ENORMOUS LOSS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 190, 14 May 1928, Page 9

ENORMOUS LOSS

FROM RHEUMATISM IN

ENGLAND DISCUSSION AT MEDICAL CONFERENCE (United Service.) London, May 11. “Five and a half million weeks’ work were lost owing to rheumatism in England last year, and the cost in loss of wages and medical attention was seventeen millions sterling,” said Sir Walter Kinnear at the Medical Authorities’ Conference at Bath. Sir George Newman declared that children’s acute rheumatism was sowing the seeds of a growing harvest of diseases of the heart and nerves. Doctors were unaware of its real cause, but since it started at school age it was then that they must explore it. “As a first line of defence against rheumatism,” said Dr. Richard Llewellyn, “people should be trained to resist weather changes. People need hardening, not coddling.” He recommended cold baths, but sufferers might try alternating hot and cold applications. Municipalities should establisn hot and cold showers. Professor Vining, of Leeds University, denied that the wholesale removal of tonsils and adenoids was preventive. Rheumatism was due primarily to dietetic deficiencies. The first and foremost necessity was a well-balanced diet from childhood.