Science.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 363, 23 April 1903, Page 7

Science.

WHOOPING COUGH. JffoJK ABIANNA WHEELER, superCJSP|P intendeut of the Babies' HosSIMK P ital of New York, writing to 'Harper's Bazar' on the contagious diseases of childhood, says whooping cough is almost if not quite as coetagicus as measles. ; Is is the most trying of the contagious diseases because of the duration of the disease, three to four months, during which the patient should be isolated from other children, the practical isolation covering a period of from seven to ten weeks. The average duration of the acute 'stage is from four to six weeks. If a fresh cold is coatracted it lasts longer. One complication with whooping cough is pneumonia, and it is this makes it so dangerous in the case of infants. This complication is most frequent in winter. In summer the most frequent complication is diarrhea. Mks Wheeler says medicine is of doubtful value in whooping cough. There are one or two drugs which may be used to control the spasms, but they should be given under direction of a physician only. Medicines .do more harm than good! because they upset the stomach, and the stomach, above all, should be kept in good condition, since it is upon the strength derived from its nourishment that the baby must depend to carry it through the attack. Belief may be given by the inhalation of plain or medicated steam, by means of an ordinary inhaler or a kettle kept boiling in the room at intervals. A bit of

I absorbent cotton or sponge placed on the i spout of the kettle permeates the air j with medicated vapour. Creosote and ! cresclene are the best substances for this ! purpose.

j But the best remedy for all, according Ito the writer, is fresh air. Keep the | little patient out of doois constantly during pleasant weather. The child will have fewer and less violent paroxysms than when shut up in the house. At night the sleeping room should be thoroughly ventilated, but care should be taken to avoid draughts. The disease is not supposed to be infectious except during the spasms or when coughing. The mother or nurse of a child not affected should at once cover the head of her charge with a handkerchief, apron, or anything at hand, to protect the nose and mouth, on hearing the characteristic whooping cough, even at some distance, and/then hurry the child away. This will often prevent tbn transmission of the disease.

The diet should be carefully attended to, and it may be necessary to peptonize the infant's food for a time that it may bo easily assimilated. Food should not be heavy, but light and nourishing, for any child with the disease. ■ SALTMAKING IN SPAIN. The Spanish method of producing salt, as employed near Cadiz, is by allowing tfce sun to evaporate the water from what-are known as 'pans,' small ponds prepared for the purpose of a uniform depth of about eighteen inches. These are flooded directly from the sea three or four times a year, and in time there is left. a deposit of iabcut three inches of salt, which is piled in the open in the form of small pyramids until sold. This method has the advantage of being inexpensive and of not requiring machinery. The only requisites are a hot sun and a soil which will not. permit the water to filter through, as the salt in solution would then be lost- Something depends, slbo upon the analysis of the water. For instance, the water of the Mediteranean has a greater specific gravity than that of the Atlantic. ABOUT FAT PEOPLE. It is difficult 16 understand why those of cur felloW-creatures who have tie misfortune to be fat should be so mercileesly ridiculed by tr-eir thinner brethren. Some nations look on a considerable embonpoint as the last perfection of female beauty. The Circassian maidens are caiefuijy fattened for the Turkish matrimonial mark*t. But tbe Western nations appear to incline to the Spartan opinion that there is something almost discreditable in fatness. Fat people seem to be thought fair butts for ridicule Even accidents, if they occur to these unlucky beings, provoke a laugh A fat man falling down on a slide excites the delight of street genius to a degree. Dean Ramsay relates a story of a stout man telling a friend he had slipped down and hurt 'the small of the back.' 'I wonder where that is,' was the sympathising rejoinder. Corpulency and Love

Fat; people never receive sympathy in love affairs. In Kingsley's ' Westward Ho' the fat hero, Jack Brimblecombe, protests warmly against this injustice. •Do jou suppose fat men haven't got hearts as well as thin ones ? Fat can feel as well &b lean.' Fat people, however, are,. as a rule, wonderfully goodnatured and cheerful. They are to be studied at leisure by travellers in omnibuses, these conveyances appearing tc possess a great attraction for stout persons—especially in hot weather. The good humour with which six fat people will endure the state of suffocation to which their presence on one Bide of an omnibus must reduce them all, the jokes they will make at their own expense, the meekness with which they endure sour looks from the rest of the passengers, who seem to think they have no right to be so large, are edifying to witness. 'My good madam,' we once heard a fat old gentleman say mildly to his next neighhour, a thin spinster, who was evidently annoyed at his engrossing so much room, 'I am sincerely sorry to inconvenience you, worse to me than it can be to you.'

Benevolent Fatness. There is certainly what may be called a benevolent fatness—a sleekness that is suggestive of an easy conscience, a good digestiuu and a cmifortable income. Fat people of this description bear about with them an atmosphere of prosperity and content. Beggars in the streets 'mark them for their own' with a sagacity seldom disappointed. The arrival of such an old gentleman to eee a boy at school raises instant visions of half-crowns in the mind of the juvenile. Dickens described his 'Brothers Cheer yble,' those typical benefactcrs of the human race, as stout old gentlemen. With the sincerest admiration for thes<* estimable characters, we have, however, always considered their method of carrying on business rather a peculiar one. If it was their usual custom to engage confidential clerks because they took a liking to their, countenance in the street (for this was the way in which Nicholas Nickleby became known to them), we fear that in real life they would have found themselves in the position of the man who took none but discharged convicts into his service, and whom Archbishop "Whately warned that 'he would awake one morning to fiad himself the only spoon left in the house.' THE PEASANT AND THE PROWLEB One night, as the Peasant was soundly sleeping after a hard day's work, he was awakened by his wife, who informed him that a Prowler was skulking in the cucumber patch. 'Oh, well,' replied the Peasant, 'he will be as apt to select poor ones as good ones in the' darkness, and why should we worry ?' ' But he is now among the melons? "Tis well. If he bears off * green : melons the joke will be en him, '.^'- ' And now he has passed to. the cabbages.' ' But no man can bear away more than six heads, and we can well spare that number.' ' But he is now about to break into the stable!' resisted the wife.' * Woman, why distress thyself ?. The stable has long been empty of all except rats.' : 'But upon my soul, Joshua, he is now coming to the house, and we shall all be murdered in our beds!' 'You are wrong again. He does not seek blood, but money. I have only a bogus dollar, and I will give him that. The first time he tries to pass it he is sure to be arrested, and his troubles will be our consolation.' Moral: Nothing is wrong if you stop to think about it.

Little Ethel, who had been sent on an errand, returned rather hurriedly, and called out to her mother: ' Oh, mamma, what do you think ? A li tie girl was crying in the street just now because she had lost some money her mother had given her. Some people laughed, but not me.' 'And why did you not laugh, dearP' asked the mother. 'Because, mamma/ said the child, with trembling lips, 'because the little girl was me.'