HOPE FOR THE CONSUMPTIVE.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 September 1923, Page 1

HOPE FOR THE CONSUMPTIVE.

LONDON, July 25. Some striking views on tuberculosis were laid before the British Medical Association at Portsmouth yesterday by Dr Jane Walker, who is a specialist on the subject. It was, she saitl. one of the great killing diseases, being responsible for 1!) per cent of till deaths. About 50,0f!') people died annually from tuberculosis in this country, and s,it would not be far wrong to say that fo revery death there were about five other people ill from the disease. In a perfect civilisation there would In no such disease, and the cheering tiling was that it was really goingdown. This was mainly due to the improved standard of living, better housing and food, and cleaner clothes. Incidentally the invention of shoddy and other cheap clothing material must have had a good effect; clothes were no longer handed down from one generation to another. The dictum that no big eater ever caught consumption was substantially true and pointed to the desirability of seeing that the people’s food was abundant, of the right kind, and as cheap as possible. She expressed the opinion that in cases suspected as originating from milk it often came from the milkers and other people dealing with cows rather than from the cows themselves. 1 believe we shall get hack to the point that there is nothing harmful in milk.” she declared. ” What the children of this country want is milk and all that milk really stands for.” Dr Walker made the revelation that many obvious sufferers front tuberculosis were much hotter lives so far as insurance was concerned than were many o f the non-tuberculosis, because they had learned real wisdom in managing their lives, and that enabled them to live longer. The great outstanding fact in tuberculosis was that among the poor it was ait economic disaster, and the State must make satisfactory provision for the civilian population.