DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 96, 20 May 1909, Page 2

DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

HAPHAZARD MARRIAGES. THE KJTXKSS OF HUSIUXDS. SOME I'LAI.V TALK. liy Telegraph,—Press Association. 1 Duiiuutn, Last Xight. 1 At the annual meeting of the Society for Promoting the Health of Women : and children to-day, Dr. ]•'. C. Batclieior gave an address relating to his experiences and observations during years' practice. In the course of his remarks he said he was in sympathy with tiie Higher education of women, if conducted on reasonable lines but ho contended that essential physiological principles were toally ignored, and the present education system encouraged women to pursue a course of study for which nature never intended them. He referred to numerous cases of young women suffering from nervous weaknesses and the like, and to their subsequent history li I/, marric . ll > al 'd said the system that did not aim at preparing girls for domestic life was exercising a far-reach-mg and malign effect 011 the community. Ihe speaker also referred to the casual and haphazard manner in which parents allowed their daughters to enter matrimony, without a thought or scrutiny as to the fitness of the iiusbanu. He unhesitatingly asserted that a large percentage of men entered married we wlnle suffering from the effects ol diseases likely to endanger the health, and, perhaps the life, of their wives, besides affecting the offspring. He asserted that tlieie were now thousands of inuoccit women suffering from the effects of these maladies, while innumerable lives had been lost and desperate operations performed almost daily in the Domiiion to_ relieve the unfortunate sufferers, lie the .State demanding that men submit to medical inspection to decide their fitness or otherwise before entering into a matrimonial alliance. Other speakers endorsed Dr. Hatclielor's views. "Sir. ft. jr. Thomson. JJ.l'.. asked the Society to appoint a sub-committee to confer with the technical school authorities with the object of having tuition ill domestic economy put on a satisfactory footing.