A THEORY DISCUSSED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 76, 6 March 1916, Page 4

A THEORY DISCUSSED.

A few days ago an "Otago Daily Times" reporter asked ProfessorChamptaloup if he considered there was anything in the suggestion that children visiting the seaside ran a risk of being infected with the germs of infantile paralysis, through the medium of a bite from a sandfly. Professor Ohamptoloup said that that* suggestion had already been made by a doctor in Nelson .and that h* had telegraphed to Auckland for the purpose of obtaining information ' which might better enable him to form an opinion on the theory. He said the experience in Otago on the occasion of the last outbreak—about two years ago—hardly supported such a theory, as in a number of cases where children had been attacked by the paralysis there wa s no doubt that they had not been in any locality whers. they could have been bitten by sandflies. Professor Champtaloup said it was well known, however, that sandflies were responsible for the spread of other diseases, and it was not beyond the bounds of possibility that they might have something to.do with the transmission of infantile paralysis. The reporter referred to the remarkable manner in which the disease had travelled through New Zealand, from Auckland to Christchurch, which prompted Professor Champtaloup to make the significant remark that it was nearer Dunedin even than Christ- J church. He did not think, however, that there was much danger ttf the disease becoming prevalent in Otago. In the evening Professor Champtaloup received a reply to his telegram to Auckland, conveying the reassuring information that there was nothing in the outbreak of the disease which had occurrea there to lead the doctors to consider there was anything in the theory put forward. The fact that amongst the earlier cases a great number had visited the beaches would be only a natural coincidence, seeing that in January and February large numbers of people, with their children, were in the habit of holiday-making on the seashore.