HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1920, 4 December 1890, Page 39

HEALTH COLUMN.

To Sare Doctors' Bills.

Never go to bed with cold or damp feet. Never lean with the back upon anything that is cold. Never begin a journey until the breakfast has been eaten. Never take warm drinks and then immediately go out into the cold. After exercise of any kind, never ride in an open carriage, or near the window of a car for a moment ; it is dangerous to health or even life. Never omit regular bathing, for, unless the skin is in regular condition, the cold will close the pores and favour congestion or other diseases. When hoarse, speak as little as possible until the hoarseness is recovered from, else the voice may be permanently lost, or difficulties of the throat be produced. Merely warm the back by the fire, and never continue keeping the back exposed to the heat after it has become comfortably warm. To do otherwise is debilitating. Never standstill in cold weather, especially after having taken a slight degree of exercise, and always avoid standing on the ice or snow where the person is exposed to the cold wind. When going from a warm atmosphere into a cooler one, keep the mouth almost closed so that the air may be warmed by its passage through the nose ere it reaches the lungs. Keep the back, especially between the shoulder blades, well covered, also the chest well protected. 'In sleeping in a cold room establish the habit of breathing through- the nose, and never with the open mouth. — New York Mail and Express. For Sleeplessness.— lt is claimed that the most potent and most perfect remedy for sleeplessness is to drink hot water. If oue awakens in the night, as hopelessly wide awake as if galvanised or electrified with vital activity, an invariable remedy is a glass of perfectly hot— not warm — water. It can be heated over the gas, or over a spirit lamp, and sipped while almost at boiling heat, and one who tries it will find himself going off to sleep like an infant; and getting, too, the most restful and peaceful Bleep imaginable.

Palpitation of the Heart.— Dr Nebo (in Journal de la Sante) says that an excessive palpitation of the heart can always be arrested by bending double, with the head downward and the hands pendent, so as to produce a temporary congestion of the upper part of the body. In aimost all cases of nervous or anemic palpitation, the heart immediately resumes its natural function. If the respiratory movements be suspended during this action, the effect is only the more rapid.

Mistakes. — It is a mistake to labour when you are not in a fit condition to do so ; to think that the more a person eats the healthier and stronger he will become; to go to bed at midnight and rise at daybreak, and imagine that every hour taken from sleep is an hour gained ; to imagine that, i£ a little work or exercise is good, a violent or prolonged exercise is better; to conclude that the smallest room in the house is large enough to sleep in; to eat as if you had only a minute to finish the meal in, or to eat without an appetite, or to continue after it has been satisfied merely toplease the taste ; to believe that children can do as much work as grown people, and that the more hours they study the more they learn ; to imagine that whatever remedy causes one to" feel immediately better (as alcoholic stimulants) is good for the system, without regard to the after effects ; to take off proper clothing out of season because you have become heated ; to sleep exposed to a direct draught; to think any nostrum or patent medicine is a specific for all diseases.

Medicinal Value of Stbawbeebies. —Strawberries have the reputation of ameliorating and even curing gout and rheumatism. The great chemist, J. B. Dumas, was particularly fond of this fruit, and regarded it as an agreeable medicine. Bercelius, the Swedish chemist, also considered it an antidote to maladies of a gouty nature. As certain compounds of lithium have the like property, M. Mermet has recently analysed the strawberry, but even spectrum analysis has failed to detect the presence of lithium, except in certain cases, and in these a mere trace was observable. At the same time, and especially in the larger varieties, he discovered a considerable proportion of phosphates.

Fruit for Drunkards.— As a cure for confirmed drunkenness, a diet of stewed apples has been considered, and in many cases found, most successful —in fact, stewed fruit of any kind has a sobering effect upon those labouring under intoxication, so much so that in many homes established for the cure of habitual drunkards a systematic course of fruit diet has been adopted with very great success.

Subgery of the Lungs. — In recent months surgeons have given a3tonisbing proofs of the possibility of saving life and restoring health, in many cases, by removing portions of such vital organs as the brain and the liver. Professor<Tillmanns, ot Leipsic, has found that surgical treatment may be extended even to the lungs, and to the arrest of consumption. In a case of tuberculosis of the left lung, an opining was made and the diseased part of the lung exposed, when that portion shrivelled and was carefully removed. The patient recovered, and is now able to work. Professor Tillmanns believes that this may prove a desirable treatment when the disease is localised, and states that two [ operations would doubtless be necessaryone to expose the affected part of the lung and bring about atrophy and shrivelling, and a second to remove the parts after being functionally disabled. lodine Nightlights in Disease. — Hygienic iodine nightlights and candles are being manufactured, which, on burning, liberate iodine vapour in any required quantity, in _ the same way as the bromine nightlights liberate bromine, and which are made in a similar way, promise to render considerable service in the treatment of throat and chest complaints ; they are, in fact, the first means introduced of successfully dispersing a. gentle and regular flow of the vapour of iodine through the air of a room. (Continudfrom page 41).