SCARLET FEVER PREVENTION.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19461, 7 November 1928, Page 14

SCARLET FEVER PREVENTION.

AN ORDINARY HEATHEN.

TO THE EDITOB Off THE PRESS gir—In answer to your correspondent ''Another Parent". I may say that in such a dilemma as is mentioned we always consult Professor Kirk's book, "Papers on Health." There he states that a sponge-over with -hot vinegar at bed-time, will do wonders towards making a child immune from catching the disease during an epideipic. It should be done twice a week, in bed, or before a hot fire.—Yours, etc., PREVENTION.

TO THE EDITOB 01 THE PRESS. Sir, —I have read with interest the letters contributed. by parents with regard to the continued and distressing epidemic of scarlet fever, and I l'eel sure that suggestions as to the cause and prevention would be welcomed- If the epidemic ceases during the school holidays when the children are out in the open the whole day long, then it is reasonable to look to the places of confinement, namely schools and homes for the cause. Artificial heating and cooking are a modern and permanent innovation, but perhaps they have off-setting disadvantages in that the chimney is less in use. If parents lit an occasional fire in their fireplaces and particularly in spare and other rooms Desides the kitchen, the draught caused by the fire would draw the vitiated air from the rooms and maintain a healthier home. There is no doubt .that the oldfashioned fire can never be improved on for ventilating a house, and it is tp. be hoped that architects will remember this when designing future dwellings. The same applies to classrooms, and though only a layman I feel convinced that central heating and other similar schemes will not cope with that deadly and invisible enemy of humanity which lowers the vitality of young and old, viz., fouled air. A good rousing fire sends the roomful of dead air up the chimney in fact actually burns it, and the draught created thereby makes air circulation operate by drawing in fresh and pure supplies through the windows. I do not want to labour the point, but we all know that the tendency nowadays is for some short cut to less work, and artificial heating is one of them with perhaps a blind eye to some of its disadvantages.—Yours, etc., OXYGEN.