CAUSES OF RHEUMATISM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 16

CAUSES OF RHEUMATISM.

VIRTUES OF ASPERIN. £2,000,000 ANNUAL SCOURGE. (Fkom Ode Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 5. A retrt irkable gathering of doctors, industrialists, welfare workers, and working men, brought together by the Citizen’s Council of the Federation of Medical and Allied Seivices, debated the problem of rheumatics, a complaint which was once regarded as one of the minor troubles of life, but is now recognised as one of the most serious mehaces to physical efficiency. Rheumatism, has lately been revealed as an insidious scourge, which costs £2,000,000 a year in sick benefit, causes more than 3,000,000 weeks of work to be lost every year, and results in a very large number of deaths from heart disease. The object of the meeting was to discuss the prevention and treatment of rheumatism in industry, and the discussion was started by Sir Thomas Horder, the famous physician, who revealed the latest scientific opinion on the question. He said the chief causative factors of rheumatism were:— 1. Germs which gathered in certain “dugouts” in the body, such as the decayed stumps of teeth and the tonsils. Poisons were emitted from these “breweries” which attacked the fibrous tissues. 2. Malnutrition. 3. Nerve strain. 4. Dampness. “Rheumatism is not a disease,” said Sir Thomas. “It is perhaps the commonest expression of some defect in the body, but it is very serious from the point of efficiency because it attacks the tissues which are essential to movement.” While he stx;essed the danger of germinfection arising from microbes in the stumps of dead teeth, he made an attack on the present vogue among medical men of attributing all germ infections to dental troubles. “As I was guilty of pointing out some year» ago. the source of danger to the patient there might be at the root of a decayed tooth,” he said. “I am a little . disturbed to, find how far the tendency has gone aihonc doctor-, to search n 6 further than the teeth for a source of infection.” Malnutrition, Sir Thomas emphasised. was a much more imporffent factor in rheumatism than exposure.'“Damp rather than cold,” he said, “is the climatic condition which induces rheumatism. This is a rheumatic climate. There are forms of rheumatism frequently met with in this country that are unknown elsewhere.”

ASPERT" Sir Thomas incidentally touched on the merits of asperin, and exploded some popular beliefs in the dangers of the drug. “There is an idea current that certain homely and innocent remedies should be taboo,” he said, “and that - might die suddenly if you - them. I am referring particularly to suoh a simple drug as asperin. Asperin is a very valuable drug, and I should like to put up a statute to the man who made it. but no one seems to know who it was. Pcrhans it could bo put up to the ‘unknown chemist.’ I am one if those who have obtained relief from it, so I can speak from experience. To take a dose of asperin and then go on the top of an omnibus without an overcoat is asking for trouble, because the drug opens the . pores of the skin. The time to take asperin' is when you are going to be warm and are not going to be subjected to fatigue for an hour.”' Nearly 100 large business firm* were, represented at the meeting. It was decided to leave the council to consider the question of appointing a committee of doctors and business men to explore the possibility of setting up an indcstr.ri! clinic to deal with rheumatism. ’