TALKS ON HEALTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16329, 19 January 1921, Page 6

TALKS ON HEALTH.

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.. SURVEY OF HUMANITY. It is of no use my writing these articles week after week unless I can place before myself a definite object and make a mental resolution to attain that object or die in the miserable attempt. Surveying humanity as though from an aeroplane, I see millions of human beings rushing about in every direction like a lot of ants on an anthill ; some are cutting the throats of their neighbours; some are on strike; some are at war; and, on the whole, the bird’s-eye view of humanity at large is not very encouraging at the present day. Bub, coming down to earth and taking a closer look at the units that compose this oonglomcrate mass, it is at once noticeable that each is bearing a load of care and anxiety, and one of the biggest packages in the crushing load is labelled ‘‘ Sickness.” Now there are two methods of lightening this load : one is by the efforts of tho Government and the other by the efforts of the individual. CO-OPERATION OF EFFORT. Some there aro who call themselves Socialists, and who believe that everything should be done bv the Government : others there aro who call themselves Individualists, and who are of the opinion that everything should be done ;.>y the individual. Well, I am a sociable individual, and I think there is room for both parties. Individual effort muse co-operate with the efforts of the Government officials. An individual cannot provide an improved system of town drainage, although it is true lie can give his vote for the councillor who may be relied on to carry tho beneficent scheme through. POWER OF THE INDIVIDUAL. j In all that I. write I try to keep j before .myself the aim cf teaching the individual how lie can best co-operate with the health authorities. The father of the family cries, “Oh, what would 1 not do if I were King!” Why, he is king in his own household; lie is the Prime Minister and Cabinet all m one. He is a lucky man if lira- wife is a good Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is the- power cf the individual in his own home to lighten the burden of. sickness that impresses me in rny daily lile. Two men I know live side by side; they receive the same wage; both are married ; the cost of livmg is the same for each little family: and yet one house is dirty and the other is clean; one child is well fed, the other is ricketty. The difference lies in the education and mental outlook of the lathers; they impress their character on the wives of their choice and 011 their homes. CONCENTRATE ON THE CHILD. Those of us who write in the hope of helping to clear away the ignorance of the care of the health are concentrating on the children. It is very hard to alter the ways cf a man of forty. But the baby of four months we can do a lot for. Let us begin fair and square with a fresh individual. Let us stick to* common-sense, and teach that what that baby needs is fresh air, good food, sun- , shine, sleep and cleanliness, and all will ’ be well. It is sheer ignorance that enables those quacks to flourish who teach, that no baby can be successfully brought up unless he has a teething powder, a. sleeping powder, an opening powder, and a. powder for the time of year, whatever that may be. How many feeble men owe their weakness to over-dosing with drugs in infancy? It is worth working for, this ideal of a community free from disease. It is not an idle dream. It is an actual future posFibility. and the date can be brought nearer by the combined efforts of Government and Individual. So let us buckle to. ON BEING BURIED ALIVE, Why should there be in anyone’si breast the fear of being buried alive? I doubt if there is a genuine case on record of a living being suffering the admittedly unpleasant experience of finding himself in a coffin. The fear is, to my mind, purely fanciful. It is not unusual for a man to leave in his will a request that a surgeon should cut a large artery in tho neck or arm before liis body is interred. I ought not to complain if a fee of two guineas is handed over to the surgeon for operating on a dead body. We should be a richer profession if the habit became universal. In a. varied experience lasting over many years I have never found myself in doubt about a case of death. 1 have never said to myself, “ I. wonder if this man is really dead or if he is only in a trance.” It is, however, possible for the signs of life to bo so slight that it is almost impossible to be certain. I have seen this phenomenon m two classes of patients: one, after prolonged submersion in water, when the man. was more than half-drowned; and. the other patient was under an anaesthetic during a severe operation when he stopped breathing. The man in both cases was pulseless and his breathing could not bo detected. The one apparently drowned came round after 110 had been subjected to artificial respiration for half an hour. And if he had not recovered and had. not taken a breath for half an hour, all doubt would be removed, and there could never lie any | mistake about placing a drowned man in a coffin and finding next morning I ho was alive. You hear stories about ! live men in coffins, generally, 1 think, j on Christmas Eve. when the family are gathered round and each member of tho J family wants to outdo the others in. 1 relating something gruesome. When ! you come to make strict inquiries you , find that the man who tells the story ! did not actually see the living-dead I man himself, but That, nevertheless, he I is quite positive that his aunt’s charwoman’s sister’s son knew a man who had actually seen a photograph of the house where the breathing corpse had lain. MOVEMENTS AFTER DEATH. I am not unfeeling about the fear of being buried alive; of course, I am conceited enough to think that I ran tell whether a man is dead or not, and 1 do poke fun at those who doubt my word. If you put me in a room with I ten dead men and ten living men, I j would bet heavily that I would pick out i the living. With the exception of the ! apparently 7 drowned _ man and the I patients 011 an operating table, I huvw i never been in a moment's doubt. And j yet every week ono hears of orders left in wills that a surgeon must make certain about death by performing some operation. Well, there is a basis for all superstitions, and perhaps 1 can put at rest the perturbed minds of some of my readers if I explain why these fears of premature burial have arisen. J will let * you into the secret. It Is this; Everyone moves after death; there never has been, and there never will be, a single instance of a person, remaining in exactly the same position of arms, legs, and face as he was placed immediately after death. The,muscles I contract in the death stiffening, and that cau-ic*; movements. So there you have the explanation. The face muscles may contract, and it only takes a little excitement and imagination to say that the poor body showed signs of having struggled after it was placed in tho coffin; b?!t, believe me, it is all nonsense.