SPREADING KNOWLEDGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 89

SPREADING KNOWLEDGE.

LECTURE BY DR TRUBY KING

Dr F. Trnby King lectured on the 3rd in Burns Hall to a very considerable and interested audience on the subject of " Air, Colds, Teeth, and Adenoids." " The first thing," said the doctor, in commencing - his lecture, "is air, and on this point I shall require to state some very elementary truths, because from what I see of closed windows the vast majority of people really have no belief in air." The lecturer briefly described the chemical composition of the atmosphere, and especially emphasised the point that solids, fluids, and gases were really the same thing in different forms, these forms being changeable under the requisite conditions. The atmosphere was really a collection of infinitely small solids at a certain distance from each other., Bearing this in mind, and that this atmosphere of ours was really a fluid ocean and subject to the natural laws of fluids in the way of currents, consideration of the draught problem became a very simple thing. Dr King proceeded to illustrate the practical question of ventilating a living room properly and efficiently. In a sleeping room there should always be a stream of air, and if two persons slept in a room, one should sleep on each side of this stream. In the ea6e of a. mother with a child, the natural, but wrong, tendency was for her to keep it with her. The baby should not even be placed alongside the mother on the same side of the room, but should be placed on the other side of the stream of air, being protected from this directly impinging upon it by a screen. The importance of a current of air was 6hown by the fact that when the atmosphere was in the neighbourhood of 80 degrees the carbonic acid given off by the individual tended to be of the same weight and density as the atmosphere and accordingly hung about as a dead cloud, and prevented fresh oxygen from being taken into the lungs. Having thus outlined the right lines to be followed, Dr King instanced in his best manner, and with many touches of sarcasm, some prevalent follies in the treatment of babies. He had been absolutely jjrnazed frequently to find nurses, as a iv*ular thing, placing babies after a bath on the floor before the fire in order to make them warm. In this position the baby received the full force of the draught from the door to the fire. Slides were next shown dealing with proper ventilation for babies in the cradle and in the perambulators, stress being laid upon the want of sense displayed by the blocking out of the air by the attachment of frills and laoes. "Women," said the lecturer, " care more for the clothes than the baby." The big hood of an ordinary perambulator was a most unhealthy thing, and he had found that with an atmospheric temperature of 60 degrees the inside of these would,register 75 degrees. The baby was thus lying in a well of carbonic acid. As the right thing, there was shown a special hood, with adjustable blinds, invented and patented by Lady Plunket in the interests of this work. As for the fashionable go-cart, in which the babies' legs hung without any support, and in which the baby lolled forward, so that its head met its toes, these things should be seen to. ■

Coming to the second portion of his lecture, Dr King proceeded to deal with teeth and adenoids. He pointed out that the bad teeth of the present-day people, as contrasted with the excellent dental equipment of the ancient Maoris, was due to the soft feeding indulged in, instead of the hard chewing formerly adopted. Starting from infancy, there was shown the train of circumstances which led to the growth of deformed teeth and the development of adenoids. He referred to the '"diabolic" influence of the rubber "comforter" and the "long sewer " of the longtube feeder, and lamented that these things were still in use. The result of that use was to be seen at the present time ; .n the prevalence of malformed jaws amongst the people. On the question of adenoids, Dr King made some startling statements. He had been told that a doctor had said that half the children on the South Dunedin Flat had adenoids. He bad thought this was an exaggeration, but another doctor said that it was even under the mark. Diagrams were then shown of the malform growth of adenoids and explanations given in extenso of their terrible consequences. Dr King said this was absolutely the most disastrous disease on the earth, and was entirely due to the malformed mouths induced by " dummy-sucking" in infancy. The lecture was brought to a close by showing a number of examples of the success achieved with the babies of the Karitane Home. The Hon. J. B. Callan introduced the speaker, and Dr Ogston proposed a vote of thanks. The lantern was manipulated by Mr J. Jones.