The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 11. THE THREE DEATHS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8025, 11 January 1906, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 11. THE THREE DEATHS.

I'dehe are a good many avenues .hrough which a person in New Zetland may go through the " dark portils," and one of them is through the nedium of flannelette, which, so the Press Association informs us, was reiponeible a few days ago for the death if a six-year-old child at Feilding. Hie earth is strewn with the childfictims of this atrocious material, which is hardly less inflammable than benzine, and scarcely leoS dangerous than dynamite. The passion most people have for something " cheap " is pandered to by the makers of clothing, and if people will have stuff it " cost price" the children will go on suffering. Whorever the flannelette death claims another victim, the coroner's jury invariably adds a rider to their verdict warning parents to avoid flanuelette as they would the plague. As long, however, as flannelette is cheaper than something that won't go off " pop " at the sight of fire, so long will people risk the ives of their children by giving them little " nighties " of this popular but villainous material. There are as many tricks in the garment trade as iu any other, and as a rule only the manufacturer in the Old Country knows just what proportion of mineml "loading" is contained in the becoming dress-goods or the ravishing blouse length handed over the counter. But the average buyer ought to know by now, if he or she it is usually " she " —has eyes and ears, that flannelette is loaded with death. The manufacturers, of course, are going on making this particular kind of shroud, if they are permitted, and it is scarcely likely that the trade will be interfered with at Home. * * # * Bur while these manufacturers may still be permitted to carry on the war against child-life in the older countries, there is absolutely no reason why the colonies should allow them to help fill " pur cenietaries" too. You don't hear of bales of flannelette being stuck up and charged s " explosives," do you ? And yoi haven't yet heard Mr Seddon, who ii a child-life preserver of some promin ence, declare that ho will destroy this death-trap ? He certainly hat declared bis intontion of stopping the cold winds from cutting off the young in the flower of their youth by taking the duty off cheap calico and tobacco, but we want him to fight this flannelette monster next session, and absolutely prohibit the importation or manufacture of the deadly kerosene and cotton compound. # * « * But about these other avoidablt deaths. There is an immense quantity of thned goods sold in New Zealand, and the tinned meat death is a; common, if not more so, than tin kerosene and cotton variety. Be cause this particular form of slaughter only put thirteen persons nndei the sod in New Zealand last year this is no sufficient reason why thir teen persons should follow suit ir 1906. Everybody knows the abso lute necessity of preserved foods ir the back camps, and the convenient of having a tin of corned beef in tin house when one's aunt unexpectedly calls and there is nothing but a mutton-bone left to regale her on In the numerous tinned-meat dcatli cases it has always been the fault ol the tin, which, by its action on the contents, is responsible for ptomainepoisoning. You can't knock the preserved food industry on the head but you can prevent manufacturers from using tins. New Zealand car turn out pottery. Better to have clay vessels than clay people. # * * * And the other " death." If you have been reading the papers for the past year you will have found that" Death while under chloroform " has been a fairly common heading. The oldest 1905 victim of the chloroform death was Thomas Drew, of Blenheim, aged sixty-six, and the youngest was Herbert Derain, of Auckland, aged eleven years. There was a very numeroubaud of all ages in between. Always the juries are satisfied that all reasonable care has been taken, and that the deaths are due to " misadventure." Dr. liwart, of the Wellington Hospital, at one inquest asserted that out of ten thousand cases in which be had administered chloroform,only two deaths had been directly due to the effects of the aiuosthetics, and only two caused by after effects. In most of the cases ending in death last year the patients had nothing the matter with the heart, and several were chloroformed for simple dental operations. * * * # IWe are not going to advocate the prohibition of chloroform or any other anesthetic, but we are going to assert that in those cases where there was nothing organically wrong with the patient, and where the doctors could assign no reason for death except by "misadventure," there should have been the very fullest enquiry, not by laymen, but by doctors carefully watched by layman. The medical profession is perhaps the noblest of all professions, demanding the most complete self-sacrifice, ■ The doctor has the patient's life in his hands. He may have all the qualifications all the universities can bestow, and still kill a patient accidentally, but however he kills the patient the whole matter is one demanding the fullest enquiry, can't remember the suspension of a surgeon under whose hands a person has died from misadventure, but the skipper who runs his craft on a rock is very fully examined by experts, and usually either gets his cer tificate cancelled or is otherwise severely dealt with. We have never been able to see that tho medical profession is more sacred than any )ther, or that its members should be jrotected from its mistakes. Anylow, the death-roll for the chloroform i leath was particularly heavy last i rear, and the victims were mostly ' 'onng people. We can't afford this j Irain by either the flannelette death, he tinned-meat death, or the ■ mesthetic death. Therefore, away ( i»ith flannelette by act, of Pallia- f nent, substitute vessels for tins, and, s lost important of all, examine very j idly the next doctor who causes a eath by the administration of chloro>rm,