MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10413, 10 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

TEA DRUNKARDS. According to statistics recently furnished by Dr. James Wood, of Brooklyn, of all the patients applying for treatment an the chief dispensary of that city, no less than 10 per cent, are tea drunkards. They are not aware of the fact, but the symptoms of their cases point unmistakably to overindulgence in tea; and that presumption, on inquiry, is confirmed by their confessions. They suffer from headache, vertigo, insomnia, palpitation of the heart, mental confusion, nightmare, nausea, hallucinations, morbid depression of spirits, and sometimes from suicidal impulses—surely a formidable list of symptoms. These patients are of both sexes and all ages, and confess drinking from a pint) and ahalf to fifteen pints of tea each day. ANTISEPSIS IN THE TREATMENT OP ■ INFANTILE DIARRHCEA. The part; played by bacteria in the production of the diarrhoea of infants was suspected and practically admitted by many long before the researches of Escherich and others had established this theory of its origin upon a scientific basis. According to the observer just mentioned, the two forms of germ life most active in the production of diarrhoea are the bacterium coli and the bacterium lactis. The influence of the latter will suffice to explain why ib happens'that a large number of cases of infantile diarrhoea —we might almost have said all such—become, amenable to treatment when the usual milk dietary is reduced, or even for a short time discontinued, in favour of one consisting of fresh raw meat juice. The bacterial hypothesis explains also the success which has in a number of cases attended the temporary discontinuance of all nourish-■ ment and the substitution in its stead of boiled and subsequently cooled water given frequently in small quantities. This method, which had recently attracted soma attention in France (Journal de Clinique et de Thfoapeutique Infantile, January 14), is not altogether novel. Its modus opmndi in cleansing and procuring rest for an overwrought bowel while maintaining blood-pressure by its ready absorption calls for little explanation.—Lancet. ANEMIA. Anamia, or bloodlessness, is one of the commonest troubles of the present age. The complaint can hardly be called a disease in the ordinary sense of the word, bub is rather a debilitated state of the body, which lays it open to the attacks of most other kinds of diseases. The condition in question is characterised by a deficiency in the numbor of red corpuscles in the blood. There h very often pallor of the cheeks and lip*, but in some cases these may be of a natural colour, and lead even the patient to believe that she is not aiii«inic, when the real state of the case can be instantly discovered by examining the gums and the insides of the eyelids. These, instead of being of a good deep J pink, are pale and yellowish-looking. The i tongue is apt to be pale and flabby and indented by the teeth; the sufferer is readily fatigued, troubled with breathlesaness on going up and downstairs; she very of ton suffers with palpitation or pains about the heart, which may lead her to believe that she is suffering from some disease of the heart. She suffers frequently from headache, pains in the back, and languor, and is readily fatigued by any little unusual exertion. She may even faint, and thus cause considerable anxiety to her family. There are frequent eruptions on the skin, which may be either ot an irritating kind, or simply acne either in the form of blackheads or pimples, or both. There are two kinds of anemia— the common kind, and another called pernicious anaraia, which is a fatal disease, and most difficult) of treatment, but is happily rare: Any line of treatment for ordinary cases of anemia must be persistently applied; and, although occasional visits, to the doctor if there seems anything oub of the way amiss are desirable, the treatment can only be properly carried out at home. The causes of ansemia are chiefly bad ventilation, insufficient or unsuitable feeding, want of exercise, and sedentary occupations, or that overwork of the brain just now so oommon in young ladies at high schools and preparing for examinations. To keep the brain in healthy working order a very large quantity of blood has to be used up, and any excess of mental exercise uses, in proportion, far more than any other kind of work. This fact is not sufficiently recognised in dieting persons of a studious character; for people are apt to ignore the fact that sedentary mental occupations exhaust; as much blood as manual work, with this disadvantage, that while active work, by bringing the lunge into play, tends to aerate the blood and improve its condition, sedentary work lacks this stimulant to the system. Persons subject to anaemia need, to a certain extent, different treatment, inasmuch as they may be. of two classee—the fat, flabby, and lethargic woman, and the thin, delicate girl who looks as if a breath of air would blow her away. Between these two extremes there, we, ot course, eudlen varieties, ■