Correspondence.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3210, 21 May 1889, Page 2

Correspondence.

Preventable Diseases, (To the Editor.) Sin,-It is reported that diphtheria lias broken out at Woodville. I haW no doubt that medical science willlr much in the near future to enable as to cope with this dreadful disease, but pure water, perfect ventilation, cleanliness of our dwellings and of bur persons, :with the occasional-use of sulphur and carbolio aoid, aro good preventatives. But I would ask, Sir, how,is it that we in these colonieswith all their advantages—and they are. : mmy—are afflicted to so terrible an extent with consumption and typhoid fever 1 It is a well known fact that consumption is as common with us as it is in England, and far more so than it is in Canada or Scotland, and typhoid fever is our scourge and our reproach, It is truly" the pestilence that' walketh in darkness, and the desolation that wastoth at noonday." Thoy are both diseases of parasitio origin, both of which pathologists assure us are eradicable;. how then is their prevalence to be accounted ? r lt : ! is the opinion of some of the most' eminent and skilful-of the medical profession that the large bills* mortality ironi consumption in itfm : colonies are due-next to hereditary inception—to defective drainage, ' The question of drainage so intimately! affects the sweetness andliealthfulnesa of life that one is amazed at tha apathy of municipal bodies in regard, 1 to it. No community can claim to bf f \ perfectly civilised whose sanitarf, ' arrangements are defective,-I am, 7 &C,; Citizen. . Masterton, May 20th, 1889.. . (