Women’s Institute

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1946, Page 8

Women’s Institute

Greymouth. Tne' August meeting of the Greymouth Women’s Institute was held in the Lyceum Hall. Mrs. Kilpatrick presided over a good attendance. A visitor from the Kaiapoi Women’s Institute was welcomed. It was stated that the institute birthday: would be celebrated on August .23. The roll call was “A sound I like to hear on a spring day.”. The motto for the month was. ‘■Storms make trees grow better rpotb.” Mrs. Rose, who was delegate to the Dominion conference,

read her report. Competition winners were: Best bloom, Mrs. Johnson and Miss Prendcigast equal 1. Best four girdle scones, Mrs. Taylor 1, Mrs. Smart and M.i;..s Prendergast equal 2. Six grape hyacinths, Mrs. Smart 1, Miss Prendergast 2. The hostesses were Mesdames F. Smith, Perrin, Mann and Taylor. Home Heahh Guide Tetanus. Every now and again a case of tetanus or lockjaw is reported, says a Health Department bulletin. It comes from a bacillusthe tetanus bacillus—that gets into the body through wounds, small or large, and makes a poison or toxin. The symptoms are alarming. There are painful contractions and stiffness of muscles, beginning in cheeks and neck usually—hence the old name lockjaw. Later there are painful spasms of the trunk. The incubation period is from four days to three weeks. Occasionally tetanus occurs in hospital, when imperfectly sterilised catgut has been •responsible for post-operative development. But usually the infection occurs from spores of the bacillus getting into wounds. Normally the oacillus lives; in the intestines of horses, cows, sheep and other grasseating animals. We bring the risk from our farms to our homes when we heavily manure our gardens with animal manures. A scratch gone septic, a punctured wound from a splinter or nail, or .a street accident, or deep .septic wound —these arc the sort of injuries that let the spores develop. It has to be the sort of wound that keeps air away, for tetanus bacilli develop in the absence of oxygen. In this last war tetanus was robbed of its terror by immunisation — a procedure similar to diphtheria immunisation. Troops were innoculatcd against tetanus before leaving and renewal doses, were given from time to time,.' or at the time of injury. For civilians who have not had this active- immunisation, and where there is danger of tetanus following wounds, temporary protection is given by subcutaneous injection of tetanus antitoxin. The same antitoxin is u.-.ed in treating an actual case, together with thorough cleansing of the wound. You are very unlikely to contract tetanus around the home ii' you make it a golden rule to clean and cover scratches and superficial wounds as they haonen. When abrasion scratch-

cs c.r ;?uncvure:' go f.eptic, bathe and foment until you get them clean. It i-; the sapsis that seals the wounds with matter and allows tetanus spores to develop beneath. Remove ail dirt and grit as soon its possible from wounds, and dress them at once, and you will keep lockjaw away.

SLjgfL Hctr FtiVOHred sn Long hair styles arc Jess popular in Melbourne than in Sydney, although the paga-boy still holds its o'vn in ’.be ckbulanto group, writes a Melbourne correspondent. Short, sleek grooming !:• more favoured here than in New Zealand. In fact, Australian women seem to pay more attention to hair styling than do their New Zealand sisters and a great variety of coiffures is usually noticeable at any fashionable gathering. “Untidy” styles do not find very much favour, but variations of the perennial roll are still worn, espe-

cially by the ‘‘not so young.” At present im-'re is a great vogue fordaphne tenimmts, and at a recent first night an entire Juliet cap of daphne caused many .heads to turn in its direction.