MOTORING FOR HEALTH.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1336, 13 January 1912, Page 11

MOTORING FOR HEALTH.

Although there is a general consensus of opinion that motoring "docs people good," no serious attempt (says tho "Daily Telegraph") has as yet been made by doctors to define what conditions of ill-health are most likely to lie benefited by motor rides, nor as to which diseases may be aggravated by them. On the Continent, Irowover, particularly in France, several physicians have made a special study of this question, and one at least has endeavoured to draw up a table of disorders in their relation to the consequences of. motoring.; Some of the recorded abserva-

tions show that this form of recreation evidently has a far greater influcuco on health than one might at first suppose; thus, as a euro for poverty of the blood (anaemia), it is apparently entitled to a leading place. Likewise it has been found that in most cases in which there is debility from overwork, involving such disorders as-indigestion and nerve-exhaustion much benefit is to bo derivod from earo-fully-regulatcd motor drives. Another important symptom which is usually relieved by the same means is the insomnia of nervous breakdown, as tho swift passage through the air seems to have a very soothing efFcct on the brain. Probably most motorists are fully acquainted with the pleasant soinnolenoo that is likely to be brought on by a loDg drive. On the othcT hand, there are-some conditions in which motoring is undesirable, such as bad heart trouble; and others in which it is said to bo positively badconsumption, for example. One observer has made the interesting observation that asthma is often benefited by automobilisra, provided tho "dose" is small at first and gradually increased subsequently; whilst of course, every care is taken to prevent the draught set up from embarrassing the. patient's breathing. Tho points which I have to . be accurately investigated before J much practical good can come from these. I observations are the speed at which a car should be driven for medical purposes and tho length of time during which patients suffering from various illnesses should be kept out. So far the way in. which the effects beneficial to health are brought about does not seom to be thoroughly understood; it has been suggested that when taking a- swift drivo in country, air motorists inhale an exceptional quantity of ozone, so that a motor ride has something of tho properties of a day by the sea. "WHY I LIVE IN BRITAIN." AN AMERICAN LADY'S CANDID CONFESSIONS. "Why I live in Britain" is the subject of an interview with Mrs. Leeds, a wealthy American lady, which caused much heartburning among American newspaper writers. Mrs. Leeds frankly explains that "the only reason I visit American shores is to see my parenfe. I never expect to live in America again. America is a wonderful country, and I am not an Anglomaniac, but in Britain 1 get more out of life and pay less dearly for it than, in the United States." Mrs. Leeds has tho same strictures to make against • life in America aa Miss Anne Warner French, the novelist. She says: "For work ,thero is no place like New York, but it ia impossible to live thero in peace and quiet. There is always friction and more friction. "The servant question is really a frightful thing. In Britain servants are ideal, and British homes are run so easily that one wouders when and how the necessary things are done, as nothing ever seems to bo ruffled or disturbed. Here a woman with a big house is for ever annoyed by trifles that remain uppermost in her mind. There is no calm in tho life or in tho people." The explanation which Mrs. Leeds gives of this is tho limited interests and narrow points of view of pcoplo in American society. American women, she avers, instead of talking of politics, art, new operas, or interesting things in .letters and the national life, waste their timo in stupid small talk and gossip and petty dissensions, which aro unspeakably tiresome and quito useless. "After a week's visit among ono's friends here," she adds, "one knows "all about the latest scandals, divorces, babies, and domestic troubles, but ono has not heard n single word about tho big things which big Americans may have dono for tho country. As for politics, no ono ever discusses tlicm because no ono cares or knows about them." Mrs. Leeds has another reason for staying ill Britain. She does not admire tho way the sons of American millionaire, an) trained. "They axe not a. pwdit M »■

ciety. They do not work, most of them drink, and hostesses here often hnve to apologise for the condition of young men guests, whereas in Britain no man would over appear twice in an intoxicated state in any house, because ho would never get a second invitation. Moreover, even if thoy do not work, tho sons of the rich British do not drink like the Americans, but grow up healthy, strong, normal, and devoted to outdoor sports. Therefore I shall educate my 6on in England. An interviewer askod if Mrs. Leeds preferred adult Britishers also to Americans. Slio replied: "1 confess I think all women liko the .masterful type which I find among Britishers. I sometimes think it is because American men lack this quality and are too good to their wives that the latter tire of them and divorce results."