Though a notable advance has been made in recent years in the study of the bacteriology of the disease, the search for the means of its dissemination has been baffled by the sporadic manner in which the cases occur.
No part of the city and its suburbs has escaped, though the incidence of the disease does not appear to bear any relation to the general condition of sanitation in any locality.
Past experience indicates that the disease is not attributable to insanitary conditions, in the generally accepted sense of the term, and comparatively few cases have been reported from those congested portions of the city which would be regarded as susceptible to most epidemics.
A few cases have occurred in the northern suburbs across the harbour.
The incomprehensible distribution of the disease is equally striking in the country districts.
A few cases have been reported from Helensville, but no others have occurred north of the city area. From Otahuhu along the main railway line as far distant as Morrinsville and Kihikihi the disease has appeared in a number of the townships, but never more than a few cases in each locality.
Altogether, nearly 30 cases have been reported from the country districts during the past month.
Dr Hughes states that fully 75 per cent of the patients had been children under school age and, so far as he had been able to ascertain, there had been only one instance in which two children in one home had been attacked, whilst there were many in which there had been only one sufferer among a large family.
There is no supply available in New Zealand of the serum made by Flenner, the American bacteriologist, for the treatment of the disease. Reliance has, therefore, to be placed on the preparation known as urotropin, the efficacy of which has been well proved.
■ Sir, - The question has been raised as to the definition of the term ‘‘wowser''.
This question arose some years ago in a court in New South Wales, when one of those present, whether the judge or one of the legal gentlemen present I do not remember, gave a definition somewhat as follows:- ‘‘Wowser, an opprobrious term which is used by men who can find no real fault against them for the purpose of vilifying and belittling any man who is brave enough to speak out against the evils of drunkenness, impurity, gambling, Sabbath desecration, and other social and national evils.''
The speaker then went on to say he was proud to be placed in that category.
Cromwell's Ironsides, who prayed and sang Psalms before they dared to fight, were the veriest ‘‘wowsers'', according to the judgment of a certain class, but no troops, not even the best in Europe, ever stood before them.
Surely we can argue a question out on its merits without using such terms. If the term ‘‘wowser''were confined to a certain class of Christian minister or to hypocrites in general, there would be a little sense in its use, but it is notorious that it was brought in as a choice morsel of mud to throw at anyone, however good and true in life and character, who dared to lift his voice against the social evils which he knew were eating the vitals out of the community.
Since I believe in God, freedom, and immortality; since I believe in man as made in the image of God and for the glory of God; and since I believe it is the duty of every good man to help in encouraging his fellow-men to abstain from all breaches of God's Commandments and to do all he can in thought, feeling, and will to come up to the Divine standard, I must confess that, in this sense, I too, am proud to be a ‘‘wowser''.
- I am. etc., J. Farquharson Jones.
- ODT, 8.2.1916.
