SCARLET FEVER.

Evening Star, Issue 3998, 17 December 1875, Page 3

SCARLET FEVER.

To the Editor. SIR,~I do not like to rush into print, but cannot help saying that the proposed scarlet fever hospital is a mistake. 1 for one will not willingly allow, and will use every legal means in my power to prevent my children being taken from under my roof in case of scarlet fever. I have a family of young children, and are they, in such a case, to be taken from under my care and placed in this said hospital, to be treated by anyone who may be appointed ? The idea. is monstrous. If this rule obtams parents may ;ose a ght of thoir children, possibly for ever; besides the shock it would not only cause to the little patients but to the parents also. Are we in Dunedin wiser than the older countries ? I emphatically say no. Scarlatina is an infantile disease, and must come sooner or later to every family ; it has been so from time immemorial, and will continue to be so, and suppose for a moment we have a severe visitation of tins disease how much hospital accommodation will there be for the patients ? I look upon the scheme as a mo kery, a delusion, and a snare. I suppose the adage will apply in this case, what is sauce for the goose will be sauce for the gander, and that every family, no matter what their standing may be, must submit to have their children dragged from thei- homes and placed in this said tent or hospital. Let the authorities and the public men consider this matter. To carry such a proposition into effect would be straining at agn it and swallowing a camel. I could say a great deal more on this subject; but I think it unnecessary, as, after a little thought, the faots must be patent to all. —I am, &c., Medicus. Dunedin, December IC.