Household Hints

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 247, 2 April 1910, Page 3

Household Hints

EDUCATION FOR WIVES. Presiding over the annual meeting of the Worksop Ladies' Health Association, the Duchess of Portland said the ignorance of many young mothers as to the most elementary laws of health, both for themselves and their children, was still a blot on our educational system. The same censure applied to the ignorance of most young wives in the matter of housewifery, but they were at last waking up to a sense of their national efficiency, and she reminded them that it was in their power to help forward the tentative efforts oc the Board of Education by giving their warmest support to those parts of the school syllabus that made experiments in the practical methods of teaching hygiene and housewifery. Let them all join hands with the authorities at Whitehall to encourage and stimulate the perfecting of a practical education for women, both in housewifery and hygiene, which would bring hsalth and happiness to thousands of cottage homes. THE WOMAN WHO RUSHES. How does the working woman neglect her health? In the first place (says the "Family Doctor)" she tries to do too much. She thinks that the more-work, and the more amusement, too, she can get into the 24 hours the cleverer she is. She is on the rush from the time she gets up in the morning till she goes to sleep in the early hours of the following day. She rushes her meals, gets through her work at express speed, and rushes home at night—not to rest, but to pack as much social gaiety and amusement into the evening hours as she can manage to do. She grudges the time she has to sleep and eat; she lives in a state of perpetual stimulation and excitement; and everybody wonders how she gets through it all without her "turning a hair." But one day the strain proves too much for her. She feels tired and seedy and depressed, and that is the beginning of the end. She becomes nervous and irritable, and begins to suffer from insomnia. Loss of appetite and lack of interest in her work become more and more apparent; she drinks tea or coffee, and flies to drugs for the constant headaches and sleeplessness which make her life miserable. And the cause of it all is overstrain. Do not throw away a good hot water bottle merely because it has a small puncture. The life of the bottle may be considerably extended by sticking a piece of court-plaster over the spot punctured. See that the spot is quite dry, and be sure to cut the plaster large enough to allow a good margin.