MEIDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14525, 12 November 1910, Page 8 (Supplement)

MEIDICAL NOTES.

P' ■• y FALLING OF THE HAIR. Pb. Jacquet, acknowledging that irrita- ' tioa mnet form the basis of all successful : ' ' ', treatment directed towards making the hair ijiow, holds that this irritation should be ""-■■'- intermittent rather than constant, and I^S?•should not be carried to •the stage of exudai - jion—that is, it should".-stop at the point of hP" i producing simple hyperemia. Personally afflicted with; falling of the \ beard, he began treatment by making repeated firm pressure with* the bristles of a . »tiff brush upon the bald area. In a few : ■ seconds the skin became red and warm, and this effect lasted from SO to 50 min0M utes. The treatment was repeated night and morning until the part became distinctly tender. In four months the bsJd : ' i spot was entirely covered with hair. -S Other patients on whom this treatment ' has been tried have experienced the same " "benefit, this treatment in their cases being repeated sometimes four to six times a day. The irritation should never be car- . ried to the exudation stage. Together with this form of irritation the author suggests a vigorous friction with a dry brush over -■■ the whole area, and holds that by this • : - treatment not only can baldness be pre-. ; vented from appearing, but can bo cured j after it has developed. - | The brush should be kept perfectly clean, j since it produces many breaks in the epider- j mis, sometimes .even, causing slight bleed- • ing. ■. -:",.,';,;" , : v.'. .";.' J §§M- : ;'.- THE BACKBOARD. '*';. > Tha world has moved rapidly in a ;• Kindred years, in the matter .of physical : .. draining for girls. :; Thackeray tells us that when the nineteenth century was in its teens the excellent Miss Pinkerton, of the Academy for Young Ladies in Cliiswick Hall, gave as parting advice to her • favourite pupil the injunction that she ; should make a careful and unremitting ; rise of the backboard for four hours daily far the succeeding three years, if «he would acguire that dignified deportment ' '" and carriage so requisite for every young iady of fashion. The backboard has gone " put, and perhaps the dignified deportment and carriage have, gone with it. f:': One hardly dares think how the majestic "■Miss- Pinkerton would; have regarded f . t'je present regime "in school for girls. The painful repose of the backboard lias been succeeded by a complicated sys'y\ tem of exevcise. '. There is a long daily wa?k. There are gymnastics for 15 min- : utes once a day. Swimming in summer v and skating in /winter harden the muscles and teach endurance. Golf or hockey or tennis adds the ci arm' of competition and •, V the value of self-control to the development of muscle and-nerve.•■'•The girl who fe s . '' -tiptoes al>out in high-heeled shoes and Whose corset prevents, "her from running :or jumping or breathing- deep and full is to-day out of fashion.- :: THE NIGHT AIB. Ix is now proved beyond a doubt by the ; few pioneers who have, for years kept their windows open day and night that no bad effects have' followed, but rather -thai good health and increased vigour of g;f ; i body is the result." The : i popular belief .that breathing night air is injurious is another of these -• bogeys. At the close of the Crimean war tie world-renowned • , Miss Nightingale wrote a short treatise |Sooni nursing, in which she says "the 'patient must breathe fresh air night and :,;.'.■ day," and "night air is the purest." ,f , Night air is not always dampest and : coldest. Animal life was designed to -, ■ exist in all seasons of. the year, to live and • breathe night and day "and to be; ; able to breathe the air which Nature pro- ;■;, vides, Be it hot or ? cold, damp or dry, ' '-i'iitei; variation being conducive to sound • ~ '_|feal(h. and serving to fortify against inixtiy by sudden and extreme changes. . 