TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 December 1927, Page 5

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. Treatment for Shock. When a man lias been subjected to a, profound shock his body temperature falls, and it is necessary to keep him warm by artificial means. Thus, after a severe accident or a heavy loss of* blood, or prolonged immersion m the water, you are doing the best thing for the patient if you quickly put him in warm blankets and surround him with hot-water bottles. The signs which should make you adopt this treatment are pallor of the skin, cold sweats on the forehead, a feeble pulse, and weakness and collapse. If the injured man is conscious and can hear and understand what you say, force yourself to keep calm and say something reassuring—“You will soon be all right, old man.” You will do a lot of harm if you stare at him with a ter-ror-stricken countenance.

Information for the Doctor. It is a kindness to give the friends little jobs to do. It is very trying to have to stand by and do nothing. Send one for the doctor, and see that you give him as careful a description of the case as you can, so that the doctor can slip into his bag exactly what he wants. If the message is not given correctly the poor old doctor will bring all the things for a confinement to a man with a broken leg. Especially let the doctor know if there is any bleeding. Nothing annoys me more than the sudden breathless arrival of a messenger who ivants a doctor at once, if not sooner, and when one asks what is the matter he answers, “I dunno.’” It happens quite often. A Foolish Prejudice. Let us have no foolish prejudices, but let us look the facts calmly in the face. You must not refuse the benefits that an operation may confer on you because you cannot bear the knife. There is a great deal of nonsense talked about doctors being too fond of the knife. It is the patients who do not properly appreciate the benefits that an operation may confer. The commonest example of this is afforded by the treatment of an ordinary abscess or whitlow on the finger. The doctor, having examined the finger, sees at once that an operation would give immediate relief. But the relatives are up in arms at once. Auntie says she never had whitlows opened when she was a girl; but that was somewhere about the time of Noah’s Ark, and we have advanced since then. Then Polly Perkins puts her spoke in and says she “never could a-bear the knife.” Her job is to stick labels on jampots, so her opinion is very valuable. Then the neighbours drop in, and one suggests a bread poultice, and is shouted down by another, who says an onion poultice is better. Good News for Germs. Oh dear! oh dear! A small snick with a knife, and the corruption pours out of the finger and is thrown in the dustbin or burnt in the fire. No one awaits the decision about an operation with greater anxiety than the germs which are causing the mischief. They listen to the various opinions with their hands up to their ears and their necks craning forward to catch the final decision. 1 hate germs! Their cruelty is appalling: they have no hesitation in pouncing on an innocent baby and torturing it to death before the mother’s eyes. But when they hear Polly Perkins say she “can’t a-bear the knife” they rejoice. The doctor calls the next morning and the abscess is twice the size, the pain and fever are increased, and important structures, such as leaders and cartilages and joints, are invaded and destroyed beyond all hope. The fire is spreading and the fire brigade is ordered off! Ah! Polly Perkins, the jam-pot labeller; dear Aunties of a. bygone age; what crimes are committed in your names! There is many a crippled hand existing to-day that might have been saved by a timely operation.

A Day in Bed. A day in bed is a most valuable form of treatment. Women with backache will find wonderful relief from this simple remedy. Man differs from all other animals in standing upright instead of walking on all fours. The consequence of this is that a great strain is thrown on the erect spine. It has to be maintained in the vertical position by muscles and tendons that, correspond to the ropes supporting a mast or a flagstaff. When the body is laid on a bed in the supine position these over-strained muscles of the back are immediately relaxed. v A Rest for the Heart. If you count your pulse when you are standing, sitting and lying, you will find that the heart beats more slowly in each position. It beats slowest when you are on your back. if you knock eight or ten beats a minute off the pulse-rate, you will have saved a very large number of beats in the twenty-four hours. A rest, therefore, is the best plan if you want to relieve an overworked heart. You generally make the mistake of taking a, tonic that forces the heart to beat faster, and that leaves it worn out at the end of the day. The result nuiy be a fainting attack or great lassitude. When the day is spent in bed there is plenty of time to eat meals and plenty of time to digest them. You can have no idea how much your liver appreciates that rest .after being accustomed to do its work while _ you charge about the city. Bill’s Own Fault. Go to the police court and you will see men and women who never have been honest and never will be; they hate the word honesty, and the robbing of the savings of some poor old woman is their idea of living. But they are punished. Go into the hospitals, and you will see people who are ill through their own fault; they give no effil of trouble, much good money is wasted on them. Directly a man falls sick and applies to the friendly society you say, “Poor old Bill is on the sick list again.” I assure you that in hundreds of cases it is not “poor old Bill.” It is careless old Bill, stupid old Bill, drunken, gormandising old Bill. I am naturally cruel, and I like to spend all my vindictiveness on such men, who are ill from their own fault, and then come sneaking round to dip their fingers in the funds subscribed by their fellows. Old Bill has been a “pfinisher” for years, and if I had my way he would get a rap over the knuckles when he stretches out for the lodge’s money. A little care, forethought and self-restraint and he need not be seedy.