DR. NEWMAN ON “HOW TO KEEP OUR HEALTH.”

New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 11

DR. NEWMAN ON “HOW TO KEEP OUR HEALTH.”

A very interesting lecture on the above subject was delivered by Dr Newman at the Tinakori-road Churchroom on last Tuesday evening. Dr Newman, in opening his lecture, said that in the study of health, as in science, politics, or commerce, it is well to get hold of a few simple great truths, and to grasp them firmly, as around them could be grouped many of the chief facts of life ; for instance, the law of the origin of species threw a flood of light upon disconnected facts in zoology, and established a connection between those facts which apparently had no relation to each other. So with Newton’s Law of Gravity and- other great principles. He would lay down a few important rules for the guidance of his hearers. A first principle was to keep the general health -*p, as disease would surely settle on the weak spot in a person’s system. If' one allowed his constitution to run down, was always weak and out of sorts, always seedy, and always ailing without apparent cause, then that person was in danger like a weakly shrub, and liable to all forms of disease, which he could not throw off as if he were in robust health. To keep up the general health the body had to be strengthened and nourished and cared for. People with weak, narrow, subsided chests suffer from coughs which, neglected, develop into consumption ; people run down in health from overwork, long hours, want of pureair; and, because they neglect themselves, they are food for every disease and pestilence going. Of course, singly, one could not do much against contagious disease —that had to be left to careful and proper legislation on the part of the Government ; but every one could do a great deal against the many diseases due largely to heat, cold, and damp, such as rheumatism, pleurisy, neuralgia, bronchitis, etc. People who live in towns where the streets are well paved, and where the houses are of wood, iron, or stone, need scarcely ever catch colds if they use proper diligence to avoid them. Care should be taken to change immediately after getting wet, and not to sit in wet clothes or in damp boots before a fire, and let them dry upon one. He would suppose a person in thoroughly robust ; health with only one defect —a tendency to rheumatism in the knees and wrists. ; That was his vulnerable point, and his -duty was to protect it. Achilles in the •Grecian mythology was vulnerable only in his heel, and because he did not guard it, it was the cause of his downfall ; so with the man whom he had supposed : he wore damp socks, or from a hundred other causes brought about by his own .carelessness, he was attacked on his weak spot, and naturally had to suffer in consequence. In the same way women wore .small, light-soled shoes to make their feet look smaller, and in these they went to the concert or lecture-room in the evening, wrapping the rest of the body well, but leaving the feet and ankles exposed, and hence all kinds of diseases. Younggirls go and take violent exercise in a ballroom •in a low-necked frock open in front and behind, and when thoroughly heated go ■into the open air with some youth to .study astronomy, with the result that her perhaps already weakened lungs are exposed to the sharp air. The consequences are simply disastrous. Many women, delicate-chested and prone to consumption, will on ordinary occasions wrap up in fur boas and heavy jackets to preserve their weak chests ; but the ball or dress concert comes round, and all care is abandoned and every wrap thrown aside. The result is but too well known. The chest and arms, used to tropical heat,

are left entirely unprotected, and the victim catches a violent cold, which feeds her insidious disease, and finally she succumbs to it. The lecturer went on to say he hoped the time would come when people would not so foolish as to run these risks. Another exceedingly foolish but very .common error amongst young men is that •of dipping his hairbrush in water for the of making his hair lie smooth. He has a horror of hair ointments and •oils, and so he falls into this foolish habit. He would not put on a wet or damp flannel for any money, but he does what is quite as bad, because there is no difference between wet hair and wet •clothing ; and yet he wonders that he catches cold. In the same way mothers will often leave their infants’ hair damp, thereby sowing the seeds of all sorts of trouble for them in the future. He would .advocate woollen clothing for everybody, and for all seasons of the year. Flannel garments were the best for purposes of health both in winter and summer. He would recommend men with delicate throats to wear beards, as they were a great protection against the sharp air. Draughts should be

