INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CIV, Issue 15903, 6 March 1916, Page 3

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald." Sir, In view ;if the epidemic of inianti.e paralysis and jcs very near approach to Tiiiiain, 1 venture- to adtirtiss ;i few linos to you regarding general cleanliness and Jiygicne. 1 am •a stranger in Timaru, having been here only a lew creeks, and miist say that it badly needs cleaning up. 1 am not writing tins in a spirit of cavelling, but, surely now, if ever, people should be clean, and if they will not <lo so for their own sakes, they should be forced to do so far the public good. There are backyards in Timaru. where rags ;md rubbish of very tort, fish head and entruiis are thrown out and left to putrify in the hot sun. The consequence or course, are' endless germs (and flies. Dust t:.us shoujld have a close fitting cover. Oil drums can be obtained and covers made to tit, for i\ few shillings, . and though these may be a little- outlay in the 'first place, they last a long time and are much more hygienic. 1 went down a. long street in Timaru one warm day this week in the early forenoon. A long line of dust tins in avl conditions of tilth were awaiting the dust cart. In the afternoon 1 again went -down the same street. The tins were still there in the same condition, and sitting beside one. of them in the gutter playing, were two little children. These things should not be, epidemic or no epidemic. ATQiile on the subject of dust tins I may say that it is just as easy to have a clean dust tin as a dirty one. I have kept house for a- good .many years and never had a wet dust tin. All vegetable and fruit peelings ' and scraps from the table could oasily be burned, if not used otherwise, and never go into the dust tin at all. Any empty treacle or other t.'n should be put into the tin and covered with ashes, and dust tins could and should be kept clean and dry. Regarding the spreading of germs, every child, on coming in from play or home from school, should, before.eating food, wash their hands and faces ' with soap and water, and mothers should keep their children's ears, necks, and hands much cleaner than very many are kept in Timaru. Houses should be ventilated by n'ght as much as day. If people would only believe that fresh night air is as pure and good and quite*as necessary, as fresh air by day, many children would be more healthy. How few peop'c there arc coiuparairfvely, who air their houses at night! I was travelling in a. railway train a few weeks go here, in a earring ■ crowded with adults and children, and it wa-s only after a scene I kept one window open. A friend of mine died recently from a disease caught in a railway carriage. (Railway carriages should be well ventilated; they are small, and how long is it before'people are breathing their own and each others breath evev There are nouses, offices and staircases in Timaru that are very dirty and thickly covered with dust,' one of the recognised germ carriers of infantile paralysis. It seems to me that it is quite time some of the accomplishments and pleasures of the rising generation were left out of the educational curriculum if necessary, and more, much more, of the plain eommonsenso training either added or substituted, that is so essential to make the ordinary everyday, clean, sensible, do-vour-duty male and female <it : zen. ' The Piunket nurse has done a great workin connection with infants and a help or inspector is just as essential to bring hygiene and cleanliness up to a higher standard, not in view of the outbreak of a- dreaded epidemic, hut permanently. I am. etc EXCELSIOR 1