The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-09-10
V|ENNA'S AGED
DYING ON FEET
Most Austrians Suffer From Raw
ages of the Many Wartime
MaIadieS.
CHILDREN ARE EMAcIATED
scrawny, Limp, ListIess From MaInu.
triton and Seldom Smile or Play
American Red Cross 10
Helping.

London.-Dr. Ethel Williams, New
castle doctor of 80 years experience,
recently has returned to England from
Vienna. She attended the Woman's
International conference at Zurich,
where she heard so much about the
conditions Of disease in Austria that
she decided to see for herself what
those conditions really were. She
spent week in Vienna, visiting the
hospitals and the school kitchens,
studying medical statistics interview
ing representative people, and seeing
as much as she could of the city.
Speaking to Manchester Guardian
representative she said:
'What impressed me most was the
appalling condition of every old per-
son l 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
and even four years were carried by
their mothers. The children did not
run about or shout, or quarrel. 1t
was four days before / saw a child
playing.
Most Children Emaciated.
At least 95 per cent of the practical
ly 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.
1.-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 wall.
II saw several cases of osteo-mala-
CHA, disease so rare before the war
that the only two r5s.-sa T had ever
seen had been shown = me as curl
osity. 1t seems to coaae from lack of
fresh food, and theI~ lave been 250
cases In Vienna. and heard of an
other epidemic in a Es,<man 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.
49, 81 oI,s1
dren and adults. They told me that
the hospitals were receiving about Is |
cases day, and those they had to
turn away inevitably must become
worse. I used to test the condition of
the children / saw by feeling their
f1eshless arms. When / touched one
child the father said: Don't touch
him. He has this bad new disease, and +
it hurts him so much I realized at
had hurt him, but the child was TOO
listless to shrink from the pain.
1.-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 supply, but it only lasted
two days. Practically every child I'M
der two is rickety.
Suffer From Starvation.
"It is extraordinary how little Wen
ma has suffered from war epidelnics
such as typhus. The enormous increase
Ii sickness is due to starvation disease.
Almost all of it's child population is
stunted starved, left without vitality,
vigor or energy. An enormous num- /
Der are tubercular and a considerable
proportion of these will die. Another
proportion will for all
heir lives probably be stunted in mind
md body, and all will be handicapped"
The children of school age provided
With one meal of soup and bread in the
lay by American Red Cross workers at
l special kitchen she visited were
watched lest they should take the bread
lome. you must eat the bread" the
workers. told them. "All that we can do
S to help you to keep well and strong"
Nhe American Red Cross is opening
more of these kitchens, and hopes to
eed 10000 or more children, but that
nly means food for one section of the
'eople the children of school age-and
ven then only one meal in the day.