Health.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2044, 18 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Health.

Many habits and ■ •"i-kthe odit-Ti-i^ :'.. .• - .1 a!;;.-,. me be- ■ >•»•«• things »( tin- |ki.<« it' .'i practic.*«l ami imp’e remedy could be devised. I Imve ivver mcl witii any plainly written advisory iitieies mi the I raining of children in proper ■ ba-p habits. except as to time. A recent xp. rience h.s led men '■?! inly up” on tin; -'ibjert. in the most pract teal way. by asking ’l' -lions of mother - . ami mu-.-. .My little 1 patient. who.-e habits am) conditions led )■> ’bis inv -tie. - .! iMil. is ten year-old. A s-Tioits mil chrome affection of the kidneys inis readied from cxieosive use of .sweet.- - , and eotim.piently lack of appetite for. and n--imi!a----ii..11 of nutritious food. t-hc persistently -leeps prone on the back wit!) t lie arms Hexed above lier bead : watching results in seeing her turn on one tide from eight to ten limes ■•very nielit, but, of course, a further result is diminished sleep, although it is not more restless than usual. Whether flm habit can lie p nnancntly broken up is dilhenh to say. From her birth site exhibited a preference for that position, and bad been induced in it. with the inevitable results of catarrhal atlVe (ions, dry throat, enervating. restless sleep : and aggravation of the kidney difficulty, as the spine was unduly heated by constant con;aet with the bed. From the hoar of birth a babe should he laid down to sleep with •miat eare, never should it be permitted t" lie on the back while sleeping; after it be gins to play, the restless limbs are very benelicial exercised while lying so. but so soon as -loop comes, the little one should be gently lifted and placed on the side, with the head raised only siillieieutly to insure the spine from any curvature, seeing that there arc no folds in the clothing to torture the Milder liosb. especial care being taken to lay the ear smoothly back. Alternate (lie sides, or there will be an unnecessary nneveness of contour when the child is grown : do nod permit tin knees to tie so Hexed as to crowd the viscera. Lying on the stomach occasionally is not injurious if the, arms lie at the side and the face is free to the air. I'repimnl !y that proves to bo a very useful position to a play-weary child. It is not a dilheuit matter to teach a child to sleep with the mouth closed and without snoring or " gritting the teeth.” A lady of thirty-live who had habitually gritted her teeth from their lirst possession. was cured of the habit in a fortnight by persistent waking at the lirst indication of the sound; the habit has not hemi resumed during the live years since passed. If mothers could realize how many people suffer from bad sleep habits contracted in eliildho.m, they would pay a little attention to their children at night-time, beyond the hustling olf to bed, out of the way,” and would give up old traditions.

Look Out For krrms. Those win) have nut ahead;.' done So. should immediately make a careful sanitary inspection of their premises. If there lie a well il should!..: carefully examined, [u I in ■ lii.it place, see that its siUToiindines are perfectly wholesome. A ccss-p.m! ur vault within twenty rads of the well is a soiree of greater danger tlian a powder maem-ine within the same distance. I £ either exisis on the premises, remove it at once. Have the well cleaned out. 11 is possible that some lat ur other small animal may have fa!!, n info it accidentally and inon drowned, and is now undergoing decomposition and emit a ruinating the water. This Is an accident which very often happens to frogs, toads, and earthworms. See that, your well is so.protectod at the top Hint accidents of (hissort will he impossible. The top of the well for several feet down should be carefully bricked up, the bricks being well laid in cement : and the whole should be covered over so tightly as to prevent, any accident of the sort referred to. The water in the well .should be carefully examined. Pure water has no color, taste, nor odor ; but water may be odorless, tasteless, and colorless, and yet be impure ; so il is well to test it by one or the other of the following methods: 1. •• Take a few ounces of the water, place it in a clean bottle, add a small lumped white sugar, and put it in a warm place for a few days. If the slightest turbidity appears within a week or two, the water is unsafe to use.”

ff. Gut at a druggists a solut’on consisting of three grains of permanganate of potash, twadve grains of caustic potash, and an ounce of distilled water. This is a test solution by means of which organic impurities may be detected. Tut some of the water to be tested in a clean class. Add a drop of (he purple tost solution to a glass full of water. It will produce a faint pinkish tinge, li the water is pure, the pink color will remain. If the water is impure, the color will disappear. If tlie color disappears within half an hour, the water is impure and until to drink. The move impure the water is, ilia sooner the color will disappear. The dancer of using water which is suspected of being impure is greatly lessened by boiling. I'iiters may be relied upon for removing suspended particles and fur removing the unpleasant llavor of rain-water ; but a really dangerous water is not rendered safe by tillering in the ordinary manner.

Hereditary Ureases. A fallacious notion has somewhat crept in that an intellectual man must be below par physically, and that the one faculty is necessarily cultivated at the expense of the other. The old proverb. nuim su/ui hi cni'poi'r sano, has been (fouled as an absurdity. 8o much, very briclly. fur the lira cause of race degeneraiion ; tbe second, and the one to which this paper would direct attention, is the iutiuenee of hereditary diseases. This factor has never received the attention it should have had at the hands of the writers on social science. The races of which we have been speaking had little of this element to contend wi:h. The weaklings were cither deliberately exposed and left to die, as in the ease of the Spartans, or if they attained maturity they were held iu such low esteem that they willingly kept iu the background. Look lor a moment at uur modern civilization an I mark its diametrically opposite tendency, Every day. hospitals are being erected t . nurture the diseased and imperfect specimens of our race, and every year thousands of children are by skill ami care saved from tiie, death to which Nature would consign them. All this accords with our enlarged notions of humanity, and reflects great credit on the sal of the philanthropist and the science of the physician, but it exerts a baneful olivet on tlie race. To one. who has hail access to any large city hospitals, it is a pitiful sight to see the multitude of children who arc tided over a few years and sent out into the world branded with a hereditary taint, to propogate their wretched breeds. The limits of this paper will not allow any extended statistics, nor the natureof it warrant a special discussion of hereditary diseases, but there arc two whose effects are apparent to all, consumption and insanity. The former, consumption, using the term in its widest s nsc, has for ages produced the most frightful ravages. For example, in England, from 1830 to 1811, of the total number of deaths from all causes, 10 per cent, were from consumption. In Philadelphia, U.S., from I*lo to 18C.I, the death rate was one of consumption to six and a half from all other causes, or about Id per cent.

"1 knew that George's short-coming would bo the ruination of him,’’said the widow, when informed that her husband had been made away with in the far West. It was on account of his short comings, wasn’t it?” “ Vij-cs,” responded the cowboy, who was deputed to explain all very gently to her ; yes. he eorae three feel short of touching the ground," °