The Saint Paul globe., 1900-06-03
Medical Notes.

5 meQlCdl NOTeS. 5
The human ear is more delicate organ
than most people suppose. 1t is extreme
! ly dangerous to interfere with it by use
! Of ear picks or any of the various instru-
| ments used for the purpose of clearing
1t Of wax The wax is a natural secre-
| ton, and unless the ear becomes diseased
| 1t does not accumulate any faster than is
necessary to protect the passage from the
| entrance of insects and various particles
which might otherwise be forced in and
tend to interfere permanently with the
hearing. The greatest care is necessary in
washing the ears of little children They
! should be washed outside, but on the
inside only as far as the finger wrapped
IN soft towel will go. The practice of
! forcing hairpins or any other hard instru-
| ment into the air passage is fraught with
| danger of injuring the membrane and
causing permanent deafness. Earache is
a malady Of children, causing distressing
pain The simplest remedy for it is to
take a little cotton dipped in warm sweet
oil and put into the ear passage. A dan
4
/ a thing is that minute particles of the cot
ton may be left in the ear. To prevent
! this some physicians advise making a
little Wad of cotton and wrapping 1t in the
! finest and thinnest linen cambria that can
| De found, and dipping this in warm sweet
| Oil. In cases of intense pain a few dr0ps
| OF hot laudanum OF, camphor may be used
with the oil. When foreign bodies get into
! the ear they should be removed by syring-
| ing them out with warm water. To at
tempt to remove anything from the ear
| passage by forcing an instrument in is a
| rash thing for any one except an aurist
TO undertake, and even the best medical
practitioners refuse to treat affections of
the eye or ear. but send their patients to
! specialists
There is a wise old German saving
| that only god or brute can dwell
in solitude" Men and women need con
| genial conpanionship both for the sake
| OF health and happiness. Just as ones
lungs after using up all the oxygen in
close room need to be filled with fresh
| out-of-door air so ones mind needs cor.
tact with other minds to get new ideas
! Ihefe, Is such a thing as mental as well
| as physical hunger. Herders on the
large cattle ranches Of the West fire.
| quently become mad from the Isolation
lonely farms and in small villages grow
morbid and mildly insane and people do
| not realize that the cause is want Df
companlOnahip. 1t is for this reason that
| a woman s work at home is always mora
| trying than that of her husband who
| goes to his Office, sees new faces and has
| the friction that is produced by meeting
other people. Even the farmer has more
| intercourse with his neighbOrs at the
| market than his wife, who may not see
| any one outside of her own family for
| weeks. It is a great mistake for Young
| married people to isolate themselves: :even
| If their taste leads them to a quiet life
they should make it a point to cultivate
the acquaintance of a few agreeable
| friends.
| common cause of indigestion IS ir-
! regularity respecting the time of meals
| The human system seems to form habits
and TO be in a degree dependent upon the
! performance of its functions in ac-
cordance with the habits formed In re-
! spect to digestion this is especially OBJ
| servahle II meal is taken at a regular
hour, the stomach becomes used to re-
| ceiTing food at that hour. and is pre-
pared for it. II meals are taken irregu-
| larly. the stomach is taken by surprise
so to speak, and is never in that state
! of readiness which it should be for the
! prompt and perfect performance of its
work. The habit which many profession
| al and business men have of allowing
! their business to intrude upon their meal
| hours quite frequently, either wholly de-
! priYing them of a meal or oDlging them
! to take il an hour or two later than
| usual Invariably undernines the best
! digestion in time. Every individual
! ought to consider the hour for meals a
sacred one, not to be intruded upon by
any ordinary occurrence. Eating is a
matter Of too great Importance to be in
terrupted or delayed by ordinary mat
| ters Of business or convenience
There is perhaps, no surer sign of
| health, says Sir Morell Mackenzie than
the capacity Of sleeping soundly for sew
| eraI hours. 1t is not only the travelled
| sleeve of care that is knit up by sleep,
I but the worn tissues have time to recover
themselves, and on waking, the system
! is like a watch that has been wound up
| 1t IS not so much the quantity of sleep
! that Is important as the quality, and If
| there is a certain amount OF truth In the
| old saying that one hour before mid
night is worth two after it is because in
/ healthy persons the first sleep is usually
| soundcr than any that follows. An ex-
| cellent sign of good condition IS complete
! recuperation after a short sleep, that is
! to say the power of waking after six or
seven or even five hours OF good sleep.
| ThlS shows that the system easily recov-
! ers itself after fatigue and this Is one
| of the physical characteristics that most
! help TO prolong life Among a number
| of centenarians mentioned by Sir George
| Humphrey, this quality of being fully
refreshed by comparatively short sleep
| was present in very large proportion.
| On the other hand there is no surer sign
of overwork than disturbed sleep.
During infancy a healthy infant slecna