Mona.—Have the tooth removed. Teeth growing out of place are quite useless, and are ugly and uncomfortable. No. The condition is not at all uncommon.
Anxious Mother.—The question of the causation of tuberculosis by milk is the most important question in modern preventive medicine; for not only is tuberculosis the most common and most fatal disease of man, but milk is the staple food of infancy and sickness—the two states in which we are most prone to harbour germs of this terrible malady. To the public mind tuberculosis is synonymous with consumption of the lungs, but this is only one of its manifestations. Brain fever (tuberculosis of the brain) is a common and invariably fatal disease. The joint troubles known as “white swelling,” “hip disease,” and very many others are due to tuberculosis. The so-called “scrofulous” glands, which disfigure and undermine the health of so many of our children, are due to tuberculosis. The worst and most fatal form of diarrhœa is due to tuberculosis of the bowels. No organ in the body is exempt from the ravages of this disease. We look with righteous horror at the plague, or the various fevers which occasionally decimate our towns and villages, but these are as nothing when compared with the ravages of tuberculosis. Unlike the fevers which destroy life in a few days, tuberculosis usually takes months, often years, to kill its victims. Slowly, but surely, this terrible malady eats away the human organs till the unfortunate sufferers die of exhaustion, or from an intercurrent malady. To say that medical science can always cure tuberculosis would be very far from the truth, but it can and does rescue millions of sufferers from the disease. And it can, and in the future it will, do much to prevent the disease from gaining an entrance to the body. The disease is caused by a microbe, an infinitesimal atom of jelly, which cannot even move; but it can, and does, multiply by splitting in two, at an incredible rate. As regards the prevention of this scourge, the first question we must consider is, where does this dreadful organism come from? Suffice it for your question that the organism is frequently found in milk. True, it is only in the milk of tubercular animals that these organisms are found, but it is not always possible to tell whether a cow has tuberculosis. And so, notwithstanding every precaution, tubercular milk does get into your milk-jug and that can scarcely be prevented; but you can prevent the organisms from finding their way into you or your child’s body by the simple expedient of boiling the milk. If you boil milk it cannot give you tuberculosis. Now, we dare say you think that we might have said this at once, and not wasted half a column of valuable space in detailing the horrors of tuberculosis. Had we done this you would probably not have paid any attention to our warning. It is only by forcible illustration that we can impress the mind with the immense value of attention to trifling details. And the importance of this detail may be gauged when we aver that a law to enforce persons boiling their milk would probably save more lives than the invention of ships which could not possibly be injured by wind or weather, or of railway trains which could not collide.
STUDY AND STUDIO.
D. E. N. S.—1. We cannot tell you of any French lady who would exchange correspondence lessons with you. But why not insert your name in our “International Correspondence” column?—2. Mudie’s Library, or Smith’s, extend their operations to country districts. For light reading, you might try one of these.
Laurel.—We have read your letter with great sympathy. We cannot give a direct “yes” or “no” to your question, as so much depends on the individual habit of mind. Would you not like to read a good translation (e.g., Longfellow’s) of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” on Sunday? We certainly think you should employ your scanty leisure to the best advantage; but there are many great poets who are so spiritual in tone, that there could be no doubt as to the fitness of studying them on this day.
Semper Idem.—1. You do not give us your address, but there are plenty of classes in London for type-writing; address The Secretary, Board of Technical Instruction, St. Martin’s Lane, W.C. The art appears to be very quickly learned as a rule.—2. Your quotation,
“Boys, flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds,
You can’t do that way when you’re flying words,”
is from “The First Settler’s Story” in Will Carleton’s Farm Ballads.
Edwin C. R. Langley.—Many thanks for your kind suggestion. We remembered Longfellow’s mention of St. Augustine; but Tennyson, though his thought is similar, does not mean St. Augustine, or even Longfellow by