HEALTH COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 2083, 25 January 1894, Page 48

HEALTH COLUMN

Remedial Use of Apples.

Chemically the apple is composed of vegetable fibre, albumen, sugar chlorophyl, malic acid, gallic acid, lime, and much water, says the Practitioner. Furthermore, the German analysts say that the apple contains a larger percentage of phosphorus than any other fruit or vegetable. The phosphorus is admirably adapted for renewing the essential nervous matter — lecithin — of the brain and spinal oord. It is, perhaps, for the bame reasoD, rudely understood, that old Scandinavian traditions represent the apple as the food of the gods, who, when they felt themselves to be growing feeble and infirm, resorted to this fruit, renewing their powers of mind and body. Also, the acids of the apple are of singular use for men of sedentary habits, whose livers are sluggish in action, those acids serving to eliminate from the body noxious matters, which, if retained, would make the brain heavy and dull, or bring about jaundice or skin eruptions and other allied troubles. Some such experience must have led to the custom of taking apple sauce wtth roast pork, rich gooße, and like dishes. The malic acid of ripe apples, either raw or cooked, will neutralise any excess of chalky matter engendered by eating too much meat. It is also the fact that such ripe fruits as the apple, the pear, and the plum, when taken ripe and without sugar, diminish acidity in the stomach, rather than provoke it. Their vegetable sauces and juices are converted into alkaline carbonates, which tend to counteract acidity.

Infection in Sohoolbooks. — Amongst the sanitary rules recently enforced in France is one relating to the compulsory destruction of copy and other books belonging to children who have been attacked with infectious diseases. It is now made obligatory that all such things shall be burnt. Certainly most stringent rules are necessary for dealing with ever-y small item as long as the nature and the sources of .danger remain so little generally understood. \ Raw Eggs fob Invalids.— Raw eggs are frequently ordered, as when they can be taken and retained by a siok person they are extremely nourishing, simply because the albumen, not having been hardened, is the sooner digested. Many, however, cannot take raw eggs as usually given — that is, beaten up with milk or wine. The following mode is a good one ; the appearance of the dish is so nice that an invalid will often be induced to try it. It is free from oiliness and clean to the palate: — Put the yoke of an egg into a basin with a teaspoonfnl of white sugar and a tablespoonf ul of orange or lemon juice, and beat lightly together with a fork. Put the white on a plate, add a pinch of salt, and then, with a broad-bladed knife, beat it to a stiff froth. Thee, as lightly as possible, mix all together in the basin, and as lightly transfer to a clean tumbler, which it will nearly fill if properly made. This must not stand in a warm .place, or it soon becomes liquid, and loses its snowy look.

A Bepobted Cube fob Diphtheria. — The Vienna Medical Journal publishes a paper by Professor Edwin Klebs, formerly of Zurich University, and now of Karlsruhe, in which the inventor of " tuberculooidin," a transformation of the tuberculine of Professor Koch, gives a history of his discovery of " anti-diphtherine." He claims that this is a certain cure for diphtheria. Professor Klebs (the Standard's correspondent says) for many yeard filled a medical chair at the University of Prague, and is known to the medical world of Austria as a savant of unusual ability and circumspection. Hence competent judges in Vienna are not disposed to set his latest discovery down among the mass of the rashly-announced remedies of medical optimists. Professor Klebs states that in 13 distinct cases of diphtheria, which were most carefully observed by different doctors, life was saved by the use of his anti-diph-therine, without subsequent evil consequences. A number of Vienna doctors have already prepared 'to experiment with Professor Klebs's new remedy.

Scaklkt .Fisvkk. — A singular fast; has been revealed by the caretully-kept death records in England. This is a steady diminution in the number of deaths from scarlet fever, which fell from 14.275 io 1881 to 4956 in 1891. No adequate explanation has been offered. As contributing causes, however, Dr Wm. Ogle finds — (I) That the proportion of children to the population materially declined in the decade ; (2) that tho isolation of the sick and other sanitary practices became more general ; and (3) that in some unknown way scarlet fever has been gradually assuming a milder form. The fast conclusion is justified by ample evidence. The part played by sanitation has doubtless been of some importance, as may be inferred from the fact that typhoid fever deaths also have been diminisbibg. Dr Ogle feels assured that epidemics of scarlet fever will not soon, if ever, again be the scourge to infant life they have been.

— A large nugget of Scotch gold was shown the other day to the Duke of Sutherland by the local authorities of Sutherlandehire, who are trying to get his Grace to dub up cash to work some supposed goldfields at Kildonan for the benefit of the population.