How to Break the Worry Habit.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 141, 22 March 1909, Page 3

How to Break the Worry Habit.

As soon as you are conscious of a worried or depressed feeling make up your mind to throw it off. If practicable, go outside, or open a window wide, and breathe deeply filling the lungs to their full extent, but without straining; then empty them as competely aa possible exhaling very slowly. Do this three or four times only at first, but repeat each five minutes until a dozen or more full breaths have been taken. When you have become accustomed to it you can take the whole dozen breaths consecutively. To relieve the sense of tension that worry so often brings on make yourself as limp as possible, then throw your limbs about and stretch thlJn a few times. The mental resolve to shake off the worry for the "blue" moods the oxygenising of the blood, the toning of the nerves by the deep breathing, and the physical exercise, all combine to bring about the desired result.

Note what follows a scratch with a germ-laden needle. In a few hoars the finger will become hot and throbbing. It will become painful to touch, and it will begin to swell at the puncture made by the needle. Then a little later we will notice the injury to exhibit a whitish appearance in the middle of the swelling, and we come to the conclusion that we are suffering from a festering finger. We know that this is a very different case from that of the clean scratch,where perfect healing took place in a few hours. For there has been set up a large amount of what we call inflammation, and instead of that inflammation rapidly disappearing as it did in the case of the clean wound, it goes further on and ends in the formation of "matter" or "pus." If we prick the swelling with a clean needle, the matter will escape, an operation which in more serious cases has to be accomplished by the knife of the surgeon. The great difference between the two scratches we see is that germs were conveyed into the body by the dirty needle, while no such process took place in the case of the clean one. The first lesson to be learned here is that all inflammations which run as to produce matter, are due to germ-infection or to a kind of blood poisoning. The second and practical lesson we are taught is that to avoid such results we ought thoroughly to cleanse every injury, from a scratch to a wound, and so prevent the access of germs to it, and clear away any which may have gained a footing in the wound.

A trivial injury neglected may easily cause death. Tetanus, or "lockjaw," is known by everyone to be a fatal disease. Few recover from it. It is due to the infection of wounds or even scratches with the germs which live everywhere in the earth, and are specially plentiful in stable manure —a fact which explains why stablemen often perish from lockjaw, and why horses sometimes die of it when their wounds are infected. Now, so long as the skin is unbroken no germs can gain admittance through it, but the merest srcatch will serve as the gateway through which lockjaw germs may invade the body. These facts teach us anew our duty in the way of maintaining the body's cleanliness where wounds are especially concerned. A little care in cleansing injuries and in protecting them from infection by proper dressing, and the use of disinfectants will save germ infection, such as, if allowed to occur, may speedily produce fatal result.