Health, Happiness, and Longevity Part 13

Numerous physicians attest to the value of this treatment.

=Marriage.=--The _Medical Record_ says the unpopularity of marriage in England continues unabated, and last year was the first in recent times in which, while the price of wheat fell, the marriage rate remained stationary. It is now 14.2 per 1,000. The decline in the popularity of matrimony is greatest with those who have already had some experience of wedded life. Between 1876 and 1888 the marriage rate fell 12 per cent for bachelors and spinsters, 27 per cent for widowers, 31 per cent for widows.

Another interesting fact is that the births have now reached the lowest rate recorded since civil registration began. In 1876 the rate was 36.3 per 1,000; it is now 30.6. This is very satisfactory, and it is also notable that the illegitimate birth-rate has declined, the proportion, 4.6 per cent, being the lowest yet registered. The worst feature in the Registrar-General's returns, however, is the fact that the male births had fallen in proportion to the female; in the last ten years 1,038 boys were born for every 1,000 girls, and last year the male preponderance had dropped by 5, and is now standing at 1,033 to 1,000.

M. Huth has recently published a valuable book on consanguinity. There is no lack of instances of enforced consanguinity, in the matter of marriage, in isolated communities, according to M. Huth, to disprove the a.s.sumption that physical degeneration is likely to result from the practice. An investigation into a number of unions between uncles and nieces, nephews and aunts, and cousins in the first and second degree, gives an average of children rather above than below the general average, though this is attributed to some extent to the comparatively early age at which such unions are generally contracted. Breeders inform us that the results are markedly in favor of consanguineous unions between healthy, well-bred animals. Unions between men or animals of widely different varieties, on the other hand, have a decidedly injurious effect on the offspring, and beyond a certain limit are almost absolutely sterile. Mulattoes and the half-breeds of India and America are striking examples of the deterioration to which such racial disparity gives rise. The great point to bear in mind is that the union of individuals with the same morbid tendencies intensifies the taint, and that, too, quite irrespective of any consanguinity. The moral, according to the author, is that the reasons which have led to the prohibition of marriages within certain degrees of relationship are social, and not physiological.

=Malaria (Chills and Fever).=--Mr. W. S. Green, editor of the _Weekly Colusa Sun_, of this State, has made careful investigations on the malaria question. We quote from his issue of May 12, 1888:--

"_Irrigation and Malaria._--At the irrigation convention held at Riverside in March, '84, a paper by W. S. Green was read on the subject of 'Irrigation on Health.' The writer took a new departure, and combated notions held for ages; that is, he held that however much the received notions of malaria might hold good as to other climates, they were not correct when applied to California, where the air was in motion pretty much all the while. Mr. Green received the highest indors.e.m.e.nt of his ideas, and they have come to be accepted as correct. His statement of facts has been verified by almost all observing men.

"_To the Pres. of the Irrigation Convention, Riverside, Cal._--

"Having taken great interest in the problem of irrigation for twenty years and over, I had intended to be present at your meeting, but at this date I find it will be impossible. If a man possesses a mite of knowledge or an idea on this great subject, it is his duty to give his co-workers the benefit of it.

"During a residence of thirty-four years in the Sacramento Valley, I have had time and opportunity to observe and to study its sanitary conditions, and these observations bear directly, I think, on the subject of the effect of irrigation on the health of a country. I am led by these observations to reject almost _in toto_ the long-accepted theory of infection by malaria from the atmosphere, that is, so far as it pertains to California. I will not consume your time with a technical dissertation, but will state some facts as briefly as possible, and in plain, homely phrase.

"When I saw people living all along the margins of the tules, where in summer the water became hot and stale and full of decaying vegetation, and hundreds of forms of animal life, and yet remain entirely free from malarial influence, I began to think there was some mistake in the accepted theory. I do not pretend to say that all the people living along the tule margins were or are healthy. All who occupy some places seem to be attacked by chills, while the occupants of places close by are never so attacked. Health is the rule. I saw that all these people, those on the healthy and those on the sickly places, must breathe the same air, coming to them from the same hot, stagnant water and decaying vegetation, and I concluded that malaria was not in the air. But I investigated further.

"There are clay, or, as some call them, hardpan banks to the upper Sacramento River, which are from a quarter of a mile to a mile apart.

The river, for some very indefinite number of centuries, has vibrated between these banks--washing in on one side and filling in on the other.

There is, then, an old or clay formation and a newer or alluvial formation; of course, there is alluvium on top of the clay, but this is not to our purpose. When I first saw the valley in 1850, this new land, some of it as high as the old, was covered with pea vines, blackberry vines, and a dense undergrowth generally, while the other grew wild oats and was usually as open as our wheat-fields. I began to notice that those people who built their houses and _dug their wells_ on a newer formation generally had chills, while the others, as a rule, had not.

