TALKS ON HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 3 June 1930, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR A VULNERABLE JOINT In nearly every football I earn you see one or two 'men wearing elasticbandages on their knees. ' The knee is a very vulnerable joint—it is exposed to injury: it is easily twisted, and the inside of the joint is very complicated. When the knee is swollen by water inside the joint rest is imperative,; the trouble is made worse if any attempt is made to walk. The leg must be rested, but, as rest makes the muscles waste away, they should be rubbed and massaged three limes a day, especially the muscles on the front' of the thigh. Later the measurements round the two knees are restored to the same dimensions; the tape-mensure will tell you when tho fluid has gone. Then the knee may be moved; tho thigh muscles may be worked as well as rubbed. Take my advice, and do not start playing football too soon. Give the knee a good chance to regain its strength; it is bettor to be a week wise than a year foolish. If the knee gives way a second time it takes much longer to get well again. If it gets swollen a third time the kneo may be permanently weak.

KEEP AWAY HEADACHES You must work in a good _ .light. Move your desk nearer the window, turn it round so that the light falls over your left shoulder; swing the electric light to a more convenient position by a piece of string lulling on the wire from which it hangs. Lower the shade so that the glare comes neton your eyes but on your work. Have the windows cleaned more often; the dirt on the panes reduces the amount of light that filters through. Have the opposite wall whitewashed. Choose a bright wallpaper, one that reflects the light instead of absorbing it: '/he black ceiling reduces the amount of light that falls on your work; have it whitened. And when your surroundings have been adapted so as to procure the greatest amount of light-rays, see that your own eyes arc in good order. That pair of' glasses you are wearing were ordered for Uncle Tom, who left them to you in his will; they should bo thrown away and you should obtain a proper pair at the eye hospital. Do all this, and you need not take headache powders. WAGE WAR, AGAINST VERMIN Mosquitoes have been shown to be the cause of malaria; body lice have been proved to convey typhus fever; the tse-tse fly of South Africa was found 'guilty of giving disease to the cattle; tho flea of the rat is tho criminal that introduces plague into the human system;; the common house-fly carries the germs of diarrhoea and vomiting on its feet and drops them into the. milk, and so on and so on. The insect world contains some of our most cruel enemies. Please take this to heart. Do not let your house harbour insects of any kind. Your own bodies must bo as clean as a new pin. Your children must not go to school with the smallest evidence of insect life about them. Dirt and insects breed disease, and I must ask for your help in waging war against them. CORNS For soft corns between the toes, dust them every morning with boracic powder and place a thin layer of absorbent cotton 'over the corn. For hard corns, rub the thick skin off with a piece of fine sandpaper and remove the small hard centre with a knife, being careful not to make the toe bleed. Grease well with vaseline night and morning, thus'keeping it soft till the healthy skin has a chance to take the place of the hard callous. Allow plenty of soap and water, and brush thoroughly with a good brush—this stimulates circulation and keeps the hard callous from forming. Rinse the feet in cold water, and dry thoroughly, again applying vaseline" to the corn. Bunions may also be treated in this way.

THE; CLEVER INJURED I am interested in the subject of ability of workers who have met with an accident to their hands being able to continue to earn their living. I have notes of somo remarkable instances of men in saw'-pits who have lost some or all of their fingers and have yet been able to carry out all the manipulations necessary "in their trade with extraordinary ease. Then I saw an old lady whoso hands were completely cnppled with rheumatism, so that she coul.l scarcely move any of the fingers, and yet by putting crochet needles between the fingers she was able to do beautiful work and earn quite a decent living by making babies' clothes, ft was one of the best examples oi se.lthelp I had ever seen. Many another woman in similar circumstances wouid simply have gone into the workhouse. KEEP BEING AN OPTIMIST I was born an optimist. lam a great' believer in the millennium. The .lore-' es of sickness and wickedness cannot hold out much longer; they are lining beaten all along the line; but I daresay thev will hang on for my lifetime. We really are getting on splendidly in my schools. If you will believe me, all the children have bad their teeth attended to, and swollen faces, toot.iache, gumboils and neuralgia are all unknown. Then the paler children are given sometimes as much as two pints of good fresh warm milk every cay, and they simply blossom forth. And our boot fund was a great success; the deserving poor have boots provided; the good-for-nothing cadgers have been sternlv repressed. And as for cleanliness:'l defv you to come into the schools any day .of the week and see it the boys and girls are not as clean as your own children. Ah !it was wise ot the Founder of Christianity to emphasise so often the blessedness oMoving and caring for little children, file car*of children is the most joyous the most inspiring occupation imaginable. And in all our work the mothers. Cod bless them! have helped us like bricks.

DANCER OF AN ILL-FITTING TRUSS

Alwavs have a good truss if you have one at'all. You must be measured for it, am! Mien you must have it applio by the instrument maker, so that both he and you may be satisfied that it fits well.' It is'dangerous to wear a truss that allows the rupture to slip clown past the pad. It is better to wear no truss at all than an ill-hti ng one. Always ask advice about lumps., the groin-not every lump is a rupture I have often seen trusses worn on ialtj tumours or swollen glands in the erroneous belief that the lump is a nipln ie. Most ruptures are easily assuming the lying-down P™ 1 »™ ' d exercising gentle pressure. It oocasn• ally happens that the rupture becomes nipped or strangulated, and no amount of iwHsnre or manipulation will coax I back, 'this is a dangerous accident, and Ihe proper course is to send to - doctor or go to a hospital without, eInv Do not. waste a minute. Do not. employ violence yourself—trust yourself to morical care.