MEDICAL.
Hawthorn.—The various fruit salts, effervescing salines, effervescing citrate of magnesia, etc., are all pleasant modifications of seidlitz powders. You could make one for yourself by mixing together bicarbonate of soda, citric acid, tartaric acid, oxide of magnesia, and sugar. Heat these ingredients carefully in an earthenware pot and stir until the mass assumes a granular appearance. But why make it yourself? You can buy it ready-made cheaply enough. It is only the patent preparations which are expensive, for they have to pay for the stamp and advertisements.
Dark Despair.—We think most probably you did dislocate your jaw. Such an accident always leaves behind it some stiffness and pain on movement, but by exercising the joint these gradually disappear. A small blister over the joint, occasionally, will help to relieve the stiffness. Friction over the joint will also do good. But it is exercise that is most essential and movement to the point of pain, for the object of the movement is to break down adhesion within the joint, and it is these adhesions that cause the pain and stiffness.
Porcupine.—1. Errors of the refraction of the eyes more often cause squint than every other of its causes put together. And very frequently, if the squint is slight or fairly recent, wearing glasses will cure it. If it has gone further than this, an operation is necessary.—2. Go to the dentist at once; your teeth want to be thoroughly overhauled.
A Factory Girl.—Phossy-jaw is a rare disease now, and we cannot recollect ever having seen a case. It used to be fairly common, but the stringent laws relating to match-workers have done much to stop the disease. It is said that the phosphorus affects the jaw through decayed teeth, and that if the teeth are perfect phossy-jaw does not occur.
Alabama.—Decidedly girls can suffer from gout. But recently we saw a girl of seventeen who had typical acute gout in her great toe joint. It certainly is not very common for it to show itself before middle life, but it is not so uncommon as is usually supposed. Gout is far more frequent in England than in any other country, but it is less common than it used to be, possibly because port wine is drunk less than it was formerly. A curious fact in connection with the heredity of gout is, that gout and rheumatism often alternate in families; one generation suffers from gout, the next from rheumatism, the third from gout, etc. But more commonly gout is regularly hereditary. It is considerably more common in men than in women.
A Perplexed Girl.—Most probably your troubles are due to anæmia; the stoutness and puffiness of the face, the flushings and high colour of the cheeks, are very commonly met with in that condition. It by no means follows that because the blood is deficient the cheeks will be pale. The whites of the eyes, the inside of the lips, etc., will be pale in anæmia, but it is almost as frequent to find the face ruddy as pale. We therefore feel pretty confident that anæmia causes your trouble; but whether that condition is simply the ordinary “green-sickness” or due to some other cause we cannot say without examining you. It is unnecessary for us to describe the treatment for anæmia as we have done so, so frequently before.
Inquirer.—There has just been another inquiry into the question of the spread of infectious disease by oysters; and the very question you ask us was discussed at length. Green oysters apparently belong to three classes: firstly, those that are free from disease or from metallic salts—these are perfectly healthy; secondly, those that owe their green colour to salts of copper. It used to be thought that the green colour of some oysters was due to iron salts, but the present inquiry has proved beyond question that copper, and not iron, salts cause the green colour. Thirdly, the most important group of all from the medical standpoint, there are green oysters which owe their colour to some disease of the blood. What disease is not known; nor do we know if eating these oysters would injure the human body. Still, it is safer to avoid eating green oysters at all. A very significant fact is that in no single instance was the typhoid germ found in the oyster; and if by chance the germ did get into the oyster it was speedily destroyed, because it appears that fresh sea-water kills the bacillus altogether. This last fact certainly is rather upsetting to the commonly-held view that oysters can only become infected with typhoid germs by means of sewers; indeed, the whole investigation casts doubt upon the opinion that oysters can convey typhoid fever at all, but it by no means disproves it.
Anxious Inquirer.—Discharge of matter from the ear is a condition which requires very careful treatment, for it is one of those simple, everyday affairs which not uncommonly lead to the most terrible diseases. It is not in itself very dangerous, and if properly treated scarcely ever ends in trouble, but the danger lies in neglect. Discharge from the ear is always a very chronic affair, and though a person may rigorously wash out her ears for a month or so, she begins to doubt whether the syringing does any good. She gets careless, misses a day or so, and eventually gives up treatment altogether. And then may begin, by slow and insidious steps, or suddenly, in the course of a few hours, one of those fearful diseases of which only a physician can conceive the malignancy, diseases which, if unrelieved by prompt surgery, end fatally without fail in a few days. But as we said before, if the discharge from the ears is treated, the dangers of these calamities is practically nothing. The treatment for the condition is to syringe out the ears twice a day with a weak antiseptic. Condy’s fluid diluted with warm water to the tint of pink blotting-paper will do very well. It is also advisable to have your throat examined, for chronic throat trouble is particularly likely to cause chronic discharge from the ears.
[From photo: By C. Read, Wishaw.
WE FOUR!
[Transcriber’s Note—the following changes have been made to this text:
Page 661: Mondodelphum to Monodelphum—“ally to L. Monodelphum”.
Page 668: kimself to himself—“knew himself to be”.
lone to tone—“a very low tone.”
Page 669: musn’t to mustn’t—“mustn’t think that”.]