Talks on Health

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17862, 2 June 1926, Page 10

Talks on Health

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR

THE FIGHT AGAINST. CONSUMPTION. if you are to fight an enemy you must first know what he is like, where he is to be found, what his habits are. and all about him. In the great fight against consumption it is most important that the people should have a good working knowledge of the disease. Let me first impress on you that it is only in the early stages that the disease is curable. It is not the doctor’s business to call at your house every day and ask if there is anyone with consumption living there. That is one of our difficulties. We cannot | go to the consumptive: the consump- I trie has to come to us, and he does | not always do it until it is too late. A PUBLIC DANGER. A good beginning has been made by the medical examination of school children. In that case the doctor does go to the consumptive and, having found him, is enabled to deal with him on scientific lines. We have to regard as a public danger the hidden consumptive —that is the man who is spreading the disease through his breath and ■through his sputum, and who is submitting himself to no treatment and to no laws of hygiene. Sorrow we should all feel for any man affected by this disease, but our hearts should not run a way with our heads. It is thoroughly wrong that a man should be at farge and every day subjecting the people around him to a dangerous risk. The clerk who sits In a room with six others every day and all day and is coughing the germs over his comrades is guilty of a misdemeanour. A SCANDALOUS THING. You know that in law it is no excuse to plead that you were ignorant that such and such a law existed. It is supposed to be your business to know something about the laws of your country. And it ought not to be a valid excuse if the clerk pleads that he did not know he had consumption when it first began. It is his duty to know; it is his fault if he does not know, and if he cannot tell himself, he should seek the advice of someone who could enlighten him. To my mind it is a scandalous thing that a clerk should call on his sweetheart of the man who worked with him. and whom he has infected with consumption, and say: “I am really very sorry, but I had no idea I was infectious in any way.” If I were that sweetheart I would give the clerk a piece of my mind. If you knock a man down and then kick him in the mouth you get hauled up before the beak and imprisoned or fined. But a kick in the mouth is a trivial matter compared to infecting a man with phthisis. The mischief comes because the enemy is hidden and unknown. I shall not forgive you if you are ignorant of the fact that you have consumption. GET PROPER ADVICE. Heredity plays an important part, and any man -with a bad family history should be particularly careful. He would be wise to choose an outdoor occupation. And if he gets a cough he should be more careful than the ordinary man. You must not fall into the error of believing that every consumptive shows the cardinal signs of dreadful wasting, langour, and bloodspitting in large quantities. lam tryihg to educate you to make a better fight than you do. and I want you to understand that you must not wait for all those advanced signs and symptoms before you think of asking advice. Remember that the early cases when the symptoms are very slight are the very ones we want to get hold of. You must get proper advice. T have no sympathy with the old paterfamilias whose own job is auctioneering, and who advises his coughing daughter to buy a’bottle of quack medicine. Down with such Pater Family Asses! Noth-

ing strikes such despair into the heart of a doctor as to find at his first examination. that the disease is far advanced. It is not treating the poor man fairly; he does not get a dog’s chance SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS. A long-continued cough should always make one suspect phthisis. If the weight goes down or remains stationary in a growing adolescent, it is alsq a reason for careful inquiry and examination. Night sweats may be. a symptom, but are not always reliable signs. The two great safeguards against allowing an early case of tuberculosis to develop secretly are (1) an examination of the lungs by a doctor; and (2) an examination of the sputum that is coughed up. CONSUMPTIVES AND SANATORIA. Let me tell you quite plainly that it is extremely difficult to be certain in v ery early cases. The signs may be doubtful, and no sensible doctor is going to frighten his patient by declaring he has consumption unless he is certain of his facts. Therefore, it is nothing against the doctor if he asks for a second or a third opportunity of examining the lungs. And you must keep this golden fact ever before you in this connection —that it is bet ter to take precautions in a doubtful case and put the patient on a strict health regime than to do the other things and neglect a possible case of phthisis. Concentrate on the early cases. You sometimes think that the decision of a doctor against allowing a man with consumption to. go into a sanatorium is harsh and cruel. You are wrong. Sanatoria are not homes for the dying. The bed that the dying man would occupy would be much better filled by a young man whose chances of recovery—complete re covery—were rosy. There is to be no panic, no senseless fears. Only common sense and a determination that you, at least, will never run the risk of infecting others if it can be avoided.

TIIE BRAIN AND THE MUSCLES The movements of the limbs arc governed by the brain. The left side of the brain looks after the right side of the body, and vice versa. That is why we can tell that when the left side of the body is paralysed the damage was done to the right portion of the brain. The power of speech is a muscular power. The breath is pumped out bv the breathing muscles. The vocal chords are really little muscles which can be relaxed or pulled taut to produce the different sounds of whispering, speaking, or singing, and of course the tongue and lips are composed entirely of muscles covered by skin. All those muscles concerned in speech are under the control of a special part of the brain, and this centre of control is found on the left side of the brain. For this reason it is more serious to have a lit of paralysis affecting the right side of the bodv, for in that case the patient may be deprived of the power of speech. AN ANTIDOTE FOR GRIEF. The best antidote for grief is work. The surest balm to an aching heart is the feeling that useful work has been done, that, hard as is your own lot, vou have saved someone a little pain by doing, vour bit. Grief is often selfish; loud lamentations are sometimes for the benefit of the neighbours. Keep vour expressions of grief until vou are by yourself; the public ought not to be allowed to intrude. We all feel that we should like to do something for the woman who is in mental distress, but it may be more tactful Ito go and ask her to do something for you. It. makes her stir herself, it is a relief to turn a racked mind to some other subject than the one of pain.