Digestion and the Brain.

Otago Witness, Issue 1916, 30 October 1890, Page 38

Digestion and the Brain.

The dyspeptic who, of course, eats only a light supper may resort to the use of a towel wet with tepid water and covered with a dry cloth, the whole then applied to the pit of the stomach. Before the sufferer knows it he will float into shadow land ; such is the sympathy between the organs of digestion and the brain. Owing to the position of the stomach a light sleeper ought to sleep on the right side instead of the left, never on the back. If there is a tendency to cold feet a thin woollen blanket may line the lower third of the bed. The limbs ought not to be greatly flexed, a position which prevents free circulation, and they should rest upon one another lightly. The night light, where used, ought to be a tiny taper and not gas or kerosene, both of which devitalise the air. A darkened room is best. Nature puts out her light and draws her curtain of darkness for a purpose. With good habits, physical and mental, and a determination not to deal with anodynes, sleep may be won from its shyest lair to watch over the restless pillow. High Heelsi and Nervous Pbostration. — Physicians say that cases of nervous prostration are less frequent since low heels have come into fashion. They allow the whole weight of the body to rest on the feet, remove the tension to which the muscles are subjected by high heels, and keep the calf of the leg in its normal condition. Consumption. — At the recent International Medical Convention, held in Berlin, Dr Koch, the best authority on bacteriology, gave a very interesting address on that subject. The new points touched upon were some observations on tuberculosis as observed in the fowl, and on the possible curative treatment of consumption of the lungs by drugs. In a series of experiments which he lately conducted, he found that certain bodies, such as volatile oils, and certain metallic salts, such as nitrate of silver and preparations of gold, even in very small doses (1 to 1,000,000 and even less), destroy the tubercle bacilli in a very short time, and thus ho believes that it i-5 not impossible that in the course of time some drug may be found which will effectively destroy the lung bacillus without injuring the body. Ignorant Massage. — Beware of all forms of massage or hand manipulation which rub the reverse way of the down or hair which covers the body. Rheumatic curative pains may be rubbed upward from the extremities, and produce collapse of the heart and death, yet nothing may be wrong internal!; or sufficient to cause death. Injurious effects are often induced through ignorance of the curative indications of the occult powers inherent in our nature, the knowledge of which, so far as they are known, should be represented in our colleges by a professor's chair, than which there would not be a higher in this world so far as the vital interests of humanity are concerned.