HEALTH HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 15

HEALTH HINTS.

BOIL YOUR MILK. In the treatment of all children suffering from wasting from any cause, milk is always ordered; and. indeed, if the child is perfectly healthy, milk ehould form the basis "of the dietary. So we are in rather a fix; we are constantly ordering milk, and yet the milk is a common source of the infection of consumption. The most frequent situation for consumption is the apex of the lung, because the germs are inhaled from the air. But in the case of milk infection, the commonest site is the bowels, because the germs are carried right down to the intestines. This is the reason why consumption of the bowels is so prevalent.

BACKWARD CHILDREN. At the present time the term "backward" is used by the school medical inspector in the sense of defective, but suggesting that the cause of the backwardness can be removed- For example, the child who has adenoids is often rather deaf, and being unable to catch all that is said he falls behind the rest of the class and fails to go up from standard to standard in the proper time. The same tiling applies to the child Vhose eyesight wants attention, and in both cases medical inspection points out the remedy; when that is applied the child brightens and is no longer backward. But it ds ratther with the other meaning of the word that we are now dealing, the backwardness which is really only slowne3S of mental evolution. No racial standard of intelligence, however carefully adjusted, can be universally applied, for the rate of brain growth varies in different individuals of different temperaments, and backwardness in childhood is not always the forerunner of adult deficiency. In fact, it is well known to medical men that the extremely precocious child too often become 6 dull and of most ordinary intelligence in later years. The premature sharpness and cunning of the city child is noticeable, and many people aTe inclined to contrast it with the simplicity and stolidity of country children, but in the long run it is quite likely thu.t the latter turn out superior in intelligence of ihe best sort. Where a child is decidedly precocious great care shonld be taken not to urge him forward or to compel him to show off; with a backward child every effort should be made to see that he is labouring under no physical handicap, and that his training is suited to him ac far as possible. Many a lad supposed tt> be dull is really possessed of enough individuality to have a strong bias in a certain direction, and once this is recognised and training given along that line, he proves quick to learn. The happiest child i<3 really the average child, who. with good hearth steadily rises to his full powers, experiencing neither unnatural progress, nor equally unnatural stagnation. There are times in the lives of most children when they may seem to be making little or no advance, but this is generally due to physical growth which makes special demands on the body. At such times the mental powers are apt to flag and proper allowance must be made for the condition.