TALKS ON HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 22 January 1931, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR HINTS FOR THE COLD WEATHER Eats keep us warm. Therefore, in the cold weather eat fat. I sometimes write violent articles against men who weigh sixteen stone; but the extra covering is very comforting in the cold weather. It is no use appealing to girls—they will always wear flimsy stockings and shoes. They do it to attract the men. Who would marry a girl who wore thick stockings in the cold weather, I should like to know? A certain number of them pay the dreadful penalty of pneumonia and rheumatic fever, but they are well content to pay the price. So who am I to object? And yet I am a little wistful about it all. It is my job to save the dear girls from illnesses, and I feel terribly to blame when their health is ruined because I am not persuasive enough to make them keep their feet warm and dry in the winter. Ask mother to give you fat bacon, butter and bread and dripping in abundance. Eat a little more in winter than you are accustomed to in summer. And buy a warm scarf to put on when, you leave the workshop and go out into the cold. You do not catch cold in your wellwarmed offices; it is the moment when you emerge from the building and mount the top of a crowded motor-’bus that you feel the chill.

BAD TEETH AND FOOD GOBBLING

I had tea to-day with the medical superintendent of a large institution, and the conversation turned on the subject of operations. I asked how many operations he had had in the last six months, and he told me he had had 50 cases of appendicitis and 20 of gastric ulcer. Nice topic for tea-time. So I took another piece of bread and butter nnd inquired what the cause of these distressing symptoms bad been. And he talked to me just as I talk to you—you would have laughed, lie said ho thought prevention was better than cure. He grumbled that all the patients who came in for urgent operations had such foul teeth and that they all gobbled their food. So I took a piece of cake and again inquired what could bo done, and he said: “Someone ought to instruct these foolish folk. They ought to be told of the penalties of bad teeth and food gobbling.”

CAREERS FOR SONS You must choose a career for your son with great care: you must not just shove him into any job that comes along. You will tell him that times are hard, and that you arc thankful if the lad can earn anything anywhere. Nevertheless, it is worth a little thought to find the night job. Your decision will affect his whole life. For instance, he may have had a few attacks of bronchitis which he has recovered from, while the doctor says that he may have a recurrence. Well, what are you going to do with him? You might, of course, find a nico stuffy office with plenty of dust in. the atmosphere; shove him in and never mind the consequences. In a year he will be down with a chest complaint, perhaps consumption. He lias earned 25s a week in money and lost 30s a week in health, and the bargain, is a bad one. You might have sent him on a farm where he would earn rosy checks, healthy lungs, a pair of broad shoulders, and a cheery outlook on life. He might have gone to sea; at sea you do occasionally get a breath of air that is not foul with dust and dirt. Do not always seek for a white collar and a black coat and anaemia; shirt sleeves and health are better.

RUPTURES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES

Please look to see if your son is ruptured. You say you have not had any experience of ruptures. Never mind, have a look at the boy’s groin and see if you notice a lump. You are his parent, and no one else will take tire trouble if you do not. When in doubt, take him to a doctor. I am much better than Old Moore at foretelling the future, and I will make a prophecy. Your boy is ruptured ; but nobody knows, and nobody cares, his parents least of all. He is now at school and the rupture does not bother him. Next year lie will leave school and will take up a job in which he has to lift things. One fine day he will come home early complaining of a pain in the groin. He will lose his job; he will be a month in hospital; he will lose his wages. His parents may take the doles that is given to injured workmen; but it is a nice thing when parents get a dole for neglecting their own sons! I cannot any longer allow these eases of untreated rupture to walk about tho country.

SOMETHING ABOUT WILL-POWER

It seems a very simple thing to open and close the fingers, and yet I could write a book on the mysteries involved. First, there is a bone in the finger; to that bone is attached a leader or tendon ; it is stuck on like seaweed stuck on a rock. The tendon forms the end of a muscle which can contract —become shorter—and pull the tendon and the bone. But that is not all—the muscle cannot move without the nerve. You would shudder if I took you into a dissecting-room, and I should not blame you. But all of us doctors have to spend many months finding out these little nerves that enter the muscles like threads. We know them all and where to find them ; cut one of them by a knife or a bullet and the muscle is paralysed and useless. The nerve runs up to the brain, and there it is governed by the will-power of the mind. So when a man says he cannot move his finger we have to try and find out where the defect lies. Is it in the bone, the joint, the tendon, the muscle, the nerve, the brain, or the will-power? When Tommy says he cannot get up in 'lie moniii g, is he paralysed or is his willpower at fault? Shall w r e order a soothing ,'oiion to the poor muscle or shall we Lake a big stick? Is it any good nibbing a lotion on the man's arm when the defect lies in the mind? Alas, I fear in too many cases it is only the will-power that is defective. Too slack, Unit's what it is. TO THOSTS ABOUT TO MABRY Medical certificates before marriage will never be popular or universally demanded. There are) bow’over, two illnesses which ought to he specially watched. No man wdio lias had venereal disease should get married before he has had two or three special tests at the special clinic to make sure it is safe. And the other is consumption, Tf you have any doubt about the presence of a weak spot, in your lungs yon must apply for a. medical certificate.' 1 cannot stand

by and see you infect your married partner or produce offspring tainted with disease. Never mind about the furniture; see that your health is good, and you can be quite happy with a few banana crates and a sack or two to start with. BE CHEERFUL AND COURAGEOUS You and T, who arc only plain folk trying to make those around us happy, must be content to influence our neighbours by our cheerfulness and courage. Who would deny that kindness and a smiling face can cure us of many complaints? We have epidemics of strikes, epidemics of influenza, epidemics of small-pox. 1 don't know which have done the most harm. Can we not now have an epidemic of good-will, an outbreak of kindliness v