HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1875, 28 October 1887, Page 36

HEALTH COLUMN.

Growth does not really cease until about the age of 25— that is to say, the frame increases in bulk until that age is attained ; but with most persons the height i 3 not added to after they have passed the age of 18, subsequent growth being only muscle development.

The oddest note, says Laboucherc, of national, personal, and sexual superiority I ever heard of is susceptibility to hay fever. In Dr Morell Mackenzie's admirable monograph on this complaint and its treatment, I find that among races, the English and American, among classes, the upper and cultivated, and of the sexes, the male sex, are especially susceptible to hay fever. In the North of Europe it is almost unknown ; it is rare in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain; whereas in England it is frequent, and in America prevalent.

An extraordinary case is reported at the present time in the London Temperance Hospital. A girl, 15 years of age, had the last molar tooth in the lower jaw on the right side removed about six weeks ago. No anaesthetic was administered. She was in perfect health at the time. Half an hour after the operation she began to yawn, and has continued to do so constantly since. One yawn succeeds another without interruption, and with an interval of two or three seconds.

For Cold in the Head.— Dr G. E. Dobson recommends the inhalation of the vapour of camphor and steam. The vapour is made to come in contact with the outer surface of the face, surrounding the nose by means of a paper cone placed with the narrow end downward in a vessel containing hot water-and a drachm of coarsely-powdered or shredded camphor. If this is continued 10 or 20 minutes at a time, and repeated three or four times in as many hours, the cure is usually effected. — Health.

Bacteria. — It has been estimated that a single cubic inch of space Avill contain 8,000,000,000,000 of these little fellows, of average size. They also increase, by fission, at the rate of one division every hour ; hence, a single one becomes the immediate parent of 16,777,215 every 2-1 hours, and the causative parent of 32,307,756 individuals in that length of time. Now, as each one of these 32,000,000 will become, during the next 21 hours, the begetter of 32,307,756 individuals, one can get a reasonable understanding of the virulency of some of our infectious diseases where there is a specific bacterium.

A great many people suffer from an uncomfortable feeling of heat of skin and weakness of nerves, combined with a general feeling of discomfort, after eating. In nearly every case this is caused by over-indulgence in food. " The strength must be kept up !" Indeed. Would the reader be surprised to know that this seemingly simple sentence, and the faith that really simple-minded people pin to it, cause the death of thousands — ay, tens of thousands — annually in this country and America. Alas 1 for the poor unhappy stomach and poor unhappy liver ; no wretched cabhorse in London is ever driven as they are, under the unnatural idea of keeping up strength. Why, most people could live for days without food of any kind, and be the better for it ; and thousands of cases of slight indisposition would yield at once to a gentle aperient and a day's abstinence from food.— Girls' Own Paper.

A recent return prepared by some French army doctors on the health of the French army brings out a fact which young men with an enthusiasm for athletics would do well to take more into account than they do. Diseases of the heart are much more prevalent in the army than amongst civilians, and the doctors trace them clearly to the overstraining of the young recruit's heart by the severe course of physical training to which he is subjected at a time of life when, as is now well known, the equilibrium of the heart's action is particularly liable to derangement. In our universities and schools the majority of students have a notion that severe physical exercise is the best 'antidote to save one from the effects of excessive mental work. Under this impression they go in for additional nervous strain rather than for mild recreative exercise, and affect their hearts permanently.

The belief that a drowning person rises and sinks three times before life becomes extinct is quite groundless. The specific gravity of the human body is so near that of water that a comparatively slight effort will suffice to bring a sinking person to the surface again. In a case of pure drowning the individual first sinks to a certain depth and then ascends to the surface of the water, where, if he be not a good swimmer, he struggles to clear his lungs and mouth, and to obtain fresh air. As water is generally taken in with the inspired air, he sinks for a short distance, and then by his exertions again succeeds in reaching the surface. These struggles are repeated until the lungs and stomach are filled with water, with the result that the general specific gravity of the body is increased. The body then sinks to the bottom of the water. The duration of this contest for life will vary according to the sex, age, strength, and general condition of the individual. The drowning person who does not struggle, and succumbs to cramp or exhaustion, sinks at once and for ever.

Guilty of Wro.vg — Som* people have a fashion of confusing excellent remedies with the large mass of "patent medicines," and in this thevare guilty of a wrong. There are some advertised rpraedies fully worth all that is asked for them, and. one at least we know of : Dr Sonle's American Hop 13ITTKBS. The writer has had occasion' to use the' Bitters in just such a climate as we ha,ve most; of, the year in Bay City, and has always found, them to be first class and reliable, doing all' that is 'claimed for them. ''Tribune?'