TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 89, 16 April 1938, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

ON SPEAKING DISTINCTLY. ' Parents, you must teach your children to speak distinctly. You are hopeless, I know; but your children have not yet fallen into your evil ways, and it is your duty to see that they don’t. When you want to say “Good morning” you say “G’marn”; when you want to say “certificate” you say “sustificate.” A man is very often judged by the way he speaks his words. A slovenly man speaks in a slovenly fashion, because he is too lazy to open his mouth. A mumbling method of speech gives a bad impression. Your Responsibility. Your children should read out aloud to you in the evening. Try to encourage them, and do not laugh at them when they speak nicely, as they have been taught at school. If a horse is a horse, why qall the poor animal a norse? When your child stutters, it is because you neglected to teach him when he began to speak. He was not born with a stutter. It is all your fault; you had not the patience to teach him; you never made him say over and over again the words that were difficult to him. you just muddled on, trusting in a vague sort of way that it would be all right in time if only you took no trouble. Singing is a valuable method of teaching speaking. Importance of Cleanliness. When examining your child you might take a casual glance at his skin., It should be very clean, and it should smell sweet. A nice N-washed baby smells delicious—like a rosebud washed by the pure rain of heaven. I have to examine candidates for mes-senger-boys, and when I see their feet I have proof that their mothers and fathers never realised the importance of cleanliness. Take a look at their hair. If you find one single nit, go back to the police station and ask for two months’ hard labour. One nit is enough to disqualify a child for a scholarship. Also see if the scalp is quite clear, or if there is a patch of ringworm. Why do you leave all these things to the nurse at school? You ought to know more about your own child than anyone else. Water on the Joint. Blows over joints often result in the formation of water on the joint. Lining every joint is a soft membrane that throws out an oily fluid to make the joint work easily; if this membrane is injured or inflamed it throws out an excessive quantity of the oily fluid. Again the treatment is rest. It does no good to struggle about on a swollen knee; rest is Nature’s treatment for injuries, and she will nave it. Disobey her rules and the evil consequences be on your own head. Eye Glasses. Two important rules about spectacles are never to be forgotten. The first is you must never use glasses that were ordered for somebody else; it is dangerous to wear glasses that do not exactly suit you. And the second is that if you wear glasses you should report yourself every two years to the doctor who ordered them to see if they need strengthenting or altering in any way. The eyes alter as the years go by. If you think you need glasses go to a proper eye hospital or to a fully qualified ophthalmic surgeon. Teeth and Health. If I were asked to what particular branch of the healing art the younger and more advanced school of doctors were paying most attention I should unhesitatingly say the care of the teeth and gums. Every man’s health depends on his digestion, and every man's digestion depends on his teeth. If I can convince some of my readers to have their teeth put in order I shall have done a good morning’s work. When an article has to be manufactured the most important process is the first one; if that is done badly all the subsequent processes are thrown wrong. Now, the body is nothing but a manufactory, and a very wonderful one, too. It has to manufacture bone and blood and muscle and brain out of bread and butter, bacon and eggs, and the first process takes place in the mouth. If the food is not properly masticated, the liver, ;|id the intestines are thrown out of gear. The Surgeon’s Precautions. The calm way you good people carve yourselves about surprises me. Do you know that when we do any cutting we boil every instrument we use? We scrub our hands for many minutes with a stiff nail-brush, and take frantic precautions to avoid the wily germ. Germs are tough beggars to deal with, but they hate being boiled, and as every good surgeon finds his chief pleasure in annoying germs, he boils them on every opportunity he gets. We used to say we boiled everything except our hands and the patient. Now we use thin india-rubber gloves, which we boil, and the only thing left now is the patient, and I suppose one day we shall boil him. The Demon of Disease. Much can be done by studying the habits of disease; let us find out what the Demon of Disease likes and then deprive him of it. I am sorely tempted to wish for a second time on earth; I believe there is a good time .coming not only in the next world, but in this. I should, I confess, thoroughly enjoy a second visit to, say, Greymouth, in a thousand years from now. I wonder if I should find the same dear old councillors still bravely struggling with the diseases that tended to throttle the populace. Will they have new diseases? Will they have finally won the battle, so that disease is only la thing to read about in story books? I Possibly, I should wander through the streets with a heavy heart, disappointed at the small amount of pro•gresi made in a thousand years. Bad

teeth, spectacles, cripples, lunatics, all, all must vanish, but if they don’t, I must wait another thousand years and try again. Warm and Light Clothing. Next time you go to a hospital take a long, careful look at the child in the cot fhois suffering from broncho-pneu-monia; you mill see that the clothing is warm but very light. It is a hindrance to recovery to have the chest compressed by the weight of a vest, two flannel nighties, a sheet, three layers of blanket, and an eider-down quilt. A warm room, window open at the top, light clothing and careful, regular feeding will pull the patient through so Jong as you have a good doctor —and what doctor is not good!