MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNNTRY SETTLERS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 74, 19 October 1872, Page 2

MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNNTRY SETTLERS.

UY T. K. RAWaO.V, ESQ., M.D.

Owixg to our artificial mode of hl'o, and varied forms of diet, nuuiv people staler frum dyspepsia (indigesi: Hi, ur woakncss of tnc stom&ui). its foundation is often laul in early life. A Uttlo advico, both aato tno prevention arid dietetic treatment of it, may bo useful. Never forget that your teeth are not given by nature ornament and articulation. Tlieir principal ofliee is to masticate .the food, and in doing soito uiis it \vjjbh the saliva, and thus to spare the stomach much work which does not belong to it. Don't oat fast, and bolt your food. We mix hordes' eom with chatf to compel them to masticate thoir hard food, otherwise they Would bolt their corn, eat too much, digest too-little, and starve in the midst of plenty. Eat slowly, and enow woll what you do eat, and then you won't eat too much; your appetite will not keep ahead of your digestive powers, if your teeth are defective mince your food very small. A healthy man should not know he has a stomaoh, iis regards any local sensations. Never go on eating after you feel any uneasiness, weight or fulness of tho stomach, or it may turn sulky, and refuse to digest anything. Better eat little and digest it well, tliau take too much roast beef and plum-pudding and starve upon it. Tue nutrition and strength you get from ojd depends, not on tho quantity you eat, but 011 what you digest. Be regular in your meals,and take your principal meal as near the middle of tho day, wli.m d.gostion is most active, a* possible. Never oat 11 j«v bread; you may as well eat sponge—(L am addressing dyspeptics; "They tiiat are whole need not a physician")—nor heavy pastry; though 1. see no reason why pastry should not always be made light. Fat is dilli'eult of digestion for weak stomachs, except cold boiled bacon fat in thin slices with stale bread, for breakfast, when it assists digestion. Don't eat cheese after mid-day; it is very slow of digestion 011 weak stomachs. Don't eat salt meat (not salt with your meat, but not salted meat) ; it is liurd and improper for dyspeptics. Don't fill your stomach with much liquid. A weak stomach has much difficulty in dealing with liquids to advantage, and they often cause acidity and heartburn. Solids and semi-solids are more easily acted upon by the peculiar mechanism of digestion. We prescribe liquid diet in fevor and inllammation to cheat the appetite, not to nourish the system altogether. Animal food is more readily assimilated than vegetables or broths, and distends the stomach less. Never swallow your liquids very hot. Many people pour hot fluids down their throats which they would not like to have poured down their backs. Brown bread, the corn ground up together, without any separation of the bran, is generally most suitable to dyspeptic people. Eat warm condiment.i with your meat, as mustard, pepper, pickles, &e.

■Excessive smoking impairs the digestive powers by robbing the stomach of the saliva, and by lowering the action of the heart, and therefore tho tone of the other organs. Much smoking produces, acidity, nervousness, palpitation, and vapouriness of tho head. In an irritable stomach, and in a too rapid digestion, moderate smoking may be decidedly beneficial., Don't sleep directly after meals ; digestion is suspended during sleep, and tho food is subjected to the ordinary laws of fermentation favoured by the heat of tho stomach. If you take suppers, lot them be light, and at least an hour before going to bed. If you a: o not obliged to work, " live on sixpence a day, and earn it first." Rest quietly, an hour if you can, if you suffer from slow digestion, after dinner. " After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile." is an old and approved adage. Don't read when feeding; the attention should be directed to the mastication rather than to abstract thoughts. It is belter to engage in cheerful conversation. Dine with these three physicians —Dr Diet, Dr Merriman, and Dr Quiet. If you can't be cheerful, or even goodtempered ; if you lead a sedentary life, and are as a consequence, dyspeptic, bilious, hypochondriacal, misanthropic, be sure your liver is wrong. JJuy a hard-trotting pony, and ride it at full trot six miles every day before dinner. This will shake the liver into'its right place. I have known this succeed after all the Court physicians had failed. Molierc says a drop of bad bile has swamped many a noble conception ; and Voltaire says "If ever' you want to ask a favour of a great man bo sure that his liver and digestive organs are right." To escape colds, the occasional cause of almost every disorder, keep the feet warm and the head cool. N -ver remain in wet clothes, shoes and stockings, when you have an opportunity of changing them. Never sit still, and. especially sleep, in wet clothes. There is little danger of cold as long as you keep moving. A cold shower-bath is a wonderful protection against colds. Never stand loitering at the door on a "cold night, after coming out of a hot and crowded room, but walk or ride home at once.. Colds are produced by the sudden lowering of the temperature of the surfa.ee of the body. I have frequently walked home afler taking a hot bath of 98 degree?, in the New Road, London, a distance of two miles, on the coldest night, without even taking the slightest cold.

