MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 6 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

- FOR A PERSPIRING SCALP. If the head perspires very freely a weekly shampoo should not be omitted. A lavender shampoo, containing Rose water, three ounces; tincture of- cochineal, onehalf ounce lavender water, four ounces, and borax, one-half ounce, is recommended. • Dissolve borax in the lavender water. The summer girl who spends hours sunning herself is gaining every instant a new store of vitality and health. Incidentally, she is doing the very best thing in the world to promote the beauty of her ohevelure, particularly.- if she will let her hair aarig down her back and allow the breezies to play with it. . The greatest possible benefit is derived from thus ventilating the hair, and the results are soon visible in the renewed glossiness and lustre. ' The maid with the mouse-coloured tresses makes it part of her programme to catch the sunlight in her drab locks and thus impart to them some of the brilliancy which they lack. If she is wise she will let ther suit shine on her loosened hair as much as she can, for hair bleached in this manner to a lighter shade will retain for some time added gleams of gold, and this is the only perfectly harmless way of lightening the hair. Besides which, the propriety of the sun's method of bleaching can never be questioned. So let us make the test of the sunny days and store up enough, sunshine in our locks to last us far into the wintry weather. This process of sunning the hair has often proved the undoing of a beautiful complexion . For that reason we resort to the old Greek way of. protecting the face with the rim of a straw hat.. It is certainly humiliating to think that in so many different aids to beauty we have to hark back to dear old Greeks and Romans, as Miss Blimber used to say, and that our girl is using precisely the same methods of protecting her face that the Greek beauty of classic times employed when, seated on the roof of her villa, she bleached, her hair in the' sunshine,, the hair being drawn up through a crownless hat and the rim protecting the lovely complexion from the sun's too ardent attention.

HOW TO REDUCE FLESH. Many different methods for the treatment of pronounced obesity have been, advocated during the last twenty years, with various results. The following 'method, based on scientific grounds, has been tried with great success in many cases: The individual is restricted to a purely nitrogenous diet, consisting of one pound of cooked fish and one pound of lean meat per day, and a pint of hot water must bo drunk at intervals of two hours. Apart from this, no other article of diet must be taken. ' The meat and fish may be taken at regular intervals, as suits the case. Five or six pints of water should be taken during the day. The hypothesis on which this treatment rests is that the patient supplies the needful hydrocarbons, which are withheld from his diet, through absorption from his own body. The ingestion of the large quantities of hot water is likewise supposed to exert a beneficial "influence. This should be continued even after the patient has returned to ordinary diet,: from which, however, potatoes and beer are especially excluded. Another system, practically the same with regard to essentials, but allowing more latitude as to diet, is probably more popular with those who object to many restrictions. All fatty foods are, of course, excluded, also all those that are converted into fat, such as sugar and farinaceous food, bread, potatoes, beetroot, parsnips, carrots, turnips, rice, hominy, beans, and peas, substituting, in moderate quantities, spinach, celery, tomatoes, lettuce, greens, cabbage, free from stems, buttermilk, J skimmed milk, 'oysters, eggs and meat, except pork and veal. All vegetables grown underground should be avoided. The diet table is as follows : —Breakfast, four or five ounces of chopped beef, chicken, unit-ton, or game, or boiled white fish one large cup "of weak tea, without milk or sugar. Dinner, five or nix minces of any white fish, except herring or eels, any kind of poultry or game, any meat, except pork or veal; a biscuit or a piece of dry, crisp toast. Toast is the best accompaniment; to every meal. -'Supper, three or four ounces of chopped beef or chicken, and a little dry toast. A pint of hot water is to be sipped at intervals about four pints of hot water to be taken during the clay. Moderate daily exercise should be taken, and 'a course of physical exercises will often accomplish ..wonders in reducing corpulency, especially .in young persons..;:

WASHING THE HANDS.

According to a German physician the art of washing the hands is not an easy one. To ensure absolute cleanliness the hands must be first carefully washed with potash, soap, and water, and then with a five per cent, solution of carbolic acid, or one per 1000 solution of. corrosive sublimate or chlorine water. When the finger-nails are dry and break easily, vaseline rubbed on after washing the hands will do a world of good. Manicures first bathe the hand a long time in hot water, then with scissors and knives clean and cut the nails, remove the superfluous skin about the onyx, then polish the nails with buckskin and tine powder, washing the hand again in hot water with soap. After drying the nails are polished with a fine brush, and are finally rubbed with a ; rosy unguent to give them a shell-pink. ..

HOW TO REST.

Few women know how to rest as they should. They think that they must undress and go to bed to be thoroughly comfortable. This is a mistake, provided there is a tabouret or little footstool in the room on which the feet may rest while the other part of the body is supported by a chair. You can read and rest comfortably in this fashion; and let it be whispered here, between ourselves, that if we want to gain the maximum of rest in a minimum of time we should copy that inelegant but healthful trick of the masculine drones, and put our feet occasionally higher than our heads. Fashionable women, to whom the necessity of never showing fatigue and of ever looking their best has taught this: knack, fall into this posture whenever they are in the seclusion of their own apartments. HOW TO KEEP THE EYES BRIGHT. Mothers,' never rub your eyes, nor allow your children to do so from their cradles. Veils are bad for the. sight, especially those spotted or covered with a pattern ; soesehew veils -when you can, or wear the softest, clearest, net when obliged to do so. Sit with your back to the light when engaged in reading or working. Pale blues or greens are the most restful wallpapers for the eyes, whereas red is exceedingly fatiguing. Do not read, write, or work longer than two hours together without resting your eyes and closing them fully five minutes.