AVOIDING INFANT ILLNESS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 840, 11 June 1910, Page 11

AVOIDING INFANT ILLNESS.

In the "Ladies' Homo Journal," Dr. Annie Thomas utters an urgent warning against allowing .children carelfessly to contract such diseases as measles, whooping-cough, or scarlet fever, or neglecting precautions in mild cases. It is a firmly-fixed idea in many, people's minds that children must have these troubles some time. No delusion is more costly nor more fallacious than that children' are better for having theso diseases, or that they are essential. When .parents and guardians become'convinced of the necessity for keeping children from the sources of infection, and act up to their convictions, 0110. tremendous element for the spreicl of th'c.se ■''diseases will be eliminated. One of the most perplexing problems which confronts the school medical inspector is how to keep in check the spread of contagious diseases—chicken-

pox, mumps,' measles,. whooping-cough and'scarlet fever—-which occur annually in .our schools. These diseases are believed by physicians to be preventable and'yet each year produce epidemics. Medical inspection was started to prevent' the. spread -of 'the- so-called "children's disease.".. .These, with their se'qiielae, form a most important group, for they compose a largo part of every physician's practice. \ ';'. The spread. of these preventable diseases is always due to ignorance, carelessness, or both;; but the time is surely coming.-when these epidemics will be considered an unwarrantable evil. There are many, intelligent people who regard measles; for,instance, as a trifling episode. On this basis children are exposed deliberately, although, it is never possible to predict how any individual case' 'will behave under such circumstances. Measles is much more contagious' than'•'scarlet fever, so that the majority pass through the ordeal some time—many of thorn, it is true, successfully.. •' - But any disease which claims for its' victims' here in the United States annually thirteen thousand human beings, more or less; is surely not tote courted. And this does not include tho many who •go through- life • maimed, with crooked backs (tuberculosis), middle-ear disease (ultimate deafness) or serious eye lesions. The old virulent forms of scarlet foiier arp rarely met with now; indeed, many cases are so mild' as to defy exact diagnosis until some characteristic symptom presents itself. It naturally follows that the family is quite as incompetent to . give the diagnosis. Owing partly to the extreme mildness, and partly to fear.-as to the real cause of the trouble, no physician is ' sent for in' many cases, and tho diagnosis is given as measles, stomach rash, ett. All medical inspectors appreciate tho trouble caused by these mistakes. Again and again the report is given of measles or something else, when it should be scarlot fever, and gross carelessness exists. It is, however, impossible to fool Mother Nature, and while- these mistakes are made sometimes through ignorance, and sometimes in the hope of deceiving friends and the" public in general Nature demands payment of her debts fairly but squarely. Experience shows that improper ' care in scarlet fever is likely to be followed by 'dire consequences, and calling the case by any other name .does not alter this tact. It is. worse than folly for the members of tho family to try to settle tho problem to please themselves. And no.matter how mild the typo may be at any given, time, once in about so often death is tho penalty. Many an adult with defective eyesight or impaired, bearing has leanied that this defect camo from one of those diseases of childhood which had not been properly treated. In many of tbese cases the history shows t'ho trouble to have been most mild at tho time, and the simple home remedies which had worked so successfully in manv families were applied faithfully. Indeed tho after' effects were so long in ar> pearmg that the treatment was considered entirely adequate. ITnsband: "Another new dress! Where do you suppose I shall get the money from to pay for it " Wife: "You must excus? nie. I didn't marry you to Rive you financial hilvici'."