VENEREAL DISEASES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17283, 26 September 1916, Page 2

VENEREAL DISEASES.

DR. PLATTS-MILLS'S LECTURE. On Saturday, Dr Platts-Mills, of Wellington, delivered a lecture to women in the Colosseum, the chair being taken by Mrs J. H. Wilson. Long before eight o'clock the huge building was' packed to overflowing, 2800 women being present-, and numbers were turned away at the door. Consequently it was announced that Dr Platts-Mills' would give her lecture again last night. The attendance was estimated at 2200, and Mrs Wilson again presided. Mrs Wilson opened the introductory speech with a touching reference to the Into Mrs Cunnington, whose work and personality had accomplished so much for her city and won her " God's license to be missed." The speaker then outlinod the Ministerial scheme for a series of health lectures by experts, and the commendable speed of the Hosp'tal Boards, which forestalled the Minister of Public Health -by organising these lectures immediately on their own account. In this city three addresses had already been given by Dr Pickerill. Dr Blackmore and Dr Pettitt respectively, the last to men only. .Now i>r Platts-Mills had come to lecture to women o'dy on " Venereal Diseases. Mrs Wilson" " expressed her pleasure at seeing so many young women present. On women devolved the task of healing the ravages of war and leading the world in vital reconstruction of the lines of loftier education and wiser motherhood. She emphasised ttie weight to be placed on the words of Dr Platts-Mills, not only an experienced medical woman and public-spirited citizen but a-successful home-maker both as wife and mother. In connection with the lecturer's civic activities, J* fanspired during the evening that both Vr Platts-Mills and Mrs Wilson had been returned at the top of the poll lor the Hospital Board in their respective towns. . ~ Dr Platts-Mills. who received an ovation, proved a pleasing, dignified and effective speaker, her voice carrying to every corner of the huge crowded halt. She took her audience with her on two journevs. The first was through any surgical ward for women's diseases. Wherever the hospital is, that ward is always full, and 50 per cent at least of these sufferers, agonising for their husbands' sins, are the unconscious victims of venereal disease The second journey was through any children's ward. Here the common tragedy is fearfully diversified. In one cot lies a baby three weeks old. Its eves are discharging; the sight of one is gone; there 18-little hope of saving the other. This affliction, ophthalmia of the newborn, accounts for quite half the _ blindness among children, and is the consequence of parental sin. let onlv this year is this terrible disease of childhood made notifiable. Next comes a baby, syphilitic from before birth, with feet blistered as it it had falleu in boiling oil. Another close by has the look of a little, suffering old man on its wasted face. Again there is the blank face of a mental deficient. Lastly come two beautiful children, born healthy, but one infected by sleepin" with a diseased nurse, the other the victim of criminal assault. Little hope of cure or happy motherhood for these. On the lowest basis, the expense to every State of keeping these unfortunates' in institutions is tremendous. Yet neither duty to the people nor care of the nation's resources has hitherto caused authority to press for moral education and open dealing. A happierday is coming when these dark facts are recognised; when every facility is afforded for treatment: above all, when a single standard of morality is everywhere demanded.Dr Platts-Mills then gave some facts about gonorrhoea, till lately regarded very slightly among men, since they themselves "suffer very little when infected. But they remain infectious for very many years. Medical advisers often witness the anguish of men when told that the forgotten sins of their youth have doomed their wives to agony and death. Gonorrhoea is the chief cause of ordinary invalidism in women, as well as the chief cause of sterility. Some doctors say that 80 per cent of operations on women are caused by gonorrhoea, a likely estimate in the older cities. It causes blindness among children. Yet oven now this disease is made a jest among men, though it brings such results. It raav be spread most easily among Innocent persons, by bathing, by using towels 'or soap in public places, by borrowed clothes, by drinking from a common cup, etc. Yet society let these fearful scourges go unchecked, outside all sanitary laws. "Never tell a, woman what is the matter with her," doctors admonished their students, while in the same breath they would remarkon the rarity of cures among women, as they did not know why they should persevere in treatment. It was right, indeed, that these diseases should not be made compulsorily notifiable, else patients would not offer for ; treatment by * proper practitioners. ! Not only had this, criminal silence spread disease. faster, but it had checked proper investigation save in public institutions. Syphilis went 011 claiming its victims till the fourth generation, and these diseases were the chief factors in national degeneration. The "fallen man*' is a "prostitute" too, having prostituted to base uses the divine mysteries of life. Yet each of these men sowing death and destruction through the world was once an innocent child. False and foolish answers

had been given to his first'questions, false and evil standards of conduct put before him as a youth. Boys imusb now be told the results of "sowing wild oats." Parents must instruct'their children purely and wisely from the first. Girls must realise the terrible consequences of choosing other than a good man for a husband. Ignorance has been. the handmaid of-immorality. Now tha most hopeful sign is 1 tho wish of many men to spread right knowledge of tho facts of life. A tribute must be paid to the Minister of Public Health and to the men on Hospital Boards for their action in letting in daylight. Authority should be supported on such lines. Dr Platts-Mills then showed some pictures of children suffering from thesa diseases. A deep involuntary groan ran through the great assembly as each doomed, pathetic face, and scarred, ■wasted form flashed upon the screen. One or two beautiful babies in the arma of happy mothers followed to show the Divine plan so long obscured by ignor* ance and sin. '

The lecturer glanced at false economic conditions which hindered early marriage. Who was to cast a stone at the girl viotims of these conditions? Unequal standards and worldly ideals spread every evil. Mothers' too often asked of a prospective son-in-law. "What has he?" not "What is he?'* Health and purity must be demanded by women, in the men they marry. Every opportunity of curing or stemming social diseases will soon be given In New Zealand. The highest patriotism demanded all co-operation against) immorality, personal purity first of all. A practical step would be to found a. Social Hygienic Society for the promotion of right knowledge and education from early years, a society to help> parents and young peopts: alike to realise their responsibilities, and to spread, sunlight, sanity, reason and sweetness abroad where darkness, Unreason and selfishness now too often prevail. The national hope was to found, with God's help, the ideal home, united in love. Mrs Wilson declared that this lecture marked an epoch for the womanhood of Christchurch. It was the young women who held the future in their hands. Nurse Maude, in proposing a vote of thanks to Dr Platts-Mills' for hop "priceless lecture," urged immediate action in formifrg "such a society. Marriage must bo regarded as a sacrament'; there must be a grappling with the terliblo conditions disclosed. Tho vote was carried by t enthusiastic acclamation. It was intimated that those wishing to form a Social Hygienic Society should hand in their names after 2 p.m. on. Monday, at the rooms of .the Women's National Reserve, Manchester Street. The meeting closed with the National Anthem.