MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10419, 17 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

TO TAKU A BATH PROPERLY.

"It is a singular fact," remarked one of the greatest authorities on muscular development to the writer the other day, " that extraordinarily few people know how to take a bach properly. Indeed, the majority of individuals have absolutely no idea of the value ot a bath beyond the fact that it i? an indispensable process of cleansing, (from long experience I can say emphatically that everyone who is not actually ill should take a cold bath in the morning, not merely in summer, but in winter as well. But they must know how to take it; and perhaps our readers may care bo have a hint or two on the subject. A quarter of a minute in the summer and ju?t in and out in the winter are quite sufficient. Personally, I always put ice in my bath in the summer, and I attribute no sin.ill measure of my present good health and strength to my bathing propensities. Now, as to the best way of indulging in a bath. Contrary to general supposition, a cold bath should be taken when the body is warm, even when perspiring ; but the breathing must, of course, be normal. To rake a cold bath when you are cold, as many do, is most dangerous. The principal thing for a man or a woman to do—and women should bathe in cold water every as well as man— is to throw water over the head before going in. After that, water should be lashed on to the chest by means of both hands. Then, fully prepared, you can jump in. Too many people are in a state of fright when they are about to take a cold bath. You want to be calm when taking a bath ; the more natural you are the greater the benefit you derive. If you bathe during a condition of fright the water does you no good at all ; in fact, it does you harm. Believe me, there is no medicine or food more strengthening to the body or more stimulating co the whole system than a cold bath. The only thing is, you must know how to take it."— Cassell's Saturday Journal for March. INVALID FARE. An excellent thing for a delicate or exhausted digestion is a glass of hit milk. Sweeten it slightly, and put in a piece of stick cinnamon while it is being heated. One of the most satisfactory ways of giving an invalid raw beef is in a sandwich. Butter lightly on the loaf bread 24 hours old, and then slice it very thin. Scrape a choice, tender piece of beef, season it with salt, and also pepper, if the latter can be taken ; spread it upon the buttered bread, put another piece of bread over it, and then cut the sandwich into finger pieces, being sure to remove all the crust. Beef tea is a food of which an invalid quickly tires. Try making it into a jelly. Soak for an hour a third of a box of gelatine in water enough to cover it; then pour over it a pint of hot beef tea ; season to suit tho taste, and turn the liquid into small cups or individual moulds, and set it away co harden. When needed, turn the jelly from one of the moulds out upon a dainty saucer. Served with a nicely-toasted piece of bread it will be very inviting, and the same amount of nourishment will be obtained as when the beef tea is taken in liquid form. HEART DISEASES. Among the most common diseases which affect the heart and it« internal parts are inflammations of the lining membrane of the cavities in the heart. Such ailments are most often set up by rheumatic bloodpoisoning. This inflammation within the heart is accompanied by fever, breathlessness, great weakness, some pain, and cough. The results are to leave what were once smooth polished membranes in a state of congestion and puffiness, with thesurfaceuneren. This mischief is most notable upon the internal valves, which in the heart are of a very complex nature. They regulate the flow of blood through the heart and the great blood vessels near it. Cardiac inflammation, by thickening and by roughening the surfaces of these valves, gives rise to two further diseased conditions, named obstruction and regurgitation. In the first case the even flow of blow onward through the heart ie hindered by narrowing of the passages; while in the second case the diseased valves fall to close at the proper time and manner, and so there is a backward flow at each heart-beat. The two states may be discovered by the signs of the pulse, by the sounds heard over the heart with the stethoscope, and, lastly, by the particular form of the secondary symptoms which follow. An ordinary person without medical training is quite incapable of discovering with accuracy the nature and exact position of faults within the heart. Students with good powers of hearing often take years to master the place and quality of heart* sounds. In forming an opinion from the pulse also, it is again true that a little knowledge ie a dangerous thing, bub in general terms obstructive disease makes a small weak pulse at the wrist, while regurgitation makes a jerky pulse. Valvular affections are most often discovered after a severe attack of rheumatic fever, and, being structural changes, they can hardly ever be quite cured. Much, however, can be done by medicine, and diet, and regulated exercise to check more serious diseases from following as a sequence; of these the moat common is general dropsy.

A SLEEP-PRODUCER. Dr. Edson says {—Suppose a person to be tired out by overwork of auy kind, to feel uervous, irritable, and worn, to bo absolutely certain that bed means only tossing for boura in an unhappy wakefulness. We all know this condition of the body and mind. Turn on the hot water in the bathroom, and soak in the hot bath until the drowsy feeling comes, which will be within three minutes; rub yourself briskly with a coarse Turkish towel until the body is perfectly dry, and then go to bed. You will aleop the sleep of tho just, and rise in the morning wondering how you could have felt so badly tho night before. The bath baa eared many a one from a sleepless night, if not from a severe headache the [iox6 day. BATH TEMPERATURES. It is possible that the expressions cold, temperate, tepid, warm, and hot may fail to convey to many a sufficient idea of the different rangee of temperature to which these terms are properly applied. To do away with any vagueness or uncertainty which may attend their use, and to prevent any mistake with regard to the requisite temperature of eacL and all of these baths when ordered or required, in will be useful to give the lowest and highest degree of heab within which each of them is comprehended. The right temperature, then, of different baths is as follows:— Cold SOdeg.toGUdeg. Faht. Tsmperate .. .. 75 „ „85 „ „ Tepid 85 „ ~96 ~ „ Warm 00 „ „93 „ „ Hot 93 „ ~110 „ „