THE HEALTH OF WOMEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2506, 20 May 1909, Page 5

THE HEALTH OF WOMEN.

A DOCTOR’S VIEWS

[Per Press Association.]

DUNEDIN, May 19. At tho annual meeting of the Society for Promoting the Health of Women and Children, to-day, Dr. F. C. Batchelor gave an address relating to his experiences and observations during AQ years’ practice. In the course of his remarks ho said he was in sympathy with the higher education of women, if conducted on reasonable lines, but he contended that essentially physiological principles were totally ignored, and the present education system encouraged women to pursue a course of study for which nature never intended them. He referred to numerous cases of young women suffering from nervous weaknesses and the like, and to their subsequent history if they married, and said tho system that did not aim at preparing girls for domestic life was exercising a far-reaching and malign effect on the community. The speaker also referred to the casual ancl haphazard manner in which, parents allowed their daughters to enter matrimony, without thought or scrutiny as to fitness of the husband. He unhesitatingly asserted that a large percentage of men entered married life while suffering from the effects of diseases likely to endanger the health, and perhaps the life, of the wife, besides affecting the offspring. He asserted there were now thousands of innocent -women suffering from tlie effects of these maladies, while innumerable lives had been lost and desperate operations wore performed almost daily .in the Dominion to relieve unfortunate sufferers. He advocated tho State demanding that men should submit to medical inspection to decide their fitness or otherwise before entering on matrimonial alliance. Other speakers endorsed Dr. Batchelor’s views. Mr. G. M. Thomson, M.P., asked the .Society to appoint a committee to confer with the Technical School authorities with tho object of having tuition in domestic economy put on a satisfactory footing.