The Contribution of the International Congresses on Diseases of the Chest to International Understanding

Editorial The Contribution of the International Congresses on Diseases of the Chest to International Understanding Walter Pater wrote that a concentration of interest is precedent to the finest flowering of the arts, sciences, philosophies, and life itself. This explains the basis of the great contribution to international understanding and friendship made by Congresses of the American College of Chest Physicians; they are built around a concentration of interest-specialism in diseases of the heart and lungs. Specialisms in crafts and professions are the hallmark of a highly-developed and integrated community. They are not something new. Herodotus described them in Egyptian medicine of 4,500 years ago. For their beginnings there are two outstanding reasons: Public demand, to fulfill a social need of the times, and the inherent desire in some men to do one or two things efficiently rather than many things adequately. For their growth to fruition on correct lines one thing is especially necessary: An interchange of viewpoints in frank discussion. The field of research has made such enormous advances in theory, technique and apparatus that it is now beyond the scope of one man to attain full efficiency in more than one branch of medicine. Moreover it is rare for one opinion to be enough; the specialist in diseases of the chest requires the support and checking of one or more scientific investigators, \vith their laboratory tests, radiography and electrical readings, and often such collaborators must be called in at regular intervals in order to assess the value of treatment or the prognosis of the illness. That is why the College embraces so many allied specialisms. The chest specialist cannot afford to let up on his reading if he is to retain his own self-respect, and to have the highest of all prizes in the respect of his colleagues. He must know what his fellow-specialists are doing in countries outside his own; better still he must try to meet them, know them, and correspond with them. International conferences help us to acquire the art as well as the science of our specialism; listening to learned papers is not the whole sto.ry. Graphs and statistics can give broad indications on treatments and their results, but patients often beat mathematical prognosis and refuse tp fall into neat categories. The real value of our conferences comes out in panel discussions, and in those intimate sharings of experience that result from the social programmes, when we "talk shop." It is then we learn that the personal factors that explain reactions to illness are universal; that in dealing with our own patients we are dealing with citizens of the world. Above all, we make lasting friendships. Every International Congress results in growing correspondence with fellow-members, from Athens to Oslo, Johannesburg to New York, Taiwan to London. A member of the College is not an Indian or a Californian or a Scotsman; he is a colleague in a medical fellowship. To meet him anywhere is to meet a friend; to be at war with him is unthinkable. RICHARD R. TRAIL, M.D., F.C.C.P.* LONDON,ENGLAND

*Regent for England.