MEDICAL.
Felicitas.—You cannot be too careful about the baby’s bottle. We suppose the bottle is of value, but it is responsible for so much suffering and illness of infants that we really doubt whether we would not be better without it. There are two forms of baby’s bottles, the old-fashioned torpedo-shaped bottle, clumsy, troublesome, and inconvenient, but withal possible to clean, and necessitating careful feeding, and the newer “Alexandra” bottle, convenient, no trouble, æsthetic, but impossible to keep clean, and allowing carelessness in feeding the infant. Never use the new bottle—it is quite impossible to clean india-rubber; the bottle gets dirty, sour milk collects in the tube, the child gets dyspepsia, and may die simply from a dirty bottle. You must not let a child suck at the bottle at all hours of the day and night, “just to keep it quiet and allow its mother a little rest.” Children must be fed regularly. The habit of giving children things to eat or suck to keep them quiet is responsible for a vast number of deaths and lives of misery and uselessness. Indeed, it is not too much to say that this pernicious practice of giving babies something to eat or drink to prevent them from crying is more fatal to infants than all the infectious diseases from which they suffer put together. You must keep the bottle clean, and immediately after use rinse it out with boiling water, and keep it soaking in boracic acid solution, and again rinse it out with hot water before using it.
Bonnie.—1. The reason why it is easy for you to breathe through your nose during the day, but difficult to do so at night, is that the recumbent position causes the mucous membrane of the nose to become congested. The nose always becomes congested when the person is lying down, but the amount of obstruction varies very greatly even in health. Of course, in the absolutely healthy condition, the congestion is never sufficient to prevent breathing through the nose. But a very slight cause may make nose-breathing quite impossible at night. The best treatment for such conditions is an extra pillow and a nasal spray of menthol in paraleine (1 in 8). Even in health it is the rule to breathe through the nose and the mouth after severe exertions.—2. A hair-wash of quinine, rosemary, and cantharides, is a good preparation to prevent the hair from falling out, that is, it is as good as any other hair-wash. Of course, nothing whatever applied to the hair itself can have the slightest influence on its growth. The remedy must be applied either through the blood or to the hair roots in order to be effective. Quinine often causes headache if taken internally; applied externally it would not have this action. It would not darken the hair. Try borax or very dilute carbolic acid (1 in 1000) to wash your hair with.
Molly.—By the “eye tooth” is usually meant the canine or “dog tooth,” the third in order from the middle line of the mouth. By some persons the first molar or first double tooth in the upper jaw, or the sixth from the middle line, is called the “eye tooth,” and with greater reason than the canine, for the first molar is more connected with the eye than is the canine. Extracting the canine tooth is of no more danger than extracting any other tooth, but as its root is rather long, it is a little more difficult. There are thirty-two teeth in the adult jaw, eight on each side of both upper and lower jaws.
Hester.—You object to our statement that eczema is a local disease, and is not usually dependent upon the state of the blood, because you feel ill when you have an acute attack of eczema and are relieved by internal treatment. But this does not affect our statement that eczema is a local disease due to a local inoculation, and is not due to disease of the blood. We suppose you will admit that a severe burn is a local injury, and that that, at least, is not due to “something in the blood.” Well, often in a severe burn the constitutional symptoms are desperate. We may have to confine all our attention to the heart and nervous system at first when treating a severe burn. But still we maintain that the burn is a local injury, and by local means alone can the burn be made to heal. And so with eczema. Here is a local disease, but the constitutional symptoms may be, although they very rarely are, severe. And occasionally they do need internal treatment. But no internal treatment will cause the eczema to heal without external aid. The treatment for all local disease must be local, although internal medication may be required as well.
A Country Lass.—Wild honey is often poisonous. That made by bumble-bees is usually harmful, giving rise to severe headache, purging, and vomiting. Xenophon, in his Anabasis, accurately describes the effects produced upon his soldiers by eating wild honey, probably made by bees from the Pontic azalea.
E. F. T.—Try an ointment of ichthiol (2 per cent.), and a wash of carbolic acid (1 in 100). You must be very careful that the carbolic acid does not get into your eyes and mouth.