NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21949, 5 November 1934, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

SKIN TROUBLES Dr. W. J. O'Donovan, M.P., speaking at the Institute of Hygiene in London. said: —" The modern married woman is exposed to more skin hazards than the workman employed on a farlory process. The labour-saving products in general use in the home are potent chemicals. The housewife will put her hands in mixed alkalis and then chloride on washing day and follow it by cleansing brass with metal polish, which is a-strong acid. She will then put cold cream of an unknown composition on her hands. The skin cannot stand this." Referring to dermatitis, he said it might lie caused by innocent hobbies such as photography, wireless, and gardening. Winkles and shellfish might predispose the skin to eruptions and a rash might arise from the handling of chrysanthemums in the flowering stage in the case of some people. He had over 6000 new cases of skin disease in his clinic at the London Hospital each year. He advocated improvement in personal hygiene among workers as a means of combating occupational diseases. Rubber gloves were no remedy. SHAKESPEARE At a luncheon held to celebrate the publication of the. "New Temple Shakespeare," Dr. Inge expressed the opinion that Shakespeare never unlocked his heart in any of his plays; that he had no period of "storm and

stress" in his life; and that the sonnets contained no ''deep confessions." Jn other words, lie believed that Shakespeare was just a typical, middle-class Englishman—- a jolly man of the world with a thoroughly sound and healthy nature, who happened to be an author and manager by profession. He had no inkling of the "'glorious fate" in store for him; he never published anything after "The Rape of Lucrece," in 1594 —and there were no problems in the Sonnets. The author merely took "an ordinary theme of the sonneteer" and wrote very good poetry—because he happened to be Shakespeare. Dr. Inge did not agree that people sat down and wrote poetry when they were unhappy. He quoted Coleridge, who said that when a man wa» unhappy he wrote "damned bad poetry." "Shakespeare," observed Dr. Inge, "returned to Strat-ford-on-Avon, where he bought the best house in the town, as sonn as he could afford to do so. As fo what lie did in the last five years of his life, I wonder our friends have not suggested the obvoius answer —he wrote the works of Francis Bacon."

PROBLEM CHILDREN Dr. J. R. Rees, Medical Director of the Institute of Medical Psychology, speaking at a Health Week lecture at Leeds last night, said: "Spoiling in childhood may lead to the development of fears, self-consciousness and other troubles. The wrong use of authority mav lead to rebellion in the child,

while a sense of deprivation—especially of love—very often underlies the development of delinquent trends. Cancer does not contribute to the inefficiency of this world, to its unbappines and suffering, as the neurosis does. In England and Wales we have in all some half a million persons who are insane or mentally defective. The minor mental disorders form the huge problem—at least six times as great. Think for yourselves of the people you know who suffer from exaggerated fears, selfconsciousness. over-consciousness, obses-

sions, sex difficulties and second-rate marriages. Think of the ineffective and the delinquents and of all those whose

anxieties show themselves as indigestion or in other physical forms. We spend approximately £100,000,000 per annum on services which would not be needed for the most part if much Tosr than £2.000.000 were spent annually 011 the maintenance of early treatment centres for mental or nervous troubles If we could treat the problem children before they grew into warped and difficult adults, "we should cut out so much breakdown, invalidism, dependency—and suicide. Our mental hospitals, Borstals and prisons would be little more than half full. If you ask where all these troubles originate, the answer must be —in childhood. We tend to be at seventy what we were at seven. Jn order to straighten out the adult we have usually to go back to understand the problems of those earl.v years. That is why child psychology and child guidance are of such paramount importance. Devils can be cast out, but it is far better to prevent them ever getting entrenched.

RESISTANCE TO DISEASE A problem of great importance to breeders of live stock and to a lesser extent, possibly, to the medical profession is the difficult one of what part heredity plays in resistance to infectious disorders, writes the medical correspondent of the Morning Post. In a report by Mr. A. Bradford Hill, issued by the Medical Research Council, there is reviewed the existing experimental data, much of which is on a statistical basis. It is clear that the problem is complex, for while different species of animals may show a wellrecognised difference in their susceptibility to infections, within the same species the parts played by environment, habits and exposure to infection are difficult to unravel. Mothers can certainly pass on to their offspring antibodies circulating in their blood, and this form of what is termed ''passive immunity" will persist for a certain period of time. More lasting immunity, however, is what the stockbreeder requires, and there the evidence becomes contusing. From his careful review, Mr. Bradford Hill concludes that between strains of the same species there is definite evidence of increased resistance duj to inherited factors. Within any particular strain results are confusing, but it is reasonably clear that inherited factors do play a large part, and the "factors for resistance are dominant, or partially dominant, to those for susceptibility." Whether such inheritance is specific for one particular type of infection or more general for all the noxious agents of disease is still unsettled. "The possibility of breeding a strain," runs the conclusion on this aspect, "with fairly fixed factors for resistance or susceptibility to at least a particular agent, certainly seems to be an eminently reasonable supposition." As to the degree of resistance which can be developed by breeding, the evidence is again conflicting, but it does seem possible to develop a scheme for the "combing out" of resistant animals. and the rules upon which this should be based are clearlv laid down.