DOCTOR’S RETURN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 10, 9 December 1926, Page 6

DOCTOR’S RETURN

INTEREST IN CANCER RESEARCH VISIT TO De GYE’S LABORATORY. [By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.] WELLINGTON, Dec. 8. A well-known Dunedin surgeon, Dr Barnett, has returned af»er a long absence abroad. When he was in London Dr Barnett met Dr Colquhoun, a former resident of Dunedin and Professor of Medicine there. He accompanied Dr Colquhoun on a visit to Dr Gye, whose investigations into the microbic origin of cancer have aroused the interest of the whole world. “I was pleased to find in Dr Gve’s laboratory,” said Dr Barnett, “another of our' young New Zealand graduates, Dr Andrew Begg, who has been doing excellent work there. Dr Gye himself is obviously a keen and capable, investigator and is very optimistic about his ultimate success iu elucidating the cancer problem, although he has still a great deal of work before him. His research has been on a limited scale so far, and it will be a considerable time before anything like a general application of his researches can be made possible. His work is on the line of the microbic factor in cancer.”

CAMBRIDGE EXPERIMENTS. The Cambridge low temperature research laboratory, which Dr Barnett inspected, has a great deal of direct interest to New Zealanders, for hero are conducted experiments which will have so close an application to the successful transport and storage of our perishable products such as meat, butter, honey and fruit. “What impressed' me particularly,” said Dr Barnett, “was their conclusion regarding the necessity for a free current of air in connection with the cold storage of fruit, because it had been found that the vital processes continued long after the fruit was picked, and provision must be made for the elimination of carbonic acid, as otherwise the fruit suffocates. The fruit is kept in closed chammbers into which has been admitted air after analysis. The exhausted air is further examined and is found to have changed its character, so that the investigators can discover exactly what has taken place, proving that the vital process of respiration has been going on in the fruit.” MORE ADVERTISING NEEDED. Dr Barnett was particularly emphatic about the necessity of New Zealand doing more to advertise its high quality products. “The good points about our food are increasingly recognised,” he said, “though a great deal must be done to overcome what might be called either the prejudice or the inertia of the small shopkeepers in particular who, because they had not troubled to stock New Zealand butter, would tell an inquiring customer that they only kept the best.”

Mrs Barnett was particularly interested 1 in this subject and questioned many shopkeepers, the resulting impression being that an effort should be made to get the smaller shopkeepers to stock our food products and a vigorous campaign inaugurated to demonstrate the first-class quality of New Zealand butter, meat, honey and fruit. “We should try and make it easier for the ordinary householder to get them.”