MEDICAL.
Miss Pert.—We think you are quite right in supposing that your throat is really the cause of your trouble. Deafness is an exceedingly common complication of catarrh of the throat. The ear communicates with the back of the nose through the eustachian tube, and when the mucous membrane of the nose or throat is inflamed, the end of the tube is very apt to share in the condition, and so deafness results. Deafness from this cause is often exceedingly intractable. The treatment of the condition resolves itself into two parts—the treatment of the throat, and the treatment of the ear. Of these, the former is by far the more important. Perhaps it may be necessary to remove enlarged tonsils or adenoids, or to destroy little growths in the nose or back of the throat, or perhaps no such severe measure may be necessary, and the throat condition may yield to medicated applications. We advise you to wash out your throat and nose daily with a lotion made by dissolving one teaspoonful of the following powder in a teacupful of tepid water—of borax, bicarbonate of soda, and chlorate of potash, finely powdered, one part each to three parts of finely powdered white sugar. After having thoroughly washed your nose and throat with this lotion, spray out your throat and nose with solution of menthol in paraleine (1 in 8) used in an atomiser. Having well sprayed, close your nostrils with your hand and blow up into your ears. This last little manœuvre is of great value, for it helps to unstop the eustachian tube, and it carries some of the menthol up into them. When you hear a gurgling during this action, it is a sign that the tube is pervious though not quite healthy. If the tube is quite normal, a single click will be heard in both ears. You want our opinion upon the chloride of ammonium inhaler. Here it is. We thoroughly and absolutely disapprove of it. Theoretically it is all right, but in practice it has been our experience that it does far more harm than good. It is true that finely-divided chloride of ammonium is a very valuable application to diseased mucous membranes. But the reason why the inhaler is harmful is, that it is impossible to obtain chloride of ammonium vapours free from either the vapour of ammonia or of hydrochloric acid. And these do far greater harm than the ammonium chloride can do good.
Molly.—We do not advise the biscuits you mention. Of course they are indigestible since they cannot be digested at all! They are occasionally given for wind and tainted breath arising from indigestion, etc., but they are open to grave objections, and we really cannot see their value.
A. G.—We have so frequently detailed the treatment of anæmia that it is not fair to other correspondents to occupy our space, which is very much limited, by going over the same ground again. Look up the back correspondence, and you will find all about anæmia. Do not take quinine and iron, for this mixture is exceedingly indigestible, and anæmic girls must be very careful of their digestions. The best preparations of iron to begin with are dialysed iron, syrup of hæmaglobin, or Robin’s peptonate of iron; the two last drugs are French preparations, and are rather expensive.
Diana D.—The pain in the left side of your chest may be due to many causes, by far the most likely of which is indigestion. Possibly the illness you had last year was pleurisy.
Poppy.—1. A pale and sallow complexion may either be a natural condition, or else, as is more probable, a symptom of some abnormal state. In anæmia, severe indigestion, constipation, and some more serious affections, a sallow complexion is a common feature. You say you are quite healthy; this excludes most abnormal conditions. But the third mentioned trouble is not excluded by that remark, and as constipation is the commonest cause of a sallow complexion, we think that that is what is troubling you. Just lately we discussed the treatment of this complaint at full length.—2. Do not use any cosmetics. We do not know the preparation you mention, but we strongly dissuade you from using it all the same. The less you have to do with patent proprietary articles the better you will be.