MEDICAL.
Bernice.—Beyond taking plenty of exercise, feeding as well as you can, and attending to the general laws of health, we cannot tell you of any other means of obtaining what you desire. A diet with plenty of farinaceous food, milk puddings, etc., would suit you best.
Mary Carmichael.—The public has been completely fogged over the subject of tinned meats for years past. Some persons have tried to prove that tinned articles are better than fresh ones; whilst others have decided that all preserved foods are poisonous, and that those who partake of them do so at the risk of their lives. As is usual in such arguments, the truth lies somewhere between these extreme points, and we will endeavour to explain what are the various good and bad qualities of tinned foods. In the first place, we must notice that tinned eatables are very much better now than they were some years ago. This is particularly the case with the tinned fruits from California (the preparation of which is, we believe, entirely carried on by girls). For some years back we have been able to get tinned pears, peaches, apricots, etc., from California, and, as far as we can find out, no case of poisoning has occurred from their consumption. It may be said that all the tinned articles which are allowed to come into London are perfectly wholesome while they are fresh; it is only after they have been kept some time that they become injurious. Again, it must be remembered that tinned goods will not keep when once the tin has been opened. A large number of deaths have occurred from eating tinned meats which have been opened several days previously. It is of great importance to recognise what the poison in tinned meats is, and where it comes from. There is a popular notion, which is a very great fallacy, that the poison is derived from the tins, and that therefore there is no danger in meats preserved in jars or barrels. This is a great mistake, for although tinned goods do sometimes become contaminated with the metal of the tins, this is only very seldom the case. When the poison is derived from the tins, as it was in some cases of poisoning from tinned cherries, death is not very common. Whence comes the poison, of which we all read cases, of whole families being killed from partaking from a tin of salmon or sardines? It is developed in the food itself. This is not a case of organic matter going bad from decay. Articles sealed up in airtight tins will never undergo putrefaction. This development of poisons in tinned meats is a totally different phenomenon from putrefaction. It appears that if organic substances are kept for a long time, whether in the air or in airtight cases, extraordinary and little-understood changes occur in their composition, whereby, amongst other things, are developed definite chemical compounds known as "animal alkaloids." These are the poisonous agents in tinned goods. These alkaloids are allied, chemically, to strychnine, morphine, etc., but some of them are immeasurably more poisonous than any known vegetable or mineral production. A quantity of one of these alkaloids (occasionally found in tinned sardines), which is so small as to be almost impossible to demonstrate, has killed a whole family in twenty-four hours. Bottled fruits occasionally become poisoned by the use of preservatives such as boracic or salicylic acid.
M. H. B.—Yours is a history which has been only too common after influenza. You would probably derive benefit from a change of air. We should advise a short stay at the north or east coast of Kent. Margate would perhaps be too severe for you, but we think that you could scarcely do better than go to Folkestone or its neighbourhood. The medicine that you are taking is about as good as any other for your trouble. Eat well.
A. E. Robinson.—It is of great importance to keep false teeth scrupulously clean, and it is the lack of this precaution which is the cause of most of the troubles due to false teeth. The artificial palate is perhaps more difficult to keep clean when made of vulcanite than when made of metal, but otherwise one substance is as good as the other. You should never sleep with your false teeth in your mouth. We have lately heard of a lady who was suffocated from her false teeth having slipped out of place during sleep. False teeth should be taken out every evening and placed in water, or, better still, solution of boracic acid, through the night. They should be carefully cleaned every night. Some people leave their false teeth in their mouths for weeks at a time. Particles of food get between the false palate and the roof of the mouth, decompose, and cause very many unpleasant, and sometimes serious results.
Beattie.—1. We cannot tell you the cause of your complaint. It is probably a slight error of development.—2. Certainly there is no reason why you should not marry a man who has got a stiff hip from rheumatism.
Daisy.—See the answer to "Maud" in the May Part of The Girl's Own Paper.
Ivy.—1. Yes: scurf on the head is seborrhœa. You should wash your head every week in borax and warm water, and apply the sulphur ointment afterwards to the roots of the hair only. This condition of seborrhœa is most difficult to eradicate. As a rule, the best that can be done by treatment is to keep it in check and prevent it from spreading to the face.—2. Cocaine will remove most of the pain of having a tooth extracted.