HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1853, 27 May 1887, Page 36

HEALTH COLUMN.

Water is the natural drink for man, and may always be taken in moderation when thirst is present. , It performs important purposes in the animal t economy, and is absolutely indispensable to life and health. Water is' is the only fluid which does not possess irritating, or at least stimulating, qualities, and in proportion as we rise from table beer to ardent spirits, in the same ratio we educate the stomach and bowels for that state of morbid sensibility which must eventually weaken the digestive organs in such a manner that they cannot perform their respective' functions", and indigestion and dyspepsia is the consequence. If we would enjoy health, all stimulants should be avoided as common drinks. They may be useful as medicines, when nature falters and droops and cannot resuscitate herself; but as a beverage, Stimulating drinks ■ should ;be avoided. When stimulants are taken, 'the machinery of the system is hurried and driven too fast, and although by this means its activity and power may seem to be '■ increased, yet ' a reaction must follow, and a correspondu^ debility must ensue, than another stimulating draught is called for to bring the system up again, when another! reaction must follow. By this course the natural vigour of the constitution becomes gradually and oftentimes imperceptibly impaired. Hence, if we would preserve a healthy system instead of provoking nature to unnatural action, we must furnish her with sufficient healthy nourishment, and let her regulate her ! own mode and speed of action. Give her nourishment and she will furnish her own stimulants, which will be far preferable to any promptings which art can invent, sustain her in her natural action, and not force her to unnatural speed, which is weakening to her innate powers. To live naturally is to live healthily ; to live artificially is to tempt and foster disease. By stimulating, the nerves are excited, and, in due time, become so irritated as to set up an habitual state of morbid sensibility. From too frequent potations' of spirituous liquors the appetite and powers of digestion are extinguished and the stomach irritated in proportion as the inebriate takes his libation the more frequent, till even the presence of food cannot be borne without pain, and a very small quantity of the burning fluid which he used to swallow so freely and* with so much gusto, now quickly makes him inebriated. The too frequent use of ardent spirits stupefies the mind, blunts the mental' 1 faculties, weakens the nervous system, destroys our finer teelings, and makes us less sensitive. ■ Injuring our appetite, it makes us irritable, lowers us in the estimation of our friends; we lose our self-respect ; it reddens the eyes, it bloats the face, it saps the foundation of health, it weakens our physical strength, it cools the ardour of our attachment, it alienates our affections, and lastly it tumbles us into the ditch, and degrades us below the brute creation

To Cube Stammering.— Tap, or beat time, with the finger at every syllable pronounced, either in reading (which should always bealoud) or speaking. By so' doing the most inveterate stammerer will be surprised at the immediate result, and after long and constant practice no impediment will be found to fluent speaking. Also, if the stammerer will carefully ■ note, when reading aloud, there are certain letters which, more particularly as initials, present difficulty ; it" will be found that the sounds of other letters can either be substituted or prefixed, so as to remove this. Thus V and U are especially obnoxious. Say Eeankee for Yankee, Eeouth for Youth, etc. By care and patience this will be found of great assistance. '■ A Perennial Wonder. — From time to time are reported supposed extraordinary and unparalleled cases of change in the colour of the human skin— whites turning black and blacks turning white — and it may be worth noticing that this striking affection is by no means a now ov very rare one. ■ The disease is called leucoderma, and it is well known, among whites, though apparently more frequent in the dark-skinned races. ; Erasmus Wilson gave its frequency in London as ■ not less than • one in 400 cases of skin

disease ; and, according to Kaposi, it is in Vienna one in 500 ; but .Garderi, in India,

met with one in 362 cases of skin disease, and Bombay, inquiries into leprosy disclosed a great number of these cases. The employment of benzoate of sodium is not a new method in the treatment of diph-theria,-for it has been> tried and is recommended highly by Leizerich, Kien, ' Ferreol,

and others. But this, of course; speaks so much the more strongly in ' favour of the remedy; and as Dr Brondel's results were better than those obtained by others using the same drug, it is -to be presumed that his method of employing it is the best. — Medical Eecord.