Papers on Health | Page 4

meal, they should always accompany some form of proteid food.
If, however, pain in stomach is found after meal it will be found that
milk can be substituted with comfort. (See Diet). (See Food in Health).
If this does not cure, do not take soda as a remedy. Although soda
neutralises the sourness, it produces other effects, and tends to cause
disease of the stomach. A wineglassful of hot water, with a teaspoonful
of white vinegar in it, is the best cure. Although this is itself acid, it acts
so as to remove the cause of the sourness in the stomach, and is most
beneficial otherwise. It is still better to take a tablespoonful of this hot
water and vinegar every five minutes for an hour daily before dinner.
Instead of the vinegar, a slice of lemon may be put in the hot water.
This will act more efficiently in some cases. In other cases a
teaspoonful of Glauber's Salts, taken in a large tumblerful of hot water,
half-an-hour before breakfast, for a few weeks, will relieve almost
entirely.
Readers must note not to use both the salts and vinegar drink at once.
They are intended to cure different sorts of stomach acidity, caused
differently.
Look also well to the warming of COLD FEET (see), and see that the
whole skin be cleansed daily with soap lather (see Lather and Soap)
and stimulated with olive-oil rubbing.
Aconite.--Often in cases where our treatment fails to cure, the failure is
due to the patient taking aconite as an allopathic remedy. Used
homoeopathically, it may be harmless, but if taken in considerable

doses, even once a month, it prevents all cure. It gives relief in heart
palpitation, and in case of extreme sensibility, but its other poisonous
effects far outweigh the temporary benefits. A gentle, kindly soaping
with soap lather (see Lather and Soap) over all the body will relieve
extreme sensibility far better than aconite, and can be frequently
repeated without injury. Aconite must be avoided if our treatment is to
be effective.
Action, Balance of.--An excellent guide to the proper treatment of any
case is to be found in the distribution of heat in the patient's body. Hot
parts are to be cooled, and cold parts warmed, often both at the same
time, so as to restore the proper balance of vital action. Gentle
progressive measures are always best in this, especially with children.
Cold feet are warmed by BATHING (see) and FOMENTATION (see).
A heated head may be cooled with COLD TOWELS (see) or with soap
LATHER (see). This principle of seeking a proper balance should be
borne in mind throughout all our treatment. Its importance can hardly
be exaggerated, as the restoration of this balance alone will frequently
effect an almost magical cure where drugs have been wholly
ineffective.
After Pains.--See Child-bearing.
Air.--The Black Hole of Calcutta is an object lesson of how necessary
to life is the renewal of the air supply. Few people, however, reflect
that a deficient supply of fresh air may affect the health, though far
short of what will cause death. Many hospitable people will invite so
many friends to their houses that the amount of air each can get is less
than 1-20th of what the law insists shall be provided for the prisoners in
our gaols. Superabundant provision is made for the wants of the
stomachs of these guests, but none at all for the more important
organ--the lungs. The headaches and lack of appetite next morning are
attributed to the supper instead of the repeatedly breathed air, for each
guest gives off almost 20 cubic feet of used-up air per hour. No one
would ask their guests to wash with water others had used; how many
offer them air which has been made foul by previous use? Everyone
knows that in our lungs oxygen is removed from the air inhaled, and its

place taken by carbonic acid gas. Besides this deoxydizing, the air
becomes loaded with organic matter which is easily detected by the
olfactory organs of those who have just come in, and so are in a
position to promptly compare the air inside with what they have been
breathing. The exhilaration produced by deep breathing of pure air is
well known. What, therefore, prevents everyone enjoying it at all times?
Simply the fear of "cold"--an unfortunate name for that low form of
fever properly called catarrh, and a name which is largely responsible
for this mistaken idea. "Colds" are now known to be infectious, being
often caught in close ill-ventilated places of public assembly. Most
people suppose that it is the change from the heat to the cold outside
that gives them "cold," whereas the "cold" has been contracted inside.
There is no lack of evidence that wide open windows day