NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 725, 26 April 1922, Page 5

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE MEDICINAL VALUE OF ONIONS. Many people imagine that to express a liking for onions denotes a vulgar, taste; but this much-despised vegetable lias many excellent qualities. These were well known to the ancients, and as a food the onion was keenly appreciated by them. It has been cultivated in India and Egypt from time immemorial. It contains a large quantity of nitrogenous matter and uncrystallisable sugar with a pungent sulphuric oil. If children were encouraged to eat onions many an illness might be prevented, and many a doctor’s bill saved. If baby has a cold, or seems croupy, frequent doses ofonion syrup will give wonderful relief.The syrup is obtained by cutting the onion into slices, and covering each.’ with brown sugar, and putting one on tho top of another in a basin. A dish of boiled onions given once a week to children will keep them free from worms. People troubled with pilba should take boiled onions for sxipper two or three times- a week. Roasted onions with sweet oil makes a good poultice for a cold in the chest. In a sick room you cannot have a better disinfectant than the onion. It has a wonderful capacity for absorbing germs; a dish of sliced onions placed in a sick room will draw away the disease; they must bo removed as soon as they lose their odor and become discolored, and be replaced by fresh ones. For those who can take thorn, a raw onion eaten just before retiring is very beneficial —it acts as a tonic to the nervous system,, purifies the blood, helps digestion, and very often prevents insomnia.

BRONCHIAL CATARRH. This very common complaint consists of inflammation of the mucous membrane of some portion of the air. passages. It generally begins with a feeling of tiredness, heaviness in tha bead, slight shiverings, sneezing, watery nostrils, and stoppage of one or both nostrils, with a discharge of thin, colorless fluid. These symptoms are then often followed by a dry cough, hoarseness, sore throat, dryness, tenderness, and swelling of the nostrils, pains and soreness of the limbs, general weakness, more or less fever, great thirst and loss of appetite. Under careful treatment these symptoms will soon subside; but neglect may bring on bronchitis, pneumonia, quinsy, or even start consumption in & person who has a tendency for it. Causes.— Nothing induces cold s«J quickly as wearing insufficient clothing' when the body is cooling after having been heated. It is better to keep on the outdoor things for some time after, entering the house, if you have comd in feeling very hot, unless the room; is warm.

It must be remembered that it is not when the body is hot, but when it is cooling, that it is most susceptible. When the body has been heated or exhausted by exercise, the frame is not able to react, and then the application: of cold increases the depression. Damp beds, or prolonged bathing, or the passing from heated rooms to # cold ones will often give cold. Treatment. —Cold may often be arrested, in its first stage, by, putting the feet in water, with a Jittle mustard in, just before getting into bed, and then having a basin of gruel when in. bed. If the cold is very bad the patient should .stay in bed two or three days, and it Is very important to avoid' atmospheric changes until it has gone. A nasal douche of salt and water is often beneficial. A teaspoonful of salt, in a pint of water. This should he nsed morning and night. When there is much cough and throat irritation, the inhalation-of the vapor from a drachm of Friar’s balsam in a pint of boiling water often gives relief. The vapor* should be inhaled from a whilst the head and face are covered with a towel. A light, nourishing diet should be taken—such’ as goos mutton broth and plenty of milk.

CYNICISMS. '‘Nothing hurts a woman so much as when a man won’t give her the opportunity of saying ‘No.’ ” “To ask a woman what she means is almost as unwise as to ask -her if she has any.” “A woman without a past should he be happy—but she isn’t.” ■ “Usually when a woman tells her lover to ‘go!’ she means ‘go—and come back!’ ” • “Some women agree with their husbands—in name only.” “Too much letter-writing has been the death -of many a love affair which started out with Hying colors. “It isn’t so Hi ~ h that a woman wouldn’t, but she nines „><••<■» *- 0 she would.” “A woman is nor 1 -a -•>. -V • when she re! uses to fergne.