HOME TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 252, 25 October 1933, Page 13

HOME TREATMENT.

WOOD COAL AND INDIGESTION.

(By EJSRITUS.)

The public seems to have rediscovered the virtues of purer water, open air and sunlight aa remedies, but still is held in thrall by "patent" chemical mesees and mixtures for eimple ailments. Very few people escape attacks of indigestion, either from improper food, or taking a meal when fatigued, or too soon after exerciscs, or late at night when tired, and although we all do unwise things sometimes, we should be prepared with an antidote for mild foolishness and mistreatments of our exceedingly complicated bodily functions. Heartburn is cured by a small flood of pure water (hot or cold), pain by such simple remedies as ginger and peppermint in alcohol, and the majority of stomach discomforts by charcoal. Charcoal has moot remarkable powers as an antidote and absorbent. Successful results have been obtained in cases of cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea and dyspepsia, and in cases of poisoning many lives have been saved by the use of charcoal as an emergency measure. It is an antidote for strychnine, phosphorus, morphia, mercury, lysol and arsenic, as a preliminary treatment before washing out 'the stomach, where this is permissible. In cases of flatulent dyspepsia half a teaspoonful or lees of powdered charcoal should be taken after food. It is best when swallowed in wafer paper, but can be taken with milk or with water. In the form of tablets it is most convenient, and in biscuits most pleasant. It is not really a drug, nor is it listed as such, but it is a simple, harmless domestic remedy for a common complaint much neglected.