Connecticut western news., 1889-11-20
POPULAR SCIENCE.
USEFUL HINTS ON MATTERS OF
 EVERYDAY OCCURRENCE.
Treatment When Foreign Bodies Are
 Swallowed.---The Peanut Cure"

Considering the frequency with which foreign bodies are swallowed, by children, the best treat ment to employ in such cases should be generally known. A variety of such methods have been advocated, but just now the so-called "potato cure" appears to be the most popular. One physician not long ago reported that he had successfully applied it with the best results in three cases. One was that of a 6-year-old boy, who had swal- lowed small weight; another, that of a girl, g years old, who had swallowed a nail; and the remaining one, that of a woman who had swallowed set of teeth. He fed the patients for three days on nothing but potatoes. This treatment is method in vogue among the pickpockets of London, who, swal- lowing their booty, live on potatoes until the stolen articles have passed down and out of the body.
 Probably much the larger proportion of physicians are smokers, and doubt less the force of their example is felt more or less by laymen, who will scarcely believe that the tobacco habit can be so very injurious since those in- dulge who know most of it's evil effects. This view of the matter is by no means justified. Because physicians smoke is no reason why others should be encouraged to do so. Every gen. eral practitioner ought to be smoker. He who does is much safer from in- lection than he who is strictly tenn perate in that respect.
 Clothing well impregnated with the fumes of tobacco is a poor conductor for disease germs. And what is more important, a "tobacco breath" is decid- edly unfriendly to them. The germs of many diseases infect through the air passages. He who smokes does not furnish favorable conditions for their lodgment. According to the Science, Dr. Hajek of Vienna has declared that smokers are less liable to diphtheria than non-smokers in the ratio of about one to three; and Dr. Schiff says that smoking is forbidden in the bacteriolo- gical laboratories, because it is known to hinder the development of bacteria in the various culture-media. We think Dr. Hajek does not go far enough, and believe that the physician who takes ssgood smoke" before he is exposed to diphtheria patient, and another as soon as he leaves him, is practically safe from infection.
 Excepting sailors and those who are ambitious to become "freaks" very few people have themselves tattooed. A score or more of years ago the custom was quite popular among the boys, for whom the disagreement seemed to have a peculiar fascination. But few among them, however, looked upon the mat ter in the same light after they had come to the years of discretion, and many have seen the time when they would give no inconsiderable sum could the tattoo marks be effaced. It has generally been held that they could not be removed, at least not unless some such method as that resorted to by criminals was used. They sometimes apply vitriol to the disfigured skin, al- lowing it to burn in we'll and then washing it off with water. Success is dearly paid for by bad burn and an unsightly scar. .....
 The following method of removing tattoo marks has recently been recom- mended: The skin is first covered with concentrated solution of tannin, and re-tattooed with this in the parts to be cleared. Then an ordinary nj trate of silver crayon is rubbed over these parts, which become black by formation of tannate of silver in the superficial layer of the skin. Tannin DO wder is sprinkled on the surface several times day for some days to dry it. A dark crust forms, which loses color in three or four days, and in fortnight or so comes away, leav- ing a reddish scar free of tattoo marks, and in few months little noticeable. It is we'll to do the work ill patches about the size of half-dollar or dollar coin at time. The person can then go on with his usual occupation.
 Not few clergymen are quite pro- life in inventions of new remedies and methods of treatment of disease. Such seem to entertain the idea that their professional training has made them unusually discerning in matters physical as we'll as moral. One of the latest contributions from this source is a remedy for insomnia. The agent recommended as cure is the peanut, and it is advised that it be eaten freely just before retiring. A member of the clergy reports success with this treatment after having tried other means without good results. Of course the assumption is that the peanut pos sesses some sedative principle. If il
 has such, however, it has never yet