THE DEATH RATE AND TYPHOID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9025, 11 April 1888, Page 3

THE DEATH RATE AND TYPHOID.

TO THE EDITOR. „ Sir, —When doctors differ how are we to decide, especially when " St. Leger " quotes from a " high authority," and has to be corrected by Dr. Bell ? I think it is quite clear "St. Leger" agrees with the profession to defame the good name that the " cold water cure" and hydropathy has obtained in the treatment of fevers generally, but when We can place side by side with their names those of Dr. Bakewell and Dr. Wilkins, who . would rather be without physic than cold water in typhoid, surely the hydropathists must take courage and adhere to the od-given remedies which are free to all, and abandon those doctors who, "St. Leger" says, "adopt all systems in turns," and I presume it is because they have no faith in their own. Are they nob verily "quacks?" If homoeopathy and hydropathy are so valuable that the allopaths cannot succeed without them; why should they refuse to receive as members of their profession those who practise homoeopathy in this city, especially when they have obtained M.D. degrees. The profession is much narrower than "St Leger'Mknows of. But now about " St. Leger's" statistics, and the 40 per cent, death rate at the Hospital, when typhoid was so bad in 1886, and the cold water treatment was made use of. In reply, I affirm either of two things, that the cold water was not, adopted until the allopathic remedies had failed, or that the hydropathic method was not intelligently applied ; and how could it bo by those who ridicule the system, and had it not in their curriculum either at college or in the hospitals which they attended ? I sincerely hope that " St. Leger" will answer " LaymanV' very pertinent question in to-day's Herald, for those doctors in attendance when 40 per cent, of deaths occurred are surely blameable ; but now, apart from hospital practice, as I cannot ascertain whether " St. Leger" or Dr. Bell are accurate in their figures; however, I learn from those who know, that the water ' treatment was very successful even in the Hospital, but Dr. Flint says that, generally, under the allopathic treatment there are fully 20 per cent of deaths in typhoid, while Dr. Glenard, who adopted the hydropathic method and treated about 7000 cases, only had a death rate of 6 per cent Dr. Stieler also treated on cold water lines a large number, and had a similar per centage of deaths. Dr. Jurgenson only had a death-rate of 3 1-lOth per cent., Dr. Brandt 2 l-10th per cent. ; but, best of all, Dr. Kellogg treated 60 cases of typhoid, with some assistance, and had not a death to record; while Dr. Stieler, in Lyons, treated 52 cases without a single fatal case, and all under hydropathic measures. A doctor from Sydney, some two years' ago, informed me that he treated -10 cases under the cold-water 'regime, and had only one death. Will our allopathic practitioners point out such results under their methods ? I sincerely regret that they cannot—in this city, at any rate} for £ learn, on good authority, that, on the total deaths from : all causes this year, there are nearly 10 percent alone from?? typhoid; and for the month of March nearly 20 per cent, are typhoid; while, if ,we take the Sanitary Inspector's report, of 28 . cases of typhoid in March and 44 cases in February, we would have a death-rate of nearly 25 per cent from typhoid alone. Such results, however exaggerated, are alarming when compared with the low death-rate under hydropathy, and demands: that the allopathio practitioners shall adopt that method of Dr. Bakewell's which reduces the death-rate to about 3 pec cent—l am, &c., Cold-water Cure, ; • April 0,1888.'