HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1903, 24 July 1890, Page 41

HEALTH COLUMN.

A Gossip About Pills.

The man or woman who uses a family pill on his or her own responsibility, and without the intervention of a doctor, is entitled to know what drugs it is actually composed of, and the exact quantity of each drug it contains. Many substances — most substances, in fact — that possess aperient properties have other properties as well, some of them injurious, and some decidedly dangerous. Mercury, for example, is one of the commonest of all ingredients in what are called "liver pills." A single pill containing a small quantity of mercury has been known to produce salivation, ulceration of the gums, loosening of the teeth, a vile odour of the breath, feverishness, weakness, and a whole series of other symptoms sometimes requiring treatment in bed for a week or two. Though it is rare for a single pill to produce this marked effect, two or three pills taken on successive nights often do it, and particularly in delicate women. We do not hesitate to say that no man or woman Bhould take mercury without a qualified medical man's instructions, unless he has previously proved by lepeated personal experience that mercury is quite safe for him. Podophyllin is less dangerous than mercury, but also "much more painful in its action, and very debilitating. Even quinine may produce serious symptoms in some persons and in peculiar bodily conditions. Opium, which is perhaps one of the commonest ingredients employed by patent medicine vendors in the preparation of their wares, is one of the most dangerous poisons known, The contention is that rcen and women who use patent pills and such other articles not only "buy a pig in a poke," but do so without the justification of necessity. They would not take a chicken from the poulterer, or a sirloin from the butcher, still less a bonnet from the milliner or a coat from the tailor, without previous careful inspection and full knowledge on their own part. Yet it would be much wiser and safer to do any or all of these things than to take pills, when they are out of health, of whose contents and properties they know nothing at all. It may be laid down as a general principle that no man should do a thing with his eyes shut if he have the chance of doing it with them open. A leap in the dark should never be taken except under the sternest necessity. Does it require any argument to show that this principle is as applicable to pills as it is to politics and every-day business?— The Hospital.

Consumption. — The new remedy for consumption is surgical and not medicinal. A German surgeon has just cured a patient of consumption by cutting away the diseased half of his left lung. The man is now perfectly well, and should the disease reappear the surgeon is ready to remove the rest of tho lung. — Paris Edition Herald.

Sleeplessness.— A writer in an exchange says he has discovered a remedy for sleeplessness, which he has never known to fail, and which convinces him that the whole trouble arises from overstrain of the eyes. Take a small cloth— say a piece of napped towel — and fold it in two small pieces of ice at a proper distance apart to exactly cover the eyes when the cloth is laid across them. Then lie down, adjust the cloth with the icd over the closed eyes, and you will be asleep in a very short while.

Effect of Coffee on Microbes.—According to the Laucet, Dr Luderitz has recently made a number of observations on the destructive power of coffee upon various microbes. He found that the organisms all died in a longer or shorter period. In one series of experiments anthrax bacilli were destroyed in three hours, anthrax spores in four weeks, cholera bacilli in four hours, and the streptococcus of erysipelas in one day. Good and bad coffee produce precisely similar effects.

Digestion will not begin until the temperature of the food has been raised by the heat of the stomach to 98deg; hence the more heat that can be imparted to it by slow mastication the better. The precipitation of a large quantity of cold food into the stomach by fast eating may, and often does, cause discomfort and indigestion, and every occasion of this kind results in a measurable injury to the digestive functions. Ice-water drunk with cold food of course increases the mischief. Hot drinks, hot water, weak tea, coffee, chocolate, &c, will, on the contrary, help to prevent it. But eat slowly, anyway.

PioßiLiHßl— For thb Tkbth akd Breath.— A few drops of the liquid " PloriHne " sprinkled an a wet tooth-brush produoet a pleasant lather, which thoroughly cleanses the teeth from all parasites or impurities, hardens the gums, prevents tartar, stops d'feay, gives to the teeth a peculiar pearly whiteness, and a delightful fragrance to the brea*to. It removes all unpleasant odour arising from ducayed teeth or tobacco-smoke. " The Fragrant Florlline," belli); composed la part ot honey and sweet herbs, is delicious to the taste, and the greatest toilet diacovery of the age. Price 2s 6d, of ill ChemUti trad Perfumers. WnoleiaJe depot, 83 Farringdoa rotdi liOndon.-DABTX.] »