TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 178, 30 July 1932, Page 17 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

11 BY A ifALIH.Y tXMnuH ULCERS OF THE TONGUE I want to .say something about ulcers of the tongue. The smallest ulcers, which may occur in large numbers, ami are quite shallow, are due to indigestion. They often occur on the lips as wells as the tongue, and should be treated with a mouth-wash of boracic or very weak carbolic. A careful diet and a dose of salts will remedy the disorder of the stomach. An ulcer may bo found at the side of the tongue, lying immediately against a sharp decayed tooth. This variety of ulcer will never heal unless the tooth is removed or filed down. Every time the tongue moves the ulcer is rubbed against the ragged edge of the tooth, and the ulcer is effectually prevented from healing. The one golden rule that must never be forgotten is that an ulcer on the tongue of an elderly person should he shown to a surgeon at once. Hygiene of the Mouth. J have seen many cases where the ulceration of the tongue is part of the general unhealthy condition of the mouth—the tonsils, the throat, the gums, and the teeth all present an unhealthy appearance. The care and hygiene of the mouth is much neglected and once the mouth gets into an unwholesome state it is difficult to get right again. Ulceration of the tongue may be very painful, and in order to give the tongue a chance to get well, a most careful diet must be ordered. All forms of hot* or irritating food or condiments arc forbidden. No mustard or pepper, no curries or ginger-beer or pickles. No hard crusts with sharp edges to scratch the delicate skin that is trying to form over the ulcers. Septic teeth and foul stumps must be drawn, and a simple mouthwash must be frequently used. So you see there are different kinds of ulcer of the tongue. Ono is a local condition of the mouth and is due to neglect; another is really dependent on the condition of the stomach, and attention is directed not so much to the tongue itself as to the digestive organs. A third variety may be called the dental ulcer, because it is caused by a tooth.

Dawn of Common Sense. If a child has to wear glasses the doctor will see that the lenses arc correct, but the mother must see that the frame of the glasses are comfortable. A child may leave off the glasses, not because the lenses are wrong, but because the wire of the frame is not

quite comfortable around the ears or across the bridge of the nose. A very little adjustment will put it right. 1 du hope that an era of common sense is dawning- in the minds of parents. The old course was to punish the child for inattention at school. If that did not cure her she was made to go without her dinner as a double punishment. Very sensible, wasn’t it, to rob the child, of the nourishment it needed for its growing frame? When the child complained of a headache, the parents had. one idea and one only, and that was to give opening medicine. Surely the lowest depths of human folly has been reached when, instead of providing suitable glasses to relieve the headache that comes from eye-strain, the mother gives a bottle of opening medicine. The Bogey Mau. I am not going to have the children terrified by thoughts of bogey-men. I shall severely punish anyone I catch tormenting a little one put in her charge by arousing fear in his mind. Many of us are frightened out of our wits by black-beetles, mice, or spiders. What, then, must be the state of mind of a tiny child who has been told that a cruel black man is coming into the nursery to gobble her up? Disuse Means Atrophy.

One of the golden rules of physiology is that if an organ is not used it begins to atrophy, or die away. If we were to live in a dark cavern we should lose the use of our eyes in time; if we keep our arm in a sling for weeks and weeks it dies away to nothing. The particular application of this rule that I wish to make is that our teeth are made of the hardest substance in the body—the enamel —and that these teeth are meant to be used in biting hard articles of diet. Look at the dog; he is always knawing bones, and he keeps his teeth in good order by so doing. It is a mistake to think that every mouthful a. baby takes should be pulped into a pappy mass. The very fact that Nature goes out of her way to provide sharp little teeth is a proof that they are meant to be used. Toothless gums should be good enough for sloppy foods. To give the teeth some work to do is the best way to preserve them. There must be something wrong w’hen 80 per cent, of the school children have decayed teeth.’ Ami just let me digress from my proper path to remind you that as it is without bodily structure, so it is with our mental composition. If you are not constantly exercising your self-restraint, your courage, your sympathy with the misfortunes of others, you will find these qualities dying away until, like the bird with no wings, you find yourself entirely bereft of those virtues which can only grqw strong if exercised. The Baby’s Eyes. We have only one pair of eyes to last through life, s<> it behoves us to take good care of them. Infection of the eyes at birth is the commonest cause of blindness. In a blind asylum one-third of all tho inmates are placed there in consequence of this terrible malady which attacks the eyes of newly-born infants. This is particularly gad, as the disease is easily preventable. Every nurse attending a birth should pay especial attention to the baby’s eyes by! first carefully washing them with warm! water and then instilling into each eye i one or two drops of a weak solution of silver nitrate (two grains to the ounce of distilled water). Now this is quite a simple business, isn’t it? Yet because of the neglect of this precaution thousands are robbed of half tho sweetness of life, by being rendered blind in babyhood.

INFORMATION WANTED One of our readers asks for a cure for worms. Some two years ago we published under “Talks on Health” a cure which has proved very beneficial. If any of our readers kept the instructions published will they kindly forward same to this office addressed to “Family Doctor,” and we shall be pleased to again publish the cure.