TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 252, 23 October 1937, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

(By a Family Doctor) MONOTONY AND MENTAL DISEASES. Monotony is a cause of mental disease. Who has not, at some time in his life, been confined to bed through accident or illness, and found the monotony of lying still in one room almost unendurable? I was once ill in a room where the pattern on the wallpaper contained parrots. How 1 hated those parrots! I counted how many there were, and tried to find one that showed some originality in colour or expression, but each one fixed me with his green eye on a background of red feathers with such a deadly monotony that I wanted to throw something at them. Music in Workshops. Marching along a road may be deadly dull for soldiers, but they brighten up when the band starts, and they keep themselves cheerful by singing. The soul craves for music as the body craves for chocolates. Depression ushers in illnesses, and music dispels depression. 1 am always sorry I do not hear more music in factories. It would not be quite suitable for riveters inside a boiler as big as a house to invite a man to come and play the banjo to them. But X have oeen in many workshops where the work is done by hand, and is so mechanical that the attention would not be diverted by the singing of a song. Why Not Factory Choirs? Singing on the march is not just a casual joke; the officers are enjoined in hand-books served out to them by the War Office to do all they can to encourage singing. I suppose the Welsh are the best songsters, and good luck to them! The most popular lesson at school is the singing lesson. I dare say there might be complaints if the lift-boy practised “The foreador” all day while he was on duty; but there would be no complaints if the singing was carried out in the factory by girls who harmonised their voices and chose the best songs. Music a Medicine. Patients in hospital love singing hymns. 1 remember an old man with pneumonia who was too ill to speak when he came in, but gradually got better. One fine morning I saw him loking particularly cheerful, and on my inquiring if anyone had left him a fortune, he replied: “No, sir, but 1 managed to find breath enough last night to sing one verse of ’Onward Christian Soldiers’ right through.” His enjoyment of the singing hastened his recovery. Health Before Learning. A child should be made a healthy animal first and foremost. His mind may be stuffed with knowledge later I on. Particularly does this apply to delicate children. A studious child may be a great credit to his schoolmaster; he may carry off prizes and scholarships, and his brain may visibly swell and his knowledge astonish the multitudes; but I cannot agree that he is making for success unless he is strong and healthy. And, in addition to his body, the nature of his disposition must be studied. He may be a very nervous, excitable child, and lie awake thinking about his homework. I complain when the growing boy or girl is compelled to spend many hours pouring over books that might be more profitably spent in the open air. Matters of Bad Habit. Ernest eats too fast merely from bad habit; you ought to have corrected him when he was a little boy. Winnie does not use her teeth because three of them ar decayed and painful to bite on, and Dad does not use his teeth because he has not got any. I am going to have a gramophone put on in the dining-room which will grind out every five minutes “Don’t Gobble” or else I must have a clock which, instead of saying “Cuckoo” every quarter, will sing out: “Eat slowly.” Perhaps, though, on second thoughts, “Cuckoo” is not such a bad criticism of a man bolting his food. When the clock calls out “Cuckoo” it is not really because it is one of the quarters but because even a clock has sense enough to see that a human being who illtreats the clockwork inside his stomach richly deserves the epithet of “Cuckoo.’ All About Muscles. Muscles cannot act by themselves; you may survey your biceps with pride and show it off to your admiring friends, but, lest the biceps should suffer from a swollen head, so to speak, it should be reminded that it is powerless‘without the vivyfying influence of the nerve that supplies it with energy. Cut the nerve and where is the proud biceps? Laid low, paralysed. Or, consider the muscles of your face. Every time you smile, laugh, frown, cry or make any sort of face, the muscles are being worked by one nerve. This nerve comes from the brain; there are 12 pairs of nerves that come down from the brain, and this one, the nerve of the face is the seventh pair. A Little Sarcasm. I have been poor all my life, and now I want to know what it feels like to be really rich. I have invented a magic garter. It cures all kindred disorders. You nsed not use your common sense, you need not worry about such rubbish as fresh air, good food, sleep, exercise, and sunshine. All you have to do is to send me 50 pounds, and by return of post, you receive the magic garter. If you have been bed-ridden for 10 years you will be able to walk 10 miles the moment you put the garder round your leg. If you are dying of consumption, all you have to do is to buy 10 garters for £5OO and put them round your chest; you will never cough again. If you suffer from gall-stones as well as consumption, just slip the garters down so that they encircle your stomach, and the gall-stones will melt like hailstones in the sunshine. Well well, I hope you believe it Alt Importance of Regularity. The whole body is subject to definite rules of health, and the most important rule is regularity. This applies to sleep more than to anything. Children must go to bed at the same time every night, and the habit must be kept up in after-life. The brain will grow to expect sleep at a certain hour. The dislocation of the usual routine disturbs the brain. Regularity is the secret of success.