THE EPIDEMIC

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 149, 19 March 1919, Page 8

THE EPIDEMIC

EFFICACY OF BACTERIOLOGY

DOCTOR EXPRESSES DOUBTS

The Epidemic Commission sat for the hearing of evidence- yesterday afternoon. Sir John Denniston presided, and Mr. j>. M'Laren sat with him. The Hon. K Miichelson was absent owing to sligUt indisposition. ~ , - Herbert Charles Faulke, medical practitioner, gave evidence on behalf of waterside workers, boing asked to do so. He said that the first case ho treated in tho ■■recent epidemic was that of a woman from Taihape. The case was of a meningeal type, and the patient subsequently succumbed. He spoke first of all of the precautions taken on" the waterfront at the outbreak of war/ Ho would not .accept the statement that the disease of tlio serious epidemic was' the same as wo had had' with us for many years. . On this point-bacteriology might bo misleading, ft was quite true that wo had had with ns the same mixture of bacteria as in this sickness, but as a guide to the nature of the disease clinical experiencei was much more reliable. In the recent epidemic the disease-was very severe, and the death rate high. He would not agree that the use of inhalation chambeis was a preventive or that it hod any important effect in retarding the spread of tho disease. It would do no harm except perhaps to give peonlo false security. Ho was in charge at Eastbourne, when the epidemic was at its height, and tho death rate there was about one in 500 of the population. The waterside workers lost 2 per cent, of their number, o3 per cent, having been affected. He considered that the cause of the high.death rate was crowding and bad ventilation, and he expressed tho opinion that something was wrong when in a young country like this there were dark rooms m houses in crowded suburbs. He ; did not think that the full extent of he morality from the disease was yet known, and there would yet be other deaths from post-epidemic contraction w J HeW been asked to advise the waterside workers, but Wound it difficult » get information. From what he head of the early deaths in Auckland e thought the sickness must he aitin to the '■Black Death" of the fourteenth century. He knew of no other sickness comparable with it. He therefore advised the worknot to handle cargo. Later a modification of this advice was given, and cargo '•ma worked after Precautions were taken He did not consider that the true character of this last disease was fulb known. He had yet l*'™* he could get specimens which could not bo distinenished microscopically from specimens of cases which died a few hours after prostration. If the last Se was to be considered as influenza there should bo a classification of influenzas. -Ho would urge as preeautrans tha wearing of s mple masks, especially experience was that workers did not take the disease to any extent. •He deprecated the action of the authorities in occupying the quarantine sta ions by sending aliens and others .to them. Thev did not seem to have considered whether it would be a greater danger to Sen a few Germans-on the mainland than to leave the. country without protection from an invasion of infectious nfdiscussed the alcohol question also. He believed that he had Bayed one- lift by the use of alcohol medicinally, and from accounts he had heard it appeared that alcohol was ol! use in some; cases But chronic alcoholics had but little hope of recovery if they contracted tlio disease. He avoided- prescribing alcoho where he could reasonably do so, mil for this sickness he had tho greatest diinculty in getting spirits when- he re--15 He referred to the discoloration commonly called "blackness," and. by. the profession "duskiness," appearing in faS prior to death.. Ho had never . seen such discoloration m any patients F D?Ske said that the cause of the 'disease was really not known The bacteriologist could not distinguish thesenous sickness from the slight epidemic sickness. Most of our serious fevers were not known to the bacteriologist. Nothing was known bacteriologically about smallpox, yellow fever, dengue fever, scarletW, and these diseases had been known to medicine for very many years. To' Mr. D. M'Laren: He thought bad footing and bad ventilation aggravated the disease. There was needless crowding of houses in parts of Kilbirme, a recentlybuilt suburb, where there was plenty ot around. He believed the epidemic was bad in this quarter. In Eastbourne the organisation was good, the houses were of good class, and patients did very well. (All the people there took tho disease, at the same time, and he was of opinion that they all caught it on Armistice Day. ' The commission will sit at 10 a.m. to3ay, .' ■ ■■', . -