HEALTH HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 13

HEALTH HINTS.

COMMON" SENSE. Doctors would cease to thrive if their patients would cultivate their stock of common sense. Innumerable illnesses conic through not exercising good judgment. A famous doctor has said, " Most sicknesses could be averted if people only had sense enough to know it." Unfortunately, this sense to keep well is usually v belated faculty, only acquired by painful experience. Often, too, it has a way of getting lost again when the emergency is passed, Neither.sex can boast of being immune from a lack of judgment, call it, if common sense, seems too hard a term. Menand women alike trifle recklessly with their health when a few precautions would avert trouble. ADENOIDS. Especially, among young children and delicate persons the roof of the pharynx at the back of the |«late is liable to become affected by thickenings and excessive growth, thus giving rise to what are known as adenoid vegetations. At the same time the tonsils commonly become enlarged in the same way. Adenoids, therefore, are not true tumours, but mere thickening of parts which naturally occur in healthy people. In bad cases the nose becomes obstructed, the hearing affected, and the general health seriously disturbed. In typical cases the appearance of the patient is, as Mr. Shield has said, quite characteristic. He has a vacuous appearance with a half-open mouth, he is more or less deaf, and probably from that reason is generally provokingiy stupid, being unable to hear conversations or learn lessons like other boys. The speech is altered, the child biting his words, as saying " luh " for " rub."' He snores loudly at night, and attacks of choking and night terrors are not uncommon. In all but th c mildest cases prompt surgi'-al treatment is called for. The result of the operations is generally striking, the breathing, hearing, intelligence and general health all rapidly improving. WARTS. Seme people are very subject to develop warts, and in some cases they n.ay appear in regular crops. Oecasionul!\ a wart may give trouble, especially tit it is of large size, and if it develops on the scalp. Note one point, that when a wart, so-called, appears on the face, and especially on the cheek, a doctor should be consulted. What people in such a ca.se often call a "wart," may really be a symptom of a serious trouble. The same remark applies to warts growing on women's breasts. They should never be tampered with, but should be shown to a.medical man whenever they appear. Warts are often spoken of as "infectious." 1 suppose by this term is meant the idea that contact with warts may convey them to other people. 1 know of no evidence in support of this view, and 1 should think if warts appear in. say, two cases, in which there has been aiiy dose association, the matter is one of pure coincidence, writes Dr. Andrew Wilson. Warts give off no jrernis as far as we know, though it may not at all be unlikely that in each individual case some irritation, at tbe root of which a microbe exists, may account for the origin of the growth. In the treatment of warts, cleanliness is the lirst consideration—a point, this, too frequently neglected. Wash the skin with coal tar soap regularly, then apply carefully to the wart every day, or every two days, a little glacial R cetie acid. Take tare this acid is not. allowed to touch the skin around the wart. Apply it on Uir end of a little piece af wood —a mere drop will do—such as the end of a tuntch, rubbing the acid gently into the substance of the growth. A little pure carbolic acid may be carefully used in the same way. Some years ago I met with a. record of a medical man's experience iii the treatment of warts, which I think is worth recording. He found a wart disappear in his own person when ho began to take limewater. So satisfied was he with this treatment that, he prescribed to his patients a wineglassful of lime water with 'i little milk added, after the midday meal. This remedy may take time, but it is at least, worth while trying, and 7-ls simplicity is a crreat recommendation.