MEDICAL.
E. Messent.—We have over and over again said that we know of no really efficient and safe way of permanently removing superfluous hairs from the face. All chemical epilators are either injurious to the skin, or are else useless; indeed, most of them are both. It is obvious that no chemical depilatory can be safe to use, for to prevent the growth of hair it must destroy the hair root, and as the hair root is placed deeply in the skin, the chemical has got to deeply destroy the skin before it can commence its work. We know of many epilators which will destroy the skin of the face, but not one of them can be trusted even to injure the hair roots! Then as regards electrolysis, we know it is frequently used for destroying hairs, but it is not one case in a hundred that this treatment can benefit. It can permanently remove half-a-dozen hairs or so, but as to destroying a beard or moustache, why you would have to have generation after generation of electrolysers at work before all the hair was destroyed. And even where electrolysis is practised, a permanent cure is exceedingly uncommon, and the expense of this treatment is very considerable. But if you cannot permanently remove unwelcome hairs, you can with ease destroy them temporarily either by pulling them out or by cutting them down. The latter is by far the best way of removing superfluous hairs, and is the only way which is absolutely safe.
J. H. R.—1. Powdered boracic acid is very useful for those who suffer from excessive perspiration. Another powder consisting of one part of salicylic acid to ninety-nine parts of powdered silica, is also frequently used for the same purpose.—2. Liquid ammonia is a very good preparation with which to soften hard water. Ordinary household ammonia is quite equal to the various patent preparations. About a tablespoonful of strong ammonia will soften about twenty gallons of London water. Failing ammonia, common washing soda is as good as anything, and is certainly cheap enough for everybody. You can easily tell if you have added enough of the ammonia or soda to the water by feeling it with the hand, when the hard feel of ordinary tap water gives place to the unctuous feel of soft water.
Janet.—It is quite impossible to say what is causing noises in the ear without a personal interview. Many conditions, some slight, some grave, produce this symptom, and the necessity for a careful diagnosis is obvious. We would, therefore, be doing you an injustice to attempt to “cure” you. You must go to an aurist and get his opinion on the matter. A course of quinine might do you good, but very likely it would only make you worse.
Ariel.—Sarsaparilla is one of those drugs whose action upon the human organism is practically nil! Indeed, it is not too much to say that, if taken by a man in any quantities, it will produce no effect whatever. It is no new remedy; it has been tried and tried, and found wanting. The decoction of sarsa has a decided action, but it is due to the water in it, and not to the sarsaparilla!
Henrietta.—The symptom you mention is one of the manifestations of the milder degrees of hysteria. A little rigid mental training would soon cure you.
Inexperienced.—The best temperature for a working room is between 55° F. and 60° F. For a bedroom, between 50° F. and 55° F. For the sick-room for ordinary cases, between 55° F. and 65° F. For some respiratory diseases, the temperature must be kept between 62° F. and 70° F. In these diseases the temperature must be kept constant, great care being taken that the room does not get cold in the early hours of the morning.
Country Mouse.—Earache is by no means always due to trouble with the ear. Indeed, pain of any kind is an uncommon symptom of ear disease, and it is only in acute inflammation of the drum that pain is at all common. Earache is most often a “referred pain,” that is, it is a pain in one nerve due to irritation of another nerve connected with it. This phenomenon of referred pain is exceedingly common. The nerve which chiefly supplies the skin about the ear is a branch of the inferior dental nerve, which supplies the sensation to the lower teeth. Consequently the presence of carious teeth in the lower jaw is an exceedingly common cause of earache, and is for certain the cause of the pain which you suffer. You can tell whether pain about the ear is due to ear trouble or to this referred pain, because in the former case the pain is deeply seated, whereas in referred pain the pain is situated in the skin about the ear. Moreover, in this latter case the skin about the ear may be acutely tender.
