HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3100, 13 August 1913, Page 68

HEALTH COLUMN.

ISoiiikl Ajrain

The man lost in a desert and the world launched id illimitable space both move in circles, and are both some time upon the track before the fact dawns on them. iSo with the human mind. Elate at its own cunning, wrapped in inordinate conceit, it moves down the centuries and brags always of progress so complacently that it secs the same object go by, time and again, without guessing the reason. New names arc set upon phenomena which ought to bo familiar, and the wonder and the zest never fail

Some 30 or more years ago (writes Dr Robert Watson) phosphorus was a sort of charm. Rumour whispered that the brain needed that most of all the elements — whispered further that in fish you could find the best and safest supply for your system, and folk fed accordingly. Tonics wore devised, too, to meet the need—good medicines like Parrish’s Chemical Food and Easton's Syrup,—and things happened very much as they had done. Then it leaked out gradually that fish was not rich in phosphorus as compared with other foods. Also, it was explained that by no skill in phosphorus feeding couid you heighten the mental calibre or force.

But fish remained a popular diet, and physicians still reckoned phosphoric acid and its compounds a great tonic and restorative in all sorts of nervous exhaustion. Then, comparatively recently, there came talk of the superiority of organic phosphorus— the element in a state more like its condition in the living body—and lecithin, the chief form in which phosphorus occurs there (" a phosporised fat ”). and various glycerophosphates (combinations of the glycerophosphoric acid in lecithin with iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, etc.) became the fashion. Now a writer in a London weekly says: It lias been learnt that in the yolk of the egg there are 16 grains of lecithin. . . . For nervous people physicians have been administering from three to five grains of lecithin three times daily; thus the maximum amount of lecithin given nervous people lias been 15 grains. This is what makes the discovery that there is lecithin in eggs so remarkable.” Mother Nature's Skill.— The writer is startled to find Nature anticipating modern medical science, and fixing the daily habits of bor children so neatly that the morning egg oaten by a majority of these just supplies the necessary 15 grains of lecithin, and leaves one grain over for emergencies. His obvious plea is: Let the people swallow one egg each day and keep brain and nerves safe with their utmost need of phosphorus. It is the old fish cry again, a little more accurate, somewhat more scientific in its basis and argument, but —the world lias only gone around the circle again. For man’s daily dole of phosphorus is no more in danger than when be was exhorted to feed on fish and find new vigour. Nature is a lavish provider, and in essentials like lecithin she is not accustomed to risk ca'amity in the not impossible event of the morning egg proving oven worse than the one the curate found “ very nice in places.” Nature's way is rather a reckless prodigality in the provision of essentials, and the man who finds eggs too high in flavour or price, or in any other way unapproachable, is not upon the verge of a nervous breakdown. II" is probably loading in many times his daily requirement of phosphorus in other forms equally available for his system’s use. Meat of any kind is rich in phosphorus, mutton more so than beef, and both more so than pork; and milk and cheese contain it in abundance. Even the rigid vegetarian can easily secure his daily meed of phosphorus, for it is present in abundance in haricot beans, lentils, barley, oatmeal, potatoes, and the nuts. All the meals of his day—eat ho never so faddishlv —are almost certain to provide a fair amount of phosphorus. A nice example of Nature’s carefulness is found, by the way, in comparing rhe relative lecithin and proteid contents of cow’s rniik and human milk. In proportion to its proteid or building material the latter con-

tain-, just twice as much lecithin as the former—a provision for the bigger brain of the baby.

Eggs for Little Folk.—

Actually there is about twice as much proteid in cow’s milk, so that the lecithin m an crpial bulk of both milks is the same. This means that in diluting the cow’s milk to suit the infant stomach you reduce its available lecithin below the human standard ; but there is still sufficient for adequate mental growth.

As infants take lightly-boiled egg well from the tenth or twelfth month, the phosphorus enthusiast may thus introduce a largo amount of lecithin for the use of tho rapidly-developing brain. Some 14 years ago a specialist in children’s diseases actually proposed that weak and poorly-nour-ished infants should have injections of yolk of egg into the back or buttock daily, and stated his experience of the treatment to be distinctly better for “ the general nutrition and condition of the blood ’’ than the administration of lecithin as a drug. bggs have a value in infant feeding quite outside the phosphorus question, however. They simp v iron in an easily assimilated form. Next to butcher’s meat the egg is tho food richest in iron ; so that, by giving tho very young bottle-fed baby raw meat juice, and tho infant of a larger growth egg, you introduce valuable materials to stimulate and aid the blood-forming functions. And tins is a prime necessity, especially in the case of city children, whose opportunities for the natural stimulation of these functions by sunshine is limited ; for milk is a food notoriously deficient in iron. Digestion ami the (oiiiplexwm r J he digestion has a very groat deal, indeed, to do with beauty of complexion, or tho reverse But tho comp'oxion and tne eyes deteriorate from injudicious eating, even in cases where no dyspepsia may bo complained of. If the blood ho in the slightest degree overheated, or over so little charged with bile from inactivity of the liver, tho skin comes to grief, and it is the skin of the face that suffers first. Tho best cosmetic ever invented could not euro this state of matters till the blood gets light again. Nature will effect a cure, however, if the diet be lowered, and only cooling food be partaken of. When one in summer, suffers from thirst to a considerable degree, it is a sign that more Ihan the system requires has been oaten If then large quantities of fluid be swal lowed, matters are rendered far worse perspiration is induced, and onco again the complexion suffers. No better drink can be partaken of for health’s sake than the juice of a lemon in soda water, or simply in cold water sweetened with sugar. What medical men call acne, oe pimples, are very disfiguring. Thov usually denote poverty of blood, and therefore small doses of quinine and iron should be taken twice a day for. say, a month, while cod liver oil and extract of malt, if taken after every meal (a dessertspoonful), often acts like a. charm.