LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3082, 12 May 1917, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

An Awful Scourge, In. "The Nation's Health" (Cassell and Co.. per S. and \V. Mackay) Sir Malcolm Morris, K.C., V.0., deiiis. in a very outspoken way, with the ugly problem of venereal disease and the best way of stamping out this awful scourge. The author is a member of the Executive Committee of the Rational Council for Combating Venereal Disease, and sat on tho Royal Commission which was presided over by Lord Sydenham. His work is intended specially for members of Parliament, and of local bodies having control of medical inspection and hospital work, and sets forth to bo a. j simple exposition of venereal diseases' with special reference to their bearing upon the health of the people. It would ho undesirable to go into tho details of tho book in tho columns of a daily newspaper, but. the'author's personal opinion on t.he vexed question of notification" may bo quoted. Sir Malcolm says: ! °. wn conviction, nfter -bearing and dispassionately considering all the ovidenco on this point presented to the Boyal Commissioners, is that at present, with no power of preventing a.n authorised treatment, notification would oporate as a most formidable obstacle to the measures which are of immediate moment. The. author is strongly opposed to any revival of "regulation" under what arc known ,is the C.D. Acts. His own proposals are set forth at length, and lncludo free diagnosis and troatment, the enlistment of moral and religious influences, the stamping out of quacks, an d tho granting of privilege to medical men in the steps taken to warn patients—or parents and relatives of patients—as to the awful dangers possible through the marriage of infeotcd persons. In the final ohapter, "The. Urgency of The Question," the author alludes to venereal disease in relation to the war, and urges that before the war ends, and our men come homo, there shall be no district in the country where either diagnosis or treatment wijl be sought on vain. Tho book is one which should be read by all who aie interested in the question of public health and in moral roform movements. (N.Z. price, 4s. 6d.)