Sometimes these sickly and healthy places would be but a few feet apart.

They breathed the same air, but they _did not drink the same water_. I began to conclude that these people, both along the river and around the margins of the tules, drank the germ of disease and did not breathe it, and I continued my observations.

"The town of Colusa is built upon the old, or clay formation, and the people are entirely free from the so-called malarial influence. They are almost entirely free from chills, typhoid fevers, diphtheria, etc., but just at the lower end of the town there is evidence that the river at one time ran almost at right angles with its present course, and while the land is just as high, and very large oaks grew upon it, showing the formation to be very old--the span of human life taken as a measure--yet in digging and boring wells, as well as by the indigenous growth, the very great difference in the age of the formation was apparent. Upon this new formation an extension to the town was located, and among other buildings the county hospital was placed there. The patients and employes of the hospital all had chills for several years, until the physician-in-charge, Dr. W. H. Belton, noticed that the people generally who used water from wells on this newly-made land had chills, while the others had not, and caused pipes from the town waterworks, into which river water was pumped, to be laid to the hospital. There was an _immediate_ change. At the commencement of the use of river water, there were some forty persons in the hospital, all with chills, but since the building has been almost entirely free from it. There could be no more conclusive evidence that these people _drank_ the germ of the disease and _did not breathe it_.

"It is claimed that after a wet season there is more malaria in the air, and that hence people are more subject to disease. I have investigated this, and my observations, extended over a number of years, have convinced me that the water in the wells is simply raised to a newer stratum, one not thoroughly washed, as it were, and that people drink the germ of disease, and do not breathe it.

"My conclusions are, therefore, that irrigation will tend to bring on malarial disorders, as it raises the water in wells to a newer stratum of earth, but no further. When we irrigate so as to produce this effect we must _go down_ after pure drinking water, or bring it to our houses in pipes. The effect of disorders thus brought about is easily remedied.

"I do not wish to be understood as maintaining that there may be no such thing as poison in the atmosphere. In some localities, where the air is not in motion every day, as it is here, the air, like standing water, may become stagnant. I know of some hotels in this valley totally void of drainage, and where the acc.u.mulated filth of a quarter of a century stands in the yards in cess-pools. In some countries this would kill ninety out of a hundred people who would stop in them a week, but here we feel no inconvenience from it, except in so far that the water may become impregnated. Air in motion, like water in motion, purifies itself, and hence I have come to the rejection of the theory of malaria in the air."

Of our own remedies we feel very proud because they are sure to kill chills and fever. There are two:--

_First:_ Take the proportions of one (1) of sulphur to two (2) of gin, or 4 fluidounces of gin to 2 of sulphur. Let it stand overnight. For an adult take one teaspoonful of this mixture in a little water from 15 to 30 minutes before the attack. Remain in bed in a room warmed to 90 Fahr., for from 6 to 10 hours. This has not been known to fail.

_Second:_ This requires much care and judgment. Take a whole nutmeg finely grated, and its equal quant.i.ty of pulverized alum, thoroughly mix them, and take at one dose; the _time_ to take it has everything to do with its effect. It must be taken between 10 and 17 minutes before the shake is due to come on. Go to bed immediately, using double the usual amount of bedclothes, remain there from 1-1/2 to 3 hours, and both chills and fever will permanently depart. If the medicine is taken too soon (say 30 minutes before the shake), the attack will be more severe; if taken immediately after the shake it will increase the fever; in either case the dose will have to be repeated to effect a cure. This latter treatment completely cured the author.

=Nervousness and Worry.=--One meets few unworried people. Most faces bear lines of care. Men go anxious to their day's duties, rush through the hours with feverish speed, and bring hot brain and tumultuous pulse home at night for restless, unrefreshing sleep. This is not only a most unsatisfactory, but is also a most costly, mode of living. The other night the train lost two hours in running less than a hundred miles. "We have a hot box," was the polite conductor's reply to some impatient pa.s.sengers who begged to know the cause of the long delays at stations.

This hot-box trouble is not altogether unknown in human life. There are many people who move swiftly enough and with sufficient energy, but who grow feverish and are thus impeded in their progress. A great many failures in life must be charged to worrying. When a man worries he is impeded in several ways. For one thing he loses his head. He cannot think clearly. His brain is feverish, and will not act at its best. His mind becomes confused, and his decisions are not to be depended upon.

The result is that a worried man never does his work as well as he should do it, or as he could do it if he were free from worry. He is apt to make mistakes. Marks of feverishness are sure to be seen somewhere in whatever he does. Remedy: Keep cool, think three times before you act once.

