TALKS ON HEALTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20052, 15 September 1920, Page 6

TALKS ON HEALTH.

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR. LEARN TO SWIM. Now that you are all contemplating spring excursions to the seaside, X must remind you of your old promises which, *■ re gret to say, you have so often broken. You gave mo your word of honour that you would learn to swim, swimming baths exist in large numbers ; bathing pools are to be found everywhere. And yet you will not engage in the mosj enjoyable pastime of swimming. It is so good for you; the washing of your skin makes the pores dean and pure. The muscular movements bring health and strength; the exercise is an antidote to constipation, livenshness and ail the other ills that are associated with a sedentary occupatmn. If you sit at a clerk’s desk all day, what could be better for you than to have a swim, cither in 'the early morning or in the evening? PROLONGING LIFE. My job is to prolong life. Maybe some of you think life is not worth Jiving, and a prolongation of the trial not to Oe desired.. Rut I like to think of you as laughing, healthy young people who enjoy life and lind it vastly entertaining; you ought to want to live to uo seventy so long as you preserve your faculties. But every year conics in the dismal talc of deaths by drowning. Jins year I have set my face .steadfastly against this miserable coroner’s inquest business. “Have you i.dentibed the body, gentlemen? Very sad case. The poor young lady could not swim; a lew strokes, gentlemen of the jury, would have carried her to safety, but she was dragged down.” Verdict —death by nfisaclvenUire. It i s , !V feeble way to end up your holiday. V . wants to have a coroner’s jury sitting on his body? It must be equally uncomfortable for the jurymen and the body! Well, you must learn to swim; it is so easy. You strike out with your arras and yon kick with your legs—and there you are. THE WAY OF SAFETY. Edwin would cut a nice manly figure if lie had to stand on tho bank gesticulating while dear Angelina drowned “Call the next witness! Ah 1 You watched the drowning young lady from tho safety of the bank. Prav, sir, can you not swim ?” Oh. the humiliation 1 u I had my way, all the Edwins in country should b(5 taught to swim. Ldwin would soon have his nose put out of joint if Dashing Desmond, the water-polo champion, Hinging his coat oft, plunges into the foaming flood and with manly strokes bears the lovely form of the fainting damsel to the shore and restores her with a polite bow to her agonised mother. Oh, yes, in niy spare time from doctoring I write Fouilletons. 1 don’t care how Ido it, hut, if I die in the miserable attempt, I am going to save exactly one hundred of you from death by drowning. Swimming for health; swimming for safety; swimming to rescue others; swimming for men, for women and for children. Now then, altogether, please! If one starts half a dozen others follow. Write it on a piece of cardboard and stick it above your dressing-table so that you see it every mroning: “I must learn to swim and thus dispense with tho coroner’s jury.” GET' THE WAX OUT. Many of yon will come to me and announce that you have been deaf since bathing, and you will toll me that the deafness is duo to the water stopping m tho ears. Water never stops in your ears; it would come out when yon lay vour head on the pillow. Put some water in a teacup and then turn the teacup upside down and see if the water stays in it. , No, my friend, tho deafness is due to wax. The wax was made to swell by the water, and the pressure of the water when you dived or ducked forced the wax tight down on to the drum. And do not let me catch you trying to remove the wax yourself ; digging in the car with pins and knives and forks and what not is a most dangerous practice. , No one can got wax out of the ear except a trained doctor. The best plan of all none of you will follow. Before your holiday you should go to a doctor and ask him if you have any wax in your ears. If there is a lump ho will remove it in return for a little something to help him pay his income tax. And it will save you a lot of trouble. X-RAYS AND GLASS! Glass, though transparent to ordinary light, is opaque to the X-rays. These mysterious rays cannot pierce glass. It follows that a piece' of glass can bo detected in a hand immediately by an examination on the X-ray screen. Hands are so often cut by glass, and tho wound, being cleaned, is sewn up; it is very difficult to detect the presence of a small fragment of broken glass at the bottom of tlio wound. The "patient may feel a pricking, but lie puts it down to the cut. It is not possible for every doctor to keep a private X-ray apparatus. It is a great boon to be able to send a doubtful case to the hospital for Xray examination. Great help is given in cases of doubtful fracture, or in dealing with a hone that has been smashed when tho exact position of tho fragments cannot be clearly made out owing to the swelling; or when a child swallows a farthing; or when a stono in the bladder or kidney is suspected. Do, please, get the X-rays into all your cottage and district hospitals; it will bring comfort and help to both patients and doctors for years and years to come.