SUPERSTITION.
AMAZING STATEMENTS OF
MEDICAL MEN.
.-s..*■_• a . : '' "-' Measles and Murder. An epidemic of measels m Wales last . year that carried off 130 children has caused Dr. Alexander Gordon, the medical officer of health for Merthyr, to protest against the practice of allowing children to enter infected households. Parents excuse this practice on the theory that it is better that children should have the measles and get over the ailment, a theory that medical men regard as a dangerous superstition. A well-known specialist m children's disaeses gave his opinion, on the subject to an "Express" representative. "Superstition is even more rife m all classes to-day than it was . a hundred years ago," he said. "In no case is it more prevalent and disastrous than iii the treatment of measles. j "The medical profession has tried m vain to stamp out the old idea i that every child must have measles, and that a child, therefore, might as I well, be put into the same bed with ja brother or sister who is suffering from the complaint. "It is a proceeding w,hich ought to be made punishable by law. Hun- -j dreds of lives are sacrificed every year to it, and epidemics are spread ! from village to village by reason . 6f i the absurd notion." j A medical officer of health cited „ case which came under his notice a few weeks ago. A boy of fourteen developed measles, but had contracted the complaint very slightly. The mother,^feeline sure her other children woifld be infected, took no pre- : caution^! The consequence was - that ■ all her children were stricken with, the disease. The baby, six months old. died after two days' illness, r^d a little girl of two years has 'completely lost the sight of both eyes, The sliffht attack m the case of the elder brother infected thfc younger children with virulent sept*; measles. The specialist spoke of other superstitions that still. prevail among ignorant people. : "The standard cure for a cut finger is still the dirty cobweb." he said. •Lives are yearly sacrificed to septic poisoning traced, to this unsanitary, remedy. ..,- --"I saw a child m a hospital Wast week whose mother had attempted to cure a broken leg by calling m three old women of her native village, and imploring them to perform certain mystic spells beside the cradle. The child nearly- lost its leg -in con-' sequence of the neglect of proper ad-: vice." ■:'■.■' yy - - ■■■ o.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTR19061006.2.15
Bibliographic details
NZ Truth, Issue 68, 6 October 1906, Page 3
Word Count
407SUPERSTITION. NZ Truth, Issue 68, 6 October 1906, Page 3
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