=Obesity and Thinness.=--To increase the weight; Eat, to the extent of satisfying a natural appet.i.te, of fat meats, b.u.t.ter, cream, milk, cocoa, chocolate, bread, potatoes, peas, parsnips, carrots, beets, farinaceous food, or Indian corn, rice, tapioca, sago, corn-starch, pastry, custards, oatmeal, sugar, sweet wines, and ale. Avoid acids. Exercise as little as possible, sleep all you can, and don't worry or fret. To reduce the weight: Eat, to the extent of satisfying a natural appet.i.te, of lean meat, poultry, game, eggs, milk moderately, green vegetables, turnips, succulent fruits, tea or coffee. Drink lime juice, lemonade, and acid drinks. Avoid fat, b.u.t.ter, cream, sugar, pastry, rice, sago, tapioca, corn-starch, potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, and sweet wines. Exercise freely.

=Piles.=--When piles become painful, whether they protrude or not, the patient should take a warm hip-bath and remain in until the pain ceases, extra precaution being taken for cleanliness, using pure white castile soap with the hip-bath. A careful diet of farinaceous and other easily-digested food, and regularity in going to stool, will suffice to cure the majority of cases. If the piles are bleeding, apply a salve of opium and nut-gall; if itching, a drop of oil of cade will give relief.

Linseed oil, applied to the piles, is said to be an effective remedy. In severe cases of piles great relief is afforded by the use of suppositories made after the following formula: 2 grains sulphate morphina, 2 grains extract belladonna, 1 scruple tannin.

The above mixed with a sufficient quant.i.ty of cocoa b.u.t.ter to make twelve suppositories of one-half ounce each; one to be used every night on retiring.

=Poisons.=--Poisons may be cla.s.sified under two distinct heads--_mineral_ and _vegetable_. _Mineral poisons_ are irritating and corrosive in their action. They produce a metallic taste in the mouth, burning pains in the throat, stomach, and bowels, and, often, violent retching and b.l.o.o.d.y vomiting, purging, cramps, cold sweats, and great depression. _Vegetable poisons_ are chiefly narcotics, and many of them are as virulent as any in the mineral kingdom. They cause giddiness, drowsiness, stupor, insensibility or delirium, and oppressed breathing.

_General Directions._--First and instantly dilute the poison with large draughts of warm water, either clear, or, if the particular poison is known, containing the proper antidote. This will usually cause vomiting, which is to be desired. If vomiting does not soon occur, excite it.

Protect as much as possible the lining membrane of the stomach and bowels from contact with the poison by large and frequent doses of sweet-oil, mucilage of gum arabic, flaxseed tea, milk, etc. Melted cosmoline, vaseline, b.u.t.ter, or lard will serve for this purpose. Keep up the temperature by means of warm blankets, hot bottles, etc.; and if there are marked evidences of sinking, such as a failure of the pulse, or very feeble, gasping respiration, give a little stimulus, preferably by injection into the bowels. In the case of an adult, a tablespoonful of brandy, whisky or gin, with an equal quant.i.ty of water, may be administered in this manner every five or ten minutes, until reaction sets in--that is, until the face regains its color, the pulse becomes stronger, and the breathing natural.

A general antidote for all cases of poisoning, where the nature of the poison is unknown, is a mixture of carbonate of magnesia, powdered charcoal, and hydrated sesquioxide of iron, equal parts, in water.

POISONS--MINERAL. _Acids.--Muriatic_ (spirit of salt), _nitric_ (aqua fortis), _sulphuric_ (oil of vitriol), _oxalic_, _nitro-muriatic_, etc.

Nitric and sulphuric acids are sometimes used for the removal of warts; oxalic acid is often employed for taking out iron or ink stains; muriatic and nitro-muriatic acids are frequently prescribed medicinally.

As soon as a poisonous dose has been swallowed, seek for something which will neutralize the acid. Powdered chalk, whiting, magnesia, or lime sc.r.a.ped from a wall and stirred in water, may be given in any of these cases. For sulphuric or muriatic acid also administer soap-suds, sweet milk, common soap cut into small pieces, baking or washing soda, or saleratus, giving these latter in very small quant.i.ties at a time, so as not to produce dangerous distension of the stomach, from the evolution of gas. In the case of sulphuric acid, water must not be used freely at first, at least not unless it contains some antidote, as the heat produced, when this acid and water are mixed, is sufficient of itself to cause serious damage.

_Ammonia, and other alkalies (Caustic Potash, Soda or Lime)._--Antidotes: Vinegar, lemon juice, or a weak solution of tartaric acid, to be followed immediately with sweet-oil or mucilage of gum arabic, and an emetic. Also give an injection of boiled starch. Pain may be relieved with laudanum, in doses of ten to fifteen drops, as the paroxysms occur.

