TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 July 1932, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

ULCERS OF THE TONGUE [BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.] I want to say something about ulcers of the tongue. The smallest ulcers, which may occur in large numbers, and are quite shallow, are due to indigestion. They often occur on the lips as well as the tongue, and should be treated with a mouthwash of boracic or very weak carbolic. A careful diet and a dose of salts will remedy the disorder of the stomach. An ulcer may be found at the side of the tongue, lying immediately against a sharp decayed tooth. This variety of ulcer will never heal unless the tooth is removed or filed down. Every time the tongue moves the ulcei' is rubbed against the ragged edge of the tooth, and the ulcer is effectually prevented from healing. The one golden rule that must never be forgotten is that an ulcer on the tongue of an elderly, person should be shown to a surgeon at once. HYGIENE OF THE MOUTH I have seen many cases where the ulceration of the tongue is part of the general unhealthy condition of the mouth —the tonsils, the throat, the gums, and the teeth all present an unhealthy appearance. The care and hygiene of the mouth is much neglected, and once the mouth gets into an unwholesome state is is difficult to get right again. Ulceration of the tongue may be very painful, and in order to give the tongue a chance to get well, a most careful diet must be ordered. All forms of hot or irritating food or condiments are forbidden. No mustard, or pepper, no curries or gingerbeer, or pickles. No hard crusts with sharp edges to scratch the delicate skin that is trying to form over the ulcers. Septic teeth and foul stumps must be drawn, and a simple mouthwash must be frequently used. So you see there are different kinds of ulcer of the tongue.. One is a local condition of the mouth and is due to neglect; another is really dependent on the condition of the'stomach, and attention is directed not so much to the tongue itself as to the digestive organs. A third variety may be called the dental ulcer, because it is caused'by a tooth.

DAWN OF COMMON SENSE ~ • If a child has to wear glasses the doctor will see that the lenses are correct, but the mother must see that the frame of the glasses are comfortable. A child may. leave off the glasses, not because the lenses are wrong, but because the wire of the frame is not quite comfortable around the ears or across the bridge of the nose. A very little adjustment will put it right. I do hope that an era of common sense is dawning in the minds of parents. The old course was to punish the child for inattention at school. .If that did not cure her she was made to go without her dinner as a. double punishment. Very sensible, wasn’t it, to rob the child of the nourishment it needed for its growing frame? When the child complained of a headache, the parents had one idea and one only, and that was to give opening medicine. Surely the lowest depths of human folly has been> reached when, instead of providing suitable glasses to relieve the headache that comes from eye-strain, the mother gives a bottle of opening medicine.

DISUSE MEANS ATROPHY ' One of the golden rules of physiology is that if an organ is not used it begins to atrophy, or die away. If we were to live in a dark, cavern we should lose the use of our eyes in time; if we keep our arm in a sling for weeks and weeks it dies away to nothing. The particular application of this rule that I wish to make is that dur teeth are' made of the hardest substances in the body—the enam el—and' that these teeth are meant to be used in biting hard articles of diet Look at the dog; he is always gnaw ing bones, and he keeps his teeth in good order by so doing. It is a mistake to think that every mouthfiil a baby takes should be pulped into a pappy mass. The way to provide sharp little teeth is a proof that they are meant to be used. Toothless gums should be good enough for sloppy foods. To give the teeth some work to do is the best way to preserve them. There must be' something wrong when 80 per cent, of the school children have decayed teeth. And just let me digress from my proper path to re mind you that as it is with our bodily structure, so it is with our mental composition. If you are not constantly exercising your self-restraint, your courage, your sympathy with, the misfortunes of others, you will find» these qualities dying away until, like the bird with no wings, you find yourself entirely bereft of those virtues which can only grow strong if exercised.

THE BABY’S EYES We. have only one pair of eyes to last through life, so it behoves us to take good care of them. Infection of the eyes at birth is the commonest cause of blindness. In a blind asylum one-third of all the inmates are placed there in consequence of this terrible malady which attacks the eyes of newly-born infants. This is particularly sad, as the disease is easily preventable. Every nurse attending a birth should pay especial attention to the baby’s eyes by first carefully washing them with warm water and then instilling into each eye one or two drops of a weak solution of silver nitrate (two grains to the ounce of distilled water). Now this is quite a simple business, isn’t it. Yet because of the neglect of this precaution, thousands are robbed of half the sweetness of life, by being rendered blind in babyhood. "