TALKS ON HEALTH.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 160, 25 November 1926, Page 2

TALKS ON HEALTH.

(By a Family Doctor) SKIN TROUBLES I have from time to time, devoted attention to sores and other affections of the skin. A remedy that perhaps a large number of sufferers have not resoried to is the application of mercury nitrate ointment. This is an ex-J cellent preparation, and produces beneficial results in many cases. Before applying it the affected part should be bathed for a long time iu hot water, so as to loosen and remove the scab;.. It is necessary to bo very patient wit'; the preliminary bathing. When applying the mercury ointment the, ling : should not be used, but the handle *. f a teaspoon which has been boiled may be utilised. Care should be taken to . deal with every affected spot, and each I morning the old ointment must be re- j moved by long and patient bathing, and a clean lot of ointment applied. Of course, care should be taken to see that the system is kept clear. A Few “Tips.” A few more 11 tips’ ’ in the management of these cases will be useful. Keep the finger-nails very short, so that, if the patient scratches the sores the nails will not become' infected. The fingers must be frequently washed. The sores can be conveyed from one person to another by means of towels, pillows, handkerchiefs, sponges, face-rags, and anything else that comes in con- 1 tact with the skin of the infected, patient. Rags used once on the sore places had better be burnt. If you wish to clean the rags, they must be boiled after being washed in the ordinary way. On Growing Fat The tendency to grow fat increases very rapidly when once oiie begins to put on flesh. The reason is that the fatter one gets the less inclined one is to take exercise. Moreover, the pleasures of the table become more alluring. Self-denial is not a common virtue. Self-indulgence is the' more general rule. Over-eating results in the storage of fat all over the body. The deposit of fat on the surface, under the skin, is plain to all beholders; what is not quite so plain is the deposit of fat inside, the body. The. liver is tended with superflous fat; the heart’s action is impeded by' an accumulation of fat all round it; the abdomen is loaded with fat, as may be seen in a butcher’s shop when the carcases .of fat bullocks and sheep arc hung up for inspection. How to Reduce Bulk If you Wish to reduce your bulk it can be done by eating loss; avoiding fat foods; taking more exercise; Turkish baths, or vapour baths, as I suppose we ought to call them, .1 was going to add, blit I don’t really mean that—better be fat than miserable. But still, in this question of fatness and thinness the mental side of the matter cannot be ignored. Of the two tasks you might set me, I would rather try and make a thin girl fat than a fat girl miserable; but I would try to make a thin girl so happy that she had to grow fatter. A “worriting’’ disposition will make anyone thin. Unhappiness will cause loss of sleep, loss of appetite, and interfere' with digestion —and all these things lead to a loss of weight. Ringworm only a Name Ringworm is only a name—there is no worm about it. The parasite tln.t causes it looks like a lot of little round balls packed closely together. It lines' in the hair itself, and weaken* it so that it breaks off sharp when it has attained the length of about a quarter of an inch. This is the most characteristic feature about ringworm; if you ;ake a magnifying glass and look care-

fully, you see these short, broken-off stumps of hairs. The' X-rays treatment is being used with success. It first makes the patch of the scalp exposed to the rays completely bald. Having destroyed the hair it destroys the home of the parastic growth, which then dies and disappears. The hair always grows A Children’s Complaint.

Ringworm on the heads of children is a most troublesome affection; it takes many months, or maybe years, to get rid of it. It is strangely limited to the ages of, say, five to fifteen or thereabouts. It is very rare on the scalps )f young adults of eighteen or twenty. As ringworm disappears of its own accord at a certain age, many remedies which happened to be applied at timt age have very injustly been credited with the power of removing ringworm. Children with this complaint are excluded from school. I believe it is best in the long run to have' the hair cut quite short from the first. Naturally, the mothers of girls with beautiful hair are loth to have the flowing locks shorn from the head, but it is the wisest course, and the hair all grows again when a cure has been effected. Children with ringworm should wear cheap caps lined with paper. The paper lining can be removed and burnt every day. Children should be taught that it is very naughty to wear each other’s hats or caps.- If possible the pegs in the cloak-room where tho children hang their hats should be wide apart, so that there is no danger of the scurf from an infectea hat falling on the headgear of a clean child. . When once smarted in a school, it is difficult to get rid of. Good Food and Fresh Air. Two things are needed to make the blood richer. Good food I have been harping on the' whole time; .the other thing is fresh air. Bo sleep with your window open all the year round. The night air is not poisonous. Try and change your job if you have to work in a basement. Do not stay in an office where you' have to work by artificial light all the year round. If you are being robbed of air do not take' it lying down. Fight for all you are worth to get fresh air; if you don’t, you will never have healthy blood-discs. Food and Fat. On .the whole, I am inclined to put, all my money on eating less to producq a loss of -fat. Suppose a man weighed twenty stone, and he' had nothing to eat at all, only a little water to drink; he could not maintain that bulk by eating air or looking at the good things ;n a pastrycook’s window. He would have no alternative but to grow thinner. The ; work that is done by tho body can only be done by burning the fuel in the body, and the fuel is fat. The twentystone man would indubitably lose weight on a diet of nothing. But suppose he required six pounds of food a day to keep up his bulk, and you only gave him five, he' would have to get the other pound from the fat stored up in his body, and that would use up his | weight. Dear old ladies who sit knitting all day need very little food; they ! do not use up much fuel by knitting. ; So, even though they declare' they cat scarcely anything, that amount is a lit-- ' tie too much, and the weight goes up.