HEALTH NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 11

HEALTH NOTES.

TAKE CARE OF THE EYES. 1. Don’t read in railway trains or in vehicles in motion. 2. Don’t read 1 lying down or in a constrained position. 3. Don’t read by firelight, moonlight, or twilight. 4. Don’t read by flickering gaslight or candleright. 5. Don’t read books printed on thin paper. 6. Don’t reau books which have no space betAveen the lines. 7. Dont’ read for mere than fifty minutes without stopping, whether the eyes are tired or not. 8. Don’t hold the reading too close to the eyes. 9. Don’t study at night, but in the morning, when you are fresh. 10. Don’t select your oivn glasses at the cutset. It Avould almost seem as though some of these rules were too obvious to require mention, but practical experience shoAvs that most people abuse their eyes just in the way stated. In short, anything Avhich tends to increase the quantity of blood in the organ favours the increase of the defect, leading in extreme cases to detachment of the retina and blindness. DOCTOR’S HINTS TO SMOKERS! A medical journal gives smokers tAvo bits of advice : “Smoke Avith moderation, and do not smoke too cheaply.” Tobacco, in the opinion of this 1 writer, certainly seems to satisfy some physiological need in certain conditions of the system, for persons Avho are unable to smoke at certain times can do so with pleasure and benefit at some ether period of their lives, as Avas the case Avith Huxley- Certainly no habit is so common or so generally harmless, he thinks. Comparatively few use tobacco in such excess as to suffer bad effects, no d'oubt fewer than suffer from the over-dose of coffee and tea, and infinitely fe\A-er than these Avho suffer from over-eating. TO CURE BILIOUSNESS. The juice of-half a lemon squeezed into a glass of water, taken night and morning without sugar, is one of the simplest and best remedies for torpid liver or biliousness. Daily headaches, which medicine •has failed to cure, Avill disappear, and the appetito Avill be considerably improved 1 . This remedy is so simple that anyone thus afflicted will do Avell to give it a trial, as it cannot possibly do any harm, even if it does no good. HOW TO RELIEVE CHOKING. Raising the left arm as high as you can will relieve choking much mere rapidly than by being thumped on the back. Very frequently at mealtime and when they are at play children get choked Avhile eating, and the customary way of relieving them is to slap them sharply in the back. The effect of this is to set the obstruction free so that it can be swallowed. The same thing can be brought about by raising the left hand of the child as high as possible and then relief comes much more rapidly. HOW TO GET FAT. Much can be d'ene towards inducing firm, healthy flesh by attention to diet; and those who are too thin can, with little expense and effort, overcome this trouble. Olive oil is one of the most nutritious of food products, and a persistent and liberal use of salads aids materially in the acquisition of flesh. A salad of orange and bananas cut in small pieces, and liberally supplied with French salad dressing, will never harm the digestive organs. Vegetable salads should be freely indulged in at luncheon and dinner, with plenty of good salad oil. Fish salads are excellent, and sardines form a valuable addition to the “beauty” bill of fare. Milk is flesh forming; so are grapes and raisins. Exercise chest all possible, and friction well, also' the arms' Avith a soft towel. Honey is flesh forming, and a very wholesome article it is; indeed for human consumption no l articles can be found more delicious than honey, and none more beneficial to health. Take it on toast or bread and butter, while it is delicious with suet puddings and dumplings. Sleep and rest all possible, avoid undue excitement, simply take things calmly and be happy. ’ HOW TO REDUCE THE WAIST. To decrease the size of the waist by tight lacing is simply to ruin the figure irretrievably. So much has been said and written on this subject, and 1 the physiological reasons of this fact are now so generally known that it is unnecessary for me to go into the' matter here. The fact remains, tight-lacing, so far from adding to a woman’s beauty, merely detracts from the symmetry of her shape, and ultimately results in what is popularly described as a “lost figure” in early middle age. Most girls, happily, are now K»onnninor vaglisp* ■fcTiis t/rntli. nnrl in?:

stead of squeezing their Araists into the smallest possible compass, have taken to reducing its actual size by a series of gymnastic exercises. The following simple movements, if persevered in regularly and consistently, will work wonders in this direction : First, stand perfectly upright, with shoulders back, chin pressed well back, and arms at the sides, with palms of the hands to the front. Raise the arms up OA*er the top of the head till the thumbs touch, and then drop them sloAvly down again. Second, hold the arms straight out in front of you, palms down, and then move each arm around gradually to the side and back again, keeping them on the level of the shoulders. Third, stand Avith the arms stretched as far apart as possible level with the shoulders, and making a perfect cross with the body, and describe small circles with each arm, using the shoulder as centre. Repeat each exercise half a dozen times consecutively. TIGHT-LACED LIVERS. “It is my belief,” says a doctor in the “Lancet,” “that a large proportion of the anaemia in girls is due to tight-lac-ing, and for several years it Avas a custom of mine to measure the Avars ts of all the anoemic girls who came before me ancl the corsets they Averei wearing, and I ha\~e records of dozens of cases of anaemia in which Avaists that naturally measured 22, 23, and 24 inches Avere compressed into corsets measuring 19, 18, 17, and 16 inches. I have repeatedly seen their livers displaced by tight-lacing, and in one of my private patients the liver was so displaced from the same cause that it Avas forced even below the intestines.”