Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 17, 30 April 1908, Page 33

Domestic

Food and Health. Do n<yt eat, i! you can avoid it, raw/ vegetal) les or fnuiit which have been washed with unboiled or un-fiV tered, contaminated water. Boil, if you cannot properly niter-, all suspected water before drinking. Do not place dependence on the household filter. The ordinary faucet filter is worthless. A filter of stone or charcoal is dangerous unless^cleaned' daily. Buy no filter until it has been endorsed by some well - known, chemist or bacteriologist ; then keep it clean. Beware ■ -of well water, unless you know the well. Hideous -death as often concealed in the ' old oalfcen bucket ' and the chain pump of the day. • Cook the" Milk. ' Uook the milk ! ' is the new slogan of the health department of .Chicago, superseding the oft-repeated buft always profitable injunction, 4 Boil the water ! ? In every case of death from typhoid fever during the last year, examination of the milk supply used by the victim' had been made. On .an average, the milk had been found to contain 10,000,000 bacteria in each cubic centimetre. The permissible limit in milk intended ? Sp<^m nL f °i. r * he feedi ' n £ of infants and young children: is 100,, WC^ bacteria in the cubic centimetre, or- ---one hundred times less than the - number actually found Whatever -reasons exist for cooking the milk re typhoid fever apply with double force as to diphtheria— and that diphtheria may be conveyed in a milk supply has lone been conceded, . - -" & Drinking Helps Nature. The human system requires a large quantity of fluids, and .if you dislike to drink waiter, make it a habit to eat -plenty -of ripe, juicy fruits. Exercise out ,of daors will make you thirsty, and then- you - will" . crave good cold water, for there is nothing which quite takes its place. Children and a-nimals'live more nctrmal lives than do men and women, and they drink a great (leal o f water. Many a girl suffering from an ugly, blotched, unhealthy complexion could cure the trouble completely by eating fruit, drirfMng water, and taking a quick beauty bath every morning. The idea Is to stimulate the body in its <-nartural work of sending away poisonous substances. Bathe- the face every night with warm water, using a-complexion brush and pure soap, rinsing, drying, and applying a good cream. Tea Drinking. Dr. Scott Tefcb; Public Analyst to the Borougb of Southvrark, England, says people drink far too much .tea. He calculates that each person, on an average takes a daily dose of 3.6 grains of alkaloid and 9 7 grains of tannin. This' means that the average teadrwifeer takes half as much alkaloid and nearly as much tannin as the maximum -allowed by the British pharmacopeia far an occasional dose. And of course many thousands of people drink a great deal more th a n the average dose. Over-infused tea is the chief danger. The effect of drinking tea ' stewed ' is to produce dyspepisia, which tends to a state of mental .depression, and Dr. Tebb warns specially against what he terms over-infusion '—that is steeping the tea until tjhe water becomes infused with the injurious qualities - of the leaves. The Japanese and Chinese, 'who, it may be said, are innately intimate with the beverage, powr boiling water over the leaves and almost immediately fill the cups with a sparkling decoction-. Scientists pronounce this drink ' slightly exhilarating and harm* less.' The resultant genuine refreshment .of this drin-k may bte a good deal due ,to the reviving effects ol the hot water. It is medically admitted that the drinking of simple hot water is physically recuperative. ThfeQt. the hot water, in Itself, -has; much to. do with the refreshment quality of the beverage, may be ded/uced from' the. fact thait when the infusion is done with water that has been reboiled, the beverage is flat, quite lacking in * buoyant taste.' All of which goes to denronstrate that tea must be correctly brewed in order to be harmlessly exhilirating.