity, and that idealists and cult
| lists are getting their laws on the
| statute books.
Urges War on Cults.
"CuItism and fanaticism are sweep
| associate director of the College of
| Surgeons, declared in urging the pro-
fession to enlist in a crusade for the
| establishment of the highest pro-
| fessional standards with the view of
| ''bettering the service to the peo-
ple." The public must be shown, he
added, that there is no such thin 8
| ~ medical trust, but that We as
doctora asaresdnterestedxdn dn.sthA personal