CAMPAIGN FOR SOCIAL PURITY

Nelson Evening Mail, 16 November 1916, Page 3

CAMPAIGN FOR SOCIAL PURITY

DEADLY PERILS OF VEILED DISEASES.

"To such a state a living man ■came, before death ended his suffering, and I think that after looking at this picture you -will agree •with me that even from a health point of view immorality is not ■worth while.". \ • Thus spoke Dr W. H. Pettit, of the New Zealand Medical Corps, in a lecture on "Social Diseases" (delivered in the Wellington Town Hall on Mondayevening), says "the Dominion. Men only ■were admitted, and there was a good attendance, including the Minister of Publio Health (Mr G. W. Russell). Dr Pettit explained that his object was to point out the dangers of _ loose vjiving. It was time that our policy of keeping men in isrnorance of the awful consequences of loose living was abandoned. He was against a policy of silence about things that filled early graves, and number among their victims not only the sinners, but often the descendants of the sinners, too. The remedy,--he says, is education ;he is out to educate; and his lecture was indeed and education. It had been estimated, he said, that last year about 1500 fresh cases of syphilis occurred in New Zealand, -and (on a low estimate) about 7500 cases of gonorrhea. He warned, his audience about the vicarious menace of syphilis. Great care, he said, had to be exercised in drinking from public founr tains, washing in train's, and using any public convenience. One should' wash only in running water, use one's own towels, soap, and sponges. To say that medical science had so far mastered these diseases as to leave them things to be feared only by alarmists was a fallacy, unfortunately, ■widespread. The Commission on Venereal Disease had found that 10 per cent of the people of Great Britain were affected by the disease, and what a problem the disease was in race preservation was shown by the fact that 300 babies died in infancy every year in Australia as the result of inherited syphilis . 'Over 50 per cent of the cases of imbecility and epilepsy in children were traceable to syphilis. One of the most far-reaching effects was on the brain power of the child. The lecturer, ■ whose remarks were frequently applauded, made an earnest appeal to his audience' to preach the gospel of clean living far and wide, and so assist in the campaisn of purification and the war on these hideous veiled diseases.