PECULIAR NERVOUS DISEASE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81892, 22 November 1906, Page 2

PECULIAR NERVOUS DISEASE.

f NUMBER OF SHIP'S FIREMEN AFFECTED,, ; Per Press Association. " Wellington, November 21. Medical men in Wellington are greatly interested in the casa o£, a number of firemen from the s.s, Ra kau, who are now inmates of the; hospital. Medically speaking, they, are suffering from peripheral neuritis or inflammation of the nerves. How. they got it is another matte/, and no 11 detinue pronouncement on the subt ject has yet been made. It appears ~ ihat when the Rakaia was on her e last voyage out from England, and t when off the Cape at the end ot September, a tire broke out in her coal f bunker. Some fifteen of the firemen were engaged in extinguishing the fire, and ot these ten are ser- ' umsly Lll with the complaint afore 1 said. The other five are slightly, affected. They developed the symp--1 torn* shortly after the fire, and were • ill when the vessel arrived at Auck- > land, but for some reason not yet ex* ' plained, no remedial measures were taken at that city, and it was not unt Id they arrived in Wellington at the 1 end of the week that they'were sent 1 off the ship for treatment. Six oi ; them are at the hospital, and four ! aro under observation on board. Th«i s >ix are in a bad way, although per--1 haps not in any danger. The chiej and worst symptom is complete paralysis of the extremities. The case ' is a puzzling one to the doctors. Peripheral neuritis is of course well ■ known" as resulting from carbon bi- • sulphate and carbon monoxide poi.-> ' soiAing, alconolism, influenza, ex* • posure and so on, but so far, it ap- ■ pears that no case is on record in 1 which it resulted fom the fumes of : coal gas as these cases apparently did. The men 'arc reported to be making fair progress, and meanwhile,' D. Yalintiue, assistant Ct/iei Health; Officer, is carefully enquiring intoi the case, and Professors Easterfield, and MacLaurin are conducting 'a, series of experiments,.