'His air in dwelling-houses is, a3 a rule, 4 ;; /both wanner and drier than the outside '~-J,""-a|r, with comparatively little variation :■ .' ..in.temperature or moisture; but it .is of'««n poorer in oxygen and richer in pollution consequent on respiration and ■;l the use of gaslight with stinted ventilar ,lios. When peiisons subjected for long periods to breathe such warm and impure air enter & colder atmosphere their ; weakened and impaired respiratory organs are unable to withstand the altered conditions, ami injury in some form is pliable to ensue. Be it noted, however, tthat it is the impure atmosphere that is ;• -primarily, responsible for the injury done. REAL HEART TROUBLE. >„ ere are thousands of people who think TJxey have-heart-trouble when what they ';,, ieally Btoinach trouble. :* , - When the stomach is distended with gas '' and over-eating it reaches up under the . ieart. The heart does not have room to , '.'act, and the result is a feeling of fullness and distension and of suffocation which is ,■' very hard to bear. The symptoms seem to be in the neighbourhood of the heart. , .The real trouble is in wrong eating and ; amperfect digestion. '■ '<■ :-■ :•... Real heart trouble may be of various -~'.\, sorts. A common symptom of the chronic form of heart trouble, is shortness of breath. It is always a suspicious sign when ..,.'. persons get out of breath at very slight ,' exertion. , ', Some people have an inflammation of the deuEate membrane lining of the cavity of , the heart. This is caviled endocarditis. If tho membrane lining of the heart becomes inflamed in a. little while it thickens, loses elasticity, and finally contracts: like any ; ' other scar tissue. : ■ .;•• '- ~ .„ '.This may not do serious harm £i \ifjbere it lines the smooth walls of the heart itself, but at the valves of the heart things t- are , different. Where this inflammation of the .lining of I the heart extends over the ■various valves it does damage which canEOt be repaired. 1 VThe leaflets forming the valves become ; distorted, shrunken, sometimes curled up, ; r . ©nd not very rarely .adherent to each other ps to the adjacent parts of the heart-wall, i * ; The result of _ this valvular "deformity j&\ that this blood is obstructed in its passage , -through the valves, or else that the valves • ' .leak, and let the blood flow back. In either case extra work is put upon the heart to j ' compensate, for this defect in the valves, and its walls become first tMckeaed, and ithen fatty, or'otherwise degenerated, and ■;'; weak. The heart: is left seriously and per- ■ ananently crippled. 5;: Sometimes in rheumatism or influenza I »r acute infectious disease the heart-becomes Inflamed. This is probably an acute en- . docarditis, or active inflammation of the -'-.: lining of the heart. If properly treated . recovery is usually complete. ,'" i s||grf^ ,:^ t i m es : ,a.vvery;-serious'■ form of. in- ,: toamation of the lining of the heart decurs I; 5n cjises of blood very serious fonn of in•Satomation of the lining of the heart occurs Sn case* of blood poisoning, abseesiies, pneu;monia, and erysipelas. It is important for " -p«>pl& with weak hearts to know that what with proper care and hygienic treatment, £. t especially with treatment which may be given aba good sanatorium, : ailing hearts N:V. can be made to do their work for years and the victim may frequently die of some Other disorder. ; §■;/•- ■ ; Mr. Walter Long, who is disposing of his > fextensive estates in Wiltijhire, is one of the largest landowners in the' South of Eng- ' / land: For generations there have been [' ''.-"' tongs''in Wiltshire, i many of whom have lepresented the /county' in • Parliament, and jj' J ''-- little regret' will; doubtless be caused .locally by 'Long's decision, since he has j- always enjoyed-the reputation of being an ; excellent landlord. Mr. Long hardly sugi gested in hia younger days that he was ,■:;-. likely to play suc!a a considerable part. in pubhc affairs as hag actually fallen to his lot, ; and 'back in the early seventies few of - ; his contemporaries at either Harrow or Oxford would have had the prescience probably to predict for him ; any other career -- than that of a typical English country gentleman devoted ■ to outdoor sports and -pastimes, and finding in the administration ,• of his ancestral estates an all-sufficient oc- . • cupation ; Though English of the English through his Wiltshire forebears, Mr. Long j - has also Imh blood in his veins his mother being one of the Humes of Humewood, Co. | J Wicklow There iv however, ex- = ceptional in this,, for there are not many ,;, great houses in . without • some f-; ' ■ strain of lush blood. When his grand-'' father, the late Bight Hon. Hume-Dick IkM at Humewood ; Mr. Long, in the days of. his boyhood, spent ' a good deal -of time This Mr. Hume-Dick, it may be reeaJJed; was a member of the Irish Parliainact/sad voted ftjswat the Act of Union. &SSi( 5 .>',«<<,