especially guarded against. It was surprising how little attention people paid to this evil. They would sit and read imder an open window, and be surprised if they had a stiff neck or caught cold in any other way. Another very prolific source of colds was bathing. People go to the baths and lounge about either undressed or half dressed, looking blue with the cold and quite miserable, and doing themselves an immense amount of injury. So, also, with bathing indoors, if no reaction follows the chill of a coldbath ; if, on the contrary, the teeth chatter, the hands grow numb, and the face gets quite blue, ?t is clear that the cold is too severe, and that the bath instead of being a splendid tonic, as it should be, is doing a great deal of harm. Children are often sufferers through the carelessness or neglect of their parents. They get coughs and lung congestion because their mothers will dress them in short flannels, cut low at the neck, and with short sleeves to show their little white bosoms and necks and plump arms, forgetting that they thus leave their lungs unprotected. People are apt to forget that the skin covering the arms and legs, hands and feet of an infant form a veiy large portion of its entire skin, and that the blood which courses through these parts at the rate of seven miles an hour, like a swift running river, becomes chilled, and that this cool blood rushes back to refrigerate the internal organs, and may so lower their temperature as to cause all kinds of mischief. Another cause of evil to infants is their being allowed to go about in perambulators till they get chilled through and through. In regard to proper healthful food the doctor said he need not point out the most wholesome food —their own common sense was the best guide in that respect. He recommended the more common use of coffee as a beverage instead of tea, the excessive use of which, he said, is very injurious. He said that butter is a very wholesome ingredient, and also fish. Vegetables and fruit, he thought, should be more common articles of diet. He laid stress on the need for good cookery, from which many troubles arise —indigestion, wastefulness, want of economy, &c. The Doctor enlarged on the good of hot water, and said that the magic of tea lies chiefly in the hot water, sugar, and milk, as a cup of hot water is often a cup of tea minus the flavoring stuff. There was, he said, danger in deluging the stomach with a tumbler full of cold water after meals, as many people were in the habit of doing, thereby retarding digestion for hours. It was very wrong, the Doctor continued, for young men and women to run foolish needless risks. Young men were often warned that they could not, without risk of injury to themselves, play football, go in for boating, yachting, and some other sports, yet they selfishly did it, trusting to their mothers or relations’ nursing to bring them round; and in like manner young women would dance too much or over exert themselves at picnics or in other ways. A host of diseases are due to the rapid multiplication and spread of germs in the human body called bacilli or bacteria ; typhoid, scarlet fever, measles, cholera, and consumption are all due to that cause, and it behoved everyone who really desired good health not to allow, as far as possible, such germs to spread. They were only to be stopped by all uniting and by good sanitary laws. Evei-y one should see that his place was well drained, and cleanliness should be a primary consideration. The death-rate in England not many years ago was 80 in 1000, and to-day it has been reduced to under 20 in the same number. This result has been brought about by the improved sanitary condition of the towns. On this account, also, typhus fever had been banished from many parts of the country, and typhoid fever was also slowly dying out. Consumption is the most deadly and destructive disease which we have in New Zealand, and it is only recently that medical science has disclosed its true nature. Its presence is due to the multiplication in the blood of a plant called comma bacillus, so called because it is shaped like a comma. To avoid this infection, then, it is necessary to avoid personal contact with anyone infected, as every time that a consumptive person coughs he sends forth germs of the disease. He looked forward hopefully to a not far-distant date when, by care and isolation, this terrible disease would be much reduced. Speaking of the diseases of imitation, the Doctor said that everyone knows what mimics children are, and it was very foolish to let healthy children play with unhealthy ones. Healthy children have been known to get St. Vitus’ dance through watching a young companion who has been afflicted with it, and a child might get a confirmed squint from its nurse, who had a bad squint —first by mimicry perhaps, and afterward because it could not help it. So, too, a delicate child might gets fits through seeing another child or a man in one. It is a vulgar error to suppose that every child must some day or other get the usual childish complaints. On the contrary, every care should be taken to prevent their getting them. In conclusion, the Doctor said that if the towns and cities are properly drained, if people avoid swallowing the seeds of typhoid fever, scarlet fever, and especially and before all, consumption, they would do an immense amount of good. If they would clothe themselves in flannels, and always take care to keep warm and dry, they would find their lives lengthened and much happier. In England a number of diseases are stamped out, or nearly so. Leprosy, which at one time was very prevalent, had died out ; typhus was fast dying out; ague had not the deadly effect it once

had ; smallpox was dying out ; and even for hydrophobia, which was thought to have been incurable, a cure had now been found. Disease might also be stamped out in New Zealand if we only took proper precautions, and he looked forward to the time when, accidents excepted, all would die of old age.