Departement van Hematologie : mode of noodsaak

Abstract

Clinical features of certain haematological diseases were already described 1 500 years B.C. but the development of haematology as a discipline separate from internal medicine took place at the beginning of this century. The knowledge of haematological disorders developed rapidly during the 19th century, and the knowledge of pernicious anaemia is a good example of this growth, which has led to a vast ammount of research taking place today. When I joined the South African Institute for Medical Research in 1958 we found a high incidence of megaloblastic anaemia in post-partum Bantu women and undertook a research programme to discover the cause. Dr. J. Metz had then just returned from England, where he had used new laboratory methods in the investigation of megaloblastic anaemias, and we used these methods to demonstrate a folic acid deficiency in these patients. This work was taken further to determine the incidence of folic acid deficiency, and then Dr. N. Colman recently went a step further to show that mealiemeal fortified with folic acid could prevent this deficiency - a finding that can be of importance in developing countries, where this deficiency is widespread. The development of haematology, together with the research in the field of haematology, shows how the haematologist works together with other desciplines and how he is needed as a link between these disciplines. I shall try to continue to work together with my colleagues and to develop a department which would provide a wider range of haematological investigations, an adequate teaching programme for undergraduate and post-graduate students as well as technicians, and together we shall attempt to do research work on the haematological problems which we find here at the H.F. Verwoerd Hospital.