HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1848, 22 April 1887, Page 36

HEALTH COLUMN.

Carbolic Acid in Inbigestion. — In a recent number of the Practitioner and News, a correspondent says : — " I have just passed through a severe attack of indigestion accompanied by colic, pyrosis, food eructations, epigastric weight, uneasiness &c. Alkalies, muriatic acid, pepsin and pancreatic extract failed to give relief. Seeing your note in the American Practitioner, on the use of carbolic acid in acid eructations, &c, I took, with almost instant relief, two or three drops of the acid as soon after food as regurgitation, distention, or acidity occurred. One dose was usually .sufficient, on two occasions only was a second dose required. This I took half-an-hour after the first. I dropped the acid on a bit of fresh bread and rolled the mass into a pill. Since my own case I have given it in a similar case, with like good result. Here I add a scruple of carbolic acid 'to loz of glycerine. Dosej a tablespoonful." Autopsy of the " Living Skeleton." — An autopsy was performed at Eockland, Mass., on Jamiary 1&, upon the body of Isaac W. Sprague, better known as the " Living . Skeleton." The weight of the body was 401b. The result of the autopsy was :—": — " Cause of death, pneumonia; cause of singular skeletonlike appearance, muscular atrophy." The other organs were in a healthy condition. There was a laternal curvature of the spine, which was. very marked. The cause of the disease of the muscles is supposed to have been in the spine, portions of which were taken to Harvard College for microscopic analysis. To Develop the Lungs. — If a person's lungs are not well developed, the health will be imperfect, but the development may be increased several inches in a few months by daily* outdoor runnings with the mouth closed, beginning with 20yds and back, at a time, increasing 10yds every week, until 100 yds are gone over thrice a day. A substitute for ladies and persons in cities is running upstairs with the mouth closed, which compels very deep inspirations, in a natural way, at the end of the journey. New Help in Surgery.— According to the statement made by Professor Bonafoux, a powder composed of equal parts of colophony, carbon, and gum arabic possesses a very great degree of hvemostatic power, and is capable, it is said, of so arresting the bleeding of large arteries as to prove decidedly serviceable in important surgical operations. The first experiments made by Professor Bonafoux with this composition were on the brachial artery in man, and on the smaller vessels, on the carotid of the horse, and other vessels of the same animal — all of tlie.se being attended with marked success. — Lancot. Blood Poisoning from Machine Oil. — Take care, says Power and Transmission 1 , how you let any machine oil or lubricator come in contact with a cut or scratch on your hand or arm, as serious blood poisoning may result. In the manufacture of some of these machine oils, fat from diseased and decomposed animals is used. All physicians know how poisonous such matter is. The only safeguard is not to let any spot where the skin is broken be touched by any machine oil or lubricator. A sick person wanting nourishment and having lost appetite, can often be sustained by the following when nothing else could be taken : — Make a strong cup of coffee, adding boiling milk as usual, only sweetening rather more ; take an egg, beat yolk and white to gefcher thoroughly ; boil the coffee, milk and sugar together, and pour il, over the beaten egg in the cup you are going to serve it in. This simple receipt is used frequently in hospital practice.

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