TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19432, 17 October 1925, Page 13

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR

KEEP SMILING." I think, if you don’t mind, we will all join together in making a deliberate attempt to be cheerful. If gloom could do anybody any good, if a long face could help us in our difficulties, it a dsmal countenance could undo the past or melancholy hearten us for future effort, I would be the first to advocate depression. I would start a Home of Depression, and admit patients solely on the condition that no smiles were allowed, and anyone detected laughing would bo severely punished in accordance with Rule 47, paragraph b. Over the mantelshelf of the dining-room I would put up a motto, 11 Let’s have a jolly good cry.” I am afraid we shouiu not run the home at a profit; we should all be dead in a week. So now, if you please, if this happens to reach a home where unhappiness claims too great a monopoly, you must look round at eacii other and say in chorus, “Let’s all see what it feels like to smile.” I believe 1 you will smile to see yourselves smiling. After all, there is no credit in doing an easy thing; it does one good to brace up and do a hard thing, and do it for the sake of others. If you can smile, yoa will keep the doctor away; and you may, if you like, spare a thought for poor me, sitting in my consulting-room with a pair of glove-stretchers in my lips, trying to carry out my own advice. Cases of Nerves. The subject of “nerves” is inexhaustible. I could easily write upon it every week for a twelvemonth, and then there would be a lot left to say. The greatest mistake of all is to confuse the two different kinds of cases —those derived from some physical illless or infirmity, and those taking their origin in the mind. The people who suffer from mental “ nerves,” who arc querulous, restless, dissatisfied, moody, hysterical, are really suffering from lack of self-control, often the result oi injudicious training, slack home discipline, and general spoiling during childhood. When you allow a little girl to have her own way in everything, when you simply laugh at her behaviour instead of correcting her, when you refrain from striving your utmost to teach her to control her fits of temper, you are all the time laying the foundation for “nerves.” I am very sorry for thtlady who writes mo a long letter and | would advise her to keep as cheerful as she can, and not dwell upon her troubles more than she can help. If she could cultivate some hobby, it would probably keep her from thinking too much about herself and her ailments. We must all learn the art of growing old gracefully.

Skin Troubles. In reply to “H. H.,” I woold remind him that I dealt with the subject iten.ings of the skin about two months ago. I then stated that, for the irritation which is associated with the appearance of tiny white blisters or lumps, situated specially between the fingers and on the wrsts, nothing is so useful as sulphur. The ordinary, sulphur ointment, is efficacious, but it will act twice as quickly if, before it is applied, the patient has a hot bath, so as to soften the skin and open the pores. Or another way is to have a sulphur bath, which is best accomplished with a preparation which can be bought at the chemist's, known as ::sulphaqua.'' Another variety of itching of the skin is specially liable to effect those whose skin acts freely, and who prespire profusely at their work as is the case with bakers and furnace-men. A bath containing a large handful of washing soda is the sovereign remedy for this. Jaundice is accompanied by an almost intolerable irritation. So long as the skin is discoloured by the presence of yellow bile, little can be done, but a lotion containing a weak percentage of carbolic acid should be tried, as it will very likely give relief. In general, it may be said that attention should be devoted to the state of the blood. If this is unsatisfactory, it must be improved. An Ancient Operation. A correspondent who writes about a certain operation is quite wrong when he says that onenneverx v er heard about it thfrty years ago. If he will examine his Bible, he will find that it was insisted upon by the Jews, by whom it was regarded as a cleanly proceeding. The practice -was instituted many hundreds of years before the beginning of the Christian era, and ’it was the seal of the covenant made by God with Abraham. It was practised by the ancient Egyptians, and is still by the Copts and some Eastern nations. I should say that if it is not carried out in certain cases there may be trouble in after life. I am afraid I cannot publish the details; but my correspondent may rely upon it that there is nothing to worry about, for it is by no means a new-fangled notion. Thirsty Weather. In the hot weather the skin acts freely, and much water is lost from the body in that way during twentyfour hours. It is only reasonable to drink more to make up for the increased loss. But it is not always necessary to drink water to be refreshed. To wash the mouth it is a great relief; it removes mucus and the dust that flies into the mouth. The man who empties his water-bottle during the first mile of his march will not last out so well as his comrades-who drink sparingly. As is always the case, there are three courses open: to drink too much, too little, or the right quantity. There is no harm in drinking cold water when you arc hot; when the water gets inside, it is as hot as you are in a very few seconds. Lemon-juice and barleywater make a good drink. The lemonjuice is acid and stimulates the action of the salivary glands. I think you will find yourself better if you do not drink alcohol during the hot weather. If you take alcohol at all, postpone the drinking of it till sundown. Advancing Age. Just a kind, tactful, and friendly word to those who are beginning to

I grow old and do not like it, and ask ! the doctor to make them young again. | Clever as I am, I cannot stop the march of time. The indignation of men of •forty-five, fifty, and fifty-five, who find | they cannot do what they did when 1 they were younger is pathetic; it is also futile. People exclaim, almost shout at me: “But I never had such a thing in my life!” ■when I have explained to them that they have some change in their systems that is due to ; advancing years. They might as well complain, when a hair turns grey, that j they never had a grey hair before in all their lives. Or thev may shout at i me, when they reach the age of sixty that they have never been sixty before

: in all their lives, which is perfectly . true. Wear and Tear. I Whether we like it or not, there is a 1 steady change in all <ur organs as years ( advance. Slowly the machine begins to show signs of wear and tear. Nothing is more foolish Ilian the panic people fly into when, for the first time > in their lives, they find some small sign > of advancing years. Instead of looking at the matter from a philosophical point of view, they immediately jump to the conclusion that they are breaking up, that death stares them in the face, and all that is left is to choose an inexpensive coffin.