MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17139, 19 April 1919, Page 5 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

&V , LEISURELY MEALS. ©ne of the matters in dispute in the recent strikes raises a question which, without considering the merits of the particular dispute, may well give us occasion for a little reflection. Except for the diminishing number of people who lead lives of leisure few indeed are they who, except perhaps on Sundays, sit down to a meal •with that feeling of leisure which was formerly the customary sauce of nearly every meal Working men hardly ever take a meal except in a snatched half-hour wedged tightly between two periods of more or less strenuous work. There is a great deal to be said against the stupid self-indulgence and futile waste of time of the meals of our more leisured ancestors, hut there is nearly as much to bo said from the point of view both of health and of pleasure against the inadequate and hurried meals which have now become , the rule among the majority of men and • women workers in our cities and* big towns. A certain space and leisureliness are as essential to the proper digestion and absorption of a me,il as for its intelligent enjoyment. Providing human energy and mechanical skill can be used much moro intelligently and therefore productively than has been the rule in the past,- and machinery relocated to its true function, w.uch is that of lightening the labour and increasing the leisure of man, we may reasonably hope for an altogether higher "standard of health, of what a man ought to be and feel like, than that which has to make shift as an ideal to-dav. HEALTHY OLD AGE. There are, of course, accidents and certain accidental illnesses that may come to us and that we can never entirely guard against, such as the infectious diseases, the diseases brought on by unavoidable exposure to privation and chills, and the dread but so tar unexplained cancer. There are diseased conditions afso that v/a may unluckily inherit, but against which we can. nevertheless, make" a good fight. The man who inherits a morbid ; constitution, and, wisely recognising his •' danger, lives a careful life, will oftentimes 1 outlast a healthy contemporary in the race, ! remarks Dr. Bodley Scott in "The Road j to a Healthy Old Age." j Leaving these almost unavoidable ills out of the question, we may say. with a ' fair amount of .certainty, that our health I is our own, that the diseases that may come on us as life advances are' more or less our own fault, and that they are due to breaking of physiological laws. In the jjreiit fight of life, it may be our misfortune to be knocked out in the middle rounds, but we'must all strive and hope to fight to the end, to fulfil our destiny, and to leave a record of seme good work behind. Habitual intemperance and the grosser sins of life are contraventions of 'the moral law; they carry their 6tory and fate for all to see, but, as I have said above, the knowledge and sensible application of the laws of health will carry us to a healthy old age. As our bodily strength' and activity begin to decline, it will be wise for us to get overhauled by a good physician, by one especially who can accurately estimate the condition of our hearts and arteries, for it is often about 50 to 55 that we need to make a change in our food and in our habits; it is at this age that the diseased condition of our blood-vessela, that we call arteriosclerosis, and which cuts short so many lives, commences, and it is in .these early days that so much can be done to prevent its development. The mere duration of life is, not a worthy a ; m in itself. ■ What pleasure would it be to ourselves, and what use to others, if on: bodies were afflicted with disease and and if our minds were useless and clouded by premature decay? To carry on both our health' and our mental powers unimpaired must be our first and all-important consideration. As the old Greek problem says : "Know and study yourself." so we should, with skilled help, make our own individualities our study and arrange our lives in accordance. No second-hand knowledge nor the experience of others . will help us much, for as no two cases of. illness are exactly alike, 60 no two cases of ordinary health run on quite parallel linesWHOOPING COUGH. Whooping cough is so well known that it is unnecessary to describe its symptoms I in detail. It appears in. epidemics of wide [ distribution, and remains usually for a' considerable period once it has shown itself. It is among the most infectious of diseases, so much so that practically everyone unprotected by a previous attack who comes in contact with a case of whooping cough will catch the disease. If; one member of a household is attacked i it is pretty certain that all the other members, both children and grown-ups, who ! are not protected, will be ill also. _In I schools it spreads with great rapidity,, and a 'short contact seems to be quite j enough to spread the contagion. It is a I curious fact, however, that in hospital • wards and such places, where the patients • are confined to bed in a large cubic space ; of air, the disease does not. spread to any (Treat extent, which seems to suggest that ' contact close enough for the breath to be inhaled is necessary for the contraction of the diseaseft is difficult to fix the exact neriod ot incubation, between the. infection and the appearance of the illness, but the cough begins usually a week or a fortnight after' contact with an infectious case, with a further period of another week or ten days before it show its characteristic whoop." The early stages of whooping cough begin with a feverish cold, with a dry and tickling cough, which is not easy to relieve by ordinary means. It is worse at night, and is marked by a great degree of straining and persistency. The child is kept awake by the cough, or with a paroxysm, and cannot get to Bleep again. It may be easier in the day time, when. indeed, the child may seem quite veil. Later the appetite fails, and the child looks pale and seedy. Tho cough becomes progressively more and more spasmodic and paroxysmal, till the real whoop appears. 'Hit- cough now is markedly paroxysmal, and the whoop is veil marked. The attack is well described by Dr. Wright, who points out that it is haidly exact at this stage to speak of the expiratory coughs as " efforts." The child, prompted by a peculiar tickling sensation m the throat, attempts to relieve it by coughing. but in a moment the coughing '"•es i,n in spite of any voluntary effort i•> suppress it, so (hat the child's face become" congested, and the facial veins distended before the inspiratory act takes t i,,ri- ami toe air rushes into the air ; assays an.l the lungs through the nai - i wed glnttif. Fit after fit of coughing " il; ' fieri follow one another till the child vomits or a rush of stringy mucus, perstreaked with blood, pours out of its n:-uii and nose. In the worst eases the distress occasioned by these fits of cough- >■'? if eitrenie, and the child dreads their i. '-uri♦iii~e. not only on account of their 'ii.-< nmfurt. but from the aches and pains it differs from the reason of the overrained and weary respiratory muscless, < exhausting is this incessant coughing Slid straining, that a weakly child finds '' M-rv difficult to fight against- Not only toe constant violent muscular straining, l"it the frt'omni vomiting which prevents the proper assimilation of the food, helps to w.-ai the hull- patient out. When it is ioii.sidered thai in a had case at its worst f' Ve there max 'n- 40 or 50 fits of cough- | i' : in the 24 hours, it does not seem sur--1 ri-."- ifiat the ,-h"i;!d leave the child v ik and v c.rn oul. - If ihe path'it's strength can be effec- ' tivcly maintained, the cough may be »x- ' l-ule.l Id grow less and lees spasmodic and severe, until after a variable period of fo.m four to six weeks the whoop mav di.«- • pear The vomiting anil the spasmodic i -nay stay a little longer vet. but i ,ii. a;,.- '"i e rn.iy, Twin this pulut, bo said to have set in, ,