TALKS ON HEALTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16583, 16 November 1921, Page 6

TALKS ON HEALTH.

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. DECEIVING THE FARMER. I hare had a holiday; not that tho item of news is of any interest, but it gives the facetious an opportunity of saying it will give my patients a chance to get well. Ido not object to No. 1 having a joke with mo, and I am only mildly annoyed when No. 2 cracks the same jest; hut my nervous system is seriously disturbed by No. 20. So when I go on my holiday I call myself plain “Mr,” not “Dr,” for fear someone in the country should say how glad he is to hear that my patients aro haying a chance to get well. I always say T »m “ something in the city ” ; I cannot say I sell patent medicine, as I am obviously a poor man. TAKING A HOLIDAY PROPERLY. Perhaps you wonder what I do on my holiday ; possibly you think I spend tho whole of my timo worrying about the rules of hygiene, and that I scarcely dare walk up a hill without mentally gauging the effect on my heart. Well, if you will promise faithfully not to tell anyone, I will whisper in your ear that i"never think about doctoring. I just relax my nerves, go to bed early, enjoy my meals, smile on mv friends - rmd I blossom forth like a parched flower that has been watered. I do enjoy mv holidays, and no mistake, we all ought to have a few more. I make my holiday a real rest. T cannot climb mountains or travel to a distant land. I sit- under an old apple tree m a deck chair and let the sun ripen me at the same timo as the apples- And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, and then from hour to hour we rot and rot. But let us rot gracefully. Let us acquire some of the peace and serenity of the country into our faces instead of the feverish and wrinkled anxiety of “ civilsation.” I love to soak myself m the country. Give me country air, country food and country folk. BLISSFUL PEACE. How peaceful it all is! Why do wo nol all live in the country—or failing that, make our towns as much like the country as wo can? It is the effect on the soul I feel so acutely. It is mental rof re all ment to look at an apple tree. Dear old apple tree! * Look at its old gnarled trunk that dates from some day before my birth, and look at its voung twigs bearing apples as rosy and as fresh as a maiden’s cheek. I try to learn my lesson. I. too, try to retain some of the oprightliness of youth in spite of my gnarled old trunk. Restful old apple tree! I love to gaze on your form and listen to you talking to me: you have much to teach, I have much to learn. Peace be to your branches! SOLVING A PROBLEM. A great stirring of the conscience is to be discerned ail the present time in the medical world. The various congresses that have been meeting lately all deal with the same subject. Vo know, as doctors, that we have an important message to deliver. Vo do not feel powerless in the presence of disease. We possess all the necessarv knowledge to combat disease. The difficulty is to find a, practical method of application ;• the people are weighed down by disease, and we could relieve them of their burdens if the wellknown remedial measures could he applied. We need a medical revivalist meeting. Tho public Conscience must be aroused. Once persuade the great public to lead clean lives and the venereal problem would be settled tomorrow; all the clinics would be emptied, and the special hospital* shut for want of patients. AN APPALLING ATTITUDE. But ask the great British public if they will agree to lead clean lives and you are nearly deafened by the “ No ” that is roared back in answer. “We never hare led clean, lives, and we are not going to begin now.” Men, women, and, eiid to relate, hoys and girls announce quite calmly they do not caro if they aro infected by disease. It is this attitude that appala the doctors. The people will not walk up thei hill to» the Temple- of Hygiene; they have to be pushed up by an army of reformers. They grumble all the timo and ask to be let alone. The beauty of health does not make a very insistent appeal, and it is up to the doctors to start a persistent propaganda. The present time is characterised by a universal love of money, and I think that national trait, bad aa it is, might be made good use of. Health means money ; disease is a very expensive hobby. Our financial burdens would be lightened if wo had not to spend so much on disease Employers will soon understand that it pays to preserve the health of tho workers. When one mail loses his job through ill-health, it ought to make his mates a bit thoughtful; perhaps it will bo their turn next week. The money wasted on illness amounts to many millions per annum. The British have a reputation for common sense, but they are extraordinarily stupid about health; they have not sense enough to preserve their teeth. No nation in the world has worse teeth than the British. Cave-dwellers had better teeth. HELP THE DOCTORS. The doctors must certainly start sticking pins into the public. These wretched diseases that weigh us down are easily defeated; the Demon of Disease is a proper old coward if you show him a bold front. But we doctors do ask for co-operation ; we cannot ram health down the throats of a reluctant public. Give us a fair chance, and \tv will nave you a. million pounds a year; you will then have to agree that we have done something for our money. Those of us who live for one year longer will be dazzled bv tho miracles of November, 1922. T shall stomp out venereal disease entirely if you will give me just twelve more months; amentia will bo unknown exnoft as a curiosity; toothache and cancer of the tongue will b© ; lfi ©xtjnet as tho dodo; indigestion will hi'i.e. gone never to return ; oppen dicitis will bo a matter of past history ; a few old cases of consumption will be left alive, but no fresh ones will ho notified \ deformities of the feet unknown; blindness and deafness will be reduced to one quarter of their former amount. All this can be done and will be done by next November but you must all help.