MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13491, 18 May 1907, Page 6 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

' DEEP BREATHING AND CHEST DIS- 1 s . = EASES. ! eAn American physician sails - attention! , to the value of deep "breathing in diseases 1 of. the chest, especially in sub-acute obstin- - ate bronchitis, and in lingering pneumonia, 1 1 which does not yield to other treatment. I r He says that patients with sub-acute bron-] ~ cmtis improve rapidly, provided cough I . J mixtures are discarded, and the patient I allowed fresh air in abundance. He says; that in lingering pneumonia there are times] f I when forcible action ol the affected iting 11 for definite periods each day will be more i [strikingly successful than all other methods j 'lot treatment combined. "The victims of j 1, slow pneumonia or sub-acute bronchitis are j I [often kept too long indoors, and fresh air 3 jis, carefully'.'avoided. Mental and physical] "[apathy are occasionally due to this* pre-; valent practise, and breathing in the open' "lair is what the system demands." | *Y''. "**.'* "~\ ' '■"■_ -', "''"' T '" : ; ' ' .-■ i g .'"' ■ CHILBLAINS. ■ . • "[ »i With respect to-chilblains, we find here, another result of poor circulation. The i *j.warmth of the hands arid feet should -be; i.l attended to,' socks being frequently; s ! changed. If Hie feet be bathed once. daily j I !in tepid water in which salt has been! 5 i dissolved, chilolains may -be. prevented *! in many cases from developing. The; ; ;habit of. warming the hands when chilled,.! \ [directly at a fire, is one to be soundly, 'condemned, this being a.; frequent cause 3 iof chilblains. Friction is much better for; c restoring warmtti here, as it is in the case '" of frost-bite. A useful chilblain liniment, j 1 which may be daubed on the chilblain | " and left to dry, is composed of equal parts" [ of soap liniment and tincture :of cantha-1 'jrides. The bottle is to be labelled "Fori 1 extermil use only." In - the case of ! broken chilblains dress them with .at I little boracic ointment spread on lint, and * cover the whole with cotton wool. ij CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. '. "■•Private cleanliness is a matter of public J interest. Wherever dart and filth are alII lowed to accumulate, the enemies of health ■'[come together, and plague and pestilence Miollow. It does not matter whether the f'dir* consists of decaying matter on the ".'surface of the ground, or in cesspool, or - ■ whether it is distributed in unwashed par'*,tides :, over the surface or in „the pores of 1 trie human body. in the latter case it is j '•rather more dangerous, since a clean', per-] son may escape all injury from contagion, I 'jwhile a system not fortified by cleanliness J 'lis liable to'attacks of disease. The ma-; ?[jority of human kind both in the city and [country are imperfectly washed. Some people' do not bathe once" a month, and it] jis also a- fact that many pass through a "jwhole season without a bath, and possibly i; have never been completely immersed. The si results are found in a predisposition . to J ? ; disease. The unwashed skin is incapable J >i of discharging its natural and healthy l '|functions, and the interrupted action of the '! pores of the skin which throw off so much I "jof the waste of the system fosters,; and! ; doubles their morbid tendency.' This dan-1 '. ger to health may not be evident at first, j '. but with each neglect of the r means ;of s cleanliness it becomes greater, until it, is 9 no longer possible to ward off the attacks "of disease. ■..-.■'.. : ; . ■ . . ... & •Ine human family,, is large, but the sup- ? ply of water for sufficient bathing is not wanting." ' Indeed, Nature seems to .have taken special pains to distribute iihe hcaltli[fgiving; fluid widely.* The conclusion is in- ' i evitable that pure water, with its cleans-. Ming and refreshing, nature, is a power for "good, and where water is .wanted, Nature I I accepts no substitute'. Many of the Vail-* '|'.nents of mankind now so often aggravated •["would more readily yield to treatment if 'the patient had devoted attention to-this ? iquestion. In almost every case of. sickness, * -it-he judicious use of the bath would add yverv-niuchto the power of other remedies ': ■■ _____________ mmmm . ;