“MOTORITIS.”

New Zealand Times, 12 September 1907, Page 7

“MOTORITIS.”

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 26. Hero is a terrible warning to those among you who indulge or contemplate Indulging in the delights of motoring. According to some medical experts mo* toring engenders obesity, and sets up disintegration and decay of nervous tissue. Sir William Collins, the, eminent surgeon, says;—“Vibration, however good if may be for violins, is a very bad thing indeed for the spinal column," and in the opinion of Sir James CrichtonBrowne motoring “leads to feebleness of intellect, irritability, jumpiness of temper, and homicidal mania." Undoubtedly Sir James is perfectly correct if his statement from “irritability" onwards is applied to people who have to suffer from the vagaries of the road-hog species of motoring folk. Whether it produces all the effects mentioned among its votaries or not the spread of motoring is undoubtedly having a bad influence on the temper of the public. In town their hooting and tooting is with you all day long, and your country stroll is spoiled by reason of the clouds of dust the flying cars raise to smother everybody and everything within fifty yards or their line* of flight. Moreover possession of a motor car seems to give people an idea that they are superior to the unwritten rules of the road by which wo have abided for generations. Hence a large number of accidents reported every week as arising through motor cars. In the metropolitan area alone in -the six months ended April 30th, motors caused 4451 accidents, of which 41 yielded fatalities and 1175 caused personal injuries, nearly all to people not concerned with the vehicles at fault. In the country districts the victims of the motor are chiefly poultry and dogs, with children a good third. Apart from their propensity to run over things, motorists have given farmers and fruit-growers cause to curse because the dust clouds continually raised by cars passing. at high speeds smothers every growing thing -within twenty yards of the road and has a very inimical effect on the well-being of young plants, ripening fruit, and the like. Shopkeepers, too, on the roads frequented by motorists have grave cause of complaint against motor cars. On dry days they cannot keep open their shop doors, let alone their windows for fear their goods become impregnated with dust, and inhabitants of road-side cottages are compelled to keep their windows closed because fresh air means fresh dirt in plentiful supply. There are other sufferers through the dust nuisance, and on the whole it may be stated with" truth that “irritability, jumpiness of temper, and homicidal mania" are being spread abroad by reason of the growth of motoring. But it is, I think, the general public that suffers from these forms of “motoritis" rather than, motorists themselves, ■