HEALTH COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 1898, 19 June 1890, Page 41

HEALTH COLUMN

Keeping- Healthy.

It is an old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Inspired by this idea, a kind friend the other day sent us a cleverly written little book on the art of keeping healthy. The author seems to think that in the absence of accidents nothing is easier than reaching the port of a good old age, " a consummation devoutly to be wished." He tells us what to eat, drink, and avoid ; how to chew our food, when to go to bed, when to get up, what should be the proper temperature of our bath, how often we should wash our feet, how much exercise we should take, and when to take it, and what we should wear next the skin in summer or winter. In short, there is nothing from the brushing of the teeth in the morning to the blowing out of the light in the evening that may not be learned from this little manual of health.

There is no branch of literature in our day in which the activity is so great as that devoted to the art of keeping well. The press teems with such books, and the monthlies and periodicals come laden with suggestions on the subject. The abundant supply of this sort of literature must indicate a corresponding demand, and no doubt many are greatly benefited thereby. But how far this benefit extends may be a question worth considering. It is certain that if anyone expects that this attention to the art of prevention will become so general and intelligently understood as greatly to supersede the need of the family doctor, he indulges in a vain hope. This sort of literature is rarely perused by the class it is intended for. People in good health care little for it. Their physical mechanism runs so easily they hardly feel they have a body. It is only when good health is lost that it is appreciated, and then prevention is too late.

And then may not the promiscuous consultation of such elementary guides to health tend to create a morbid solicitude that may often end in confirmed hypochondria ? It is very easy for some people to imagine they have the dyspepsia one day, a tapeworm the next, and finally conclude that it is hepatised liver or a severe attack of Bright's disease, when really nothing serious is the matter with them. More than half the success of mental healing or the faith cure comes of this kind of morbid imagination. Then the minute simplicity of the directions for preventing or curing disease may lead many, puffed up with a little smattering of knowledge, to think they can dispense with the aid of a doctor, and by delay and tampering with remedies greatly imperil their chance of recovery. Have we not all known just such cases ? Have we not known many who could have been cured or, at least greatly benefited, if they had sent for an experienced practitioner in time 1 We have not the least doubt that many cases or mortality are directly chargeable to the family doctorbook.

Then akin to this sort of literature is the very kind and amiable feeling that prompts so many to offer advice to the sick or complaining. With the best motives in the world they tell us how they or some friend in a similar condition found relief in a certain kind of diet, decoction, or drug. They are sure it would benefit us if we gave it a fair trial. But such people forget that what is beneficial to one may prove hurtful to another ; that there are no fixed rules in matters of health, and each one must largely be a law unto himself. One may find watermelons, cucumbers, and pickles absolutely refreshing, while another finds them deadly poison. One finds a cup of tea late in the evening promotipe of a good night's rest, while it would keep another wakeful and restless. One man may eat a big piece of mince pie with a glass of cider and go to bed and sleep soundly, while another who tries it dreams that the devil came and sat cross-legged upon his stomach, holding the Bunker Hill monument in his lap. There are some who find a light breakfast the best preparation for a good day's work and a sure cure for rheumatism ; others find a hearty breakfast indispensable to any activity, mental or physical, and the only safeguard against dyspepsia. One cannot drink coffee ; another finds it essential. Early rising clears one man's brain ; it makes another stupid and incapable all day. One finds a daily cold bath the making of him ; another tries it and deolares that it nearly killed him. One needs two hours' daily exercise for any effective brainwork; another finds the less he takes the better he thinks. So it is about blankets, woollen underclothes, and about every habit, article of diet, or drug ; 'that, in short,'"what is one man's food is another man's poison ; that in all matters of health there is no absolute standard ; that, owing to some inscrutable peculiarity of individual constitution, there are almost as many requirements as there are persons and tastes, and each one to a great extent must find out for himself what agrees with him. — Scientific Press.

Salads. — At a meeting of tbe Royal Horticultural Society of England, held in Westminster in April last, Mr Henri de Vilmorin, president of the Botanical Society of tfranoe, delivered an interesting lecture on salads, mentioning that English people neither eat nor grow co many plants for salads as in France. He dwelt upon the nutritive value of salads due to the potash salts, which, though present in vegetables generally, are eliminated in the process of cooking. The lecturer then enumerated the various plants which are used in salads in France —namely, the leaves of lettuce, corn salads, common chicory, barbe de capucin, curled and Batavian endives, dandelion in its several forms of green, blanched, and half-blanch, watercresses, purslane in small quantities, blanched satisfy tops, of a pleasant, nutty flavour, witloof or Brussels chicory, the roots of celeriac, rampion, and radish ; the bulbs of stachys, the stalks of celery, the (lowers of nasturtium and yucca, the fruit of capiscum and tomato, and in the South of France rocket, picridium, and Spanish onions. Various herbs are added to a French salad to flavour or garnish it, such as chervil, chives, shalot, and borage flowers. In addition, many boiled vegetables are dressed with vinegar and oil. M. de Vilmorin then showed specimens of dandelion, barbe de capucin, and witloof, both varieties of chicory, which ho recommended to the notice of English

I gardeners as most useful and palatable. He I mentioned that from a ton to a ton and aj half of witloof is daily brought to the Paris [market from Brussels, where it is grown in the greatest perfection.