HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2106, 5 July 1894, Page 49

HEALTH COLUMN.

Horr to Sleep Well.

In sleeping much depends on securing a comfortable positiou. Lyiug on the back would seem to give the most ease, but general experience and practice piove that it does not, aud it is liable to some definite objections, says a writer in the Jenness Miller Monthly. Iv a weakly state of the heart and bloodvessels, and in certain morbid conditions of the brain, the blood seams to gravitate to the back of the head, and to produce troublesome dreams. Persons who have contracted chests, and who have had pleurisy and retain adhesions of the lur.gs, do not sleep well on the back. Nearly all' who are inclined to snore do so in that position. For these and other reasons it is, therefore, batter to lie on the side, and in lurjg disease te lie on the weak side, so as to leave the healthy lung free to expand. Ifc is well to choose the right side, because, when the body is thus placed, the food gravitates more easily out of the stomach into the intestines.

Sleeping with the arm thrown over the head is to be deprecated ; but this position is often assumed during sletp, because circulation is then free in the extremities and the head and neck, and the muncles in the cheat are drawn up and fixed by the shoulders, and thus expansion of the thorax is easy. The chief objections to this position ate that it creates a tendency to cramp and cold in the extremities.

Things That Fatten. — A writer on obesity Bays:— "The safest way to reduce obesity is to begin by eating and drinking less and taking as much exorcise as possible, increasing it gradually day by day. Buttc, fat, oil.-aauces, haricot beans, peas, vermicelli, rice, tapioca, macaroni, all fatten. Bread should be eaten in moderation, and stale or toasted. All sweets are forbidden. Plainly roasted or boiled meats taken in moderation with plain boiled green vegetable may be eaten, also fruit— apple 3 and oranges especially. Gooseberries and currantß are good when in season, and for drink, lemonade unsweetened, weak tea, and black coffee. Housework is especially reoommended, Euch as dusting, sweeping, moving the furniture about, and kneading bread. Gladstone fells trees. Sawing wood is excellent. Walking comes next. Cold baths are valuable."

Blackheads. — Why do the pimples known as blackheads come on one's face, and how can they be removed ? Every part of tha human ekiu, with the exception of the I alms of the bands and the soles of the feet, is studded with glands which accrete a semi-fluid, greasy kind of substance. This substance probably aids in rendering the skin soft and supple, and prevents the too rapid evaporation of moistuie from it. The situation of these glands ia sometimes marked by small black specks (blackheads), which contain a white macs resembling a worm. It ia not a worm, however, but the solidified secretion from the sebaceous glands. Persons of sedentary habits seem to suffer most from these pimples. The bast remedy is to take regular exercise, and an occasional dose of medicine such a3 magnesia or sulphur. Saline aperients are also good. The spots may be picked out with a needle, and the part afterward washed with a solution of borax— ldr of borax to 4oz of water.

Old Age and Habd Work.— Old people make a great mistake when they give up work. Many men who have made a competency in business and feel entitled to retire from active work find themselves declining in health and becoming prematurely old for want of occupation. In most aged persons the vital functions continue in active exercise under normal conditions; but if the regularity and moderation of business life are departed from, trouble willsurely follow. On the other hand, the Lancet holds that "if in any direction it is allowable for competitors in the race of life to dispense with self-control, it would appear that they may, to a great extent, use tbis liberty with respect to physical and mental exertion." In other words, we must not eat too much or drink too much, but we can study hard and take plenty of exercise, not oDly without harm, but with tha best resnlts, and if old people wish to live out all their days, they should find plenty to do both for mind and body.

— Two notoriously ugly men who lived in the same village were always trying to make fun of one another's looks. Said one to the other: "I say, John, if I had you at the eDd of a strirg I could make a living by exhibiting you as the ' misßing link.' " The other replied, with a knowing look : " You would have to employ another man to tell people to which end of the stririg the ' missing link ' wa3 attached."