HEALTH IN THE HOME.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 556, 5 April 1913, Page 7

HEALTH IN THE HOME.

the Oliver. When the ski'n turns yellow it is Nature's warning; that the liver needs attention. { The bile which is formed by this >organ is escaping into the blood, iristead of being poured into the intestine to assist in digestion and fc«ep the bowels regular. The continuous administration of a mild hepatic stimulant would overcome this unnatural condition, causing the liver to form bile in proper quantities, and discharge it into the bowel, thus relieving constipation and bleaching the skin. A proper medicine should be employed to accomplish this result, aad its use should restore the most faded and sallow woman to something like her early bloom, and make her feel younger, lighter, and more active. The mind also should become brighter under its use, the patient take more interest in things, and be consequently livlier and more animated. FOR SLEEPLESSNESS. Lack of proper ventilation often causes sleeplessness. Many ills of mankind have been blamed on the "draught," and while, to mothers, it seems a bad policy to bring up a child with the draught-of-air fear always present in mind, it is not advisable to sleep with the air blowing directly over the body. There should be plenty of air in the room. Wear a nightcap if you are afraid of a cold in the head, and place a screen in front of the window. That will protect the body and yet allow a free current of air through the room. If you are sleepless, fill the lungs with fresh air, breathe deeply and rhythmically, and soon you will fall asleep. A cup of hot milk and long, deep breaths of fresh air are better sleep inducers than drugs.

PRINCIPLES OF SEABATHING. Sea-bathing, when properly and carefully indulged in, is a most health-giving and enjoyable diversion. But a few broad principles should be remembered. Never bathe within two hours of a meal, never when over-tired and exhausted, and never when over-heated. At the same time, the body should be warm, and not cold, when you plunge in. Do not remain in the water long enough to become tired or chilly, and when you come out dress quickly. It should also be remembered that bathing does not agree with everybody. Those who feel faint or £,iddy in the water, -or whose hearts begin to beat over'-nruch, should consult a doctor who is' thoroughly acquainted with their constitutions, before they enter ih<: water again. Medical papers say that many of the bathing fatalities which have been generally attributed to "cramp" are really due to failure of the heart's action, induced by the plunge into cold water, and aggravated by swimming. A good result of the bath ought to make the bather feel warm and 'fresh. If, instead, shivering and cold ensue, harm is being done. Children should not be forced into sea-baths, for their reluctance may. be occasioned by some constdtutiotial drawback, testifying that the process is harmful to them.

THE INFLUENCE OF SPICES. Some experiments just carried out by a Polish physician, Dr. Korczynski, tend to prove that while spices stimulate the motor function of the stomach, they progressively impair the secretory functions, and, in the long run, inhabit the production o!" hydrochloric acid—-the digestive juice. On the whole, therefore, the ingestion of spices blinders, rather than accelerates, digestion. BLOWING THE NOSE. We have it on the very best authority that a man who blows his nose properly has a claim to be.considered exceptionally intelligent, lor by the large majority of the human race, or such portion of it as uses pocket handkerchiefs, that simple act is wrongly performed. A.hint on the subject may not be inopportune at the present catarrhal season. Blowing the nose seems to the untutored mind a simple enough matter, and so it is to those who dispense with artificial aid. Here, as in other points of elementary hygiene, it is civilisation that.is our undoing. In using a handkerchiefmost people blow more or less violently through both nostrils. If these are obstructed, asi they are more or less in a common cold, the back of the throat is filled with compressed air, and this, together with the discharge with the microbes' it contains, may be driven through the Eustachian tube into the middle ear. This may easily lead to serious results. In blowing the nose,, therefore, it is well to close one nostril with the handkerchief and blow gently tlirough the other, repeating" the process on the other side. A "great authority used to forbid his patients to blow their noses at all when they suffered from cold; he held that the handkerchief should be used simply to wipe away discharge. This is a counsel of per-. fection. But if we must blow, let our blowing be done gently. 8