MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9775, 23 March 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

HURRIED MEALS,

A small quantity of food, carefully masticated, and sloniy eaten, is far more nourish-

ing than a larjter quantity eaten in a hurry. Hurried mastication, even with good teeth, is bad, for it does not give time for a sufficient supply of saliva to mix with the food ; without this, indigestion must be the result. When a quantity of in adequately-crushed substance is thrust into the stomach, instead of feeding the system, it acts as an irritant; therefore, when food is of necessity to b« taken in a hurry, ib should be taken of a light kind, soup or fish being good. People jo on for years suffering from indigestion, consulting first one doctor and then another, each one being unsuccessful for any length of time. If they would only; make a point of eating slowly, and masticating carefully, the doctor's visits would be unnecessary, and the indigestion by degrees would disappear. HEREDITY IN CONSUMPTION.

Tuberculosis is an infective disease ; bub

practically ib is only infectious where certain causes co-operate with the bacillus or contagious particle, such as a confined occupation, absence of fresh air, want of exercise, inefficient diet, life in a dirty, dusty house, or in dusty offioes or workrooms, the dusb in which has become charged with the bacilli of buberculosis; and, lastly, a special susceptibility bo the disease, either innate or left by some other malady. These are the causes of consumption, ana of these the hereditary tendency is but one; and we can well agree with Dr. Heren's remark at the Medical and Chirurgical Society that Dr. Squire's paper will help certain unfortunate families to geb rid of the terrible dtead which haunts bbem in consequence of having been brought up to believe thab since their father or mother, grandfather or grandmother died of tuberculosis, they themcalves, therefore, run a special risk of the same disease. They certainly should avoid occupations and modes of life known to predispose to it, but othwwian tkgy need nob iteat.—Ghe. Hoeptte).