TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 291, 8 December 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.

PLEASANT READING I want you to read about something else besides murders and other crimes. I want yul. to give a trial to some of the old favourites especially before you go to sleep. What about “The Vicar of Wakefield You have not read that for a lung time and it, will not do you any harm to read it twice. You must sink into a peaceful slumber with gentle thoughts of green fields and comfortable people and peaceful pastimes. There are some lucky folk who can control their thoughts and guide their minds as a mariner steers his ship. But soie of us arc less fortunate; however hard we try, we can not put certain thoughts out of our minds. In that case, a book that introduces fresh ideas and characters to one’s notice is a valuable friend. Biscuits by the Bedside Y’ou should keep a few biscuits by your bedside. You may wake up at two or three in the morning and not be able to get to sleep again; to eat a, few biscuits brings slumber. Don’t, make crumbs in the bed, and don’t let the crumbs go down the wrong way. A feeling of hunger drives sleep away, the brain gets busy, and sleep is banished. Whatever organ is being used most gets th< largest supply of blood. Nature has a marvellous way of regu lating the amount of blood that is sent to any part. When you arc adding up the house-keeping books the extra blood gues to the brain; when you are enjoying the pleasant feeling of fulness after a good meal all the extra blood is in the digestive organs. That is why you feel sleepy after a meal; tho blood goes t'> the liver and not to the brain. Warm feet and something in the stomach draw the ’ lood away from the brain and induce sleep. A very hot bath will keep you awake; a tepid bath will make you sleepy. Children and Parente One day I shall start a discussion in the papers, “Should little children obey their parents?” All my wellmeant efforts to keep little children healthy are made useless because the mothers assure me quite solemnly that little Agues and Katie will not go to bed when they are told. And, of course, dear mothors, if Agnes says she won’t go to bed there is nothing more to be said. This discipline in the liomes of England is deplorable. Mothers arc sat on by children of six. Any mother who is so incompetent that she has to submit to the authority of a child in the infants’ department ought to be deprived of her children. My language is terrible to listen to when mothers come to me with sickly children and I discover after a few questions that all that is needed is a little common sense and wholesome care. The Tyrant You think I am joking, but you should come and sit by my side in the Children’s Out-Patient Department, and you would see some examples of mothers that would make your hair curl. Little Agnes, aged seven, will not go to bed at half-past six, and she will not eat her nice milk pudding, and so she gets thin and has circles under her eyes. Her father is a blacksmith and her mother a washerwoman, but Agnes downs' them both. But never mind, lot her go to wd as late as she likes, and let her cat any rubbish; let her disobey her mother and undermine her own health; it does iot matter —nothing matters so as she drinks something out of a bottle. Toes and Toenails For in-growing toenail all that is needed in the majority of cases is to have properly shaped boots. It is the pointed boot that crushes the big toe against the other toes that brings about this painful condition. If the toe har been neglected for a long time and the flesh has grown round over the nail, then an operation is necessary. I warn you against trying to do this yourself; you will make matters worse, as I have scon in many cases. Do not cut a Vpiece out of the nail; this is worse than useless. A foot should be an object of beauty; a baby’s foot is a source of great delight to the mother and to all beholders, but the feet of grown-up people arc generally made hideous with in-growing toenails, corns, bunions, hammer-toes, etc. Teeth in A.D. 3928. An exam l .alien of a number of young men shows that we are a long way yet from understanding the importance of the care of the teeth. 1 do not despair, because I have always written that it will take a thousand years to drive this simple truth into the heads of the public. It is about four or five thousand years since the Ten Commandments were given to the world, but one does not sec much evidence to-day of the commands being obeyed. 1 am i..r from being impatient; let us make it two thousand years, so as to give people time to turn round before deciding to take care of their teeth. When your descendant in the year of Grace 3923 comes down to his bacon and eggs, and opens his paper to sec how the world is going on, let us hope that his smile of joy will reveal a nice whit row of healthy ivories. Perhaps the museums of that day will show jaws of “Ancient Britons” of 1928 with a foul complement of rotten, blackened stumps, but the good people will pass by such exhibits as too disgusting for ■'olitc eyes. ' A Plea for Thrift I wonder if a mere doctor might be allowed to say a word on behalf of thrift. No doctor will deny that a peaceful mind is strongly conductive

to recovery from a bodily ill. Illness vjjry often brings with it financial loss. The worry about money delays recovery; it leads to a premature return to work, followed by a second break-down, when a fortnight spent at a health resort would have firmly established the new-found health. That twenty-pound note under the pillow is an excellent sleeping draught. Now is the time to put your money by for a rainy day or a pneumonia day; cris-p banknotes are very good friends in times of illness.