THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1901.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 112, 8 October 1901, Page 3

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1901.

During the last decade or so, and •consequent on the marvellous discoyeries of medical science, a very large share of attention has been directed towards that scourge of the temperate zones—consumption. Not long since a conference of distinguished scientists from the Continent and Great Britain met in London to discuss the methods of dealing with this disease and its co-evil, cancer. Although the conference, as far as we know, discovered no new remedy for either disease, they brought the question very prominently before the great mass of the public, who, while realising the awful ravages caused in their midst by these diseases, particularly by consumption, were too much inclined to look upon them as visitations of Providence, and as such to be in no wise let or hindered. It takes years and years of iteration and re-iteration to rouse the interest of a people in any subject, and in that under discussion, they have bat lately awakened to the fact that ;a great number of sufferers from consumption might never have been so afflicted had proper precautions been taken to prevent the dissemination of the disease by the unhappy sufferers. It has long been known that the mucus discharged by a consumptive patient as the result of the cough almost invariably present, is alive with disease germs, which, although innocuous while the spittle is moist, immediately float round in the air when dry. If inhaled by anyone in vigorous bodily health they are probably harmless, and are thrown off, but should they chance on a person whose lunge are weakened by a cold, or other ailment, it very frequently happens that the disease takes firm hold. It is to prevent the loss of life from disease contracted in this manner that such a vigorous crusade is being started in a number of countries against spitting in the streets. In most of the larger towns in New Zealand bye-laws prohibiting this filthy practice under a heavy penalty have long existed, but now they are to be stringently carried out. In Sydney the other day a number of persons were fined 10s each for spitting on the streets. This may aeera a drastic measure, but the public health cannot be too rigorously guarded, and, besides, a pavement used as a spittoon by a number of loiterers is not the least disgusting spectacle in the world. What is needed is widespread knowledge of the fact that expectoration is the most ready means of disseminating lung diseases. This, su.ely, would appeal to the humanity of sufferers, and make them guard against compelling others to share their heavy burden by the simple precaution of expectorating into a piece of rag which could be burnt on reaching their house. In their homes, too, every care should also be taken to avoid spitting except on anything that could be burnt at once. These are not hard rules to follow, but their univesal observance would have saved thousands of lives in the past few years. There are other aspects of the question, which we will make reference to, but on a future occasion.