HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2289, 13 January 1898, Page 48

HEALTH COLUMN.

Fatigue as a Disease— How it May Be Cured,

The influence of fatigue on digestion is pretty well understood. Scientific experiments have demonstrated the fact beyond a doubt. They have even gone further, and shown that fatigue is a disease, and that ib is possible to produce the same symptoms ia one animal organisation by inoculation with" the fatigued serum of another, showing that overwork produces an aotual poison in the system. Worry is equally antagonistic to good digestion— another fact that is well known, bnt cannot be too often reiterated to this nation of worrying folk. A little resb and banishment of care in preparation for a meal should become a habit. It means lengthened life and preserved health, as do such other confessedly hygienic habits as proper bathing, dressing, and wholesome food.

Exhilarating and stimulating effects prodncad by tea, coffee, or chocolate arc caused by theiae in tea, caffeine in coffee, and bromine in cocoa or chocolate, the letter containing a smaller percentage of the stimulant than the others. All have a similar alkaloid base.

Milk has become extremely popular with all classes of physicians of late years. Formerly a fever patient was forbiddsa to take milk. In modem practice milk is about the only food allowed. Aa exclusive diet of milk is fonnd very effi jacious in diabetes. At the German spaB — Carlsbad, Wiesbaden, to";. — a very little bread ia allowed, and the disfc mostly made up of milk, eggs, grape?, and lean beef.

A non-st&rch diet is the rule, bread, starchy vegetables, and cereals being almost excluded. Rice is easily digested, and an. excellent, food, except that it abounds iv earth salts. Fruits are not only digested ia the first stomach, but they have a iarge part of their nourishment already iv a condition to be absorbed and assimilated as soon as eaten.

Tne food element in bread and cereals has to undergo a process of digestion in the stomach, and tbeu bo passed on to the intestines for a still further chemical change betora they are oi use to th^ human syutem. This is the great advantage of a diet of lean meats and fruits. — Tbe Sanitary Record.

Tite Value of Hydkochlokic Acid in Sciatica Discovered by Accidkkt. — A somewhat rem irk able itifc-aecc is reCsuated in tbe S-jmoine Mtsdicale of a patient having ai rived at a successful method of treatment for iiimself by the merest accident — aa accident, 100, which wa3 founded on a blundering ignorance of chemistry. A maa wbo had Fuft%icd for many year 3 from sciatica was treated in an Algerian hospital by means of hypodermic iojectiotss of salt and water, but. without much sueces?. After he had left he bethought him that perhaps the salt was not strong eiough, and that a stronger preparation of sale might be mere successful. He therefore procured Borae ppirit of salt (hydrochloric acid) and painted it on th<3 skir>, getting > id of bis longstanding trouble in a few days. Having occasion shortly afterwards to attend the hospital for tome other aitsction he confided iv Dr 33<;urlier, professor of therapeutics, how he had managed to get rid of his sciatica. This gentleman thought the plan worthy of trial, and employed it in Rsveral cases with invariable tuccess. . . . No serious inconvenience is caused by the hydrochloric acid such as was experienced when a similar procedure was attempted some years kgo by Dr Irgrovix with strong sulphuric acid, which was found to be liable to csu?e expensive sloughing of the skin. The 12 patients referred to were all reported as cured in from throe to five sittings extending over from a week to 25 days. It may ba well to say that the hydrochloric acid of the French Codex is very slightly stronger than tha 1 ; of our own pharm^co^ ce : a — Lancet.

Brain Desuetude.— Speaking at Selkirk recently. Sir James Crichton-Browne dwelt on the dangers to health involved in, indolence and disuse of the brain. The medical profession, he said, adapting itself to the needs of the times, had felt it incutnbent upon it during the last decade to insist mainly on the evils of misuse or *the brain, on the excessive strain not seldom imposed on it in these days in the fierce ctruggle of the race to ba rich, and more especially on the over-pressure imposed on it in the name of education when in an immaiure 3tate, but they were not less keenly alive to the correlative evils of the disuss of the brain. Elderly persons who gave up business and professional men who laid aside their avocations without having other isteiefets or pursuits to which to turn were in many cases plunged in despondency or hurried into premature dotage. He did cot know any surer way of inducing premature mental d«caj than for a man of active habits to retire and do nothing when just past the zenith of life ; and, ou the other hand, hs did not know any surer way of cii joying a green old age than to keep on working at something till the close. It had been said that one of the rewards of philosophy was length of days, and a striking list might ba presented of men distinguished for their intellectual labours which they had never laid aside who had far exceeded the allotted span of human life. Galileo lived to 78, Newcon to 85, Franklin to 85, Bnffon to 80, Faraday to 76, and Brewsler to 84-. Sir James Crichton-Browne drew special attention to the great r>ge generally attained by our judges. — Lancet.

— A Problem Solved. — " Can you tell ma why a ship is called 'she '?''—" Why, ye 3; because her mate" ia always a man."

«< My mother, my wife, and myself use Chamberlain's Cough Remedy whenever troubled with a cough or cold. It is the medicine of out home. Ido not know how we could do with* out it. We feel that it is an indispensable article. The people iv this vicinity too are beginning to learn of the merits of this excellent medicine. I never lose an opportunity to testify to its value, for it has saved many a doctor's bill in my family. — W. S. Mussek, proprietor of the Musser House, Wilhelm, Pa.' This remedy is famous' for its cures of bad colds. Try ib and you will recommend it to tout friends. For sale by all leading cliemisto.