EXTRAORDINARY FREAK CURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 103, 21 October 1911, Page 10

EXTRAORDINARY FREAK CURE.

TYPEWRITERS AND VEGETABLES. Something like a sensation has been caused in Paris lately by a number of medical specialists, who declare tihat' many bodily ailments can be curefl. byj the judicious use of vegetables. They even go further, and say that a man can alter his whole nature if he will only tike the trouble to eat the right fcittfof vegetable fowl. A regular catalogue has been mapped out of what vegetables should be used for the alteration of various characteristics, and they attach particular importance to beans, which they assert will develop a love of the beautiful in the most inartistic nature. In spite of the rigid conservatism of the medical profession there arise from time to time doctors who advocate the most extraordinary methods of curing diseases. Thus, a well-known American physician recommended one of his patients some time ago to take a course of funny stories. The patient was suffering from a condition of morbid nervousness, and the doctor told him to read a funny story at every meal. At first the man refused, but at last he allowed himself to be persuaded, and after a very short time he found himself getting altogether more robust and happy-minded. Such a treatment would, no doubt, be very popular with children, if it could be made to take the place oi powders and castor oil.

A Dr. Bull once suggested that certain diseases of the eye might be cured if tlis sufferers would go up in balloons. "1 would recommend the institution of cap tive balloons outside all theatres arid art galleries," he said. "'Nothing could be better for the headache brought on by the atmosphere of a theatre, or for the strain on the eyesight of. much pic-ture-gazing than an' ascent of, say, 3000 ft. The purer air at such an altitude and the effect of watching the diminutive, objects on the earth 3000 ft below would do the eye a great deal of good." "The typewriter cure" is the idea of a doctor in Boston. He makes all highlystriing patients use a typewriter for'a certain time every day, believing that the •'click, click" of the keys is very soothing to the nerves. If his opinion be correct, authors who type their own. manuscripts ought to lie 'the least nervous people in the world. A hundred years ago'it was common for medical men to advise those of their fashionable patients, who suffered from weak lungs to go and stand over a. dustheap and breathe in the effluvium that issued therefrom. An ex-governor of the Bank of England referred to this •'cure" the other day in a public speech and stated that in his opinion the sorting of dust-heaps was a healthy occupation.

The power of music to relieve certain illnesses was firmly believed in among the ancients, and at the present time there are not wanting competent observers who say that music is an excellent remedy for nervousness. Probably the most remarkable claim for music ever put forward, however, was that which appeared in a Paris newspaper. Accordins to the writer of the article in question, listening to stringed instruments makes the hair grow, while brass instruments makes the hair fall out.

"Everyone must have observed," said the writer, ''that a bald violinist is as rare as a bald born-player is common." Olood music has been advocated as a cure for drunkenness, and it is said that listening to an orchestra while at meals prevents one from drinking too much. Among many other extraordinary remedies that have been suggested at various times may be. mentioned diluted sea water for consumption, a fine powder made from clay for cholera, and frequent warm baths for insanity.