HEALTH HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 24, 28 January 1911, Page 15

HEALTH HINTS.

NUTS AS FOOD.

"What, then, does science tell us in regard to nuts?" asks "Good Health"; and then goes on to answer its question: "This, that nuts, when properly masticated, are just as assimilable as the most easily-digested lean meate; that they contain about 90 per cent of nutritive substances, whereas the best lean beef and mutton contain (but 28;, per cent; that a pound of nuts contains as much proteid as a pound of beefsteak; and that, in addition, the fatsj which comprise some 50 to 60 per ceint of the ! composition of nuts, are of the most easily-assimilable kind known, being much more finely divided than others', so that they can Ibe acted upon directly by the digestive fluids of the stomach."

WHITLOW. This name is given to. a ydry seyere form of inflammation that attacks the tendons and their sheaths of the finders and hand. The first ', symptom is That the front point of the finger becomes tender, red, swollen, and hard. There ie a severe throbbing pain which extends very generally as far as the shoulder. The inflammation may run rapidly along the finger, especially if matter forme in the tendinous sheath and there is no way for it to escape externally. A brisk purgative of salts or seidlitz powder should be given, and hot fomentations applied to the.finger, the hand being kept at rest in an elevated position. If the matter does not disperse, an opening should be made along the centre of the finger to allow of its escape, and so to relieve the extreme tension of the parts. A whitlow is not a thins to 'be neglected, for it sometimes reeultt in disfiguration of tke nand, and may even mean -the loss of the affected fin-er

* A WONDERFUL OPERATION. The wonderful progress made in s'ureieal science is well illustrated by accounts of operations at the London Hospital. Ihe operation was carried out with great success by means of a novel apparatus for wiring together the ends of a broken 'bone. The instrument, which was invented by Professor Lambotti, of Paris consists of a strong pliable wire of softened German silver, on which a screw thread has been cut. A nut runs loosely on this thread. One surface of the wire for its last eight inches is flattened out so that below the nut the wire has one flat surface and. one rounded. "In wiring a broken bone," one of the officials at the hospital explained, "the surgeon, after having separated the soft parts covering the fracture, bends the flattened end of the wire into the shape of a button hook, the flat surface being &. side and the round threaded surface on the out.

Slipping thi3 hook under the fragments, he pulls the free end up towards lum with a pair of forceps, and then opposing the two flattened surfaces of the wire, he screws the nut down until the loop thus made grasps the bone sufficiently tightly. The rest of the wire above the nut is then cut off, and another similar wire support is placed round another section of the break.

"Wifh this instrument an oblique fracture of the thigh-bone in a middle-aged man was wired in about naif the time it usually takes. An X-rays picture to-day shows that the ibones are held in perfect position. Instead of being in bed five or sx weeks, as -used to be customary before the days of wiring, this patient 'will probably be up in less than three -weeks. The wire and the nut, which, of course, are allowed .to remain about tne bone after healing, give no inconvenience in after life."- .. ' •■ ■' f - ■S^^i. J