TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1928, Page 5

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. The Study of Disease. In the case of an obscure death, the coroner orders a post-mortem examination to be held to clear up the cause of death. We have no power to resist the order; but occasionally a private doctor suggests that a postmortem examination should be made on the body of one of his private patients. The study of disease must always be very difficult, and we ought to embrace every opportunity of extending our knowledge. If ever you feel inclined to refuse your consent to an examination, think to yourself that the knowledge gained may be the means of helping the doctor to cure or prevent a similar condition in someone else. After all, the body is doomed to decay, and it seems a small matter to allow the doctor to make sure what was really the matter when he has been treating a. difficult and obscure case. Moreover, it is the doctor’s duty to fill up the death certificate as accurately as possible in order that the statistics may be of value.

Rules and Practices.

It may sound strange, but if I could persuade you to adopt certain rules of health I could reduce all the illnesses by one-half in a very few weeks. What is wanted is the means of bringing home to the people the truths that are known to medical science. It is useless to spend public money on research, and then, when some wonderful discovery is made, to leave it in the laboratory; we have to carry out into practice in our daily lives the recommendations that the scientists make. The man with the microscope, working with scientific precision, discovers the germs of disease on a fly’s foot. What is the good of that? No good, if the people refuse to take steps to exterminate flies. We learn that vermin are capable of carrying the seeds of disease in their interiors and transmitting them into the blood of the persons they bite, and yet year succeeds year and no determined effort is made by the people to rid themselves of these pests.

An Appeal to Mothers.

Determination in dealing with vermin is not conspicuous. The nurses who are employed to inspect the heads and clothes of school children have won battles, but have not yet finally defeated the enemy. The nurses cannot win unless they have the mothers on their side. The question is: Are the mothers to be allies or passive neutrals? I have great faith in mothers, but there are some who lack education and intelligence, and will not take the trouble ovex- their children that their next-door neighbours do. Do not forget that dirt and disease go hand in hand. It is not fail- that Mrs Smith’s children should be made ill because they catch something from Mrs Brown’s family. Mrs Brown is very selfish if she neglects her own offspring, and is indifferent to the spread of disease from her home. Nowpull yourselves together. I give you two years to diminish disease by onehalf.

The Wrong Bottle.

If you go to a hospital or a doctor and have two bottles given you, one containing some liniment for external use and the other containing medicine to drink, you must keep the bottles separate. The medicine bottle is to be put on the mantlepiece and the liniment on the top shelf of the cupboard. It does not happen very often, but once in a while the mistake is made of giving the patient a drink of liniment. I know it sounds absurd, but it does happen. It is done in the twilight, when the electric light ought to have been lighted, or it is done in a hurry. One case in a year is once too often. All poison bottles must be kept apart. I said just now “on the top shelf,” because when you stretch up to reach it, it gives you a moment to think what you are doing. In hospitals all poisons are kept in a special cupboard under lock and key. If the liniment looks like milk an inquisitive and thirsty child may take a drink. Take warning in time; it is a simple way to avoid disaster to put the poison bottle in a special place inaccessible to children.

Modern Surgery. The public would be wise to take advantage of the resources of modern surgery in all cases of stone. Contained in the body are numerous chemicals and some of them crystallise out as stones. These may form , in many parts of the body, but wherever they occur they can be lifted out of their beds by a kindly and skilful surgeon. Why wait for the stone to grow larger, to destroy more of the vital issues, io give pain and distress? It is most unfortunate that a misguided prejudice against the knife should prevent those good people from an almost certain relief. Stones in the kidneys revealed by the X-rays, stones in the bladder, and gall-stones may all be removed, and if you are wise you will prefer to have the stones on the shelf of a museum rather than in your body. Let me persuade you to give modern surgery a chance. It is a mistake to be for ever stuck in the mud and not to embrace new ideas.

Reasonable Experiments. I have no objection to your trying reasonable experiments with your health; only please note that I say “reasonable.” There was once a man who thought he would like to try the starvation cure, and he took less and less to eat, and was getting on grandly, when one day he died of some people whose habits get into never-changing grooves, and they think the world would come to an end if they altered them. Old Bill has always had meat three times a day, and thinks he could do better without it. lie would probably be better if he took less meat, ohly he would never find it out if he did not make the experiment. The New House. You may meet a man who says his wife has never been so well as she has been since they moved to their new house. There is a chance for you to put on your thinking cap. It may be, after all, that what your wife wants is not a bottle of cure-all. but a. change to a drier house. You never stopped to think whether your place was at the bottom of a hill, where all the under soil water collects. Perhaps just round the corner is a house that would suit you quite as well, and it gets all the sun. Sunshine makes a liouse healthy and, what is more, gives an air of cheerfulness to your rooms.

Nothing depresses mo so much as a dark room where the light and air never seem to penetrate, especially when the walls are ornamented —if you can call it that —with funeral cards in memory of Great-aunt Jane, with lots of skulls and cross-bones on them. Winter sunshine is precious, and to no one more precious than to the growing child. Nurseries must be bright.

The Matter of Diet.

Another experiment, well worth trying to a tired worker, is to go to bed one hour earlier than usual. The brain and heart and muscles will be' very much obliged, and will impart a sense of well being to you as a slight token of their esteem. If that experiment succeeds it will have been a tribute to my wisdom in recommending it. Then in your diet you can do so much to help your internal organs to do their work efficiently. Most of you can be divided into two classes —those who eat too much, and those who eat too little. If only the toomuchers would give a bit to the toolittlers, what a happy world it would be? The muchers would be relieved of their gout and liverishness, and the littlers would not faint at their work.

Foolish Girls. The girls are the great offenders. They get up early, and, declaring with much ill-humour that they can’t bear the sight of food, they go off to business with nothing more than a strongcup of tea in their insides. That is no good for a hard-working girl. Then dinner time comes and they take four strong cups of tea and some pickles to carry on with. Men have more sense; they have strong muscles, and they understand that those muscles cannot work unless they are well supplied witlt fuel. But girls are well nigh hopeless. They will not spend the money on nourishing food w-hile there is a fur coat to be bought. Gastric ulcers are about five times as common in women as in men. Experiments can always be tried. Eat more slowly; that may cure you. Drink a tumblerful of water three or four times a. day. More than, half our body-weight is water, and plenty of water is needed to keep the blood healthy and the kidneys and bowels working properly. You may find brown bread suits you better than white.