TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 November 1934, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

(By a Family Doctor.) TESTING FOR DEAFNESS. A child that you think is stupid may be only deaf. You must not be guilty, as so many impatient parents and teachers are. of punishing a deaf child for inattention. You must apply this test and then you will know whether to punish the, child or punish yourself for neglect: Place the child at a distance of about 12 feet away from you. Be sure and turn his back towards you, otherwise he will tell what you are saving not by hearing, but by watching your lips. Now tell him to repeat what you say. Enunciate youi woids clearlv and in a loud voice. If you say “Forty” he will repeat “Forty.” Then say other numbers in a voice that gradually gets softer; you will soon reach a point where he fails to repeat what you say, as his ears are not sharp enough to catch the vibrations. With practice it is easy tp recognise when a child is deaf. But when you try the test it is a. good plan to have someone standing by the ch’ld—someone whose hearing you know to be perfect. Then, when you speak in a soft voice, the child will be unable to hear, but the noimal person will say he heard distinctly. All you have to do is to establish the fact whether the child is deaf or not; you are not concerned with the cause of the deafness —'that is the doctor s business.

THE FORM DIVINE. Have any of you paid a visit to the British Museum in London? I want you to come with me and look at one exhibit only and then go and have tea. Here it is, a marble statue of a young Greek; the statue was fashioned at a time- when sculpture had reached its zenith of perfection. The Greeks sought after noble ideals, and beauty of form appealed to them with an intensity that made them long to express themselves in exquisite statuary. No age has been able to surpass them. In the art schools of England to-day we still set up before the pupil’s eyes the models of ancient Greece. The voice of the sculptor of Athens is ringing in our cars to-day. And 1 have brought you to look at this work of art in the hope that it may stir longings in your own hearts. You can only cultivate a love of the good and beautiful by studying the examples that are placed in public galleries for your edification. Will you look at his toes and feet? Perfect! There are no feet like that nowadays. Our feet are deformed by tight boots; we are plagued with in-growing toenails, flat feet, hammer-toes, bunions and corns. The beautiful feet of this young Greek put us all to shame. And he was a pagan; we are supposed to be Christians, and we have lost his exalted ideals. Look at Alfred there, grumbling at his narrow chest and feeble limbs! Is it not pitiful that the world produced better men 2500 years ago?

GREEK GODS. Observe those finely-moulded limbs, the gracefull poise of the body, the swelling muscles so slim and yet so strong. Oh, for a nation of men like that! He must have had a good mother who watched over him with pride day by day as his Jimbs grew sturdier and sturdier. How shocked she would have been at the suggestion that her lovely boy might have rickets! She would not know what was meant by rickets. Truly, we are backsliders since ancient Greece flourished. And now cast your eye over his noble features. He* is indeed a handsome young man; such a head must have held proud and noble thoughts; such features must have been moulded by sweet and generous aspirations. You may see a prize-fighter’s magnificent body surmounted by a head and face that remind you of an ape—low forehead, protruding jaw, small eyes set close together. Or you may see a fine face above a puny body. Also unsatisfactory. But here in this gallery you see a beauty of face that is almost unearthly united to loveliness of form and figure. Produce six stalwart sons like that, mother, and I will go to the King myself, and ask him to give you the Order of Merit. You may say that the statue is idealised; we cannot all be Greek gods in Sloshville-on-the-Slosh. We cannot worry about Greek statues when all our time is taken up in drudgery and in lying in wait for our next-door neighbour, to tear her down into the gutter by the hair to teach her manners. REFORMING MANKIND.

But I will not listen to that -talk. We must look upward. We must have ideals in our minds before we can bring them down to actual fact. I insist on you all going to the Gallery. “I wish my son to grow up like that,” says mother. “I should like my husband to be like that,” says the young maiden. “I will do my best to be like that,” says the young man. I am determined to put up a light. You drag me down when you call me to the police-station on Saturday night and make me minister to drunken viragoes who swear at me while I bind up their broken heads. I am going to turn every man into a Greek God; every woman shall have the grace and attractiveness of an Athene. I reckon it will take me 10,000 years at our present rate of going; but I shall come back again and again; I shall continue to take personally conducted parties to see the Greek statue; and when everyone is as good as he is handsome, and is as clever as he is agreeable, I shall tell them stories of Saturday nights of the past that they will not believe. Please buy a picture post-card and put it in a passe-partout frame, and try to think that the statue represents a man as God made him.

TREATMENT OF SORES. In the treatment of many a sore place you overlook the importance of getting the scab off that forms over the sore. It is useless to apply the ointment to the dead, hard scab. Bathe it with warm water for a long time with great patience, and when it is removed, put the ointment on the raw surface. An excellent ointment for the sores that break out on the scalps of young children is the ointment of ammoniated mercury; it need not be a strong ointment. All rags that have been used as dressings should be burnt. As rags are rather precious, some of the best may be cleaned by boiling, and used again. But burn the rag rather than run the risk of putting a dirty rag on a child’s face. Never forget that infection is easily carried by means of towels, sheets, pillowcases, hair brushes and handkerchiefs.