CHILDREN’S AILMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 18 July 1925, Page 5

CHILDREN’S AILMENTS

MOST COMMON INFECTIONS LI I Util 01- ENVIRONMENT Dr Blackley. in a lecture at New Plymouth, spoke on the subject of children's ailments. HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT In considering disease from a scientific point iff view and especially in relation to children. said the speaker, according to the Herald, there were seveial outstanding factors which should alwax's he borne in riiirnl. The first two of thus, were heredity and environment, which were so closely related that they might lie bracketed as one subject. One school of thought attributed the incidence of disease to environment. and with this theory most medical authorities concurred, hut another school of thought, termed eugenists, considered disease from the point of view of lio•vditv. He would endeavour to reconcile his audience to the medical aspect of disease. \

A recent eiigcnist bad declared that modern medicine was responsible for tlie neglect of appreciation of the fundamental, fact of the inherent power of disease. That was a sweeping statement to make. Medical men were most generally interested in the surroundings of a patient, and when environment was referred to it was intended to include everything liable, to have a prejudicial effect, on the course of a child’s development and growth. If was easy to mistake for heredity some factor which ultimately proved to be due to environment., which itself was as complex as the possible responses of the organisms affected. Biologists wore not yet dear as to what exactly was heredity ami how it affected the life of the individual.

Engenisls maintained that, tiie inherent. elements of life might, be constant and It,- classified as features which were brought, out later by their very consistency. Diseases of an hereditary nature were practically nil. The tendency or susceptibility to disease was in many eases inherent, but was also acted on by environment. Ear too lit file was known of the human organs to enable one to predict what the hereditary instincts of the next generation would show.

An inherent tendency could he passed on it there was sufficient stimulus, and tf the acquired characteristics of a disease were deeply impressed on the individual, Tji stock for instance, an ear-mark was frequently passed on, but, a characteristic would have to he verv deeply impressed in order to he passed on through human beings. It was some consolation to know that the had habits ot the present generation would not be passed on to (hose of future generations, provided reasonable care was exercised, and further that even if those had traits were reproduced they would he compensated for somewhat bv the fact that tlie dominant good qualities of on individual would also be manifest to some extent if his habits were transmitted to future generations. Environment. however, could do much towards the development or elimination of habits peculiar to the individual. Thus it would be recognised how heredity and environment, entered into the consideration of disease, just as any other problem of human life did. IMMUNITY Immunity, cither natural or acquired, was of tin active or passive nature. It was understood to be active when a person acquired immunity through suf fering from the disease and passive when produced by vaccination. From the biological standpoint immunity was really the establishment of a fortified body tissue to resist- the inroads of disease.

1m future treatment of disease the cu operation uf two distinctive microbes to produce a more, potent effect, would have to be considered, and not. the effect. resulting from the action of a single type of microbe. The influenza epifemie of 1918 was a typical example of this. J ho influenza, germ acted in eon junction with another germ and That, was why it was so virulent. Natural immunity generally began in children at a very early age an,| continued tiil the period of adolescence. Some germs were an (agonistic to the functions of (lie body, some friendly, some destructive, some innocuous, and others beneficial and necessary. .Microbes bad to struggle tor life just as human beings did, and their success depended on their establishment, in the body, but during transit through the body they served the useful purpose of giving immunity to the species attacked. There were, infinitely few pathological microbes, that is, those which cause disease, compared with those we were constantly i.n contact with, and which had no specific function in disease.

The future of medicine depended largely on a knowledge of the chemistry of the internal organisms of the body. Recent. investigations conducted into » internal secretions had proved that they di,l not originate externally lint, were produced by various glands wit bin the body and absorbed into t he* blood. I hese secretions could not be analysed, though their presence was known, and they were, actively employed in neutralising the. toxins in the hotly and determining the rate of growth. The future of medicine "was going to be the future of prevent iv miess.

The treatment of disease with drugs would soon be a tiling of tile past, as the number of drugs which bad any appreciable effect on disease was very limited and the great majority of them acted on the mental powers only. Surgery'also was a confession that disease bad not been conquered as, although tlie trouble might be alleviated or removed, some organ placed in the body for a special purpose would have to be dispensed with. What was wanted was cure, not destruction. DIPHTHERIA Diphtheria was one of the most frequent. diseases among children and could be eliminated by the application of tests for suspected cases, the isolation of carriers, inoculation, the use of adequate prevent it'- 1 measures and other proper methods of treatment. Diphtheria was a di.-env- 1 of a wide-spread nature and al o attacked poultry ami domestic animals. The disease in poultry was termed roup, while dogs believed to tic suffering from distemper had been found t< be infected with a microbe having similar characteristics to diphthong Th-oe was a pronounced danger of acquiring the disc.;*- through the handling of dome-tie pets. Tn tin l sneaker's opinion tie- incidence of the disease in towns was largelv dim to the freuueiiov with which poultry was kept. The diphtheria organism attacked the throat where it rapidly multiplied and produced a very potent poison which

had ;i J; })•■< 1.1 1 | Hi 1 ' 1 1 left i**H f' r III" Cl. ID uf i in- kidneys, heart muscles and nerves. The in .-vnus system was not usually affected till several weeks after tin- disease laid run its course, wlu-u post,-diphtheretic paralysis set in. To produce anti toxin with which Uj combat (he disea-se the toxin was inocu filled in minute and continually j»(T'as uut dns--m MiO, liCn\-<.s, and \* 1./*n it v;,s >o:,-/)m-d to 1)- most V"' v.ms I<lo, j a in] to" s' rum rated, af ii-r x>. 1 1 xl l i; was treated 1 -<■ f< in - I>*- ill .i; in jecl' I into I.liman beings. The anti toxin iiad no (died mi the miernh- i! self, lmt was siniplv antagonistic to the poison and prevented its effects from being established. OTHER COMMON AILMENTS Ollier frequent diseases among children besides diphtheria were bronchial ailments, which included nasal colds, bronchitis, and nen-diphtherdie throat tumbles. Th-se organism ve;,. oftei allied to pneumonia bacilli in various forms, and it the patient was at all s-userptihle tin' primary cold developed into pneumonia. Pneumonia was not the direct result of a chill, as was commonly supposed, hut a chill was a predisposing cause of the disease, in that it lowered the victim's power of resistance and allowed the microbes to produce a specific disea.se. The pneumococcus vas more or less constantly present in the throat and lowered vitality gave the germ sufficient. virulence to cause disease. The pneumococcus was net alwnvs the sole cause of pneumonia, hut might produce pneumococcus peritonitis and pneumococcus meningitis' the latter of which was almost invariably fatal. Tite. pneumococcus might- attack any part of the respiratory tract, especial!', tin' lungs, where it generally lodged near the bronchial "iube'and set up inflammation of the pleura, or covering of the- lung, causing pleurisy, which was almost always associated with pneumonia. i he public should be educated to the fact that one attack of disease rarely resulted in another and a second attack of a. specific disease within a reasonable period was very unusual. As regards adenoids, they were present in all of us. and. while they were large in youth, as one approached maturity they became relatively small in comparison to their original size. The were put in our nasal organs to serve some special purpose and they certainly exercised a selective influence over genus by retarding or preventing their entry through the lymphoid tissue of the nose.