A MODERN DISEASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2354, 12 November 1921, Page 1

A MODERN DISEASE.

OUTBREAK OF ERGOPHOBIA

Medical men are always discovering new diseases, says a Sydney paper. It was recently asserted that hook-worm was prevalent in certain areas of Australia. And now it appears that Australia is not immune from another world-wide disease. The germs have been found everywhere in our population; and although the results are obvious, most of the sufferers do not know how badly they are infected. This new disease, which is merely an old one with a new name, is endemic in the Commonwealth, but seems to have recently taken on a virulent form. It seems to affect the whole of the White populations of the world, except in Germany, in which country obvious causes have practically stamped it out. The Chinese seem immune to the ersrophobia germ. The meaning of the word ergopliobia is “fear of work.” Most of us have it in a mild form.

Speaking at the Y.M.C.A. on “Common Ailments and their Prevention,” for Health Week, Dr. Purdy said the recent medical literature at the Y.M.C.A. stated that a common ailment in New South Wales was ergophobia. He believed that certain people without work in the city could find work of some description in the country. It would even be better for certain people to go catching rabbits or lisliing rather than to remain in the city, where, if they were spoonfed, by charitable organisations; they are apt to lose their initiative, independence, and resource. We must not let our children’s children say that they are the degenerate descendants of a decayed race. So far prowess in war and in sport lias shown that the young Australian need not be ashamed to meet the stranger. Having regard, however, to tiie fad that 45 per cent, of the population of the Commonwealth lived in the six capital cities, and that in each of these segregations of population there was not on 1 v an acute shortage of housing accommodation, with little prospect of immediate remedy, and with concomitant conditions ol overcrowding, it would require the earnest efforts of the community if the future generation were to keep up the. standard.