RHEUMATISM

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4741, 3 September 1935, Page 6

RHEUMATISM

Mliss Ishbel MacDonald’s fervent wish for a “generation of grandfathers and grandmothers who do .not creak with rheumatism” will be echoed by the grandfathers and grandmothers themselves—and by the middle-aged generation for that matter. The disease, which is widespread in New Zealand, is in England a serious industrial problem,, because it involves an enormous loss of labourhours. It is often classed with the common cold as a condition that baffles the medical profession, but the responsibility for getting rid of it is rather on the sufferers themselves than on the professioi It has been stated, apparently with authority, that the English habit of taking cold baths—or none at all—is mainly responsible for the prevalence of rheumatism. The disease is least prevalent in the northern countries in which the Finnish steam bath is an established institution, and Sweden at the present time thinks the matter important enough to warrant the erection of cheap but efficient bath houses in all rural areas. There are apparently many causes of rheumatism, but people who are subject to it are advised that a healthy, active skin is, generally speaking, the best preventive.—Christchurch Star-Sun.