And she kept her word.
R. S. C.
[ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.]
MEDICAL.
Distressed.—Your letter is so well worded, and the description you give us is so concise, that we have little difficulty in telling you what is the cause of your flushings. It is indigestion caused by working too soon after meals. Here is some advice. You say, “I have breakfast from milk and porridge at a quarter to 8 A.M. Then I go by train to school which I reach at 8.30 A.M.” Three-quarters of an hour between sitting down to breakfast and being in the schoolroom! It is not enough. Could not you manage to have your breakfast a little earlier, and to sit down quietly for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes before leaving to catch your train? As regards your breakfast, though a very nutritious one, it is not over easily digested, and we suggest that while you are troubled with flushings, you should take bread and milk instead of porridge. And with your other meals observe the same precaution of resting a little after each, and also, if you can manage it, take your walk before instead of after lunch. Last, but not least important, look to the state of your teeth.
Josephine.—We have published many answers on chronic catarrh of the nose. It is an exceedingly common affection and one which often causes great discomfort. The reason why people with this complaint can breathe through their noses during the day, but cannot do so at night, is that the upright position prevents the blood from stagnating, whereas in the recumbent posture the mucous membrane of the nose becomes congested and obstructs the passage. Cold in the head is acute catarrh of the nose, and bronchitis is acute catarrh of the air tubes, so it is easy to see why a cough so commonly follows a cold. Acute catarrh very commonly develops during the course of a chronic catarrh, so all your troubles are easily accounted for. Now as to treatment. Get the following powder made up for you:—chlorate of potassium, borax and bicarbonate of sodium, of each one part, and powdered white sugar two parts. Make a lotion by dissolving one teaspoonful of this powder in half a tumblerful of tepid water, and use it three times a day for syringing out your nose. Afterwards apply a solution of menthol, one part, in paroleine, eight parts, to the inside of the nose with an atomiser or spray.
Galva.—That electricity has proved of great use in the treatment of disease is unquestionable, though it is quite as certain that it has opened a way to quacks and other swindlers of fleecing invalids and others, and in this way it has proved a great enemy to medicine. As regards its uses in medicine, it has given us the electro-cautery, electrolysis, the portable electric light—a most valuable addition to our consulting-rooms—and it has given us the electric currents so much used in the treatment of nervous diseases. No person should start practising on herself with the electric current. Useful as this agent is in some cases, it requires very careful judgment in its use. Each case requires a different strength of current and a different length of time of application from any other. The indiscriminate use of electricity can do great harm. As regards the abuses of electricity—the quack apparatus by which the unsuspecting public is “gulled”—we might occupy the whole volume in discussing it. It requires a large current to pierce the human skin and so have any effect upon the muscles or nerves. An electric current which will light a small incandescent lamp will have not the slightest effect upon a man holding the wires in his hands. The “electropathic belts,” rings, stockings, boots, hats, ties, stays, etc., etc., either produce no electric current at all, or else they give so little electricity that it avails nothing. To take a concrete example:—if it requires a strength of current corresponding to the size of our earth in magnitude to pierce the human skin and be felt by the patient, the strength of current given out by an electric belt would be compared with a grain of sand in magnitude. That is, the current is many thousands of times too weak to be of any good.
Minerva.—There is no safe method by which you can make your eyes glisten. Some foolish actresses put atropine (belladonna) into their eyes to brighten them. Belladonna dilates the pupil widely, thus giving the eyes a very brilliant appearance, but it is an exceedingly injurious thing for several reasons. The drug paralyses the muscles of the eyes which enable us to see near objects. The widely-dilated pupils will not contract in the presence of a bright light. This is exceedingly painful, causing headache and delirium, and the effects upon the eyes of putting belladonna into them last for over a week. Lastly, and most important, atropine is a deadly poison—it is one of the most poisonous drugs known. It is therefore exceedingly unsafe to use. So poisonous is it that some deaths have occurred from dropping one drop of the solution of atropine, i.e., one-hundredth of a grain of the drug, into the eyes for cosmetic purposes. Fortunately you would find great difficulty in obtaining the drug, but it is inconceivable to us how you could be sufficiently foolish to wish to use it.