CULD MAKE PREVENTION A SKY SIGN.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 30 April 1926, Page 13

CULD MAKE PREVENTION A SKY SIGN.

PEOPLE RUN RISKS FROM DEAD FOODS. (By Dr 11. T., Thacker). Our sky sign to-day should be rcvcntion and education, not iagnosis and treatment. Wordsworth said:— , •“To the' solid ground, of Nature, Trusts the mind which builds for age.” The teaching of prevention in ledicJne to-day docs not nearly - occupy the., space in the medical curriculum jt should.. In a student’s . veThird'years of toil and inslruc- ■ - ibri, there is not suflicicnt bias towards, prevention; the whole train- ■ i rfg is directed essentially to diag- ‘ i.foSis' and treatment. We need pre-

‘vehtion against so-called health and •ad' health to,, secure general good icalth: . “There is no kind of -.ehievement you could make in the, .vorld; tijat is. equal to- perfect lealth.”’ (Carlyle). A movement has been started in Vienna to provide people . who are ’lard of hearing with special armbands to protect them from traffic accidents, Natives ofTndia will not eat canned fish - from the Western world, because good Hindus do not eat food’ prepared by anyone but the women of their household or servants of their own casie. They fear It may he polluted by contact with p.erso.iis below their caste, or alliterated, with ingredients forbidden by their religion. They evidently flunk: no advantage in cash or saving can, make up for the folly ol sacrificing good health. Our general public, is entirely without any practical protection against food fakers dirty food handling and contamination. Preservatives are everywhere, and in everything. They make foodstuffs keep, and formalin and formaldehyde will deodorise the most pungent, rotten flesh, fish or fowl. Maori dried shark may “pong,” but it is sun-rayed and not poisoned with coal tar preservatives. No preservative whatever should be used, as by using it we run unknown and, maybe, serious risks, even when "applied to food that is sound and satisfactory. Moreover, preservatives may mask and blind all kinds of pollutions. Who knows whether preservatives may not pre-. pare the suitable agent for flic new-ly-found cancer organism. Preservatives are irritants, and irritants are cancer producers. Cancer never . affects a healthy organ, and no liu-1 man organ can" be healthy that is I fed by denatured preserved foods. Dead foods produce intestinal stagnation. This produces- kinks, angulations, dilations, spasms, ulcerations, and tlie ulcerations have a tendency to become cancerous.

work to be faced in tire coming year is tlie provision of a new fenee on Ihc south'boundary of the grounds, antMbe linking tip of the Parish properly and .also Newborough wilh the sewerage system. It is also hoped to complete the electric.,.light installation on Ihc Church toward which purpose donations have been made We desine 1> thank'all the Church organisations, particularly the Ladies’ (lipid and the Vicar, for their most valuable help and express .the hope that such help will he forthcoming and freely given in the future, '