HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3148, 15 July 1914, Page 68

HEALTH COLUMN.

By A FAMILY DOCTOR.

A SHAMPOO WASH. Here is a good prescription for a shampoo wash. Take an toz bottle and put into it 2oz of soft soap, four teaspoonfuls of solution of ammonia, 2oz of rectified spirit, and then fill up the bottle with eau de Cologne. When you use it put two tablespoonfuls to one pint of warm water, and shampoo the head. The treatment of scurf on the head is very difficult. In many cases it is impossible to cure the condition outright; it can only be kept under by constant shampoo — say, once or twice a week. When you first begin the treatment, the shampoo might be used every other day. It does not matter if many of the hairs come out in the process; only the feeble hairs fall out; the roots are left behind and a stronger hair will come in their places. Be patient; remember that it takes some weeks for a new hair to grow to a length that is of any use in arranging the coiffure. Separate the hair and look closely into the scalp. If the new hairs are sprouting you must be content. When once a hair is grown, its character cannot be altered; there it is In its final form and texture; you canot alter it. Any improvement that occurs must show itself in the new hairs that grow. —Hair and the Health.— Never make the mistake of confining the treatment of the hair to the scalp alone. The general health has an enormous effect on the condition of the hair. The body, with all its different organs and structures, is one. You cannot pick out one isolated part for treatment; you must treat the whole. The hair grows because its root is supplied with blood. The blood is enriched from the alimentary canal; if the food is badly cooked, . badly chewed, and badly digested, the blood will suffer in quality, and when the blood after a meal reaches the roots of the hair, these offended structures will say, “Here, I say, call this blood? We call it very inferior stuff.” If the milkman brings you watered milk you can change to another man. The poor little hair follicles cannot change their blood supply; they have to put up with what they get. Give them a chance. Wash away the accumulations of dead scales from the scalp and give them a fresh, bright, pure blood supply to their roots, and you will be rewarded by a more beautiful growth of hair. —lnjurious Curlers. —

If you pick up one hair and pull it you will see that the skin around the base goes white. Try it on the back of your hand or somebody else’s hand. That whiteness means that the blood supply is practically cut off; the little blood vessels are distorted and compressed, and the blood cannot flow through them properly. This gives you an idea of what happens to the scalp when tight curlers are applied. ' The hairs are dragged on, and the circulation around the hair follicles is interfered with. Screwing up the hair in tight curls at night is injurious, although very few' people seem to realise it. —First Aid for Scalp Wound. — When a scalp is cut it bleeds very # freely, because there are so many large blood vessels on the scalp. For the same reason the scalp-wound nearly always heals, up well; the rich blood supply favours healing. When you wish to give first aid to a case of scalp-wound, you would be wise to begin by cutting the hair off so that you can see what you are doing. Nothing makes such a moss as thick hair and clotted blood. You cannot; see what you are doing. Locate the injury as well as you can, and then either with a pair of scissors or a razor cut the hair off around the w r ound. If the bleeding continues, do not dab at it as though you were sopping up some spilt milk off the floor. Make sure that you see the bleeding spot, and then put a clean rag against it and press firmly with the thumb or finger. A steady pressure for some minutes will generally stop the flow. Put a piece of clean rag, or, if you have a firstaid box handy, a piece of antiseptic gauze or boaracic lint over the wound, and apply the bandage as tight as it can be borne. —Rost After Injury.— After a head injury rest in bed is the rule. Never mind if the patient says he feels all right, persuade him to lie down for the rest of the day. It may save complications later. It is wrong to give brandy or any form of alcohol to a man w*hose head has been injured; the treatment should be directed to keeping the brain quiet; alcohol excites the brain. Look at the black pupils of the eyes and note if they are of the same size. If one is small and one large it is an unfavourable sign. AN INFLAMED EYE. Not infrequently my opinion is asked on inflamed eyes. I find that the patient imagines that the inflammation is only a cold, and that he has not bothered about it. At the end of a day or two the eye is so rqd and congested that it is impossible to work with it. A careful examination of the eye reveals the presence of a foreign body, generally a speck of coal. The tvyo situations where a piece of coal may hide itself

from the unskilled observer are under the upper lid and on the front of the sight. It is not possible to examine the eye for a speck unless the upper lid be turned inside out. In scores of cases the offending particle is then clearly seen, and can be readily removed. —The Cause of the Trouble. — When. the speck of coal has entered the eye with some force it buries itself on the front of the eye, or cornea, to give, it the anatomical name. The black coal lying against the black pupil of the eye is invisible from the front; it is only the skilled observer who can detect it. The speck cannot be removed from the cornea unless the eye is first rendered insensitive by cocaine, and then it requires considerable skill and a steady hand to get it out. The inflammation dies away directly the speck is removed. Therefore, take this little lesSCui to heart — you must not neglect a redness of the eye thinking it is only a cold when the true explanation is that a speck of coal or dust is the real cause of the trouble.