_Antimony (b.u.t.ter of Antimony, Tartar Emetic)._--Encourage vomiting. The antidotes are milk, tea, tannic acid.

_a.r.s.enic, Ratsbane, Paris Green, Cobalt, and all a.r.s.enical preparations used as rat poisons._--Give the whites of five or six eggs, beaten in half a pint of water; or, flour and water, barley water, flaxseed tea, or magnesia. Also administer an emetic of five grains of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), or fifteen grains of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), ipecac, or mustard and water. After the vomiting, give hydrated sesquioxide of iron in tablespoon doses, every fifteen minutes, until danger is past. This is the best-known antidote for a.r.s.enic, and should be procured fresh from the drug store if possible.

_Chloral, Chloroform, Ether._--Cold water should be sprinkled over the face and applied to the head. If breathing is suspended, treat the patient for artificial respiration. The use of electricity is recommended.

_Corrosive Sublimate_ (Bedbug Poison), _Calomel_ (Mercury).--The whites of three or four eggs, beaten in water, should be given without delay.

If eggs are not at hand, flour or thin starch gruel, mucilage of gum arabic, or milk, will answer. An emetic should be taken immediately after the antidote has been administered.

_Iodine_ (used for external application).--If it has been swallowed, give a paste of starch, or flour and water.

_Lead, Salts of (Sugar of Lead, Lead Paint)._--After an emetic, administer as much Epsom salt, or Glauber's salt, as the patient can drink. Then give large quant.i.ties of milk and whites of eggs.

_Lunar Caustic, Nitrate of Silver._--Give a large teaspoonful of common salt, in a gla.s.s of water. Repeat the dose every ten minutes for an hour. Then give a dose of castor-oil, and let the patient drink freely of flaxseed tea, barley water, or sweet milk.

_Muriates of Tin and Zinc._--These poisons are sometimes found in canned goods--fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. They cause nausea, vomiting, sudden failure of the vital forces, and sometimes cramps and convulsions. Milk, the whites of eggs, strong tea, or tincture of Peruvian bark, should be given. After the violent symptoms have subsided, the patient should drink freely of flaxseed tea or barley water.

_Phosphorus, Matches._--Give large quant.i.ties of warm water containing calcined magnesia, chalk, or whiting.

_Prussic Acid._--Liquor of ammonia, in doses of ten drops to a tablespoonful of water, should be given every fifteen minutes, until the patient is out of danger. Also apply smelling salts to the nose, dash cold water in the face, and give stimulants.

_Verdigris._--Give sugar, milk, and whites of eggs in large quant.i.ties, then strong tea, but no acids of any kind.

Poisons--Vegetable. _Aconite._--Induce free vomiting, then give brandy or whisky every half hour until the dangerous symptoms are allayed.

_Alcohol, Spirits._--Give half a teaspoonful of aromatic spirits of ammonia in sweetened water every half hour. Bromide of pota.s.sa, in doses of fifteen to thirty grains, every two or three hours, will also be found useful.

_Cocaine_ is the alkaloid of the coca plant of South American origin. It is generally employed in the form of muriate of cocaine and princ.i.p.ally used as a local anaesthetic. It should only be used under the direction of a physician. It may occasion dangerous effects even in doses usually deemed safe. When it has been taken internally, the proper antidote is a powerful emetic followed by stimulants--such as liquor and spirits of ammonia--administered internally. When it has been used to a dangerous extent externally, give whisky or brandy and ammonia.

_Laudanum, Opium, Paregoric, Morphia, Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Stramonium, and Conium._--An emetic of mustard and water, twenty grains of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), or thirty grains of powdered ipecac, should be given. Strong coffee, brandy, or whisky should then be administered in large quant.i.ties, and the patient walked around the room. Slapping, pinching, dashing cold water in the face, and even whipping, may be necessary to keep the patient awake.

_Strychnine (Nux Vomica)._--Give an emetic of a solution of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), or a strong infusion of tobacco; or inject into the bowels bromide of pota.s.sium, thirty grains, and the extract of coca, one-half ounce. During the spasms, the patient should breathe chloroform or ether from a saturated cloth held to the nose and mouth.

_Toadstools (False Mushrooms) and other poisonous plants and seeds, such as are liable to be picked up and eaten by children._--Empty the stomach at once by an emetic you have at hand.

Coffee poisoning occurs mostly with well-to-do people--those who are overfed. Tea poisoning comes to hard-working, half-starved women. The symptoms of coffee poisoning are want of appet.i.te, sleeplessness, and nervous tremblings, with various indications of indigestion and torpor of liver. Tea poisoning requires rest and nourishment; but the victim of coffee excess usually needs to unload his system by exercise on a low diet.