THE FIT AND THE UNFIT

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24982, 17 September 1946, Page 3

THE FIT AND THE UNFIT

Sir, —The letter appearing recently in “The Press” by N. K. Cox, M.D.. is scarcely compatible with the medical profession. Surely a very few who finally become doctors possess this unnatural lack of sympathy, which patients blindly expect. Our Empire may be better to cherish the Christian methods of dealing with the sick, for most intelligent people will agree that the unfit may not be as dangerous as an Empire whose leaders have degenerated into men without souls. Perfection of physical and mental health is dependent on many things. Has Dr. Cox no sympathy for the unfortunate unfit who have fallen sick through uncongenial and unavoidable circumstances? What may be lacking is that conscious effort on the part of some doctors to blend both physical and mental help suited to each individual disposition and physical characteristic. —Yours, etc., CHARLES A. FANTHAM. Picton, September 14, 1946..

Sir, —I consider that Dr. Cox is to commended for having the courage to introduce the above debatable subject. We are living in the age of the fourth or fifth generation of the preservation of the unfit. Previously, Nature or God ordained, through immutable laws, that they should not survive. Now, medical science steps-in and saves them to propagate their kind, and add more undeveloped souls to the mass consciousness. Hence the everincreasing number of degenerates, weaklings, and unemployables. Quality, not quantity, is the goal to aim for. —Yours, etc., W. HILL CHINN. September 16, 1946.

Sir, —Whether we agree with Dr. Cox that health is valuable and can and should be increased by selective breeding, or with his opponents, who contend that disease has a value equal to or superior to health because some clever people were diseased, and its treatment compels us all to be increasingly charitable through hospital rates, we have still to solve the economic problem involved; i.e., if the acreage under hospitals continues to increase at the present rate, then the few people who cannot qualify as hospital patients will require very high wages to enable them to pay the very high taxes required to pay the very high wages.—Yours, etc.. H. J. BUTTLE. Darfield, September 15, 1946. Sir, —Would “Box” please explain for us exactly what Dr. N. K. Cox did mean in his original letter? Or perhaps Dr. Cox himself might enlighten ub before the correspondence is closed.— Yours, etc., R.B. September 16, 1946.

Sir, —I suggest physical disease is the result of a defiance of the laws of Nature, generally by a preceding generation. Harsh as it may seem. I think the time will come when sickness will be counted a crime. I suggest Nature adopts methods to eliminate useless people from the earth. Plagues, scourges, wars pestilence, famine, and the countless forms of insidious attacks on life are busily levelling one generation after another. The time is not yet ripe for diseased parents to be prevented from bringing offspring into the world. Not a single act has been done to check this evil. Every cause has its effect and thus we find the human family well-nigh overwhelmed by sickness, medicine, hospitals charitable institutions, and the burdens consequent upon them.— Yours, etc., ARYAN. September 16, 1946. [Dr. N. K. Cox may, if he wishes, briefly reply; otherwise, this correspondence is closed. —-Ed., “The Press.”]