MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16431, 6 January 1917, Page 6 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

ll HOW TO TEEAT THE DOOTOE. j Hebe are a few simple rules about g this, which tend to give the doctor a i fair chance: ® I.—Give him your entire confidence, j else you may withhold just the fact that j would explain your case to his knowledge. ll.Answer his questions simply and fully. lII.—Do not keep back any symptom 1 because you think it unimportant. IV.—Don't wait to send for him till . your child is dying. 3 V.—Don't speak of him to your sick j child as if he were " the bogey man." j Vl.—Carry out his instrutions to the letter, being especially particular about diet. r VII.— give the patient other remr j edies that friends recommend they may j: counteract the medicine he is giving. ' j SOME NAIL TROUBLES. I j Very little is known as to the cause of 8 many of the curious affections and malI formations to which the nails of the fingers and toes are occasionally subject. Yet ! most people have experienced themselves, | or observed in others, some of the comj moner of these conditions. Thus, after severe Illnesses, it is not unusual to find curious little furrows or grooves running across the nails from side to side, without any other sign of trouble. These grooves are known as Beau's lines, and they represent that part of the nail which was , being formed at the time of the disease. ' I Their position on the nail serves to 'give a rough idea of the date of the ill- • I ness, bearing in mind the fact that, normally, the nail takes about six months to i grow through its entire length. Another curious condition is that known as reeded 1 nails. In this the nails are cracked in the : direction of their lengths, usually splitting at their free ends. Tfli 8 condition is often ,! found in old age, but it is by no means ■ confined to that period. It is a very inconvenient trouble, since the split ends are always catching in iabrics and becoming torn. A good deal of this inconvenience can be prevented by painting the nail with collodion.

THE POWER OF REACTION. Most of the measures of sound personal hygiene consist in training and increasing tne body's elasticity or capacity to react when exposed to varying conditions. T'ae more elastic in this way the several parts of our body become the better we are able to resist disease and all those forms of shocks which are the prelude to disease. Almost the whole of athletic and gymnastic training consists in the educative process, and the best trained body is that which most readily reacts and adapts itself to extremes of exertion both sudden and long continued, to extremes of heat and cold and to mental catastrophes of every kind. Such a result rarely comes by simple process of nature. It is, at any rate in civilised man, an artificial product) of human thought, ingenuity, and persistence. Step by step tho body and the mind have to be taught to react to steadily increasing degrees of divergence from what we may call the normal. Wise training, therefore, includes as one of its most essential features a gradual hardening. The plant, or animal, even though belonging to a species normally hard and vigorous, which has spent its entire life in the sheltered conditions of a house is at a hopeless disadvantage if suddenly exposed to the variations involved in an open air existence. So it is with a child or grown up person. Yet it would be rash to jump to the conclusion, as many do, that reactive power i ana hardiness can be acquired by a sudden breach with long continued habit and unprepared exposure to extreme con- j ditions. These things have to be done by steps, often by very -small steps; and i this is true in matters of clothing, of ] food, of exercise, and of mental activity, alike. EPILEPSY. Epilepsy is one of the oldest diseases of which we have any historical record, and is one of which it can truly be said that it begins in many cases even before the birth of the person affected. In a great number of cases, there is a well-es-tablished family history either of epilepsy itself or of ner\">us or mental disease nearly akin to it. It is, in fact, one of the few diseases which have been in all ages recognised as hereditary. Gut this does not mean that the disease is necessarily transmitted in its present form from parent to child. In many cases a family history of alcoholism is found, or syphilis, or lead-poisoning. In fact, any condition in the parent which tends greatly to weaken the germ may lead to epilepsy in the child. The latter almost always abnormalities in development; the skull is queerlv shaped, the teeth come irregularly or late and other signs of faulty development appear. And it must "be remembered that these outward and visible signs are but the surface indications of internal deviations from the normal more serious still. The same causes which go to produce inherited epilepsy are naturally liffely to produce it in the individual. And, as a matter of fact, they do so, the alcoholic epileptic being a common visitor to our hospitals. Lead poisoning, again f shows itself here. But there is another' form of epilepsy, other than inherited, which arises firstly as the sequel of some illness in childhood or infancy such as scarlet fever or typhoid. In these cases the convulsions which accompany the acute stage of the disease have a direct effect on the brain and nerve centres, and do, in some cases, unfortunately persist into later life and inflict permanent injury. The inflammation which caused the convulsions has in such a case set up changes in the substance of the brain which, although perhaps slight in themselves, are sufficient to start the epileptic seizures.

Various Symptoms and Treatment. These injuries to or abnormalities of the brain do not necessarily occur in all cases at the same spot, or is the same part of the brain affected in all cases. Various symptoms are produced, and various forms of treatment called for. But in the main the line of treatment is the same, and is directed towards the restoring of the abnormal brain and body to as nearly a natural condition as possible To this end the epileptic should lead a perfectly healthy outdoor life, avoiding all excitements and living on simple, nourishing food. No over-work should be thrown on the mind or body, and to spare the" latter as much as possible certain precautions should be taken in the matter of foods. Red meat is better avoided altogether, and carbohydrates in general partaken of sparingly. White meats, eggs, vegetables, and milk should form the basis of the diet. Plenty of cold water should bo drunk between meals, constipation should be carefully guarded against, and a lukewarm sponge bath should be taken daily in order to promote a free action of the skin. As regards drugs, the ordering of these must, of course, be left to the doctor in charge of the case but :t is . generally found that the one series of drugs which ] has a good effect on this condition, con- ' trolling and diminishing the seizures, is the bromides. These have a cumulative effect, that is to say the drug remains in the tissiles for a certain time, and the longer it can lie indiced to remain the 1 less of it need be administered. For this leason it has been found that a reduction in the amount of salt taken by the patent in his food is followed by good results, us the salt in the blood and tissues is {int to nrsist ill the elimination of the bromides quicker than is desirable.