NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14931, 2 March 1912, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WOMEN DOCTORS; IN INDIA. The grant of 2500 rupees from the Indian Government for the proposed new .;'. Nursing Home at ihdbre, is a generous recognition of the medical services of women in India. It is scarcely possible to over-rate the importance of the work being done in India by European women doctors! The Oriental code, which forbids the, attend--1 ance of , men doctors upon women,' has entailed an enormous sacrifice .of, life. Every facility should therefor© be given to those women who are engaged in medical work in that ' country. Hitherto the bulk of the native women have had to depend, so far as they received modern medical attention lat all,/on Lady Dufferin's Fund, the missionaries, ; and a few private philanthropic ventures. It is hoped by those who are interested in our Empire in the East that the grant to the Nursing Home at Indore will be but a first step in an improvement of the status of the women doctors in India. 'What the women -in this profession mostly de-;-:siro is State recognition," 'such 'as is granted to men,'"and 'suitable inspection and control by a woman deputy-surgeon-general in every province 'acting under the,orders of the surgeon-general. Instead of being recruited by ; the - present irregular methods they desire to see established a graded service filled by candidates selected on a fixed principle. THE WOMEN OP SHETLAND ISLANDS. .V. The women of the Shetland ? Islands, despite the disadvantages of a bleak climate and an isolated position, are happy in { the fact :. : that :no spirit-deadening machine, has entered their ? territory ■ and driven*.them from their homes into the j factory. Their fingers have, therefore, never lost their skill and cunning ;in weaving, spinning, and \ making the celebrated Shetland shawls—a craft handed down to them through generations of workers. Miss M. A. Hose, who has "passed most of her life in the Shetland Isles, where her father was minister of ( the parish of Sandsting, : realised -some years ago that the > Shetland industries were not being developed by < new outlets' nor ;■,,the women I workers' receiving adequate payment at the ; hands of the commercial travellers. She determined, therefore, to try to raise the standard of remuneration, and for; that purpose opened" a shop in London. ' '/: Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary ; have : ; given! her their patronage/ while ; Queen Maud 'of Norway, the i Duchess of Albany, Lady , Battersea, and many well-known society people are - among her regular customers. Miss Rose j formed a handicraft school for girls at ! her father's manse, . where some fifty j girls attended, and to these she taught new designs and useful patterns, such as ' were greatly in demand. The girls passed j their knowledge on to > their % younger I sisters, and even to the ~" grannies." It is chiefly in the autumn ; and winter months that the island women work at their handicraft, at least, for commercial purposes. ". Most of' the younger women spend: the summer :in fish-curing and working on the land. But it is anuh-* usual sight at any '; time to see a fisher girl or peat gatherer walking along without her - fingers boing Busily engaged in knitting. ; Nearly every house has its spinning wheel and loom, and the women spin and weave for the whole of the \ family. ' :

THE DRUG HABIT." According to all authorities the drug habit is increasing in London. A West End chemist who knows as much about the selling of ■ drugs as j ost of his professional, brethren gave the gist of his experience to a press representative recently, , supplementing his remarks with the statement that for the past five years he had noticed an increasing demand for doses of this kind. " I "believe," ho said, "that many people who have been out East have a tendency to take to self-drugging, and I can say that many society women have developed it to an extent which may become »serious. ; Generally speaking, the reasons for self-drugging are two. One is as a remedy for sleeplessness, and the other that it relieves or removes pain. The habit has appealed to ; mankind for centuries, 1 and it is questionable whether it will ever die out,: in spite of the number of victims it claims. ; Both sleeplessness and pain, of course, are really symptoms of disease, but instead ' of seeing medical men the victims' go straight for drugs.- It ia also a fact that of late years drugs as a .'■' pick-me- j up 'have ; become ; very common among men; and women. The principal "tonic in | this connection is strychnine,\ one of the most powerful poisons known.. There ia..

a w«}ll-known politician who cornea here quite regularly during the months Parliament is sitting. He has ; found it necessary to bind ■ his nerves % together , with doses <: of ; drugs.v •/ One of our "famous actors also takes a certain drug during time!, of strain- The unfortunate, point about drugs, as a rule, however, is that if they are to be effective they must be taken in gradually> increasing iquantites. It; is I when the patient has: reached the maximum that the crash comes."