TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 July 1931, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

A BLOW’ ON THE EYE.

[BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.]

The body is marvellously constructed so as to be delicate and, at the same time, able to withstand violence. What, for instance, could be more delicate than the eye? And yet so well is it protected by the overhanging bone beneath the eyebrow and by the I soft pad of firm fat that constitutes the cheek that a blow right on the eye seldom damages the optic itself. All around is bruising, swelling, redness, but the sight of the eye is unimpaired. A KIDNEY PUNCH. The effect of blows on the body are well worth study, and the signs that an ordinary man, not a doctor, might look for may be noted down. A blow over the region of the kidney does not very often reach that organ. Lying over the kidney is a very thick layer of powerful muscle and a large pad of fat. If the kidney has been injured by a blow, blood will appear in the urine. This sign should be looked for and, if necessary, the assistance of a doctor called in. It is a sign that the injured man ought to rest quiet even though he docs not feel very bad. Bleeding from the, kidneys may assume alarming proportions unless the man lies quiet. The blood may clot somewhere in the internal passages that lead from the kidney to the exterior, and great, pain and even danger may result. BLOWS ON THE HEAD Blows on the head give great anxiety to the medical attendant on the case. It is a common experience to find that a blow from which the patient dies at the end of a week showed no ill-effects at all for several hours after the. infliction of the violence. Your best plan is to call in a doctor; if you decide to take the responsibility on yourself I strongly urge you to insist, on the injured man resting in bed. It may be he will be all right, but you never know. Injuries to the head arc difficult to treat when the man is sober; (hey are ten times more difficult to tackle when he is drunk.

IN DEFENCE OF THE DOCTOR. I confess I am in constant dread of sending to the police cell a man who has had a knock on the head—whose injuries arc more serious than appear at first. I had one case of a young man who fell off a van on a I* riday afternoon and went on working until Saturday midday, when he took ihs wages and went off to a music-hall; He felt faint when he was in the hall and was carried out. I was called to see him, but he was dead before I arrived. I found that he had fractured his skull. It is a curious fact that a man can take his wages and go off to enjoy himself and all the time have a fractured skull.

NO BRANDY.

Always' look for bleeding from the ears. If even a drop of blood comes from the ear it is a bad sign and you must send for the doctor. But do not be deceived by thinking that blood that trickles into the ear from the outside is a sign of a fractured skull. Carefully wash away any blood that may be on the outside of the ear. After a head injury of any severity the patient should be put in a darkened room, his friends should be excluded, and his diet should be very light—a little custard or arrowroot or something of that nature is best. All forms of alcohol should, of course, be forbidden. It is a mistaken kindness to run up with a glass of brandy to a man who is suffering, from concussion.

BRUISING. An explanation of bruising may be interesting. It is well known that the blood is red. Small discs float about in the blood. These discs contain a red pigment; one little disc by itself looks a pale yellow, but thousands of them piled on top of each other give a deep red tint. These discs swim round in the circulation of the blood and are, therefore, found in the very smallest blood-vessels. The large blood-vessels are thick and strong, but the vessels get smaller and smallei until the most minute are of great delicacy of structure; the walls of the tiniest vessels are so thin as to be quite invisible to the naked eye and scarcely visible under a powerful microscope.

A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION Now, when a violent punch is given to the cheek or any other part of the body the violence bursts these tiny blood-vessels and the red discs flow out through the broken walls into the surrounding parts, just as water escaping through a leaky drain-pipe might find its way into the surrounding earth. The blood-stream cannot live, and they die away, leaving their red pigment lying around in the tissues of the cheek. This red pigment undergoes changes in colour which give the familiar appearance of a black eye. The harder the blow the worse (he bruising; but some people bruise very easily; (hat is. their blood-vessels arc particularly delicate. As the red pigment soaks through (he fat under the skin it gradually reaches the surface, and that is what is meant by the bruising coming out. This is a natural process and is not really affected by applications to bring the bruising out. The proper treatment for a bruise is to keep the injured part at rest and to prevent the skin from being broken. The skin is a natural preservative and protection against the entry of dirt—and by dirt 1 mean poisonous germs.