MEDICAL.
A New Correspondent.—1. Take a lukewarm bath every day. Where you perspire most profusely sponge the parts over with toilet vinegar and water. A very good way to check excessive sweating, especially if it is offensive, is to dust the inside of your gloves, stockings and sleeves with a powder consisting of ninety-nine parts of silica and one part of salicylic acid, finely powdered. Wash your feet and hands every night in warm boracic acid solution (two teaspoonfuls of boracic acid to the quart of water). Change your linen frequently during hot weather.—2. The voice of the girl does not alter so much as does that of the boy. It also "forms" more gradually, and there is rarely or never a distinct "cracking" of the voice of the girl like that which usually occurs in the boy. At nineteen years of age the speaking voice is fully formed, but the singing voice may go on improving till thirty or even later.
Daisy.—Anything which disturbs the health will cause a dark sallow complexion and dark rings round the eyes. Defective hygienic surroundings, lack of exercise or sufficient nourishment, overwork, or indeed anything which interferes with perfect health will cause a sallow complexion. The way to improve your complexion is to take plenty of exercise, eat well, and pay attention to the general laws of health. Cosmetics and other applications would make your face worse.
Daughter.—Your mother suffers from hay fever. Let her follow the advice we gave to Josephine last week. If this proves successful so much the better. But hay fever is a ticklish thing to treat, and but rarely does the first treatment tried effect a cure. Snuffs of various kinds are often used for this ailment. We have seen better results from snuffs containing menthol or aristol than from others. Very often a trivial surgical manœuvre, such as destroying a sensitive spot with a prick of the electric needle will permanently cure hay fever. Sometimes nothing seems to do any good. Hay fever is thought by some people to result from the pollen of flowers irritating the mucous membrane of the nose. This may be a cause in some cases, but it cannot be invariably the rule. As a matter of fact a large number of totally dissimilar affections are lumped together and called "hay fever," and so it is not difficult to see why the same treatment will not be of avail to every sufferer from this complaint.
Pussy.—Can indigestion be cured at home? Of course it can. Better at home than anywhere else. The person who told you that indigestion could not be cured without sea air is not a reliable authority. Attention to diet is everything in indigestion. Last year in The Girl's Own Paper we published two articles on indigestion. Let your friend read these, and also the answers to correspondents which deal with the subject of indigestion. We seem to be always discussing indigestion, nervousness or face spots. She must not eat apples either raw or cooked. She may relieve her constipation if necessary with a little liquorice powder or a teaspoonful of cascara sagrada. If your friend reads what we have advised, she will find all she needs to cure herself of indigestion.
Stavesacre.—We are thoroughly aware that this drug is used to destroy lice in the hair. It is not a drug which we would advise anyone to use. It is a violent poison, and in our experience it does not do what it is intended to do.
Mimosa.—1. It is hardly correct to say that "nearly every girl is anæmic." A great many girls do suffer from that malady, but "nearly every girl" is an exaggeration. We do not think that anæmia is on the increase, if you take into consideration the conditions under which girls live. Anæmia is always much more prevalent in cities than it is in small towns and villages. Consequently, as our towns grow larger, a greater number of girls get anæmia. In London we think that anæmia is slightly less common than it was formerly.—2. In severe anæmia the legs very often do swell. In the slighter grades of the affection they only swell after severe exertion.
Fond Mother.—There are few places in the world more deadly to Europeans than the Gold Coast. If you can possibly prevent your son from going to such an unhealthy place we strongly advise you to do so. Very few Europeans who have set foot upon "The White Man's Grave" recover their health when they return home. And it is but a small number that ever do return.
Pure Water.—You say that you have a porcelain filter. Do you mean a charcoal filter in a porcelain jar, that is, a cottage filter? or do you mean a filter in which the water is forced through porcelain? The latter kind of filter is thoroughly efficient. The former kind is far worse than useless. The question of the use and abuse of filters has been considered by two commissions. The latest commission was held last year. It dealt chiefly with the value of the pocket filters used by British soldiers. The report was very condemnatory.