(To be continued.)
[ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.]
MEDICAL.
Percy.—You could do no harm by putting a few drops of tincture of benzoin into the water in which you wash your face, but we much doubt whether it would do any good. You must attend to your digestion and always wear a veil when you go out. A little glycerine and rose water applied to the face may relieve the burning.
Enid.—Individuals differ greatly in the amount that they perspire. Some persons seem scarcely to perspire at all, while others get wet through from any trifling exertion. As a rule fat persons perspire more than thinner ones, and in them it is salutary, as it reduces their fat. Excessive sweating is often hereditary, as, indeed, it seems to be in your case. You may not attempt to check perspiration too much, for the sweat is an excretion by the skin from the blood—it is one of the methods by which the blood gets rid of its impurities. The best known, and one of the most satisfactory preparations for limiting the perspiration from the face and hands, is toilet vinegar. Persons who perspire profusely should wear woollen undergarments and change them frequently.
Giddy Girl.—Giddiness or vertigo is a symptom met with in very many complaints. In biliousness, acute indigestion and occasionally in chronic indigestion, giddiness is not uncommon. In certain diseases of the ears giddiness is usually present in a very aggravated form. It occasionally occurs from wax in the ears, and is not at all uncommon while the ears are being syringed. Then there is the vertigo associated with errors of sight—a common, but often overlooked variety. And there is the true brain vertigo—a common symptom of disease of the nervous system. In anæmia, and one or two diseases of the heart, giddiness is common—due to the brain not being sufficiently supplied with blood. Here you have the cause of vertigo in a nutshell. To tell which of them is causing your giddiness, with nothing whatever to guide us to a conclusion, is quite impossible.
Foolish.—The pseudonym you have chosen is very appropriate. You are exceedingly foolish to take drugs of which you know nothing; but it is worse than foolish, it is criminal. You look with horror upon a man who is a chronic drunkard. You consider it is a very great crime to drink more alcohol than is necessary; is it not an equally serious crime to take more drugs than are necessary? You object to this because alcohol deprives you of reason, whereas the drug you take does not. But you are wrong; the drug you are taking does interfere with the mind. It is worse than alcohol in many ways. To take a drug which is unnecessary is wrong; but the drug you take, cocaine, is one of the most fatal of all to take habitually. You are killing yourself by it. All persons who acquire the cocaine habit die from it, unless they stop their pernicious habit very soon. If you wish to save your life you must abandon your habit without delay. As we said before, to take cocaine is worse than to get drunk—it is more injurious to the body, more fatal to the mind, and more destructive to morality. But where did you get the cocaine? Chemists are forbidden to give poisons to silly girls.
Aged 50.—At your time of life club-foot cannot be cured by operation or otherwise. If the foot is more trouble than good, you can have it removed; there is nothing else that can be done.
Maid of Astolat.—Yes; by all means continue with the treatment. It often takes a long time to completely eradicate acne.