Hygeia is Grieved.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 1, Issue 4, 15 December 1910, Page 15

Hygeia is Grieved.

In the October issue of " The Maoriland Worker " we published extracts from a " stock " letter which a contributor received on sending a sample of a collie dog's hair to Hygeia. Another reader found she had an exactly similar letter from Hygeia, and she therefore wrote to the lady and asked for an explanation. The following are some extracts from two foolscap pages of " explanation,"—they sound rather like a defence of the synoptic gospels. The italicized words are merely editorial ejaculations : " Needless to say your letter was a very great surprise to mc and the newspaper (" The Maoriland Worker ") sent more so. Of course, anyone who makes a success of anything is always open to the envy of others (Umph!) and to similiar kinds of paragraphs to those in the paper sent. These, however, are the very first that I have heard of with regard to the Hygeia treatment. I can hardly wonder at you having your faith in the treatment shaken after reading them. {Hardly ! ) " Perhaps if I tell you exactly how enquiries are dealt with you will understand how this coincidence of two such similar letters has occurred. In the first place it would be absolutely impossible for mc to dictate replies to every letter which comes into this place, word for word;, so I keep a secretary here to whom I dictate very briefly the nature of the trouble after diagnosing, and brief outlines of treatment necessary. It is her duty to dictate the actual letter from the facts I have given her, and as it is no infrequent thing to have ac many as fifteen or sixteen letters daily from people with seborrhoeic troubles of similar nature (Population of Australasia five millions — mostly fools ! J you can, I am sure, understand how it ie possible for anyone to get into the way of using certain set phrases to express a meaning, in fact, it would be impossible to write to so many people daily similar information and use entirely different phraseology to each one. (Very convincing, isn't it? Two pages of foolscap, word for word alike ! J :: With regard to the sample of dog's hair which is reputed to have been sent. It is a fact well known to all the best medical hair and skin specialists that in many acute cases of seborrhoeia, very coarse hairs grow both singly and in clusters, and these frequently fall continuously. "It is not unusual for mc to have these exceedingly coarse hairs sent with combings (thought dogs had more sense!) and you could hardly expect mc to insult senders who really send samples in good faitJb. by suggesting that they have been robbing their domestic animals, would you? And so on and so forth. Hygeia was only asked if she knew the difference between dog's and man's hair. She didn't! And she isn't going to bring a libel action—she is far too "grieved" !!