A MODERN DISEASE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17293, 3 November 1921, Page 11

A MODERN DISEASE.

j OUTBREAK or EECJOPHOBIA. Medical men oro alwaje discovering new diseases, says a Sydney paper. was recently asserted that was prevalent in. certain areas of Aubtraliar. And now it appears that Australia is not immuno from world-wide disease. The germs (hava been found everywhere m our popuULtionj and though: the results are obvious. most of tho sufferers do nob \now how badly they axe iniected. _ I This new disease, which ia merely an, Old one with a new name, is enoemio m the Commonwealth, but seeme to hq,ve, recently taken on a virulenb torm. it. seems to affect the whole of the white populations of tlio world, .except m Germany, in ■which country ..qbvious causes have practically stamped it-put. The Chinese seem immuno to tho ergophobift germ. ■ • • '■, .. Tha meaning of the word ergopbobis is "fear of work.'- Most of us hove At in ai mild form. Speaking at the Y.M.O.A. on mon Ailment®, iuid their Prevention, for Health AVeek, Dr. Purdy said the reoent medical literature at tho Y.M.0.A., stated that a common ailment in New South Wales was ergophobia. He believed that certain people without work in tho city could find work of some description in ilho country. It would even be bettor for certain people to go catching rabbits or fishing *ather than" to remain in the city, where, if they were spoon-fed/by, charitable organisation, are apt to lose their initiative, independence, and resource. "We must not let our children's children say that they are tliq degenarate descendants of a decayed JWce. So far prowess in war and in sport has shown that tho young Australian need not bo ashamed to meet tha stranger. Having regard, however, to the fact that 45 per cent, of the population of the Commonwealth lived in the six capital cities, and each of these segregations of population there was not only an acute shortage of 'tiousing accommodation, with little prospect or immediate remedy; and with concomitant conditions of orcrcrov.ding, it would require the earnest efforts of tho community Sf the future generation.' . were to keep up the standard.