NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16021, 13 September 1915, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

HOUSEWIVES AND THE WAR. At a conference held in London lately, under the auspices of the Mothers' Union and the League of Honour, Mrs. H. B. Irving, in dealing with "Some Problems of the Working-class Housewife," said it was not reasonable that .women of the class I to which she and her hearers belonged 1 should go about teaching thrift of the money-saving kind to the working classes who were struggling to bring up their children under conditions which were fre- ; quently disheartening. But there was an- : other kind of thrift they could be taught, and that was proper economical expenditure and tho saving and strengthening of humar life. To-day there was far less unemployment than there was twenty years ago. At the same time food and necessaries had gone up 33 percent., while wages had risen only 13 per cent. The problem that confronted hundreds of working-class housewives was tliat of bridging over a 20 per cent, increase in house-keeping expenditure. From considerable experience and after much investigation among these women, Mrs. Irving said that she could not see how a mother and five children on 31s. a weekthe pay of a soldier's familycould work out the weekly budget with a surplus of more than sd. It was ridiculous to appeal to these people to invest in the War Loan, etc. If some of the money went, as was often alleged, in drink, it could be only at the expense of the home and the food of tho children. The best and most selfsacrificing mothers found they could only just manage on the 51s a week.

SOLDIERS' BAD TEETH. Mr. W. H. Dolaruore. the president of the British Dental Association, in an address at the annual meeting of the association in London in July, said that never perhaps had the disasters which might follow the neglect of teeth been more apparent than in the war. It needed but due inspection of the teeth of many soldiers invalided home, to prove what an important factor neglected teeth were in producing or predisposing to the development of disease. "It is no secret that the Army authorities first refused men with bad teeth," Mr. Dolamore continued. " When the need of men and more men was felt, these were admitted, irrespective of the condition of their teeth. But, having been admitted, it was found that either their teeth must be treated or these men would not»be available for foreign service. For this dilemma, serious and wholly preventable, the country lias to thank our educational authorities. The War Office recognised the obligation to provide dental treatment in the interest of efficiency, but it was a matter for regret that it did not appoint a committee, on which dentists had seats, to advise and to supervise the carrying out of the arrangements." Mr. W. Guy, the retiring president, said he believed the work of the seventy army dentists was of the most arduous character, and the War Office was' aware of. its value but what were seventy among so many requiring attention! He thought the only way to meet the difficulty was the establishment of an Army Dental Corps, such as had been done with oversea troops.

THE NEXT GREAT WAR, There has recently been published a —"Insects and Man," by Mr. C. A. Ealand—which gives a valuable summary and an accurate account of the causes and effects of' these insect-cenveyed diseases, of the almost immeasurable damage done by insects and ticks, and of the supreme necessity for the whole human race to be enlisted in the next war—a war to be waged not between man and man, but between Man on the one side and the Arthropod on the other, a war to be fought to the finish to decide which of the two forms of life, this highlydeveloped vertebrate or these malignly evolved invertebrates, is to govern our planet. Is the lord of this earth some day to be a monstrous ant or bug, a wasp or a midge, a scale insect or a tick? Or is it to be this god-like mammal that walks erect and can see the stars, can weigh the suns and' planets, that is already in touch with the supraniundane universe? Sir Henry H. Johnston, writing in tho Nineteenth Century, says that tho outcome of the struggle is almost as much a toss-up at the present moment as is the result of this devastating war between Teuton, Kelt, Latin, Slav, and Turk', which is now being waged in Europe, Asia, and Africa. We have reason to think and to hope that Fortune as well as Right are on the side of the nations allied against the Powers of Central a.nd South-east Europe. Similarly, the wish being father to tho thought, we believe or we hope that man will get the upper hand over the arthropod. But he will only do so by co-ordinating his forces ,and applying all his resources to the gigantic task of eliminating from the world the gcrm-conveyine agents, and thereby perhaps extinguishing finally those minute and primitive organisms, whose only purpose in life seems to be to play the part of the anarchist and to reduce the living world to nullity and death.

USE OF POISONOUS GASES. Professor Vivian Lewes dealt with the subject of asphyxiating gases in an address on " Modern .Munitions of War," at the Royal Society of Arts, in London, in July. There had been, he said, an euormous number of suggestions made as to how to fight these gases, and the respirators now supplied to the troops answered their purpose, well, but it was a difficult thing to get men to wear respirators. The best protectors they could have were a strip of flannel or cotton rag soaked in a solution of washing soda. There were men who said wo ought to retaliate in kind. It' we could save one of our men by doing so he would be as strongly in favour of it as anyone, but we must remember that the chief effect of the gases was in the surprise, and the Germans were fully prepared for retaliation and would not be surprised. Thus, under these circumstancesand that was not putting it very high—it was better to keep our hands clean, and fight that same straight old fight which had always pulled us through. Remarking on the employment by the Germans of phosphorus in their bombs and shells for producing smoke for the purpose of marking ranges. Professor Lewes declared that they could get their smoke by harmless means, but the devilry which was innate in their character made them employ this substance, which gave rise to intense suffering. .