Health.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue XX, 6 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Health.

In the Sick-Room-— Quietude is a good tiling, nt course ; but any appearance of mystery. or conspiracy for the good of the patient, excites him. and must be avoided. Do not whisper and never say “Hush I” When you eater the room, do so honestly and at once ; do not spend five minutes in turning the handle, like a housebreaker, thereby producing a series of irritating little clicks, finally terminating in a big snap, with which the door flies open. If tire latch be at all rusty, a handle that is slowly wound back in this way will often slick, and cither require to be rattled back into position, or, if left as it is, may start back suddenly, after a time, of its own accord with a report like a pistol shot. It is always well to recollect that it by no means follows that a sick person is asleep because his eyes are shut; he may be acutely conscious of all that is pass, ing hr the room,though unable or unwillingtto make any sign ; nothing can be more maddening under such circumstances, than to have people hush-sh-shing. and whispering around, and creaking about on the tips of their toes. Do not he o/liciously attentive. There is no doubt that a patieut often yields to suggestions in sheer extremity, simply for the sake of peace. I happened to ho'in a sick-room the other day, when a relative arrived on lire scene. .She had been warned to repress all emotion, and succeeded verv well, but her tender solicitude was wholly irrepressible. lam sure that she asked at least twenty questions in less than a minute, until the unhappy sufferer writhed under them. “ .Shall I raise your head a little? Will you have another pillow / Wouldn't you like your head a little higher/ Let me fan you. W ill you have the blind up? What can I act you / Some arrowroot / Do try some 1 I am sure you will he more comfortable with another pillow. Will you have one ? Ves, do I I’ll go and get one. Will you have a cup of tea ? I'm sure it would do you -mod. A cup of tea won't take a minute,’' and so forth. The cup of tea has been a dreadful instrument it; the hands of well-meaning p.'oph'. who woidd not knowingly have teased a fly. These are small things, you will say. Data small thing in health is often magnified to a grave matter in sickness. and the sum total of them all rnuv be as serious in their effect as the disease itsclfl"

Simplicity in Food— How, asks Dr. Xicholis, arc wo to get at the proper quantity of food ? There are some good rules for food as to quantity. When our food is simple and natural in kind and quality, and mode of preparation, there is little danger of eating 100 much. There islittledanger, for example, of eating too many grapes, apples, pears, and bananas. Salt, sugar, spices, and luxurious cookery tempt to excess. With men, as with animals, a natural diet is self-limiting, and we are disposed to stop when we have enough. The more artificial the food the more elaborate and luxurious the feast, the more liability to overload the stomach, overtax the digestive power, and overweigh the forces of life. Simplicity of food is a condition of health, and promotes longevity. The quantity of food which enables a man to do his daily work without loss of weight is precisely what lie requires. It supplies the daily waste—no more, no le<s. This quantity may vary a little with each individual, hut every one can easily ascertain his now measure of requirement by reducing the quantity of daily food until he finds a balance of force and weight, it is my opinion that the average quantity of water free aliment required, say by business and literary men, is twelve ounces. Mon of great muscular activity may require, sixteen to twenty ounces, I have found myself in very good condition for sedentary work on eight or ten ounces. When any one is in good condition for his work and keeps his normal weighl.be has food enough. Dr. Niehulls's advice is, find this quantity by experiment, and then habitually keep to it.

Novel Health Treatment.— The variety of remedies anil appliance* for the treat, merit of maladies of every kind are not only numerous ou the Continent, of Europe, hut some ot them are very amusing. The mud baths administered at many establishments have had <|irite a successful jrun, and now a novel anti-fat cure establishment has been started in Uermany. which is described hy a traveller who has inspected its working ; Imagine to yourself a eent.'eman of aldermanie rotundity standing on a sort of treadmill and hard at work trying to mount an imaginary staircase, without ever getting above the first step, inasmuch as the upper ones are constantly receding under ' his weiuht.The physical exertion otascending I lie continuously de-conding step cnnsis the unhappy climber to sei in motion a system of bellows, which inhale the outer air and blow i! full in his face. I nstead of the common stieetair,- however, the victim can also be made to inhale air impregnated with extract of pine and other forest trees, and oxygen, thereby procuring him within the wails of the city, the illusion of tilling his lungs with tiie invigorating air of high mountains. Besides all this, the steps are so constructed as to bo placed perpendicularly, if desired, in imitation of a steep mountain. Thus the patient obtains the exercise, and at the same time inhales artificially prepared oxygen, or it may he natural air iurpregnati.'l with other health-giving proper-

Chilling the Stomachmedical journal protests against the extravaeaul use of artificial mineral waters, which, it sets forth, do the double damage of chilling the stomach, thus laying the foundation of gastric catarrh, while the limestone held in deposit in the carbonated waters finds its way to the kidneys and eventually produces Bright's disease. The pamphlet also protests against ice water as a provocation of catarrh in the stomach. It also says: ■’ Water should be drank cool, but not iced, with the Juice of a quarter or half a lemon in it. Mineral water should also be drank with a dash of lemon. Water should always be swallowed slowly, it is not the stomach that is dry, but the mouth and throat. It you loss oil a drink of water you throw it through your mouth and throat into your stomach, without doing the former any good, while you injure the latter by loading it with what it does not reouire. Drink slowly, and keep the water ia'your mouth for a moment when yon begin. If you work in a hot room in hot weather, tic a damp cloth around your temples, and you will not experience half the craving for drink you otherwise would,”

The Head Lower than the Feet.— Having tested this theory a French physician advocates sleeping with the bead lower than the feci. He slept that way for four years, and finds that his neck is nearly two inches larger, owing to the swelling of the thyroid gland. He says in this way the bruin receives a more plentiful blood supply ami is, consequently, better nourished, while there is no danger of so much blood passing to the cerebral structure as to cause congestion. This danger is obviated by the enlargment of the thyroid gland which holds back a certain portion of the blood in its diluted vessels, and which also acts as a regulator of the cerebral circulation by exerting pressure on the carotids, and thus' diminishiuo- their calibre.