HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1970, 22 August 1889, Page 37

HEALTH COLUMN.

Poisoning the Baby Unwittingly. It is probable that many parents kill their infant children, without meaning to do so, fiom ignorance of the dangerous nature of popular sedatives and soothing syrups; while many more, without knowing what they are about form the dreadful opium habit in their babies before the latter are weaned. In connection with this subject;, " Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, 1880," says : "It is important for a medical jurist to bear in mind that infanta and young persons are liable to be killed by very small doses of opium. They appear to be peculiarly susceptible to the effects of this poison. The syrup of poppies, elixir, Godfrey's cordial, Dalby's carminative, " and a variety of soothing syrups owe their narcotic effects to the presence of opium. One-sixtieth part of a.grain of opium has thus destroyed life in an infant. Two children, twins of six weeks, died recently from the effects of a tablespoonful of Godfrey's cordial given to each. This dose of cordial equals threetenths of a grain of opium. Mrs Winslow's soothing syrup, called also 'Quietness,' a compound resembling syrup of poppies — two doses of this caused the death of a child 15 months old, with the usual symptoms of narcotic poisoning. An anaylsis of this syrup showed that an ounce of it contained one grain of morphia with other opium alkaloids. It is not surprising that it should prove fatal to infants in small doses. It has been remarked that most of the poisoning by opium proves fatal in from about 6 to 12 hours. This drug in all its forms is especially fatal to infants. They die rapidly from very small doses. I have no doubt many a parent who has noticed the prolonged stupor following a dose will realise how close to the border line he has been. Extreme caution in the use of these drugs is essential, not only fa the young but in, the aged,

and' with, those vrtib Indulge to excess in alcoholic beverages." H. 0. Wood, in his work on ' materia medica, published in 1886, cites a case where a few drops of paregoric proved fatal in a child aged nine months, He particularly aumtfnishes against the Use of Cover's ptiwder for the reason that owing to the improper admixture of the opium with other drugs entering into its composition, no reliability can be placed on a dose for uniform strength; Consumptives on Sea Voyages.— lt is SEftisfactory to notic6 (says a writer in the Adelaide Observer) that medical men are beginning to take into serious consideration the necessity Jfor 'some action towards the diminution of the risk which ship passengers run of being infected with consumption. There is now no doubt that consumption is an infectious disease) although its course as a rule is so slow Compared to that of* others that people seem difficult to rouse to a reasonable fear of infection; but quite recently Dr Gautier in Paris has fallen a victim to his own experiments on consumption among the lower animals. It is a common thing with doctors to order consumptive patients a s6a voyage 4 and the Australian trip is a favourite with them j so that travellers to and from Australia are specially exposed to this danger of infection tinder the particularly risky conditions that prevail when three or four people are crowded into one little cabin that a health officer would condemn on shore as a bedroom for one. The great Australian steamship companies would do well to cause their surgeons to separate all consumptive passengers from the healthy, and until this is done all travellers who are wise will, when they find, themselves put into the same cabin with a consumptive, insist upon being accommodated elsewhere. Even apart from the actual danger of infection the exhalations front the consumptive lung are noxious and depressing for the healthy to breathe. The treatment of Consumptive patients by sending them to high altitudes has, after a brief period of favour, been falling somewhat into disrepute, but an American physician explains that the cause of so many apparent failures lies in the fact that the patients pass too abruptly into the rarified air and expose their kings to too sudden a strain. When the treatment is tried the patient ought to ascend by easy stages, not travelling straight through to the highest elevation at once, and if any improvement is apparent he ought to stay on long enough for the lung to heal entirely before he descends to low levels again. Pbeservation of Sight.— Mr Priestly Smithj opthalmic surgeon to the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, has prepared for the School Board of that town a series of golden precepts on this important subject, which, legibly printed on a mounted scroll, are to be hung Up in all the Board School rooms. Seven Cardinal maxims are all that are considered needful for the scholar to bear in mind. These are — " Sit upright, sit square, keep your eyes at least 12 inches from your work, write on a slope and not on a flat cable, read with your book well up, do not read very small print, do not work in a bad light, and if you cannot see your work properly tell your teacher." As there is nothing like pictorial example, this is illustrated by four drawings exhibiting good and bad positions. Milk and Thjrst.— lt is a mistake (Says the Hospital) to look upon milk as a beverage. It is a liquid food, and though it quenches thirst at the moment, it makes it mote intense after it has been some time in the stomachj and its digestion has commended. Healthy infants who receive a sufficiency of milk often cry for long periods, to the bewilderment and distress of mothers and nurses, simply because they are thirsty ; and in many cases where indigestion is caused by weakness or insufficiency of the gastric juice, the child would be greatly benefited by a drink of water. Disorders of the Left Side. — Dr Henry Duchenne has drawn up a list of the disorders which especially affect the left half of the body, and concludes therefrom that it possesses a biological inferiority to the right. He says obliterating arteritis affects the left sylvian artery oftenei ; tubercle affects the left lung of tener ; calculous nephritis and renal cysts the left kidney ; ovaritis the left kidney ; orchitis the lefb testicle; varicocele the left spermatic veins ; neuralgia, chorea, hysterical anassthasia, the left side ; cancer of the breast the left mamma. Telegraphy and Finger-nails.— A correspondent mentions that two telegraph operators — a male and female — both otherwise healthy subjects, are being treated in Berlin for a newly-developed ailment — namely, the dropping off, one after another, of the finger-nails. Professor Mendel attributes this curious affection as the result of the constant jar caused by hammering and pushing with the finger-ends in working the Morse system of telegraphy. Five Ways to Stop a Cold.— First: Bathe the feet in hot water and then drink a pint of hot lemonade ; then sponge with salt water and remain in a warm room. Second : Bathe the face in very hot water every five minutes for an hour. Third : Snuff up the nostrils hot salt water every three hours. Fourth : Inhale ammonia or menthol. Fifth : Take four hours' active exercise in fche open air. A 10-gram dose of quinine will usually break up a cold in the beginning. Anything that will set the blood actively in ckculation will do it, whether it be drugs or the use of a buck saw. But better than all, if your cold is inveterate or serious, consult your family physician, and at once.

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