HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 953, 25 April 1889, Page 35

HEALTH COLUMN.

SLEEPLESSNESS. . .

A cold bed is often a great hindrance to sleep. Cotton sheetsinstead of linen, and in cold weather, ra warming- pan first, will frequently make all the difference between a good-arid a bad night. ' „," '„ ', "/ 'J' Cold feet,,again, are ariqihei: fertile, cause. These , can' be best cured, by; having, just before going to ,bed, two basins, one of .very hot and the other of cold water, and putting a fopt in eaoh, then crossing th'^m and putting the hot foot into the cold water, and vice versa. The constant -'change violently stimulates the circulation^ 'If, then*, a pair of fleecy sleeping-socks be drawn on,, 'no sleeping draught will probably, be needed.' . *-'- J lf you wake in the night, aid lie awake, getting up in the cold and taking a tarn and then back to the warm, bed will, often pro: duce sleep. ,',' . , - •-„,;

If the body is too hot, an, .arm or leg left outside the, clothes, will lower! .the tempera* ture.sufficiently. . .<''•. '•; •' ■ ' Fresh air is a truer • and better soporific then poisoning with carbonic acid gas, therefore sleep with the window open (more or less) and the door shut. ' If the head 'be 'hot or throbbing, lie yrlth the head high, and if necessary wrap the legs round with 'wet ;clbths covered with waterproof. This is aif excelled, plan. , , . Hunger is a common and unsuspected cause of sleeplessness. People dine at 6or 7, and have nothing more till 9 next morning. Others dine at 1 or 2;<and have a cup of tea and a slice, of bread and butter at 7i and nothing till next morning. ■' 3?h'es'e people; go to bed hungry^ and lie' awdke; v! A sufficient supper at a, "reasonable Kb'ur— a c^pjipr a bowl of hot^bread and, milk, or a plate of oatmeal porndge^^^ make 'all the diifference,- and by drawing, .the blood (t6( t6 - the stomach will enable the. brain, to rest.' .. - Another, cause of sleeplessnesses brain excitement late at night.. Thesbraingets-so full of blood that it cannot rest. Here the remedy is> obvious : to let the brain 'lie fallbw after dinner. If it cannot be done; and there is sleeplessness, our Told friend the mustard foot-bath or a general hot bath will often cure it. „ „ •

Indigestion.— The science of, digestion is now being discussed in the < English papers in a light quite different from the generally accepted theories, as may be seen from the following, which we clip frotn London Iron:— "The fallacy of 'plain living' had long been exploded, and it has; been ; proven that the stomach never performs its'.dqfcy so I effectually as when called upon to/act upon j a varibty of food, provided, of course, that the | food is well cooked. The popular opinion now J is that a dinner,, consisting of three or four varieties of solid food is more easily digested than the meal which is confined to one sort only. The old fashioned notion of a single joint and a simply-made pudding is . pronounced to be a fruitful source of indigestion. On this subject Dr George H. Taylor says in the Sanitary News : • Ready digested and easily digested foods are the abomination of die 1 tetics ; they nor- ; mal incitation of the digestive organs, necessary for normal secretions ; they encourage , a false notion that nutrition can be' assured without reference to expenditure)! or to provide any use for nutritive material, and thus are liable to cause unnatural, irregular, unmanageable increase of the unstable ingredients of the organism, which reaot injuI riously upon the digestive secretions, especially those of the liver. The prevalent recourse to these presumably enforced methods of nutrition are, in short, a violent and ate normal reaction against the former prevalent reign of physic, depletents, and so-oalled. alteratives. These old methods actually provide modes of disposing of unused nutritive supplies, although they be morbid modes." 1

The Cause of Boils. — A boil may attack any portion of the body, but it bftener appears on the neck than on any other part, and no spot seems to the patient so undesirable to have it as the very one upon which it is 'located. The causes of these painful visitations are not well understood. They ocpur not only in the debilitated, but in those who are seemingly in ordinary .heaith. 'Some writers assume that they are the result ■of a low and depraved state of the system induced by general 'debility^ excessive fatigue,- nervous depression, improper food and exercise, irregularity of the' functions of the body, and the like. Not uhfrequently "they appear on athletes while training, .There are certain diseases— among them diabetes—during the course lof -whicH?- fcbils, singly or in corps,, are quite apt x occur. They are also noted, in skin. affections whjch are characterised by severe itching; the constant irritation , of the skin seeps, to invite their appearanoe. Certain medicines "when, used externally are capable of jprpducing, an eruption of boils. One writer says : "To judge from the previous observations, I think 111 1 may say that individuals whp have a rough i skin, thick, dark, hair, and a vigorous growth i of hair, are predisposed to the ''formation, of furuncles."—" Boston Journal of Health."

Qualities of 'Alth^— Alum is ( said to have power to purify . water &>$ even ' to expel the bacteria it 'sometimes contains, That muddy water can be so cleared has long been known ; but it is a comparatively re» pent discovery that a very small quantity of alum, so small that it is not injurious to drink the water that contains it, will rid the water of nearly all its bacteria. A Pennsylvania physician found that the water that was drawn by the people , of / a vil. lage where typhoid fever ,. was epidemic was swarming with bacteria. Fifteen drops of it, when spread upon a suitable surfaoe, were capable of forming 8100 colonies of these microscopic vegetable germs. He added alum, in the proportion of half a grain to a gallon, and -found that not only were the earthy and vegetable matterprecipitated, - but that the . colonies of 'bacteria were iei • duced from 8100 to 80, and these wereoJJ: large size. ', •

By the use ofAyer'a. Sarsaparilla tjhe bloom q '. health may be restored '.to : the system which %at , become enfeebled'wifch disease: The best vifcalher and - blooJS. puffier is, Ayer"a Saraaparilla.' Sold by aIT drugglsti. .... „-><.'" -'..'. 'Jm-v '"-.

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