HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2379, 5 October 1899, Page 54

HEALTH COLUMN.

Diet in Health.

In health, as a rule, to live generously is to live wisely. A dish which includes a variety of fairly digestible articles of food supplies a reserve fund which enables the system to meet emergencies, and to avoid the possibility of "physiological bankruptcy." Hippocrates observer that "a very slender and restricted diet is dangerous to persons in health, because they bear transgressions of it with more difficulty. "A sound digestion seems to possets, within certain limits, a capacity of adapting itself to circumstances — at any rate for the time being. When taxed beyond endurance, like "the whirligig of time," it "works its revenges." Another fallacy is that we should eat what we do not like; or, as many unhappy children are taught, "we must eat what is good for us, whether we like it or not." In other words, we must disobey the instinct whereby nature protects our idiosyncrasies. Even Poor Richard, who is generally so sensible — and who is by no means an ascetic — enjoins his reader: "Wouldst thou enjoy a long life, a healthy body, and a vigorous mind, and be acquainted also with the wonderful works of God, labour in the first place to bring thy appetite to reason" (as if the physical laws of life are to be ignored, and bids him "eat for necessity, not pleasure." A healthy appetite craves and digests the food material which the system requires. If we know that in infancy milk is essential to the human organism, because before the age of six months or thereabouts the "physiological machinery is not prepared for the digestion of starchy foode" ; that in childhood sugar and starch and fat are required to supply the elements especially needed for growth ; that in youth bread and meat in abundance arc necessary to meet the increasing demands which development imposes on the constitution ; that in mature life, when the brain is most exercised, digestible, phosphatic paltg are needed to repair wasted tissue; that in old age less food is required, and broad, as the nonogenarian Sir Tsaac Holden at-scrlfd. renders the arteries "like fm-rod bojlors" — if we find, in brief, that eveiy peiiod and condition of life has certain exigrneie-- in which reason must take instinct for her quide — we (should listen to the voice of instinct, realising that ihe appetite is subject to a "law of its own." This law does not involve the fallacy that instinct is not to be trained or dibciplined ; it only requires that the function of instinct be given -due recognition. In the words of Shakespeare we should let "good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both." — Harper's Bazar.

Heulth Hints.

Remember that the restorative powers of nature are great, very great; and consequently many disorders will be cured by time, mild diet, cheerful conversation, rest, and pure air, without medicine. This is true of many mental disorders, and equally so of many surgical complaints, such as affections of bones and joints. Rosi loined with exercise, cheerful society, -cleanliness, pure air, and a mild diet of easily digested lood are, therefore, among the most powerful means of cure. — "Guide to Health." Certain conditions must be fulfilled by all water for drinking. It should be without taste, and it must have no smell, even when warm." It should be perfectly clear, and neither cloudy nor yellowish. It must always contain air dissolved in it. This air consists of three gases — nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid. Boiled water, in consequence of its having lost its gases, is flat and insipid. From two to five cubic inches of gas should be held in rotation in every 100 cubic inches of water. Practically, rain water, if obtained from clean slate or galvanised iron ioof.-s, and preserved in suitable cisterns, is the best water for our Uic; but very often impurities from the Hiivfacps upon which it descends, impurities from the pipes through which it flows (such as those 'of lead), and impurities of storage from foul cisterns, etc., render it less suitable for drinking and cooking purposes) than properly selected well water.— Dr Black's "Guide to Health." Exercising the voice in reading aloud and speaking is a useful sort of exercise, and particularly^ serviceable to the female sex, who arc more confined at home than men. Singing is another mode of exercising the voice which, in moderation, may be attended _ with beneficial consequences, or, at least, may be useful to those important organs the lungs ; and it iii also to be recommended on account of its enlivening effects upon the mind. ■ Those sedentary artificers or mechanics, therefore, who, from habit, almost always sing at their work, unintentionally contribute much to the preservation of their health. When, however, disease of any kind exists in the chest, exercise of the lung.s in speaking, reading, and singing, and also in ordinary muscular exertion, ought either to be. entirely icf rained from or strictly regulated by professional advice. — "Guide to Health." Boxing of Ears and Ear Disease. — The fact that the boxing of cars is apt to set up serious middle ear disease has long been accepted as a canon in medicine. Indeed, no schoolmaster who is in touch with the times would resort at this time of day to the barbarous dscipline in question. That a simple box on the earrf may be a remote cau'e of death "is readily capable of proof. The blow either rupture* the drum of the ear or sets up infiauuuaiion of some part of the audilory Daa-

sages, septic processes intervene, and middle ear suppuration is established. The next step) | is the formation of a clot in the veins within?] the skull, in which they are anatomically in/ a close connection with the internal auditory "'■ structures. As already hinted, this know- ' ledge has long been a commonplace possession ,-" both of lay and medical folk in our own coun-tt?, try. It has only lately, however, received a? ; " practical recognition ix> Austria, where tha absurd and childish practice of boxing the.' - ears of soldiers has hitherto been in vogue* ) Instructions have recently been issued by theY general in command of one of the army'corpa prohibiting both commissioned and non-com-missioned officers in future from resorting to that degrading form of punishment. The reason given for issuing the order was tha* talarming increase of ear diseases in the army.i Of a truth, apart from sentiment, and viewing things in the cold, dry light of experience, it were better to lash a soldier to the triangle and give him 40 strokes with a cat-o'-nine-tails than to box his ears. The one hurts and leaves a scar, the other permenantly cripples, and perchance kills. — Medical Press.