MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 6 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

SORE THROAI. Everyone has a cure lor sore throat, but i simple remedies appear tc be most effectual, j I Salt and water is used by many as a gargle, \ i but * little alum and honey dissolved in, sage tea is bettei. An application of clothsj wrung out in hot water and applied to the! neck, changing as often as they begin to I cool, lias the most potency for removing! j inflammation of anything we nav ever! j tried. It should be kept up for a number j of hours during the evening is usually the; most convenient time for applying this | remedy. GIVE NATURE A CHANCE. A vast amount of illness might be pre-;. | vented (according to a medical writer) if I only the patients took their mind off their! ! particular disorders, lived healthfully, and; i allowed Nature to effect a cure. When a; ibone is broken the surgeon sets it, and: I the rest is done by Nature, who does the. j mending and repairing just as she would do, in the case of a damaged tree. In sickness! she is equally willing to heal the ditea.se iff 'she is allowed a fair chance, and the wise! j physician is always ready to admit that it | is' 'Nature, and not he, who restores the | j patient. The great obstacle to the free 1 play of .Nature's healing power is the ar- j jtificial conditions under which most of us, live, our habits of life all the time undoing! ; the beneficent work she performs. When an animal is sick it secludes itself, reduces,I its allowance of food, and rests while the i healing process is going on. And mankind: might usefully take the hint. j EXERCISE IN CONSUMPTION. j Muscular development is not needed in a phthisical patient. Only enough exercise should be taken to stimulate the vegetative life processes. Wc . have known (says; Health) of a consumptive developing his biceps at a gymnasium three weeks prior to his death. His musculai system war in I splendid shape, despite the dreadful local condition of the lungs. Decided attempts to develop the muscular system lea*" only to rapid progress of the disease. So long as the system possesses appreciable vitality, it will respond to efforts to develop the j muscular system, but all such development is secured* a cost of a loss of nervous force and vitality that would stay the progress of the lung malady. Besides, violent muscular efforts lead to serious lung congestions and overstraining of the heart. Those who believe in mu.sculai exercise of a decided) kind in the phthisical, have but to remember what a holocaust consumption reaps among athletes to be convinced that excessive muscular exercise predisposes directly to phthisis. INSOMNIA. :.'■' •• Every cause capable of increasing the amount of blood ordinarily circulating through the brain has a tendency to cause wakefulness. If the brain is often kept for | long periods on the stretch, during which the vessels are filled to repletion, they cannot contract even when the exciting causes i cease. Wakefulness, as a consequence, rei suits, and every day the condition of the individual becomes worse, because time 'brings the force of habi into operation. ! Everything that tends, to throw the blood .unduly to the brain, or to accumulate it ;there, should be avoided. This is a vital •matter, and prevention is better than cure. Tight or ill-fitting articles of dress, especially about - the neck or waist, and' tight boots and shoes should be avoided, the socks changed, and the feet kept warm so that the circulation may be promoted. Wearing cork soles in the boots or.shoes and changing the socks every day are excellent means to this. end, and strongly recommended. Apart, however, from physical causes, there are various moral causes acting on the brain equally inimical to whatever keeps the attention fully aroused keeps the bloodvessels of the brain distended, and the consequences of that we know. On the other , hand, when the attention begins to flag the , tendency is for the vessels to contract and ' for sleep to ensue.