HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1819, 1 October 1886, Page 36

HEALTH COLUMN.

Whoaf Sloal -It'j Procuration and Health ftilnpss. " R. T. G." writos to the Dietetic lloi'ormer that he has induce"! bid miller to produce wheat meal ground jih finoly as possible, without injury to its baking quality, which it; appears ia done by what is technically called "low grindiug " — i.e., setting the lailjstonos too dose. I enclose a samplo and atao a specimen of tho bread we make from it, by means of soda and buttermilk, baking ab a low temperature. It is the best bread I have ever met with. The meal is made from fino white wheat. I place this bread at the head of all articles of food. I am more and more 'suprised, by lengthened experience, at tha small quautity of food necessary aftei 1 the period of our growths had passed. I used to thiuk that stimulants were the chU'f cause of the undue shortening of human life, but am now convinced that infinitely more damage is done by ignorance of the amount of food required to make good wear and tear of our Indies. When the appetite fails, we take to condiments, sweets, and intoxicants, thereby inducing goufc, rheumatism, and various other disease I.1 '. I have seen, perhaps, 100 men of my acquaintance cut off at 50 or 60, in the very height of their u-efulness, simply because they thought it ue«,es->ary to eat as much after 30 as while growing. ... I am strongly of opiuion that the most suitable as wull as enjoyable food for thcii'e who do not live by the sweat of their brow is a combination of grain and fruit, wtth milk, butter, ten, uoffee, eggs by v/ay of luxuries. Upon such food I have, at tho ago of 57, more mental and almost as much physical vigour as at aDy former period of -my life. No Warmth in Clothes. It. is a mistake (says the Lancet) to suppose there is any warmth in clothes. • Animal heat is the direct result of change, going on within the body itself. Nutrition by food and the discharge of energy by exercise are the sufficient causes of heat. Clothes seem to warm because they prevent the cold air and objects with a capacity for heat which surround the body from attracting tho heat geuorated within its org.uiism. The clothing is himply an insulator. It follows that it should be light iv weight, and above all things it should permit the free and full circulation of blood through every part of the system — to the end of the finger and toe — and that the muscular apparatus of the extremities should be iv perfect working ordi-r. If we will wear footcoverings, whether boots or stockings, which compress the feet and reuder the separate action of each top impossible, it is simply absurd to expect to be warm-footed. Heat is the complement of work and nutrition ; and if a part of t!:a organism is so bound that it cannot work,and its supply of blood is limited, it must be cold. The resort to stouter and heavier clothing under such circumstances is simply ridiculous. Generally it is the stockings that compress the feet. ' The garter acts as a ligature and diminishes the blood'supply, while the stocking itself acts as a bandage and impedes the circulation through the extremites. MISCELLANEOUS. i Bisulphide of carbon, M. Pasteur thinks, will become the most offcacious of all antiseptics, as it is also the cheapest, costing but a fraction of a penny per pound in large quantity. Salicylic acid suet is used in the German army as a remedy for foot sores, &c, instead of the salicylic powder formerly employed. It is composed of two parts of pure salicylic acid a,nd 98 parts of the best mutton suet. How to Brush Teeth. — This is a matter of no small importance. Most people brut>h across the teeth from right to left. This matter of brushing will not remove tho accumulations from between them, but tends rather to force debri» into the interstices. The brush should be placed against the te»th at the gums and rotated toward the masticating surfaces of the doubl« ' eath. The mouth should then be thoroughly rinsed with tepid water. Arsenic and Malaria. — S. H. Davey, of Cornwall, England, confirms Dr Tomassi Crudelli'd opiuion concerning the effect of arsenic ir. preventing cholera and other zymotic diseases. Although during the last 40 years many cases of cholera, fever, smallpox, &c. have occurred in the country surrounding the extensive arsenic works at Bissoe, not a single case has been known within two miles of the source of tho iteadly fumes. The Tribute prints from a New York chemist : "Do you know how this popular fallacy about fish being a brain food arose ? No ? It was in this way. All kinds of fish decay quickly after death, apd like all animal and vegetable matter in this stage, throw of phosphorous. This was noticed particularly in regard to fish, because, as I said, of the rapidity with which it becomes putrescent. It was inferred from this that the finny tribe was rich in phosphorous, and hence especially desirable as a brain food. As a matter of fact, they contain less than most kinds of meat, and are little richer in this substance than some vegetables — apple?, for example."