CONSUMPTION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 146, 25 June 1902, Page 4

CONSUMPTION IN NEW ZEALAND.

WHAT THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT IS DOING. (Special to Christehureli Truth). Wellington, June 19. I have had an interesting talk with Dr Mason, the Chief Health Officer, on the subject of consumption and the growing need for the establishment of proper sanatoria for the treatment of the disease which accounts for a large percentage of the deaths in the colony. Some misconception appears to exist as to what action the Department is really taking at the present time. The allegation has indeed been made that tho unfortunate consumptives were under tho somewhat stringent terms of tho Public Health Act, bein:? hounded from one place to another, and shunned as lepers by their kind, without a chance of getting treatment in a proper institution. This is quite wrong. In reality, the Department is insisting upon the notification of all known cases. The practice then followed is that an officer of the Department makes it his business to see either the patient or his immediate friends, and point out the danger of the disease, recommending the course that should be followed in order to prevent it spreading in the community. Pamphlets on the subject have been extensively circulated, and in the case of very poor people unable to afford the expense of proper treatment, portable spittoons have been supplied to patients free of charge. The register of cases is kept with a view to more stringent steps being taken to cope with the disease as soon as proper sanatoria have been established in the colony. Already sites have been selected both in the North and the South Island, and the Depart ment is only awaiting the Government's sanction to proceed with the construction of the buildings. At present it is insisted that there shall be a proper disinfection of all rooms or houses which have been in the occupation o r consumptives, and as the legal rpsponsibility of this rests with the landlord, objection on the part of i.oxe landlords to let their houses to consumptives is the probable origin of the statement that the unfortunate people are being " moved on " by the Department. Medical men have been asked to report all cases coming under choir notice, but they are given a wido discretion in the matter, and are only strictly required to notify such cases as are considered to be a source of danger to tho public health. There is power to insist upon isolation, but this is not likely to be insisted upon until separate institutions have been established for the treatment of the indigent and curable, and the incurable. It Wiltj Not Do to fool with a bad cold. No one can tell what the end will be. Pneumonia, catarrh, chronic bronchitis and consumption invariably result from a neglected cold. As a medicine for the cure of colds, coughs and influenza, nothing can compare with Chamberlain's Cough Remedy. It always cures and cures quickly. J. Benning sells it.