MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1937, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

LIFE-SAVING WITH PERFUMES.

SCENTS KILL DISEASE GERMS.

Everybody knows how certain perfumes affect our moods, calling up forgotten memories or exercising an enlivening or dulling effect upon our energies, writes Austin; Showalter in the “Cape Times.” There are smells that make you ill, and. there are also smells that make you well—perhaps that’s why wafts of lavender pervade nearly all sick rooms. Indeed, experts have now' succeeded in establishing evidence that perfumes may be employed to wage war on disease germs and. keep us in good health, more or less, to the, end of our days. The other day I witnessed the scien- . tific use of perfumes as germ destroyers. Tests were first made upon the germs of glanders and yellow fever, and these germs 1 were easily killed by the odours of essential oils in perfumes, these agents being used under ordinary temperatures, of course. At -fh p. >endls( of the- tests tlie ; oils found most effective were Ceylon cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, clove origanum, French geranium, Algerian geranium, vei’foena, lavender, patchouli, angelica, juniper, sandal, bitter orange, cedar, thyme, lemon, peppermint, pine, wormwood, and such extracts as jasmine and tuberose. i Just how these perfumes can kill disease germs more effectually than old-time methods will be better understood by a brief following of the experiments themselves. First, in order to test the actions of the oils upon the germs' such as we encounter in the air of our cities and in our homes, the end of a fine platinum wire was covered with gelatine containing the culture to be tried. The wire was fixed into l a cork and the cork put into the end of a test tube i nthe bottom of which was some of the oil being tested. At the. end of a given time sterilised' gelatine was pricked by the germ-bearing wire, and then heated so as to bring about growth. It was now ascertained that the gerrae—a variety were employed in the different experiments so as to make the test really efficient—were still alive after being exposed to the vapours of the following oils for about three days; angelica, patchouli.; lemon, bitter orange, juniper, and sandal, but were killed in that time when exposed to French geranium, peppermint, origanum, pine, and thyme. Two and a half days were’ long enough for wormwood, cedar, cubeb, Algerian geranium, to kill the germs, and two days was sufficient to sterilise by the volatilisation from Ceylon and Chinese cinnamon, clove, lavender, verbena, and extract of jasmine and tuberose. Hitherto the attempts at fighting disease germs with perfumes 1 have mostly failed because no set period of time could be formulated' as to just how long the germs needed 1 to be m contact with the different perfumes that affected them most of all. Now this drawback has been partially overIn these tests' I speak oi, results were found to be more or less 1 contradictory when they were not extended for 48 hours or less. Sometimes the germs appeared to be dead after one clear day’s subjection, bub on the other hand’ the same germs in- other tests were found' to be alive after 36 hours of. exposure. Continued experiments, carried to

very fine extremes further went to prove that many of the bacteria wei e killed or totally incapacitated in less) than one hour by the vaporisations from some of the oils mentioned, while in other instances only a few minutes of exposure seemed to be necessary to effectually destroy certain other germs.

WOMEN’S IMMUNITY. Although the idea of treating germs by the essential oils of perfumes is still in its expedimental stage, the 1 importance of these investigations can hardly be overrated. Especially in time of epidemic the value of perfumes cannot be discounted, and even in ordinary circumstances, it is fairly well known that' the air is filled with germs of all kinds, which me . best

combated by .such pleasant germicides as our well-known perfumes. In tiie opinion of some medical men, the comparative immunity of some women and girls from certain diseases' is largely accounted for by their fi ee use of certain perfumes' in the toilet, whereas men are always more or less liable to contact because they either dislike perfumes, or, if they do care' for them, they do not use them for fear of being dubbed effeminate. As one authority points' out, in the' vast flower-growing districts of France there is a most mai ked decrease in cases of tuberculosis, and this is attributable to the fact that the atmosphere there is SO' full of the germ-killing odours of the flowers. You find much the same thing among people who work in perfume laboratories. They are freer from' disease of the respiratory organs, and even those with bronchial affections often unconsciously cured themselves' through an atmosphere filled with the odours of tire rotatlU oils

REMEDY IN ALL HANDS

In the control of infection, by the simple use of perfumes! we have the' remedy in our own hands and can apply it not only to our person but. to our rooms or any object with which we come in daily contact. This is ini*

portant, for it .should be borne in mind that 50,000 disease germs- placed end on end would measure under one inch, and 20,000,000 typhoid germs' can be placed in a tumblerful of water without disturbing the sparkle or tho clarity, in appearance, of the liquid, Not long ago, Dr. Pavel Kohn, . a noted Czechoslovakian scientist, startled his hearers by saying if anyone cared to take a coin from his pocket he could count between two and three thousand disease germs on it. He found that silver was bad enough as a collector of germs, but that they flourished more readily on nickel, and even better on copper and 1 bronze. The size of the coin makes no difference in the density of its 1 germ population. Germs abound too, naturally, on paper currency. There are probably 80,000,000 of them on that 10/- note in your purse.