The parts of the bocly most to be protected on a cold, wet, night, are the mouth, throat, and upper and front part of the chest. Boys don't wear beards but men ought. Nothing protects the throat, and most susceptible parts of the chest, so effectually against quinzy and bronchitis, and coughs as this ornamental covering, which. " Nature's own cunning hand lays on." Women would not be considered improved by a beard ; but, happily, they have not the same need of them. The less prominent, and smaller windpipe, with the more abundant cellular tissue or fat in which, it is imbedded, renders them much less exposed to cold in this situation. I knew a young gentleman (a Swede), who came over to study at the London University. Whilst in England he cultivated a most flourishing beard, for mere ornament. On returning home, after finishing his studies, his father, a large timber merchant in Stockholm, insisted on his cutting off his beard, as a condition of his being taken into partnership with him. The son complied, and the very night, it was removed he caught a severe cold- in the throat, accompanied with a violent cough, and the expectoration of large quantities of blood; and though he was removed to the south of France for the winter, he became consumptive, and died about twelve months after.

r -~ One of the most common and serious complaints in this humid, and sometimes cold, climate is rheumatic fever, almost always caused by exposure to wet and raid, and remaining in wet clothes. It is not generally immediately" dangerous, but frequently leaves behind it permanent damage, in the development of scrofula and heart disease; and these dangers are just in proportion to the youth of the sufferer. The heart disease,"induced, may not perhaps materially shorten life, or prevent the enjoyment of a fair condition of health, but it renders life more uncertain", and unfits the person for any laborious or long sustained exertion. Too much watch fulness, and care cannot be exercised in guarding young people against the usual causes of this disease. There is an epidemic which, must occasionally appear amongst us, not so dangerous in itself, as in the susceptibility to cold -which it leaves behind: it; and where the utmost care is required, not to prevent the disease, as "that cannot-be done, but to.prevent the occasional, serious consequences, which can be done—l measa scarlet fever, appearing once at least during life. After scarlet fever the cuticle or scarf skin always peels off, leaving the pores of the stin.

Open and exposed to atmospheric influences, arid the convalescent remarkably liable to sudden and dangcrous colds. And thw susceptibility in justa»strong after a very alight attack m after tfic Hovcrust form of the disease'; and hence the difficulty of convincing parents of the danger of going out too noon in cold or wet weather. The most; serious consequences i have witnessed have been after the slightest attacks — .udden inflammation, effusion on the brain, with wdd delirium,.general dropsy, and permanent disease of the heart, often coming oil within a few hours after exposure. JCxeept in setiled, warm, dry weather the convalescent, from the mildest form, ought to be kept confined to the house for at least three weeks after the attack, as it takes that time foi Nature to repair the denuded skin. 'i'liere is a young gentleman, now travelling through the Australian Colonies, about whom I. wan once conhi died when be wins a boy. He bad had a rnild attack of scar let fever, but when convalescent, he was injudiciously rscommended by his medical attendant to the Welsh mountains for change of air. The weather became cold and wet; be caught cold; bad a serious illness; his friends were summoned, and he only escaped with permanent damage to the heart, which has unfitted him from succeeding to his lather's luerativc business as a Liverpool merchant.