A FARCICAL AFFAIR.

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 41, 29 June 1907, Page 3

A FARCICAL AFFAIR.

Another Health Department Comedy

IN last week's issue of the OBSERVER a series of pictures appeared entitled "What Might Happen to Anybody Any Day in New Zealand." This depicted the ' tribulations of an individual who consulted his doctor about ab oil on his arm, and who was promptly isolated in the observation ward as a plague suspect. These pictures were based upon a hypothesis, but since their appearance we have been placed in possession of facts which prove conclusively that what might have happened to anybody has happened to somebody. This case serves to show that the Health Department is not disposed, to say the least of it, to err on the side of apathy. It also shows that in these days of alleged plague, it is very necessary that the average individual should exercise very great care before he submits himself and his ailments to the tender mercies of the average doctor.

Briefly, here are the facts of the case: — A certain gentleman, not wholly unconnected with the butchering trade, coatracted an abscess on one of his legs. With a view of obtaining relief, he sought the advice of a local doctor, who, by-the-way, had been the medical attendant of the family for the last twelve years. The doctor examined the abscess, looked grave, and then, having accommodated the patient with a seat, went out hurriedly. On his return, be was accompanied by Dr Mason, Chief Health Officer, who subjected the patient to a minute examination. After which, the long-suffering patient was curtly informed that it would be necessary to remove him to the hospital, as the case was a highly suspicious one. The patient naturally demurred, but his objections were over-ruled, acd after considerable parley, he got into the buggy in which he had driven in to see the doctor, and accompanied by an escort of police, thoughtfully provided by a paternal Health Department, drove to the public hospital.

On arrival at that institution, the plague-stricken patient was accommodated with a bed in the observation ward. Here, in solitary grandeur, he lay on the broad of his back for six days, putting in his time quite pleasantly by calculating the exact amount of loss which he would sustain through the fumigation and destruction of his "plague-stricken" household goods. In the meantime, Drs Makgil'l and Constance Frost took constant observations of his condition, and administered balm to the abscess through the medium of hot fomentations. At the end of the first week the patient's wife, having apparently got an idea into her head that the sequestration of her spouse was neither requisite nor necessary, interviewed the authorities, with the result that the suffering patient was once more cast forth into a microbe-haunted world.

Anything more farcical than the entire proceedings from start to finish it would be impossible to conceive. The only redeeming feature in the case lies in the fact that the Health Department did not order either the fumigation or destruction of any of the patient's belongings. But this, after all, is only a negative virtue. If the authorities considered that it was a case of plague, then it would have been consistent on their part to take the usual steps that are taken under such circumstances. That they did not do so was lucky for the patient, but does not denote any vast amount of intelligence on the part of the officials. Furthermore, when the patient was discharged from the hospital three weeks ago, the abscess was not by any means healed, nor is it healed yet. If, therefore, the Chief Health Officer deduced plague from his initial diagnosis, as presumably he did, upon what theory did he ultimately base his conclusion that his original diagnosis bad been a mistaken one ?

One particularly serious aspect in this case stands out in bold relief. The circumstances attending the death of Miss McMillan are still fresh in the public memory, and that this later case bad not similar results is not due to any consideration shown by the authorities. Had the patient been other than a strong, healthy man, the effect of being bundled up into the hospital and placed in solitude for six: days in the observation ward might have so worked upon the imagination and nerves of the patient as to have an ellect which, if fatal, would at least greatly discount any chance of recovery. If the Health Department officials are so panic-stricken as to imagine that symptoms o/ plague exist in every abscess, and boil, and blister which comes under their notice, then the hapless inhabitants of this colony have little reason to be thankful for the existence of such a Department.