HEALTH HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 38, 13 February 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

HEALTH HINTS.

COLD WATER FOR COLDS. Open-air treatment is coming to be recognised as the most effective cure for colds. The use of cold water baths is also recommended by an authority, who says that cold water, proper fond, and commonsense are the foundations upon which a cold cure must restA cold sponge bath, one to three minutes long, with a brisk dry rub immediately before and after, is excellent—visually all that is necessary to keep the cutaneous circulation alive and the skin reactive to sudden changes of temperature. TO ENSURE REFRESHING SLEEP. Whatever variation there may be in the quantity of sleep demanded, there are no two questions about the quality. It must be sound and refreshing in' order that nature shall have a chance to do properly her night work, on which our good health so largely depends. The two material conditions that particularly contribute to this end. says a medical man. are proper ventilation and proper lighting of our sleeping apartments. In the matter of ventilation, this generation has progressed man-j steps beyond where our fathers stood. Most of us know now that it is simply slow poison to prepare to hibernate in tightly shut rooms for the winter, the way all the vrorld used to. and. for the most part people of intelligence now sleep with a window open all the year round. But many of us who have learned the lesson of proper ventilation have "iven the subject of lighting no thought.°Just as surely as you cannot sleep properly in air that poisons the blood, you cannot sleep properly facing the light. It irritates the entire nervous system, and nerve energy is too precious to be parted with unnecessarily. The result is that the sleep is not deep and undisturbed, and nature is proportionately hampered in her repair work- This happens in a harmful degree, even though you may not realise it sufficiently to awaken. And it happens, of course, when the grey dawn comes stealing through your windows in your last hour or two of sleep, the very time when the brain should be getting its best rest and upbuilding. You may receive the effect in a headache the next day. or you may get it in impaired digestion. For even digestion depends on sleep. If the cells fhat are concerned in the stomach operations are not built up. they cannot work properly. The remedy for this lies in the arrangement of your sleeping room. Do not, for your very health's sake, try to correct it by darkening the window with curtains, for that shuts out the lifegiving fresh air. Let your windows alone. But simply turn the bed about so that you do not -face the light-