HEALTH NOTES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5236, 8 February 1928, Page 4

HEALTH NOTES.

NATURE AND NURTURE. KNOWLEDGE NOT APPLIED. (Contributed by the Department of Health.) Sir George Newman, Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education, England and Wales, writes in his latest annual report: “No o’ne can read these records of disease and sickness in childhood and realist their profound importance to us all, to the whole nation, without askiifg himself, why it all happens. We know that the two universal factors at work in man’s life, for better or worse, are Nature, the basic constitution of man, and Nurture, his upbringing. We can see that its survival on the earth is due to both of them. We can also see that his nature is the predominant factor. It is constant. The factor of his nurture is inconstant apd variable. When We cornu to analyse nurture we discover that it consists partly of his total environment —climate, housing, clothing, food, occupation, wages—and partly qf his; training in the application of these things; and what knowledge he possesses and the use to which he puts it> As we look over the world and consider man’s nature, we see, it is biologically the same, in the one species of all races! Hi's nurture is largely the same, tofo. All men have to acclimatise theijnselvda to the- arctic, temperate, or tropical zone in which the live, they have to provide themselves with shelter, clothing, and food. There is; one great cutstanding difference between men—knowledge Some men know hOw to live, others do not; some mem know how to behave in varying circumstances, others do not; some men find truth and strive to live by it, others do not; “ Ignorance,” it has, been said, “is the great human curse.”

We have all. often, pondered upon this situation. There is, a grand secret hidden somewhere for man’s discovery. There is a foundation or key of 'knowledge somewhere, a. sort of common denominator, consisting partly of traditional experience, 'handed down) through thousands of years, partly of science, partly of religion. It seems that man cannot really “emerge,” to usie Browning’s word in i Paracelsus, unless all three 'have their place in his nurture;. He is so constructed of body, m|ind, and spirit that he cannot live at the top Of his human capacity unless this harmony be attained. In so far as it is reached, he has health, wholeness, oneness, the best of which his particular body is capable. This; is the vision splendid, the goal which draws men onwards. ■ But there are lipins in the j path, and all too often they either frustrate the desired plan or divert the chosen path. It is not an officialduty to deal with thesei lionls, with one exception. This is disease, the dis-ease Or disharmony arising from untoward physical conditions, the reactron of the body to the influence; of unfavourable agents or infections. Not only is this reaction disabling to the body (making’the person invalid), but both in origin and in effect its province is very widq, almost illimitable. For. the origin of this reaction, this disease and its results, may, and generally does, concern the whole, nature of man—-his; body, mind, and spirit, his comprehensive social beinfe. SOLVENT OF PROBLEM, “There is but • one solvent of; thrs problesm, namely, more knowledge,” says the same authority. “We must assume that even our deepest learning has more ignorance than knowledge!. Even medical science at its highest has but few established and incontestable verities ; it is still inevitably empirical and experimental in largei degree ; we live in a golden age of Medicine, yet its; darkness obscures its light.” But we are getting on, and one thing is quite certain — and.it is this point I desire; to make / clear beyond all manner of doubt and with all the emphasis which I can command —we know for certainty a. great deal more than w,e are willing to usq and apply. We must be plain and explicit. We know that food is; more important than raiment, yet many poor bodies foolishly clothe themselves with fine apparel, though they know that food is better than Silk stockings; we know that conditions of fresh air and exercise, of. warmth and cleanliness, are necessary to health, but we dp, not practice them ; we know how to prevent leprosy, cholera, plague, typhoid, typhus, and septic diseases, and where; we have been able to.apply our knowledge they have disappeared, but we have nfofc yet done dt throughout the British Empire ; we know the causes of tuberculosis and rickets and venereal disease, and we know how to prevent all three of them, yet these three human scourges are still widely tolerated ; above all else, we know hptw to save infant life, and build up sturdy boys and girls, and stronger men and women, and we have done it where we ihave chosen to do it, but all too often we do not choose. Why is it that infant mortality is lowest of all in -the doctors’ families ? Why is it that some schools have a clean bill of health and beautiful children and other schools have not ? Why is; it that half a million children in our elementary schools are dull and backward, and half a million others need medical advice before, they can gain reasonable benefit from the education which the State provides ? These are not idle, questions, nor are they mine. They are being’ asked by the people themselves. They are formid- . able; and grounded on very stern and fully proved facts. /No doubt there are many factors at work, but there is one general answer, which with all possible reservations remains broadly true: “The people penish for lack of knowledge.”