DILATORY DEPARTMENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13138, 26 July 1913, Page 3

DILATORY DEPARTMENT.

GRAVE CHARGES. • | (Special to Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. j A good deal of criticism has been levelled at the Health Department in connection with its treatment of the disease, but a statement made to a Star representative by Mr H. MacKenzie, chairman of the Manukiau County Council, certainly constituted a grave charge against the authorities. A fortnight : ego,"* "Sir MacKenzie states, inspectors from tfie Health Department . visited Ihiunata, in the Mangere district, where the outbreak has been so extensive, and vaccinated a number of natives. These officer^ were then informed that in an adjoining Maori settlement, the 'Onetangi pa, two coses of small-pox existed, and the patients, they were told, had not received medical attention, nor had the 'contacts been vaccinated. The authorities, however, were not disposed to inquire further just then, and promised to return next day. There was no appearance on the next day, however, nor on the day after that, nor on any day since. The patients were never seen by a doctor, though the Health Department was communicated with several times on the subject. One of the patients, a man, is now convalescent, but yir MacKenzie states that he i3 going about in a still very much pock-

marked condition. Moreover, none of the patients at the pa have yet been vaccinated. The New Zealand Herald, in a leading article, says: — "Strange as it may seem to many panic-stricken members of Par- ' liament and to our neighbors in the \ South Island, there is not only no epidemic among Europeans in the North, nor is there any absolute certainty that small-pox exists." The Herald would have preferred to see the Government appoint a medical committee of investigation, in order that the national seal might be placed upon its findings, but failing this, there is no reason whatever why the Hospital Board; should not ask its honorary advisory medical staff to report upon the character of the disease. Upon this advisory staff are some of the most highly-respected and trusted medical men in Auckland, and their diagnosis would convince the public more quickly and conclusively than all the proclamations and statements of .the departmental officials. As far as the Department is concerned, it is so effete and supine that the Cabinet should carefully consider its reorganisation under thoroughly competent and experienced special commissioners. 'APPEARANCE OF ALASTRIM. It is suggested that the disease which is so prevalent may be related to a varioloid named alastrim, a disease very similar to small-pox. The cases which have come under observation in the isolation hospital differ in several important respects from typical small-pox. The important variation in the character of the epidemic from that of the graver disease was described by Dr. Maguire, medical superintendent of the general hospital. The symptoms of small-pox which are most distinctive of the disease are the preliminary experience of severe pain in the back, the accompaniment of fever at successive stages, and the peculiarly objectionable odour from the patient, while epidemics are marked by a high proportion of attacks among children, bo far as can be ascertained, the cases at Point Chevalier have no history of pain during the outset of the disease. Fever is entirely absent. Only one patient has manifested the foetid odour, and all the patients are adults, except a Maori boy three years old, who was taken from Mangere with his aunt. There has been no "pitting", observed in the convalescents. In the majority, of cases the, characteristic constitutional disturbances were lacking. Dr. Maguire said that the European patients developed the disease in so mild a form that its association with small-pox seemed remote, but in the major cases the severity of the illness was so great that the difference could not be explained by the theory that a disease recently introduced into a race was more virulent than among a people who tad developed a degree of immunity; by experience of it during many generations'. Discussing the description of alastrim, Dr. Magoiire remarked upon its resemblance in many respects to the disease now epidemic. In his opinion alastrim appeared to be a discrete small-pox, but there was certainly an important feature in the low mortality and the immunity of children, combined with the mildness of ,the attack.