SCARLET FEVER

Evening Star, Issue 4009, 31 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

SCARLET FEVER

To the Editor.

Sir, —How few Oolonial geniuses are content to blah unseen, but how unequal is thairingqj unity in proclaiming their sweetness on the public air to their chivalry J Here is *' a poor widow ” trotted out to exhibit Dr Niven, selfstyled homeopathic and allopathic physician—and rosd disappointed aspirant for the office of Medical Officer of Health to the Corporation of Dunedin—for no other purpose that I can see than to demonstrate what a calamity the community sustained when he lost his election. A delicate position truly, and one that any gent'emau would distrust his own ability to comment npon. For any serious reply to his remarks, Dr Gillies’s letter is sufficient answer. It is as well that practitioners of a certain stamp should know that the intelligence of tire community is entirely with the Local Board in their efforts to stamp out this outbreak of scarlet fever, which, rf not promptly dealt with, will carry grief and desolation into many a household—as a glance at your Melbourne intelligence will show ; and that the exhibition at this critical moment of political jealousy and petty cavilling is estimated at its proper value. —I am, &c., Anti-Humbug, Dunedin, December 30. To the Editor. * Sir, —Alas ! for the City Health Officer—he has surrounded himself with difficulties, or perhaps ihe authorities have helped him. I do not wish to lay too much stress on this matter, but am constrained to say Lis appeal (admiserecordiam) is highly out of place. It reminds me of the spoilt schoolboy who, wk§n sent to school, wrote thus to his mother : Oh, mother, most dear, I cannot stay here; The boys aro such mischievous elves, That instead of respect There is naught but neglect, As if I were a scrub like themselves. Why was not a meeting of >he profession Called to consider the case ; and why was it entrusted to one medical man, and te a non-pro ■ Sessional class of men to direct and control Sana tary arrangements ? lam suie the public will agree with me that twenty medical heads are better than one. 1 have every respect for Dr Gillies, though I have not the pleasure of knowing him. lam sure he wishes to do his duty, but in a serious case like this he has not taken the rieht course. I consider the anonymous letters which have been written on this subject are in most respects good, and much to the point. I decidedly say that I totally disagree with the excuses put forward by our Health Officer on this subject.—l am, etc,, Free Lance. Dunedin, December 30.

To the Editor. SIR, —Only a day or two since I remarked to a friend as i walked up and down in front of my home in Athol Place, “ Look at that drain, full of stagnant water ; is there anything more likely than that to start a fearful scourge in out midst ?” Little did I think that within a very few days we should have a guard patrollag in front of a cottage not twenty yards from where we stood, and who, in reply to our anxious inquiry, informed us that scarlet fever •had attacked three of the children in that house. Have we a City inspec or, or is there no one to report on these hot-beds of disease ? Thousands of pounds are being spent on improvements in this City, and I have felt p'Oiid since I have became a citizen, in writing to my friends in the other Colonies of the great improvements going on in Dunedin; but lam ashamed to say that, in the immediate neighborhood of my new home, twenty or thirty pounds are begrudged to do the work that will ultimately ha ve to be done, and which will be ‘forced on our Corporation when the street has been depopulated of our little ones. We pay our rates and what do we get in return—stagnant pools in front of our doors. If we asked for a arger amount to be expended it would le a different thing; but, Mr .Editor, I am sufficiently practical to know that I could drain the whole of that street for fifty pounds, and this being the case, 1 say the blood of our children be upon the beads of those who neglect us. I am a father, Mr Editor, and the anxiety I feel tor my own darling child must be my excuse for thus troubling you.—l am, &c,, Eucalitius. Dunedin, December 28.