CHILD JEKYLL AND HYDES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1926, Page 25

CHILD JEKYLL AND HYDES.

"LITTLE DEMONIACS" AFTER SLEEP! SICKNESS. Startling instances of the after-effects ot sleepy sickness on juvenile patients were given by Dr. C. P. Symonds in a lecture at a London West College of Nursing. It had been discovered In many cases, he said, that sweet-tempered, tractable children became transformed, after suffering from the disease, into "perfect little demoniacs." They to stealing, lying, swearing and every form of spiteful and mischievous activity. A typical case was that of a boy who, when other young people were retiring to rest, would enter upon a night of activity, which Included singing, whistling, swearing, attacking his brothers and sisters and pulling the bedclothes off the sleeping forms of his parents. Another youngster showed great ingenuity in devising fresh pranks. His crowning effort was to tire out all the other members of the household so that they fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, and then to collect their boots, take them to the pantry and fIU them with Jam. Sometimes the misdeeds of the Juvenile sufferers led them to the poUce court, and thence to the reformatory, hut, of course, that did not produce a cure. Seasonable moral treatment, however, occasionally had most encouraging results.'. A certain lad who had had an attack of sleepy sickness was so fortunate, said Dr. ■Symonds, as to have for a mother some 15 stone of solid, purposeful, placid womanhood. She neither Bpared the rod nor spoiled the child, and, thanks to her firmness and good sense, the boy to-day, at the age of 15 years, bore a good character and was holding a regular job. i That was an unusual instance, and he regretted to have to say that, having regard to the present state of medical knowledge, the deterioration in character of children who had suffered from sleepy sickness must In a number of cases be regarded as permanent. ' Dr. Symonds sold there was evidence, but not absolute proof, that the disease was caused by a germ which entered the human body through the nose. Every drug known to have bactericidal properties had been employed, but co far- without definite curative resulta.