THE SCARLATINA EPIDEMIC.

Evening Star, Issue 4061, 2 March 1876, Page 3

THE SCARLATINA EPIDEMIC.

To the Editor.

Slß,—The proposal made by Dr GilT s to shut op all the public schools in Dun' din on accountof the eustence of scarlatina has been very properly rejected by the School Boa d. If such a principle were to be adopted in England there would never be,a school open in. London or. any of the large towns, for scarlatina constantly exists Sporadic Uy or ep demioally in every town in. England of vary large size. Dr Gillies is young and inexperienced, very energetic and zealous, and like most young men fies i from the schools, crammed with theories which he will find it difficult or impossible, to reduce to practice. . He has yet to learn by sad, experience that the first axiom of a medical officer of health who does not want' to be perpetually in hot water, is Tally and’s Avoid tout , mon chef, point de zhlt! As I shiill leave Dunedin in a very few weeks, I may ptrhaps be allowed to make a few remarks on the subject of scarlatina .without being grossly in ulte i by s.me anonymous correspondent, which has, beep my usual f.te whenever I have written anyth ng on sanitary subjects, in Dunedin. I would, then remark that,, with our pre ent rapid and constant communication with other parts of the w rli, w must 1 ok for as inevitable the appliance of the usual epidem'c diseases of temp late climates. Just as i.nglish plants, accidentally introduc d, have germinated and grown here, so will diseases; and we can no more expect to keep oat di eases of the zymotic bind by quarantine than we can hope to prevent Eng ish w*. Eds f om spreading over oui pastures. The go ms of diseas s are even less easy to be detected than the feeds of minuto weeds. They are not conveyed only by Hying human beings actually suffering from disease, but they are earned about in clothes, in letters, in bank notes, in articles of me* chan dise, and in furniture. It i- impossible to d' tect thrni, or to dest oy them by any propers which , will not at the sune tiuu destroy the aiticle that contains them.

But just as a willow or poplar will not grow in a sandy or shingly waste so disease germs will rut grow or develop themselves"in a soil unsu table to th- m. _ Scadatina wid not take root in the Wi-st In lies, a though numbs's of cases have been brou-.hi the. e. Yellow fever cavmot be propagated in a c.ld or temperate climate—it invariably dies out. But even when the climate is suitab’e, if the individuals attacked are thoroughly

healthy, a-.d ‘ have healthy suit unding-, the di ease wi : l be s’ight and little liable to spread. Mr Str de, at the raeetrg of the School Committee ye terday, hit the right nail on the head when be attr but d epidemic disease for the most part to the wai.t of pure air and pure water. If a family is r.tt-.ck- d by icailatina, and the patients are all crowded into one ro m- often small and il;-ventilate i—if the children who are not yet alt ckulare kept pri onsb in the house and deprived of air and exercise, ani suhj ct to thedepnssinginfluenQp of close confinement without amusement or occupation, then unque-tionably a revere fo m of the disease is likely 1o occur But if, on the otbe -hind, the fn est ve;i-ilation is given; if children who hive never had ihe di-.ea=e are

kept out of doors as much as possible, and fe J with wholesome food (nob calces and lollies), and espcciully allowed plenty of fresh fruit, the- disease will often be so mild as hardly 1o be rec gn sed. To show how much the danger of infect’on is exaggerated, I may m ntion that when I was p pil to a medical gentleman in Engla ul for thtee jears Treside I with him, and iiMnugh he atte tied hundr da of ca ea of measles and scarlatina, and people from infected hj us.es were constantly coming for medicines, none of his chilli en weie attacked. He took no precautions. Ibe ieve th-t my two tld r children have had scarlatina; but I am »ot sure of it, for the attack was so sight that had it not th en that fca la'ina wjs e idemic we th-id I neverhave thought of it. At that time I was practising : n one of the unhealth est districts of London; but the house was lar,e and any. In c nclu-iou I will just say : this take eveiy reasi nah e precoudon, and don’t be frightened. It may be that iv>n nowwe shal < scape an epi ienric of a ter on- character, f r the cl mate or the soil of New Zealand may rot have tin se characterise s wh ch are nocessary f >r the di - ve' s pme-t of iheoise -se in its seve e-t form. Over-ciowding will of course, gene-at i a malignant form of any epi iemic ditea.e.—l am, &c., R. H, Bakewell. M.D. Dunedin, February 25.