WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 187, 17 November 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") MARRIAGE SELECTION". UIXLEY LECTURER OX .MIDDLECLASS DIMINISHING UlßTll KATE. Tliiit the public are beginning to wake u|> to the ini])ortance of heredity was the text urged by Dr. F. W. Mot't, who delivered the Huxley lecture at the! opening session of the Charing ■ Cross Hospital Medical School. This, he 'thought, would lead to more care being taken in marriage selection. Moreover, the cult of eugenics—literally good breeding —was daily gaining ground. The diminishing birth-rate of the professional and middle classes, with the high birthrate and diminished infant mortality of

the lower classes, was now agitating the minds of many, but the fact remained that Nature eared very little about individuals or societies. It was mindful only of the species. Intellectual development which starved the natural instincts of love, marriage, parentage and pride of family, woulo. pay the penalty, partly by increase of the neurotic, self-regarding type of temperament, the fore-runner frequently of neurosis and insanity. In the last fifteen years, the London County Council had

opened four new asylums and an epileptic colony, and was now building another huge asylum. Loud was the cry of national degeneracy, but people justly expected that the race which had brought forth great men might, in gooa ■ time and in fortunate circumstances, produce the like agin. The whole theory of the natural decay of nations was a speculation invented by cowards to ex-

cuse knaves. The old English stock haa as much sap, virility, and power as it had two centuries ago, and with due pruning of the branches and hoeing 01 weeds, the like products would be yielded again.. The weeds were mainly three —dishonesty, sentimentality, and luxury.

WOMEN IN MEDICINE. Mrs. Garrett Anderson, M.D.. presiding at the opening of the winter session 01 the Royal Free Hospital Sehool of Medicine for Women, said they had this year the best entry they had had for long time. Of thirty-one ladies who had entered thirty were going for the highest degree of all—the London University. I In his introductory address upon "Women's Sphere in Medicine," Dr. E. W. Roughton urged that, as far as possible, patients should be treated ana nursed by persons of their own sex. There could be no doubt as to the necessity of a female branch of the medicai profession, and in the course of time, when women had got over their want of confidence in their own sex, the number of women practitioners would largely increase. FRUIT AND THE COMPLEXION. Few women know how essential certain vegetables and fruit acids are to the general health and the retention 01 a good complexion. For this purpose the most valuable are potatoes, cabbage cauliflowers, grapes, oranges, and limes. Limes have a great abundance of acid, and for those who like them they are a most valuable spring fruit. Unsweetened limejuice in water forms an excellent dinner beverage. Lemons contain about six times as much acid as oranges; and, having regard to their size, one small lemon is equal to about three large or medium oranges. Oranges, however, are quite nourishing, one-tenth of their contents being sugar. Women, for the sake of their complexions, and children, for the purity of their blood, should eat plenty of oranges and drink lemonade and limejuice until summer fruits come into season.

Tartaric is said to be another useful acid, and is found in red and black currants and in grapes. Bottled currants in pastry and dumplings form an excellent spring medicine. They contain, weight for weight, six times as much acid as oranges. Grapes vary much. Some contain five times as much tartaric acid as others. All grapes are nutritious, having one pound of sugar very often to six pounds of fruit. Sixpence spent on grapes is much better spent than on sweets at this season.

THE KING'S BOUNTY.

Lord Chelmsford has informed the Federal Premier that he is in receipt of a confidential dispatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, intimating that His Majesty King George has announced his pleasure in reviving the custom of the reign of Queen Victoria of making grants from the Royal Bounty for the assistance of married women in the overseas dominions who give birth to triplets. The grant, it is explained, will be made on the conditions that no case must be submitted to his Majesty after more than four months have elapsed since the birth 01 the children, that all applications are accompanied by evidence that the parents are married and are in indigent circumstances, that the children are alive, and that no such applications will be laia before his Majesty unless forwarded through the Secretary of State, accompanied by an assurance that the conditions hive been complied with. The grant, furthermore, will be strictly confined to British subjects.

AIR IX BEDROOMS. Tt has been proved by experiments that a layer of air flies against the walls, which is subject to very little movement, even when there is a circulation in the middle of the room. It is therefore important that a bed should not be placed close to the wall. If kept there during the daytime, it should be moved at least several inches out into the room at night. Alcoves and curtains should be avoided. In an alcove enclosed on three sides a "pool" of air forms which may be compared to the stagnant pools often observed along the margins of rivers. The lack of appetite for breakfast is often due to the breathing over and over again of the same air in small bedrooms. SARTORIAL CRIMES. Less than two hundred years ago it ; was a crime to wear cotton textiles, j

ladics who dared to wear chintz gowns being summoned before magistrates and lined CI. This was in order to protect tin' old established manufactures of linen and wool, and it was only in IT.'JW that cotton goods were legally permitted in England, on condition that they were woven on a linen warp. Of that innova-

tion Sir Walter Resant, writing of Eighteenth-Century Social England, declared that: '"The first step in the eleva1' tion of the lower classes was the introduction of cotton fabrics, which could be easily washed. Then cleanliness of the body became possible, and with its 1 sweetness and comforts came cleanliness

of other kinds." MASSAGE FOR TIRED FEET. The old East Indian method of giving scientific massage to the feet has been taken up again, and is considered of great value to those who are fatigued. First.—The hands are moved upward, one after the other, ou the raised feet, so that the blood is driven upward.

Second.—The hand is moved in a rotary way from side to side, beginning at the toes and stopping at the middle of the calf.

Third.—The palm of the band and the tips of fingers are applied in a rotary movement with great force and pressure. Throughout all the massage the feet must be raised and supported. It is useless to do it when they are on a level with the head.

When the feet are burning, alcohol is one of the best tonics for them. It cools the skin and stimulates the muscles.

For aching feet nothing is better than hot vinegar and water. The feet should be allowed to stand in a basin of this for -fifteen minutes while the ankles are massaged with it.

TO HER LOVER'S TOMB. A romantic sequel to the death ot Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, the famous explorer, who was killed by natives in the State of Wadai, in Central Africa, in May last, has occurred. This is the voyage now being undertaken by his fiancee, the daughter of Sir Reginald MacLeod, late Permanent Under-Secretary for Scotland, and granddaughter of the late Earl of Iddesleigh, with the object of placing a memorial upon her dead sweetheart's grave. After only a short acquaintance, Miss MacLeod, who lives at Vinters, Maidstone, formed a strong attachment for the murdered lieutenant, which it is understood led to an engagement. The mission which she has imposed upon herself, involving, as it does, the long journey to Lake Chad, seemed so hazardous that her friends endeavoured to persuade her to abandon it. But nothing could move her from her purpose, and last week she set sail, taking with her a handsome marble cross to be erected over the grave. The journey is one of 4500 miles. Miss MacLeod embarked at Liverpool on Wednesday upon the liner Dakar. Travelling in her company are Mr. Talbot, who accompanied Lieutenant Alexander upon his exploration journey from the Niger to the Nile, and Mrs. Talbot. Lieutenant Boyd Alexander's brother, Captain Claude Alexander, died in the Alexander-Gosling expedition of 1004, and his body was buried at Maifoni, a British post near Lake Chad. The lieutenant's body was recovered from the Wadai district, and was taken to Maifoni, where it was interred beside thau of his brother.