MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10037, 25 January 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

RHEUMATISM CUttED BY DIET. Rheumatism is unfortunately very prevalent, and it cripples many an otherwise active and healthy person, and limits his or her usefulness. In rheumatism a vegetarian diet will in inosb cases give relief, and other hygienic measures will complete the cure, where a cure is possible. Dr. Hoibrook- mentions a case that came uuder his notice. Ib was a most persistenb case of semi-acute rheumatism, which had defied medical skill and Turkish baths combined, bub was entirely cured by diet and one bath a week. Some persons still suffering from the complaint may like to try the mode of cure for themselves. The regime; —For breakfast: Oatmeal porridge, wholemeal bread and butter, fruit, cocoa, or weak tea. For dinner: Wholemeal bread and butter, fruit and vegetables, especially rice in every form, an.i baked potatoes. For supper Wholemeal bread, butter, and tea, and fruit if desired. No meat was eaten, and no alcoholic drinks taken. A sun bath, with massage and the rubbing of oil on the affected parts, and a Turkish bath once a week were further given as treatment. No medicines were taken, and exposure to cold and damp was avoided. The treatment was continued for six months, and in that time the patient became well and strong. A very rich diet should be guarded against; also beer and all malt liquors, wines, and spirits.—Phrenological Magazine.

MEDICATION BY ELECTRIC OSMOSIS. When a current of electricity is made to pass through a liquid, more or less decomposition of the latter takes place. If water be the liquid, oxygen is set free at the positive plate, that is, the surface from which the current enters the water, and hydrogen is sec free at the negative plate. If the liquid be a solution of copper, silver, gold, or other metal, the metal is deposited from the surface toward which the current flows. Every molecule is pushed to that surface and compolled to part with its metallic atom, so that the solution is robbed of its metallic part. If the surface from which the current enters the solution be a plate of the same metal as that dissolved in the liquid, as much is dissolved into the solution as is deposited upon the other plate, and thus tho liquid is kept saturated with the metal. The changing of the constituents of the molecules is called electrolysis, and the decomposition of the metal upon the negative plate is called electroplating. There is no evidence of chemical decomposition anywhere except at the terminal plates, but there is evidence of a physical push in the liquid in the direction in which the current moves. This push may be seen in galvanic cells with two fluids, if one of them be contained in a porous jar, through which diffusion can go on. The liquid stands appreciably higher in the part which holds the carbon,' the platinum, or other negative, elements. In large cells it may be as much as an inch higher when strong currents are passing. This electrical pushing in liquids which results in diffusion at a more rapid rate in the direction of the current is called electrical osmosis. Ib has lately been applied in dentistry and for thorapeutic purposes. Discolouration of the skin, of the teeth, and even the blackened enamel of teeth yield to the bleaching process when applied in this way. The decolouriser is placed upon the surface needing treatment, and a current of proper strength and direction diffuses it into the tissues without decomposition, where it acts as if in direcb contact upon the surface. This ability of an electric current to direct and bodily move chomical solutions into tho tissues without puncturing or in any way injuring the skin, there to do their therapeutic work, is really of great consequence, and in skilful hands promises to be an important means of reaching and treating ailments otherwise inaccessible.-irCosmopolitan Magazine,

LEMON JUICE FOR NOSE BLEEDING. Dr. E. T. Burton speaks highly of the use of lemon juice as a hemostatic. In a severe case of epistaxis, in a plethoric young man with copious hemorrhage from both nostrils, after injection of a solution of lemon juice and water (I*4 into the nose with an ordinary glass syringe) the hemorrhage ceased. In a case of nematemesis in a woman of thirty years, in whom all the usual remedies had failed, tho hemorrhage ceased at once after employment of pure lemon juice. It returned, however, the noxt day, but was rapidly controlled by tho use of this simple remedy, so thab sho rapidly convalesced. In a case of intestinal hemorrhage, in typhoid fever, ib was also given with equally favourable results, for it ceased as if by magic. The patient died, however, from exhaustion. In the last two cases there was violent vomiting and everything except the lemon juice was ejected.— Nursing World.

ALCOHOL IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. We moderns (says the Hospital) burn the candle at both ends, and wonder at the rapidity of combustion. And still we have the supporters of teetotalism putting forward the longevity and liealthfulnoss of tho anciont patriarchs and the nomadic shepherd races as an argument in their favour. Had we been born in a tent and educated in the deserb, where quarber-days bring no qualms, and whero the singlecourse dinner of dates a la sauce Sparteine loads to no tradesmen's bills, then, indeed, we might listen with more than respect. But it is nob so. The times have changed, and wo with them, and a Bedouin Arab's lifo would attract but few. One mighb say that the majority of people now lead a more or less sedentary life— point of fact, an artificial and unnatural one. The various organs lack the natural stimulus to action which they would havo were a more natural existence possible. We find this especially so, perhaps, in the case of the stomach. Desire for food fails, and some artificial means must be found to stimulate the nerves of taste and the mucous membrane of the stomach, A tonic" may be proscribed, and this will contain some bitter in the form of a tincture in all probability, i.e., alcoholic and an aromatic substance, and is generally extremely nasty. Now, in sound ale or beer we find these constituents in a much more palatable form. For the stomachs unable to bake beer there are tho light wines with their slight acidity and well-diluted alcohol, which in a similar manner stimulate tho salivary glands, and bo, indirectly, the stomach. In cases whery the general tone is lowered there is, to my mind, no better tonic than a glass or two of sound burgundy or claret taken with food. To take alcohol between meals or constantly throughout tho day is a mistake, and worse—an insult to the system, which ib will sooner or later violently- resent. ■. The first pleasurable stimulus quickly passes into one of depression, which leads to a new craving for a something,, and that something another nip. V Taken with food, tho bienttre of a well-digested meal will take the place of this craving. ®