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TALKS CN HEALTH.-AI

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TALKS CN HEALTH. -A I Dy A FAMILY DOCTOB. I I FIND THE CAUSE. < I have often fo toll my patients that it is useless to attempt to treat a symptom un- less I firit understand its real cause and origin. He v.* can I treat a of lameness unless I kuov w hether the lameness is due to tubercular disease of the hip or water on the knee or u nail in the I cannot advise you en the treatment of headache un- less. I arr: first informed of the cause of the headache. How foolish it would be to at- tempt to cure the headache by a powder when, all that wsn needed was a proper pair Ot fijj't'L tiC ICS • THE EVIL DRUG-HABIT. I People oft-en v.-rite and ask me what drug to take for sleeplessness. Nothing will induce me to suggest drugs for this complaint. I have no sympathy at ali with the drug-habit. Without any recommenda- tion from a doctor, people buy a packet of digestive tablets, a bottle of liver pills, n, box of tonic powders, a phial of patent corpse-revivers to cure anything and every- thing, and, last and worst, they buy a pocketful of ltpi:1g p0lY:.>,s. ,yay with them all. To my dying day will I pro- them a-l. To my dying dny will I pro- test against this pernicious habit of buying un the cont?nt? of a dru?-shop and empty- ing them int.o your stomachs. When you tell mt' you are sleepless you tell me noth- ing. i must inquire into the cause. i'ou are mistaken if you think a doctor has a book on his shelf giving him the name of the complaint in o"o column and the suitable drug in a. parallel column. ar work is not cut and dried. That is the interest of mv Digression. Having heard that you are sleepless, I try to find out the cause. A number of eases are explained by indiges- tion. Sleep may be disturbed by the pre- sence in the stomach of a mass of undigested food. o THE TREATMENT. I Is the treatment a sleep-powder? Go on with vOcl The treatment is to recommend moderation in t.he quantity of food takca- most of us eat k-o much—to insist on good cooking and stow mastication; to suggest that tiie last meal should not be taken so late in the evening; to avoid indigestible food Ziril-IL st-,(--ng tea to ak the patient to give up cc-ffee at night and smoke fewer cic-arettes. Sleeplessness can oft-cn be cured by attention to the digestive organs. In other cases the insomnia is due to an oppo- site cause. Instead of tnestoma.ch being overloaded, it may he too empty. In such examples the eating of a it is cften all that is needed. _0:- TOO MUCH MEAT. I If I were to offer a general criticism of the average diet of the ordinary individual be- fore the war, I should say that the prevail- ing fault was that of eating too much meat. EsDeciallv did this apply to elderly people who were beginning to give up some of their ph" ysical activities. The older we get the leso do our bodies require to keep them going. Compare the activities of the rol- licking grandchild of eight years old who is on the jump all day long, and the iu- activity cf the old grandfather sitting quietly in his chair and only walking a short distance each day. The active, jump- in7, crrowinc child really neeas more than theofd frame of the grandfather. WHY BE FAT? I Unfortunately, the older a man gets the more does he-ic-, wedded to the plea- sures of the table. The food absorbed by his digestive organs is not needed; it can- not be used up In doing useful work, and it is stored un as rounds and pounds of use- less. cumbersome fat. \Vhy carry three stone of fat around with you? You weigh thirteen stone, and you be happier if ycu were only ten or fjjven. Most cf 11., used to eat too much, and all of us ate too much strong meat. The kindly fruits of the earth, the groeh. vegetables, the cereals, dairv food a £ d eggs were not given their proper place. It was meat, meat all day long. Public dinners, given by the Mayor and Corporation in tho-c- pre-war days, were pagan orgies. I shall not allow them Seven courses of meat are quite inadmis- sible at any rate, do not ask a blessing on s-ach a meal" as that. The only man blessed is the dcctor. THE FARMER AND THE CLERK. .l. u. .U.t" 1:11:. L Of course, a great deal depends on the sort of life you lead. A country fa.rmer driving over his lands in all sorts of weather in an open cart needs a different diet from a clerk who site in a stuffy office all day long and can only dream of fresh air and green fields. The farnier can do with more strong meat than the clerk. But in towns and cities i am sure we have all been accus- tomed to eating too much meat, and have suffered for it in many wa,ys. It is the duty of the kidneys to examine the blood that comes from the digestive organs and throw out what is useless. In a heavy meat diet the bic-od is over-loaded with products that have to be cast out, and the kidneys, after a number of veers of this bad treatment, begin to feel the strain. -:0:- TUBERCULOSIS FROM ANIMALS. For the part few years some doubt has been cast on the possibility of human beings catehing tuberculosis from animals. Some j observers thought that the tuberculosis -that I animals, cows, for instance-suff-ered fro:n was of a different nature altogether from tuberculosis of men. Thid view tended to make us rather less careful in the examina- tion of cows and their milk, for it was argued that even if there were any organ- isms of this disease in the milk they could not do any harm. A few years ago a Com-- mis-ion was appointed to inquire into the matter, and their report was decisive men can catch con3umption from animals. BOIL YOUR MILK. This establishes a most important fact. In the treatment of all children suffering from wasting from any cause, milk is always ordered; and. ir.-ieed, if the child is per- fectly healthy, milk should form the basis of the dietary. So arc- in rather a fix; we are constantly ordering raiik, and yet the milk is a common source of the infection I h of consumption- The most frequent situa- tion for consumption is the apex of the lung, because the germs é re inhaled from the air. But in the case of milk infection, the com- monest site is the bowels, because the- germs arc carried right down to the intestines. This is the recson why c nsumption of the bowels. is so comm .a children. Milk is not the only cource, tnough it is a very cammon Now we have to redouble our precautions, and h?-c- the co? inspected and the v.-h? in.-hoj o: mak supply in- quired into. Meanwhile bruyour mille

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