SOAP SHORTAGE EPIDEMIC.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 July 1918, Page 5

SOAP SHORTAGE EPIDEMIC.

German medical eircies~confess their disquiet over the alarming increase or a hair and skin disease, due primarily to lack of soap for bathing anfishaving, but, also, as the "Lokal-An-zeiger" explains, to "the generally unfavourable hygienic conditions" throughout the country. The disease is rife both among the civilian population and in the army, and afflicts women and children as well as men. The papers state that it has now reached such dimensions that It must be described as an epidemic.

The disease manifested itself in 1915, when only 2£ per cent of the population was affected. By 1916 the percentage was doubled. By July, 191, it had risen to 9 per cent, and in January, 1918, the percentage was 23. It has risen rapidly since then. The doctors call the malady "trichophytia." Special hospitals have been set up in the army to cope with it.