TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

THE CHRISTMAS CURE Rule No. Seventeen. "Insured persons in receipt of sick pay must not be out of doors after six o'clock in the evening." That rule seems very simple to look at; just a line or two of printed matter, and yet it has the most powerful effect on every variety of disease and injuries. Marvellous 1 "This is to certify (hat I have fully recovered from my recent illness and intend to resume work on December the -3rd.” It is marvellous! Wise physicians puzzling their brains, chemists bringing out their most potent remedies, and all of no avail. But Rule Seventeen at the approach of Christmas brings about a miraculous cure. At Lourdes, the place where I miraculous cures are worked by the holy magic of the sacred grottoes, you may see hundreds of crutches hung up around the shrines to testify the cures that have been wrought. In a humbler and more prosaic way I have papered my waiting room with the certificates of sick persons who declare off the week before Christmas.

Our Overworked Livers. With a wave or health passing over the whole country, the happy Christmas week is ushered in—the annual holiday for rest and peace and the recovery of jaded nerves. The only unfortunates who get no holidays at all, I either at Christmas or any other times, | are our poor livers. They work all day and every day, and they have to do a bit of overtime on Sundays, high days and holidays. There ought to a trade union for livers. I know there is a Royal Liver Society, but I never know whether "Liver” rhymes with River ’ or "Fiver.” I hope it rhymes with the former, for, if any organ in the body deserved a society—and a ; Royal one—to look after its interests, I that organ is the liver. Inside Information. | A little knowledge of anatomy and physiology is useful to everyone. We know too little about our composition. Even the wise philosophers of Greece were ignorant of the circulation of the blood. We should have more respect for our insides if we knew a little more about them. Be it known then that, the liver is the storehouse of the food that is eaten. The eggs and ham and bread and butter are taken into the alimentary canal and made soluble so that they can be asorbed into the i blood-stream and carried all round | the body. Supply of Energy. When a man is hungry, the liver is empty and ready for a meal. At the end of a meal the liver is full; the store-room is all occupied. The liver IS grateful for the supply, and is prepared to hold the food and deal it out as occasion arises. Food is needed to maintain the heat of the body and also to supply the energy of muscular action. Therefore, if you go for a v. alk after a meal the liver gives out the stored-up food to the muscles of the limbs. But what happens at Christmas —and herein lies the urgent need for the foundation of a Royal Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Livers —is that the liver is pretty well full from basement to attic halt way through the meal. With scarcely enough space to lodge another nut, down comes a second and a third enormous helping of plum pudding, Cream and brandy sauce. It is then

that the liver sits down by the side of the road in despair and, holding its head in both hands, bursts into tears. Drops of sweat appear on its brow. Revenge! The liver is really a most, goodnatured kind of individual. He is always willing to do his best, and very rarely goes on strike. But there are times when even a liver will turn. The gorged blood, unable to deliver up its load to the liver, has to travel round the body in this engorged state, and all the other organs strongly object. The brain protests against the overloaded condition of the blood, and may in a fit. of temper have a headache. The liver gets his own back by manufacturing gall stones and other cheery things. And all this because the gentleman or lady who happens to be celebrating a great historic event in the customary British manner fails to appreciate that you cannot get a hundred tons of goods into a warehouse built to hold fitfy tons. Four Meals Too Much. It is hereby enacted and laid down as law that anyone intending to go to Uncle Tom's evening party or Grandpa's birthday dinner must prepare themselves for the engagement by previous starvation. Breakfast must be a mere apology for a meal. In the name of our down-trodden livers I must protest that four enormous meals bn one day are too much —it ought to be punishable by law. If the poor old liver is to have a busy time in store for it, let it be well prepared. Let its floors be swept and garnished. Eat. very slowly; that is an excellent plan. An Appeal. By all means have a good feed. The Hottentots do, so why shouldn't we? Have a heathen gorge by all means, but let it be frankly heathen. You must never say grace after a Brobdingnagian gorge; if your lips "Amen,” your livers won’t. Only all I have to ask is that you should not reform too rapidly. I pay my rent out of the work I do just after the festive season. And my wife wants plenty of money for the January sales. So remember your livers, eat slowly, decline food between meals, and do not peck at the grapes all the afternoon, but please be sufficiently indiscreet to provide me with the wherewithal! for rent. A Bit of Embroidery.

I stand up for embroidery because it is useful. The jig-saw puzzle is amus-

ing, but when it is done all you have to do is to pull it to pieces again, whereas the bit of work is a joy for ever. It might be put in the British Museum, next to the relics of Wellington and Nelson. “This famous bit if work was done by Mr. William Smith when he had a broken leg.” I once crccheted a shawl myself, and it kept me happy for many hours that would have bored me to death. Not to mention that a nice piece of embroidery can be exchanged for hard cash; it is really quite a thrilling moment when the convalescent man discovers that he can earn a bit. Never let a man lie on a couch with a broken leg for week after week doing nothing but eating, drinking, smoking, reading trash, and grumbling. Men are not such fools as they look; if they can drive a train or build a ship they can do a bit of embroidery, and it is your business, ladies, to see that they do it.

fastened. The wrappings for the food must be hygienic, the cheap grease-1 proof papers being admirable for this purpose. The possession of a few I small jars or dishes which will fit ini neatly enable a greater variety ofj food to be used. The child can then' enjoy a portion of some item which' will be used at home for the samel meal, thus affecting some economy ofj food. Such things as baked apples, aj portion of stewed fruit, fruit jelly, ori custard may then supplement the! sandwiches. These should be substi-i tuted occasionally by small meat rolls or pasties. I