REPETITION AND ITS RESULTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 77

REPETITION AND ITS RESULTS.

} In dealing with the most uneducated I classes, the power and value, and indeed the mental necessity, of repetition cannot , well be over-stated. Repetition is not, 1 ac to more nervous and intellectual types, ' either a weariness or a goad in the wrong : direction. It is soothing, and without it there is no such thing as certainty, i Not only is it valuable in the mouth of i doctor, nurse, minister, or whoever may be the teacher, but it is specially im- ; pressive if Che same statements can be j repeated by different persons. For this I reaeon co-operation between all workers among the- poor iis imperative. When, for ! example, I wished to induce the friends I to allow a consumptive patient to have j Bole possession of one room, and to let her j confine herself to that room, except when well enough to go out of doors, I was usually told that it was unnecessary, or I that it was impracticable. The next step i was to find the minister of whatever denomination visiting the sufferer, and induce him to repeat the advice ; it was then put into the mouths of district visitor, deaconess, or Church sister, and one of them was asked, to leave some simple , leaflet on the subject of consumption, or i magazine in which the matter was incidentally treated '; finally the " useful neigh- • hour," confidential friend, and adviser of the family was discovered and instructed. After allowing time for all this, I returned to the charge, and the victims of my innocent plot would say with a sigh, • " Well, I suppose it had ought to be so. i It's ju6s what the vicar has been a-saying, ! and Miss B , and Mrs Thomson from j over the way." After that, no real diffi- • culty remained. To ameliorate the condition of the very poorest and most ignorant it is not sufficient that we should be armed with the principles of philosophers — we need some- ' of the methods of quacks, bold and clear assertion, and ceaseless repetition. ■ i