MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11692, 29 June 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

RED HAIR AND RHEUMATISM. , Among the various warning signs given by Dr. Still as leading one to look out for rheumatism, is red hair. He suggests that this "colour of the hair may be only the index of some fine peculiarity, perhaps in the chemistry of metabolism, which produces a soil favourable to rheumatic infection; at any rate, it is one of the many little indications which are sometimes of value in leading to the early detection of rheumatism in a child.The Hospital.

SINGING AND CONSUMPTION. We are glad to find, remarks Health, that of late years a good deal more attention than formerly appears to be paid to the question of the effect of vocal music as a preventive of phthisis. It may, we think, be stated as a fact that those nations which are devoted to the culture of vocal music are strong, vigorous races with broad, expansive chests. If an hour were daily given in. our public schools to the development of • music, there would be less seen of drooping, v hered, hollow-chested, ; and round-shouldered av- present" there appeal's too gre*6 a disposition"'' to sacrifice physical health upon the altar of learning. Vocal music is a gymnastic exercise of the lungs by development, of the lung tissue. Phthisis b?gins :it the apices of Jhe lungs, because these parts are more inactive, and because the bronchial tubes are so arranged that they carry the inspired air with greater facility to the bases than to the apices. During inactivity a person would ordinarily breathe about 480 cubic inches of air in a minute. If he walked at the rate of six miles an hour he would breathe 3260 cubic inches. In singing this is increased more than in walking, as to sing well requires all the capacity of the lungs.

THE -SALISBURY TREATMENT OF INDIGESTION. This treatment is most useful to those unhappy people who are afraid to eat because of the pain and windiness that food causes in them. The diet, at first, consists of beef cakes and hot water. Take four ounces of beef pulp free from • fat, gristle, and tendons,- season with pepper and salt, cut -up into pieces, but add no water. Make the pulp into several flab, round cakes, each about an inch thick. Broil slowly over a clear fire on a grill for eight minutes. They are not to be pressed tight when 1 made, or they will be tough.. Serve each with a lump of butter on a hot plate. Worcester sauce or horseraddisli is allowed with them. Repeat this meal three times a day, without drinking anything at all. But an hour and a-half before each meal sip slowly from half a pint to a pint of hot water, as hot as can be taken. In the water a very little salt should be put, according to taste. The water doses should be drunk at seven a.m., eleven m., four p.m., and nine p.m., and the meals an hour and a-half later. The last me*]: may be of broiled mutton cakes. This " beef cakes and hot water" treatment is to be kept up for six weeks, with slow increase in the amount of beef consumed. Then vegetables and bread may be cautiously added, and, instead of beef cakes, lamb, game, and chicken; codfish are, allowed if broiled. At last, the patient can take any sort of food, but the indigestion will certainly return unless two principles are carried out —first, you must have sound teeth, real or false, and chew the food well before swallowing; and, secondly, you must still and always avoid what you know to be indigestible—nuts, pickles, and the like. The hot water drinking may be kept up with advantage for years. If the main cause of the indigestion has been overwork, a due amount of rest is, of course, quite essential if recovery be looked for. For those few people who do v£>t seem to improve in this treatment there is the milk cure, which is 1 very valuable, especially in cases where there is much looseness of the bowels. Six ounces (a small breakfast-cupful) of boiled milk is taken every three or four hours all day long. The. quantity is to be increased slowly until a pint can be taken four times a day. This quantity is not to be exceeded, and no other kind of food whatever is to be attempted. A liquorice powder may be taken once a week. Early hours must be kept, and as much rest as possible must he taken. The milk should be administered slightly warm, and may be flavoured with saccharine, but not with sugar. There is no need to give medicines for waterbrash and windiness during these treatments, for they will not occur, except just at first.