MEDICAL FALLACIES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 153, 25 March 1937, Page 7

MEDICAL FALLACIES

Some 44 Old Wives’ Tales ” Have Escaped The Light O£ Progress

z pHIS is the age of science and enlightenment, we are told, but there are many “old wives’ tales” still given credence in our day. Though we have learnt enough to know the world is not flat, as the ancients thought, we cling to dozens of minor fallacies and superstitions. Dr. August A. Thomen, English University lecturer, in a recent book, attacks some of our medical misconceptions.

TTATIUG green apples will cause stomach-ache. Unripe fruit in general is hard and unpalatable—hence It is likely to be insufficiently chewed. It is this that causes stomach-ache, and not the unripeness of the fruit. There is nothing in green apples alone to cause a stomach-ache. If the apple is eaten slowly ami sufficiently chewed, the stomach is not able to distinguish between a ripe and an unripe one. The heart is situated in the left side of the chest. This misconception arises because the largest of the four chambers, the left ventricle, from which the blood is pumped to the body, is in the left side of the heart, its apex being

directed to the left and downward; hence the beating of the' heart is more readily felt on the left side. Yet if the body were slicely exactly in half directly through the centre of the breastbone, only a little more than half the heart would be found on the left‘side. .4 “compound fracture” its oik: in. which a bone its broken in a number of placets. The terms “simple fracture" and “compound fracture” have nothing : to do with the number of times a bone : is broken. A “simple fracture" is one , in which the skin is unbroken; the bone ' may be broken in several places. A “compound fracture.” on the other i hand, is one in which the skin is brok- ; en and the injury exposed to the air. 1 If the skin is broken it may mean a 1 complicating infection of • the bone (osteomyelitis), which may continue to discharge pus long after the fractured parts have united.

]:<:<; tea is very nourishing. Beef tea contains so little nourishment that six large cupfuls have loss food value than one slice of bread. The reason is that the nourishing parts of beef are not soluble in water. Beef tea is there fore nothing more than coloured water flavoured with what are termed beef extractives—that is. the meat substances which are soluble in water, but which have very little food value. Beef tea serves its purpose chiefly as a stimulant to the appetite and as an aid to digestion because the gastric juices flow more abundantly when it is taken. Sir.yi iny the hair is licneltcial. aiding it to grow inure abundantly. The average barber or beautician is convinced that singeing the hair is a very effective method of invigorating it : the supposed 1 reason being that singeing closes the : ends of the hairs, thus preventing the ; nutritive juices from exuding. This I is the veriest nonsense, for the simple ' reason that nothing ever oozes from the ends of the hair. What singeing | does do, and it does nothing else, is to j make the ends of the hair affected by i the heat more brittle. Heading light should conic from over j the lift shoulder. It has been deter- i mined by experimentation that it matters not from where the light comes, provided there are no shadows cast upon the page, aqd provided the rays from the light do not enter the eye. The light should be at least 26 degrees away

from the direct line of sight, and should be so placed as to avoid direct reflections from the page. The weakest light suitable for reading or other dose work is three-foot caudles, equivalent' to the amount of light obtained from an 80-watt unshaded electric light, placed six feet from the page.

If is more dangerous to prick oneself with a pin than with a needle. A wound made by a pin is no more injurious in itself than ope made by a needle. The important question is what contaminating germs are introduced into the wound, not what causes it.

Pressing the upper lip or placing a key or piece of ice at the back of the neck will stop a nose-bleed. Fully 99 per cent, of all nose-bleeds stop of themselves whether anything is done for them or not. Hence, any form of treatment will receive wholly undue credit. The only way that pressing the tipper lip could possibly help would be by stopping the flow of blood to the nose, thereby permitting a dot to form more readily. The treatment is illogical, however, because the blood vessels which supply the nose ar. deep within the face (quite removed from the upper lip) and beyond being influenced by pressure from without. The key and the ice likewise receive credit because the bleeding stops voluntarily.

Thunder sometimes causes milk to sour. Ulilk sometimes does sour after thunderstorms, but the thunder has nothing to do with the souring. There are certain germs, the lactic acid bacilli, normally present in milk, which feed on the milk sugar, thereby producing lactic acid, which, when a certain concentration is reached, sours the milk. The air is usually warmer preceding a thunderstorm, and these germs multiply much more rapidly in warm temperatures. It is the rapid increase in germ growth which causes the milk to sour, not the thunder or the lightning.

Any method of using one’s handkerchief is Quite satisfactory. The most common method of using a handkerchief when lhe individual has a “cold” in the head is to till the lungs with air and, holding both nostrils firmly and with lips tightly pressed, blow vigorously while slightly lessening the pressure on the nostrils. This method is not only inefficient, but positively dangerous, because the ineffective mucus and muoppus present in the nose is liable to be forced backward into the sinuses, and especially into the Eustachian tube, which connects the inner ear with the throat, thereby spreading the infection and resulting in ear disease. The correct way to "blow the nose” is to press one nostril at a time, and, while the mouth is kept open, to blow as vigorously’ as one cares to through the open nostril In this manner the nasal air passages are cleared and there is no danger of producing complications.