SCARLET FEVER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4865, 25 October 1876, Page 3

SCARLET FEVER.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. SIE, —The number of deaths from scarlet fever have lately increased so much as to excite the attention of all,. but especially of those who are heads of families. We may talk and splutter about drainage “ till all’s blue” if we like, but let us remember that while we are talking our children are dying; and as we are not likely tb have any system of drainage carried out for the next five years, it would surely, be more becoming if we were tb try " to make the’best of thp means within our power to prevent the spreading of this dreadful fever, rather than be standing with our hands in pur'pockets sighing for the good time coming. I would suggest that the City Council Should cause to be built two or three cottages in some isolated spot, so that as soon as the fever enters a household all the other children could be removed to.one of these cottages ; and if no one could be ‘ spared from the house to attend to them, let a nurse be hired at the parents’ expense if they can afford it; and if they cannot; I feel quite sure the ratepayers would willingly consent that she should be paid out of the public purse. I feel quite persuaded that many little lives might be saved if this course were adopted. Parents , would ' gladly r send their children away out of danger; but as most people have got families of their own they do not earn about receiving children from an infected house, and so the poor people have nowhere to send them ; ■ and it very often ends in one dear little one after another being taken away; by death, whose lives, in my humble 1 opinion, might have been spared If,.some such course as I have suggested had beenadopted, I am, &c., I ■ - ' : . J. W. ; Wellington, October 24.