MEDICAL.
Eileen.—Your troubles maybe due to any number of causes. The great number of symptoms having but little connection with each other, which you describe, strongly suggest that a large part, if not the whole, of your trouble is due to nervousness. There is a disease which, from the number and complexity of its symptoms, is called the protean disease, or, in common parlance, hysteria. This affection varies from the slightest forms of nervousness to absolute mental and physical perversion. It is in the slighter grades of this affection that you will find your own malady. Whether there is anything else besides this the matter with you is impossible for us to tell. It has been our experience that cocoa is quite as indigestible as tea or coffee, though it produces a form of indigestion differing considerably from that produced by tea. Drink nothing but warm milk, and take a liberal diet of easily-digestible food.
Priscilla.—Trichinosis is a very rare disease produced by eating underdone pork. One of the tapeworms (Tænia solium) is far more commonly obtained from the same cause. Both diseases are uncommon in England, for the English eat little pork, and always cook it well first. There is no danger of either disease from eating well-done pork. Where pork is eaten raw—as it is in some hams and sausages—the danger of tapeworms and trichinosis is very considerable; but it must always be remembered that sound meat cannot produce either disease.
Indigestion.—You are on the right track to treat indigestion, but you have made one or two errors. You should not drink “plenty of water.” The less water you drink the sooner you will be well again. You must not take anything to digest your meals for you. Of course you are referring to pepsin, etc. These may be taken by dyspeptics only when they are incurable or gradually starving to death. Dyspeptics are rendered worse by their use in the long run. You must relieve your constipation. A teaspoonful of liquorice powder will do this very well. Six miles daily is quite sufficient exercise.
Anxious.—If you suffer from flatulence you must attend very carefully to your digestion and guard against constipation. The pain of wind may often be relieved by taking half a teaspoonful of spirit of ginger or compound tincture of cardamom in a little water.
In Need of Advice.—Nothing save the surgeon's knife will remove moles from the face without great danger. The operation for removing moles is practically free from danger; but it is not always advisable. The best way to remove the hair which grows upon moles is to shave it off or bleach it with peroxide of hydrogen. Electrolysis is sometimes used to destroy hairs on moles, but it is infinitely inferior to, and more dangerous than, excision of the whole mole. Moles very rarely grow quickly; indeed, usually they grow less rapidly than does their bearer. If you have a mole which suddenly begins to grow rapidly, go to a surgeon at once, for in all probability it has altered its character and become a serious disease.
Brunette.—Dandruff and falling hair are usually present together, for the former is one of the commonest causes of the latter. Wash your head once a week in warm water and borax (one teaspoonful of borax to a pint of water). Wash the scalp particularly well, and thoroughly dry both the scalp and the hair afterwards. When the hair is quite dry, rub a very little sulphur ointment into the scalp. It is no good applying this to the hair itself. It is the scalp and hair-roots which need the ointment. Use a hair-wash of cantharides and rosemary.
Iris.—1. If you use peroxide of hydrogen to bleach your hands, do not put it in the water you wash in. Get from your chemist “hydrogen peroxide 10 vols.” Dilute this with three parts of water, and dip your hands in the solution once a day. This can do you no harm. Whether it will do what you want it to do is another question. Sometimes it serves its purpose; usually it fails.—2. Orris-root is the root of the iris, and not of the violet as is so commonly thought.
M. O.—You suffer from the double complaint of indigestion and feeble circulation. You must be very careful what you eat, avoid excess of starchy foods, sugar, alcohol, tea, coffee, and cocoa. But take a good nourishing diet. The pills will do you good; but you must be very careful to guard against constipation. Take a fair amount of exercise. Take a small dose of bicarbonate of soda when you are troubled with fulness after meals.
An Old Reader.—We think it quite improbable that your brother will derive any benefit from smoking. In fact, we think that it will simply make him worse.
Emily.—It is very difficult for us to advise you what to do, for the information that you give us is too scanty to enable us to form a just idea of your condition. You should have told us your age, and occupation, and habits of life, for it is necessary to know these before treating any complaint. The stiffness in your arms may be due to rheumatism or it may not. You might try gentle massage and friction with camphor or soap liniment over the joints of your arms. For your other troubles we cannot help you without information as to what they are and how they originated.
Gladys.—The chief causes of somnolence are overwork, insufficient sleep, underfeeding, overfeeding, indigestion, anæmia and other forms of physical weakness; and lastly hysteria and nervous exhaustion. From which of these are you suffering? Seven and a half hours' sleep daily is sufficient; but, if you could, we advise you to give yourself another hour. Do you eat properly? Do you eat sufficient, or do you eat inordinately? Do you have indigestion or fulness after meals? All these make you feel sleepy. Are you in any way unwell? Do you feel the cold severely, or have any symptom which would suggest that your circulation was not what it should be? Are you at all nervous, or do you belong to a nervous family? This last more commonly causes wakefulness than sleepiness. Lastly, are you worse in the morning or the evening? If you are all right in the morning, but tire and get sleepy as the day wears on, then we must look for a physical cause of your trouble. If you are worse in the morning than you are later in the day, then the cause is probably nervous. To cure yourself of your trouble you must find out and remove the cause. Take an extra hour's sleep if you can manage it. Look carefully to your digestion; many forms of dyspepsia give rise to scarcely any symptoms except sleepiness.
Alice.—Read the advice we gave to “Anxious.” You must be very careful about your digestion, and take the minimum amount of fluid that you can. Let your diet be as solid but as digestible as possible.
Sufferer.—You had far better see a physician, for you may be seriously ill, and it is quite beyond our power to help you. As regards hot-bottles, they should never be filled with boiling water, and should always be provided with jackets or wrapped in flannel. You are not the only person whose legs have been burnt through ignorance of the proper use of hot-bottles.