THE CHRISTMAS CURE

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE CHRISTMAS CURE

WITH a wave of health passing over the whole country, the happy Christmas week will be ushered in—the annual holiday for rest and peace and the recovery of jaded nerves. The only unfortunates who get no holidays at all, either at Christmas or any other times, are our poor livers. They work all day and everv day, and they have to do a hit of overtime on Sundays, high davs and holidays. There ought to be 'a trade union for livers. I know there ia a Royal Liver Society, but I never know whether "Liver" rhymes with "River" or "Fiver." I hope it rhymes with the former, f° r _ if any organ in the body deserved a society—and a Royal one—to look after its interests, that organ is the liver. Inside Information. A little knowledge of anatomy and physiology is useful to everyone. We know too little about our composition. Even the wise philosophers of Greece were ignorant of the circulation of the blood. We should have much more respect for our insides if we knew a little more about them. Be it known then that the liver is the storehouse of the food that is eaten. The eggs and ham and bread and butter are taken into the alimentary cknal an'd made soluble so that • they can be absorbed into the bloodstream and carried all round the body. Supply of Energy. When a man is hungry, the liver is empty and ready for a meal. At the end of a meal the liver is full; the storeroom is all occupied. The liver is grateful for the supply and is prepared to hold the food and deal it out as occasion arises. Food is needed to maintain the heat of the body and also to supply the energy for muscular action. Therefore, if you go for a walk after a meal the liver gives out the stored-up food to the muscles of the limbs. But what happens at Christmas— and herein lies the urgent need for the foundation of a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Livers—is that the Jiver is pretty well full from basement to attic half-way through the meal. With scarcely enough space to lodge another nut, down comes a second and a third enormous helping of plum pudding, cream and brandy sauce. It is then that the liver sit down by the side of the road in despair and, holding its head in both hands, bursts into tears. Drops of sweat appear on its brow. Revenge! The liver is really a most good-natured kind of individual. He ia always willing to do his best, and very rarely goes on

ByA Family Doctor.

I know there are difficulties in the way, but this much is certain —that a few days' blow by the sea can do more for anyone who has just had influenza than I can. Go prepared for the wet, and then you can brave the weather. A difficult subject I try to tackle sometimes when I am brave is the question of the wife and husband accompanying each other. If the husband and wife are together the year round, it sometimes has a good effect if the wife is temporarily separated from the husband. Tempers are short, and things are sometimes said that are not meant. It comes as a surprise to father when he finds what a treasure he has in his wife, and it does him no harm to be re» minded of this by an occasional absence. When mother comes back he is so pleased to see her and gives her such a warm welcome that she thinks she has come to the wrong house—he behaves more like a.friend than a husband. Watch him open the door for her and show her the stuffed parrot under a glass that he bought to cheer her up through the long winter months. It is a wonderful transformation—all because he missed her so much when she was away. A Holiday For Mother Then, of course, if mother goes away with father and seventeen children she can hardly expect to have a real holiday. It is home from homo with her and no mistake. I want her to have a jolly good rest for her poor back and nerves; breakfast in bed, and time to sit down, and no meals to cook. Everybody rests but mother. The hardest worker of the family is mother. It is mother, therefore, who moat needs a change and rest. If the whole family goes away and mother still has to do the housekeeping and catering, it is no holiday at all. I have never ceased to advocate that mother should, at some period of the year, go away by herself. Those at home will miss her dreadfully, but that does them good; we are never appreciated until we have gone. Face Sores When a child has sores on his face covered by scabs, it is important to remove the scabs before applying any remedy in the shape of ointment or lotion. Sometimes the scabs are very tight, and then they should be soaked in warm water with patience until they are soft and can be removed with the aid of the blade of a clean pair of scissors. If the ointment is put on the scab, no good will result; the sores will spread. The matter from one place infects another portion of the Bkin, and, unless some care" is taken, the sores may spread all over the body. The one place where they must be vigorously attacked is the head. The hair becomes matted with the discharge, and the sores last for weeks. You must cut the hair off. I am sorry to say some mothers like to keep the hair long so that it hides the ugly places; but of course, that is wrong. *

strike. But there are times when even a liver will turn. The gorged blood, unable to deliver up its load to the liver, has to travel round the body in this engorged sta,te, and all the other organs strongly object. The brain protests against the overloaded condition of the blood, and may in a fit of temper have a headache. The liver gets his own back by manufacturing gallstones and other cheery things. And all this because the gentleman or ladv who happens to be celebrating a great historic event in the customary British manner fails to appreciate that you cannot get a hundred tons of goods into a warehouse built to hold 50 tons. Four Meals Too Much. It is hereby enacted and laid down as law that anyone intending to go to Uncle Tom's evening party or grandpa's midday Christmas dinner must prepare themselves for the engagement by previous starvation. Breakfast on Christmas morning must be a mere apology for a meal. In the name of our down-trodden livers I must protest that four enormous meals on one day are too much—it ought to be punishable by law. If the poor old liver is to have a busy time in store for it, let it be well prepared. Let its floors lie swept and garnished. Eat very slowlv, that is an excellent plan. An Appeal. Who would be a kill-joy at Christmas? Christmas comes but once a year ("Thank goodness!" say our livers). By all means have a good feed. The Hottentots do, so why shouldn t we? Have a heathen gorge by all means, but let it be frankly heathen. You must never say grace after a Brobdingnagian gorge; if your lips say "Amen,'" your livers won't. Only all I have to ask is that you should not reform too rapidly. I pay my rent out of the work I do just after the festive season. And my wife wants plenty of money for the January sales. So remember your livers, eat slowly, decline food between meals, and do not peck at the grapes all the afternoon, but please be sufficiently indiscreet to provide me with the wherewithal for rent. I hope for those of you who can are going for a holiday. You must get rid of the old groove, if only for a few days. Try to get a change of air, a change of scene, a change of diet, a change of clothes. Do everything and anything to stir yourself up —it does you good. You will come back the better for it; it's worth the money.