SPRING CLEANING.

WASHING DAY IN JAPAN. «

Laundry, for Japanese housewives, is not the simple matter of soap-and-water tubbing that it is for women in most countries, says a. writer in the Melbourne “Age.” The elaborate kimonos, padded and' embroidered, worn by men, women, and 1 children alike, must be cleaned and reconditioned each year with unfailing regularity, and present a quite formidable task. There are the “Arai Hariya,” of course, the equivalent of oui' dry cleaners, who wash, clean, and dye kimonos, but most housewives prefer to tackle the job themselves, and work to a set routine, dictated by tradition.

Spring cleaning begins in Nyubai, the rainy season (from about June 10 to July 11), when it is believed that dirt comes off more easily. First the seams of the kimonos' are ripped, then the pieces of each kimono tied up into individual bundles, so that they do not become mixed. The garments are washed in lukewarm water and soda or soap, to take any grease from the cloth. Then they are dried, tied up in their bundles once more, and put away until Nyubai is over. The second stage in the cleaning of the kimonos takes place when the hot weather sets in, and is known as Harimono. Harimono is the stretching of the washed material. First some funori must be dissolved in hot water. This is a gelatinous substance obtained from the sea, and having the properties of both starch and cleanser. When the water is of the right consistency a kimono is placed in the tub and kneaded with the fingers. It is lifted out, stretched out on a board about fifteen inches wide and six feet long (thel Hari Ita), and left to dry. There is another way of stretching garments known as Shinsi, and when, this method is used the kimono is lashed to pliable bamboo sticks laid across the material, then simply brushed with the funori solution.

When the kimono, is thoroughly dry it is often remade entirely. Right’ and left sleeves are interchanged, for example, all worn parts cut off, and thd whole garment 'even redyed in new patterns, old patterns being removed with chemical bleaches.

Padded quilts are treated in exactly the same manner, though the process of dyeing them is distinguished with the special name of Shibori zome. The quilt is boiled with chemicals until all the colour is bleached out, then the material is dried. A piece of aobana (moist dye paper) is placed in! water to make a pale-blue dye, and a large design brushed with it on to a paper pattern, which is slipped benehtlf the material to make a guide for the dyed pattern. Running stitches are worked ovei* the outline of the pattern, which is usually of simple stripes, long ends of the thread being left at each end. When the stitching is completed these ends are pulled and fastened securely. The stripes are then tied, very carefully, for this is the' most important stage.

The dye for, the pattern is prepared by dissolving it in cold water, making it tepid over a fire, and finally boiling it with enough water to colour the quilt. A cupful of acetic acid or vinegar is added, and the quilt put in at once, and boiled for five or ten miriutes, depending on the fabric. After boiling, the quilt is rinsed several times in clear, cold water, and finally in cold water, to which half a cup of acetic acid has been added. All that remains to be done now is to hang up the quilt to dry. Very little escapes the dye tubs, for when kimonos and quilts have been dealt with the housewife usually turns hei' attention- to faded obis, narrow girdles and underwear, all of which are transformed with exquisite, richly-coloured patterns.

“VENUS” FIGURE.

OUT OF FAVOUR,

LONDON, October 20.

Women and their waists were discussed in the Chancery Division yesterday, when Mr Justice Bennett had before him a dispute between two corset manufacturers. “Your figure is as individual as your handwriting” was sfated to be the slogan of one of the parties-. Mr Trevor Watson, K.C., remarked that the Venus de Milo’s was not regarded by women nowadays as being the perfect feminine figure. “They sometimes think they can improve on it,” he said, “by putting the waist in a different place, or something of that sort. It is not a question of taking a woman with a bulging diaphragm and just fitting the corset exactly according to the measurements of that bulging diaphragm; it is rather a question of correcting nature to a certain extent by making the bulge less bulgy.” (Laughter). Mr Justice Bennett: Is it fitting ,the lady to the- corset or fitting the corset to the lady?

Mr Watson: It is a mixture of both. A corset is a garment which hasi a certain amount of rigidity, and the art is' to make it not only comfortable, but also, capable of correcting these unfortunate lapses on th© part of nature.