Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-10-13
AGED
DIE ON!STREETS;
REDCROSS HELPS

Tondon.-Dr. Ethel Williams, a New
.ogtle doctor Of 80 years experience,
-ocantlv has returned to England from
vienna, She attended the Woman's
unconditional conference at Zurich,
rrbere she heard so much about the
conditions of disease in Austria that
she decided to see for herself what
those conditions really were. She
snant a week in Vienna visiting the
bosnitals and the school kitchens.
gtudving medical statistics, interview
Epg representative people, and seeing
as much as she could of the city.
snaaking to a Manchester Guardian
representative, she said:
"What impressed me most was the
sppalIing condition of every old per-
son saw, and of 95 per cent of the
children. The old people were like
walking deaths heads. There are so
many things that persons over sixty
cannot digest. The mortality among
the old has increased by $50 per cent
"What struck me most when walk
ING about the streets was that there
were no tOddlers. Children of three
and even four years were carried by
their mothers. The children did not
RIM about, or shout, or quarrel It
was four days before / saw a child
playing.
Most Children Emaciated
At least % per cent of the practical
" well children were painfully enact
ated with discolored circles around
their sunken eyes and the tendOns of
their necks showing like those of old
people. Even middle-class children
have these scrawny necks, and when
they run their cheeks flap like those
of old people. But they seldom run.
They are all limp and listless.
THE scene in the out-patients' de-
partment at the biggest state chill
dren's hospital was pitiful-no sound
or attempt to play. The children sat
quietly on their mothers knees or
against a wall.
81 saw several cases of Osteo-mala-
CHA, disease so rare before the war
that the only two cases l had ever
seen had been shown to me as curl
osity. 1t seems to come from lack of
fresh food, and there have been $50
cases in Vienna, and I heard of an
other epidemic in a German town.
"The bones soften and become dis
torted, the pelvis bones fold inward.
In early stages it is durable, but bad
case never will walk again, and a
rather bad case always will have diff
Guilty in walking.
THE cases were those of older chill
dren and adults. They told me that
the hospitals were receiving about 10
cases a day, and those they had to
turn away inevitably must become
worse I used to test the condition of
the children l saw by feeling their
deshleSs arms. When I touched one
child the father said: Don't touch
him. He has this bad new disease, and
1t hurts him so much I realized at
had hurt him, but the child was too
ustless to shrink from the pain.
THE doctors could do practically
nothing for the out-patients who could
rot be taken to the hospitals The
mothers were in despair. The doctors
said the greatest want Of all was for
cod liver oil. Funds raised in England
had sent a supply, but it only lasted
two days. Practically every child I'M
der two is rickety.
Suffer From Starvation.
ut is extraordinary how little Wen
IA has suffered from war epidemic5
such as typhus. The enormous increase
In sickness is due to starvation disease.
Almost all of its child population is
Stunted, starved, left without vitality,
VigOr or energy. An enormous num-
Der are tubercular and q considerable
proportion Of these will die. Another
considerable proportion will for all
their lives probably be stunted in mind
and body, and all will be handicapped"
The children of school age provided
with one meal of soup and bread in the
gay by American Red Cross workers at
special kitchen she visited were
watched lest they should take the bread
nome. "You must eat the bread" the
workers told them. "All that we can do
Is te help you to keep well and strong"
The American Red Cross is opening
more Of these kitchens, and hopes to
reed 10000 or more children, but that
only means food for one section of the
people, the children of school age-and
even then only one meal in the day.