HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 76

HEALTH COLUMN.

A Dangerous Person. With the spread of knowledge and the multiplication of sanatoria for the treatment of consumption, all notable cases of the disease are beginning to be pretty well hemmed in with restrictions enough to secure the safety of their intimates. Expaotoiration., handkerchiefs, serviettes, dishes, forks, spoons, and other "things likely to transmit infection are dealt with adequately, and the air they use is kept as pure as possible by vigorous ventilation. Save in homes where ignorance reigns, or a reckless disregard for consequences, the danger is reduced to a minimum. But there is a consumptive (writes Dr R. Watson) whose presence in the home or workshop or office constitutes a. very real risk. lie happens "to possess tissues which offer more than the average resistance to the tubercle bacillus. As the result of a severe cold or spine neglect he developed a small f.rea of tubercular, disease in one of his lungs, spat blood, had heavy night sweats, and looked. not unlike a doomed victim. But his constitution was not the soil for [these gerin3, and his own white cells —aided by plenty of good food, rest, and char.ge of air, and certain drugs—hemmed in the bacilli. He put on weight, stepped sweating, almost stopped ooughing, and every week his physician got less and less news (through his stethoscope) from the seat of War. Expenses had to be met, his place in business could not be allowed to slip into other hands, and a complete cure was long in coming. So he returned to the arena. His doctor cautioned him regarding his duty to himself, his family, and others. He was careful. At first he was very careful, but time slipped past and nothing happened. His cough remained, sometimes more noticeable, often less; and ultimately the fear and the wonder wore away and the incident seemed at an end. Then they flitted to another suburb. —A Sequel and a Moral.— (

In a few years a boy developed phthisis, which ran an aouto course and carried him off. It was noted by the parents as a fresh sign of the family's tendency to the disease, but beyond deploring the strange hereditary inclination (peculiar, since no near relative had died from the complaint) they thought and did nothing definite. The house was thoroughly disinfected. Another son died in the same way a year later. They removed to a new house, where they lost a daughter from the disease. It is now so long since the husband and father had his illness that the incident is barely a reminiscence. He sometimes ponders on the past, regretting that the children had not shown his resistance to the scourge. Even when he coughs, however, he. has no anticipation of evil —he can lightly thump his breastbone •and talk about phlegm in his tubes.

But he is, unconsciously, a dangerous person. Wherever he goes he distributee tubercle bacilli. A typewriter in the office will die of phthisis one of these days. Folks that barely know him and folks who never saw him will die beea-use he happens himself to make such a splendid fight against the deadly germs; and no man would be more horrified and remorseful if he knew the fact.

And the country is leavened with people who are quite as dangerous in exactly the same way. The consumptive who lives, but never quite conquers his disease, is fav commoner than you guess. \ Sometimes he is aware of his terrible tendency to sow trouble for others, and is strong enough to live up to the necessities of the situation. Ho has a cruel time, but an easy conscience. But too many of these dangerous persons, male and female, are cursed with _ ignorance, short memories, callous consciences, strong social appetites; and then they are dangerous indeed. It is bitter work putting "poison" labels upon one's fellows, but in the interests of humanity and the future of the race it must be done. For until this type of case is properly dealt with the extinction of tuberculosis must remain impossible.

Wind Instruments and He altli. Ailments of the heart and lungs have been frequently attributed by pathologists and others to the blowing of wind instruments. It has even been asserted without any definite foundation in fact that the cornet, trombone, or oboe player is "blowing his lungs away," and will die before his time. Dr Forcheimer has just shown the fallacy of this belief. He states emphatically that "just as many players of stringed instruments have "emphysema (distension of the lungs) as players of wind instruments," and after a long experience of musicians he ha® come to the conclusion that "neither emphysema nor its predisposition is a result of their occupation." To determine statistically the effects on longevity of playing upon wind instruments, Dr James F. Rogers recently consulted Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians" and Champlin's "Cyclopaedia of Musio and Musicians," and calculated the average age of 100 performers upon wind instruments .and of a like number upon stringed instruments. The average length of life of 'players upon wind instruments was 63.5 years, and of players upon stringed instruments 62 years. Of the former 34 per cent.' reached ages above 70 years. For the different wind instruments the average ages were as follow:—Flute, 61.2 veare; oboe, 63 years; bassoon, 63 years; horn, 64-.4 years; clarionet, 65.2 years; trumpet and cornet, 69.1 years. It is interesting that the players on wind instruments who exert the greatest interpneumatio pressure—namely, performers on the trumpet and cornet —were the longest-lived, while the players who exert the least pressure, the flautists, were the shortest. — Science Sittings. Sprains of Joints. By a sprain of a joint is meant a wrench by which" tlhe ligaments or oords which limit the movements of the joints are stretched or broken. Such injuries are apt to occur during the holiday season, and though they may not be dangerous they are often troublesome enough to spoil one's pleasure. The danger lies in the fact that the sufferer will not always consent to .rest the injured limb, but insists upon going about on it, with the result that he is in more or less pain all the time, besides retarding the cure of the sprain very considerably. In the case of a really bad sprain the symptoms closely resemble those of a fracture, and it frequently takes a medical man to distinguish between them. There is great pain, and generally considerable swelling, while the sufferer is quite unable to stand on the limb. The most important part of the treatment consists in keeping the affected joint absolutely at rest. The limb should be raised, and cloths wrung out of cold water will probably, give some relief; firm, bandaging, if it can be borne, will hasten the- cure. When the swelling has subsided the joint should be gently rubbed with the hands and exercised, but no work should be done" on it for at least a fortnight ; and in some bad cases of sprained ankle, it may be as much as six weeks before the patient is able to walk without doing further injury. It should be xe membered that where the ligaments are broken they have to join, and if strain be thrown on the joint before) this takes place permanent injury may result.