The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-18

According to DIR. William II. Pearse,
the danger of catching cold is not in
sudden transitions from heat to cold,
but the reverse. DR.. Pearse says that
he has walked at midnight from a
highly heated mansion across Boston
common, in his dress coat only, on a
calm starry night, the temperature
about zero. He suffered no inconVeni-
ence, and felt sure that the stimulus
of the heat of the house gave him
power of resistance to the cold. DR..
Pearse is undoubtedly correct in his
observation, says the Medical Record,
that one can come from a hot room in
to the cold outer air and run but little
chance of catching cold. The danger
is rather in entering a hot room from
without, and especially in entering an
overheated and unventilated apart
ment filled with eXcrementitious pro-
ducts from the lungs and skin of its
inmates. A change from a hot to a
cold atmosphere can be made suddenly
but that from extreme cold to indoor
heat should be made gradually if one
would avoid the catarrhal consequent
ces of catching heat"
90
The bad habit of wetting lead pencil
points in the mouth is thus touched
upon by the Medical Review: Recently
a woman of fine bearing and elegantly
dressed stepped into the counting-room
of one of the local papers of a large
city to insert an advertisement. HaV-
ing no pencil of her own, she picked up
a pencil which was tied with a string
to pad used for writing. At once she
moistened the lead with her tongue
and began to write. An elderly woman
who was standing by reminded her
that the pencil had just been used by
an old man, ragged and dirty, greasy
and filthy, who also had contracted the
same habit of wetting the pencil on his
tongue every time he wrote a word
The disgusted woman flung the pencil
away and scolded the young man be-
hind the counter until he sharpened n
brand new pencil for her use and bene-
mt. The habit is a foolish one In
stead of making the pencil write more
freely and easily, 1t hardens it and
makes 1t write blurred and irregular.
90
,Ttt fact that the wearing q wells is
productive of weak eyesight, says a
medical journal, headaches and some
times vertigo and nausea, is within the
experience of every ophthalmologist.
Not only are these effects produced by
the eye strain consequent upon the
added efforts made by one or both eyes
TO see through or around an obstruc-
ton, but the irregular figuring on the
veil Itself Is in some instances a source
| OF annoyance to the wearer. AS in
| other cases of abuse, the burden rests
heaviest upon the weakest eyes, and
probably the reason why one encoun-
tiers so comparatively few instances of
asthenopia directly due to veil wearing
Is that the embarrassed eyes are able
to overcome the additional strain when
the vision is normal, the oculo- -muscu-
lar system in proper equilibrium, and
the general health good.
90
There are too many young mechanics
who are dosing themselves continual
| ly, three times a day, with all sorts
or sarsaparillas, iron tonics, and 9TH
| er compounds, in the hope of working
up little pure blood, a good appe-
tite and a cheerful spirit, when, If the
truth was known, the same amount OF
rain water would be equally as good
II not more beneficial. What is want
ed to wake up the dropping spirits OF
an always-catching-co mechanic is
a cold-water bath. The life OF many a
mechanic is such as to rebel against
| any such treatment unless in the
warmest weather, and In q bath Of