The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2151, 6 August 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1907.

the good time coming ..Speaking at the opening of an isolation hospital at Preston a lew weeks ago, Sir Frederick Treves inferred to the happy time to come when men would leave ofl taking nlivsic “I am cortam it is sate to prophesy,” he said, “that the time will come when hospitals toi infectious diseases will bo empty and not wanted.” The argument ot facts he went on, showed this to he inevitable. Very little, however, could bo douo by tlio Logislatuio, but everything by the progress of medical- scienco and in a much larger degree by the intelligence of the people and the interest they took in reform. The fight of the present day was against millions of microbes, and the weapons wore sanitary regulations, municipal government, the sanitary inspector, and the medical officer of health. Tuberculo was killing 50,000 people every year, not one of whom should die, for the disease was preventable. It could not bo dealt with by physic, but by fresh air and sunlight. Consumption and similar diseases, could be cured by very simple methods, winch would be efficacious as soon as tlie education of the public on matters of this kind was complete. These methods were simply isolation, disinfection, and, lastly, preventive or protective treatment. He looked forward to the timo when people would leave off the ordinary habit of taking modicino when they were siok, and when it would bo as anomalous for persons to die of scarlet fever, typhoid, cholera, and dipthoria as it. would he for a man to die of a wolf’s bito in England. Such a. statement from such an authority makes pleasant reading, but unfortunately tlie day is still to come when tlio community will have advanced sufficiently to take full advantage of tlio acvhievements of modern science. The cause of sanitation and healthy living is making slow but sure progress, and the absence in the present day of many epidemics that twenty or thirty years ago took heaVy toll from the community provides a comforting reflection as to what may bo possible in the future. Tlio bold assertion made by Sir Frederick Treves that the chief scourge of the present day, tuberculosis, is in every instance preventable is a definite pronouncement tliat should provide welcome encouragement to those wlio are engaged ip warfare against tlie “great white plague.” It is now generally recognised that a proper course of physical culture having special reference

to tli© development of lungs and cliest and the constant inhalation of an

abundance of pure a i r W *l cure

except those in the last stages of consumption. From a medical man the

suggestion that mankind should eschew physic has an odd sound, and it is probably not intended that it should be taken too literally. The point Sir Frederick wishes to make is that people who take the trouble to ascertain from the records of medical science the rational mode of living and act accordingly will be much freer from disease than those who rely upon the power of drugs and other medicines to remedy the results of a neglect of natural laws. This is an aspect deserving of the utmost consideration.