"The White Scourge."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 August 1911, Page 4

"The White Scourge."

SHOCKING REVELATIONS IN DUNJODTxX DUNEDIN, August 23. 'J'he Jieccl of an institution for In— curablo consumptives has been forcibly brought homo by the investigations of a. "Star" reporter, which ro-vea-l a shocking sUitc of things. lie, writes :—" The tubercle bacillus lifl.s gained a foothold in Duincdin. It •is not an oxaggoration to say that in a small way, comparatively speaking, tliero is in Dunedin to-da.y a state of things in regard to incurable casos of tuberculosis which is a public scandal and a disgraco to a Ohristiaiii community. in a. dismal cottage nciar tho heart of tho city an emaciated youth of twenty years of ago lies on an unattractive lied at an open window, whidh after midday -ot-s tho sun. Ho is dying. His trouble- is tuberculosis of the lungs, and it is of the most virulently infectious type. He is poor, <wid his disease is incurable, and there is no hospital or adcrjuato ihomo for doomed consumptives. Consider this doomed youth's plight: he is dying and needs comfort, and kindness, and good food, but he is very poor and must i!o without reasonable necessaries, to sa.y notlhing of luxuries. The drab homo is a menacing nest- of bacilli. There are four small rooms—undecorated. illcleaned, inadequately aired, and. terribly dull. The iiou.se is old and. fit only for a. furnace; it has no sanitary drainage. This statement,will make several officials ; lay Ihoir ears back,' but they will be none the worse for hearing the truth told plainly. "The most pa til ro tic aspect of this ca.se is yet to be discussed. The dreary house holds overwhelming proofs of the infectivity of pulmonary phthisis. The facts reveal a condition thflt one would naturally look for in Glasgow or Liverpool, but not in prosperous Dunedin. a centre of social and charitable hygienic and religious activity. Tlu'o-e brothers in tihis same household are stricken with what the public call consumption : rmotbor brother has a chronic cough, and show of contracting consumption : an<l'tho hroken-spirited_. cruelly-worked, mother is subject to ''night- sweats' and colds. One of the fitrieken trio, a young man of 25 years of ago, is in a- sanatorium, another, a. youth of 1.7, is going to t-he same institution shortly, and the third is dying. The mother is a widow who earns about 25s n week as a charwoman. After tho daily burden has been laid down she returns home to the drudgery and heart-breaking anxiety inseparable from a mother's nursing of a dying sou. '■'.But a more serious point remains. There is in this .stricken household a small boy who goes to school. He is one of three who have been in the habit of sleeping forvether in one bed. and of this trio one has contracted consumption. It. is a fact, too. tihat tho child has frequently gone into (.he room to speak with the young man who is dying. As a matter of fact, (here is no attompt at isolation, which in a fonrrooined house is impossible. The house is simply a propagator of bacilli. Tn the street in which these cases exist there is another consumptive pa.tient and less than a ouarter of a mile away there is yet another case. Tt is impossible to state whether the first cases referred to have any connection with t-he others-, but it is .sigm/lc.:i!i{- that there should, bo three families afflicted in the snino neighbourhood.

■'■'AnoMver cuse that |iuts authoritv in an ugly lijxht is that of a mai , - ried woman who i>, too far jione in consumption to he cured by human skill. 'She had been an inniat-o of « consum])tioii sanatorium for some time before ccimiiiir to ])une-diii to die. To speak plainly, she could not be admitted to the because, she could not be cured. A.s there is no institution foi in.snrable consumptives, Mn-re was i:;iihin>>; left to her but her mother's bouse. Tin"' daughter's condition grow worse, and tho husband in n!u;t d<. -•;.'■:■;;;-

tion, took her in a cab in the hVnovolent Institution. Admis.-iiuii u'jip rofiiscd. Tlie Imslfaf'ul i?;•;!." n\\ ['-> veihielc av,*ay, and tho result was that the woman wa.s left to the mercy of tho officials. A bed in 'in official's room was arranged for lior and she, was enred for unril oflicialdoni was consulted. Tho woman i now hack at her mother's home.

"Tho ensp of ;i ninrriod mnn. who wns living in n c\tv bnnrdinjilion.?". inny also 'ho monti-om , :!. 11 o was vory ill nnd wns roinnved In tbo ilios])ital in nn ainbiibvnc-o. Tbo doctor who ewiminrd him snid tlml- bn ivus an incnrflblo γ-cdismniptivo. ;md roi'uscd to ndmit him ;is nn in-pntient. Doath was in the mnii's face, ever, and to provr-nt liini from dying; in the street he ivas- admitted. He did wot oau^( i miu'li trouble, as :lio died witJiiii ;i n'i'cl:. Mis wil'o raine in from the country to we him die. She was in destitute cii r-uinstnucos and had to ho assisted fniaiifially in order to return to her five children — and Mil's in "Gc-d's own eountry." "A notable ense of hidifi'orenee as r.a;a-rds future con.sof|iieneps Tins boon observed in Dunodin. Certain authorities wovo, themselves in a family whom eonsninption lia rl wrought hnVi i\ Tf, was known that two girls of tbo depleted household were sufFerinp; from'incipient tuberculosis of the limps and arrangements wprv made to place them in n sanatorium 'before the disease gripped them trio firmly. AVhiM the authorities went through tilto inevitable, formalities -the girls got. ma.rried.' Tlio con.ser|iionoes need not bo discussed."