AS SEEN THROUGH Woman’s Eyes

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XXIII, 4 June 1898, Page 718

AS SEEN THROUGH Woman’s Eyes

PLAIN RULES FOR TAKING FOOD. If I were to specify any general maxims as to food preferable to others for distinctiveness ami easy application, said the late Sir Henry Holland, M.D., they would l>ethe following:—First, that the stomach should never lie filled to a sense of uneasy repletion ; secondly, that the rate of eating should always be slow enough to allow thorough mastication, and to obviate that uneasiness which follows the hasty swallowing of food ; thirdly, that there should lie no active exercise, either of body or mind, immediately after a full meal. The simplicity and familiarity of these rules may lessen their seeming value; but in practice they will lie found to include directly or indirectly a great proportion of

the dyspeptic cases and questions concerning fisst which come before us. And many such questions -as, for example, those which relate to different quantities of food —would lose a great part of their difficulty were these maxims successfully enforced. When the quantity taken does not exceed the just limit, when it comes to the stomach rightly prepared by mastication anil by admixture with secretion of the glands which aid the first stage of digestion, and when no extraneous interruption exists to the projier functions of the stomach in this stage, the capacity of digestion is really extended as regards varieties of food. It is certain that different temperaments require, whatever may lie the causes of this diversity, different proportions of aliment, and the same constitution alters its requirements at different times, Isith in health and sickness. No rules of diet, therefore, ean lie made positive as to quantity. HEART DISEASE. A great many people believe they have heart disease whose constitutions are strong and sound. Many there lie, on the other hand, who never sus|iect there is anything wrong with them, nor do their friends until some day, during some probably pleasant excitement, the dark curtain of death is suddenly lowered. Well, after all, this is no doubt the easiest death of any. Yet none of us can think of the ‘great change ’ without mumentary depression of spirits. But heart disease is getting more and more common every year, liecause the struggle for existence and the hurry to get rich is ever on the increase. In fatty degeneration of the heart I am with those who believe in exercise versus rest. Every one knows that exercise tends to decrease fat and strengthen muscular tissue, while rest has the very opposite effects. The heart, as I have said liefore, is a huge muscle ot very great strength, as well it needs to lie, working on as it does from birth till death, and only resting between each lieat. Without being very large, this muscle, the heart, should be as strong as a fowl’s gizzard. But in fatty disease it may not only be girt partially round with fat, but have this fatty tissue infiltrated through its substance. lam glad to be aide to say that fatty heart may often be cured by regulation of diet and well-appointed exercise in the open air. A PREVENTIBLE ACCIDENT. I wonder how the world of Britain would feel if the printers were all to go on strike and newspapers became a thing of the past We are really a nation of readers. We read morn, noon and night, in the railway carriage, at the breakfast table, on the ’bus, and in bed. And quite right, too. But I rede you, reader, lieware of fire ! I happen to know that many terrible accidents have happened not only from reading newspapers too near the fire, but from the careless habit of throwing them down anyhow or anywhere at bedtime and going off. leaving a fire burning in the grate, with no guard in front; a spark flies out, especially if wood is burned, and in a few minutes the house is ablaze. I have never been in a burning house, but three times in fire at sea, once off the Cape during a gale of wind, in which no boat could have lived, and once in an estuarywhile almost a hurricane raged, and with tons of gunpowder beneath the deck where the fire was raging. So I may be nervous. But nevertheless a fire-guard would save many and many an accident. There is room for an ornamental one, too, most of those in use being far from beautiful.