The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-28
MEDICAL NOTES.
prepared for the Sunday Journal by
an Old Practitioner1

These stones" were invented in France,
but are how made in Germany. They are
hollow and filled with rarefied air. They
vary in shape; some are cubical. some are
hexagonal and some are brick shape. They
are laid like bricks, in special mortar. the
corners being filled out by half or quarter
stones. These smaller patterns are neces-
sary because it is impossible to trim the
stone. An operating room at the Eliza
beth Hospital of the Sisters of Mercy, in
Cassel, has recently been constructed of
these stones. There are no windows ex-
cept those above. The walls are alright.
keeping out heat as well as cold. while
vapor is not condensed upon them. They
permit the entrance of daylight and at the
same time diffue the direct light of the
sun. They also act somewhat like mirrors
rejecting light into the ROOM Although
they allow light to pass through them
they are not transparent, and no one on
the outside can see what is going on within.
The walls may be readily washed and
thus kept aseptic. If this building material
should become popular we may live in
glass houses, in spite of the old proverb.
but it wouldn't do to throw stones.
In speaking of dust, smoke and gas in
cities, at the New Jersey Sanitary Associa-
ton, Prof. Sedgewick alluded to dirt as
black dirt, farmers dirt and street dirt.
Turning up the roads and fields exposes dirt
containing many germs of disease Rail-
road cuts do the same. Street dirt is in
furious and poisonous in every way. The
wear of wagons constantly keeps this on
J,tcf
is not only carried into the lungs of the
people by the wind, but by the additional
work of the street cleaner Prof. Sedge-
wick says that it should be made a penal
offense for any work like street cleaning
to be done without plentiful sprinkling to
prevent this dust from polluting the air.
He might have added that street clean
ing should be entirely done at night, as
1t could be easily done by the aid of power
full portable electric lights to enable the
men to see what they were about While
the present conditions prevail disease can
not be prevented, for the sweeper's brooms
stir up clouds of dust to be inhaled by
every passer.
Catlin. many years ago. wrote a curious
book entitled, "Shut Your Mouth" in
which, taking the Indians as a shining ex-
ample, he advocated nose-breathing as an
essential for maintaining health. Dr.
Haight. in this connection, says the mouth
breather is usually found shallow through
the upper part of the chest and with very
small lung capacity. Sufficient air is not
Inhaled so that the blood is not suffi-
GENTLY oxygenized and is surcharged with
carbonic acid. This leads to poisoning, as
is shown by lassitude headache, stupidity
and sleepiness, and gradually renders the
nerves of special sense less active. He also
believes that mouth breathing causes loss
of appetite. mal-nutrition and general dis
turbance Of health. Mouth breathers are
also particularly subject to throat and
lung troubles, owing to the direct contact
with chilled germ-laden air. These dam
gers are to great extent avoided when
air Is inhaled normally through the nose
the air being warmed and the germs being
as 1t were, strained out. The moral is
plain one. Shut your mouth.
In typhoid fever. as in many other dis
eases accompanied with depression of vital
ity, it is the usual custom to give lin
tied diet, milk being the chief dependent
DR.. Moorehouse, after considerable ex-
perience, reports marked success in such
cases with a diet of well-cooked rice soft
boiled or poached eggs on soft toast, mac
aroni, blanc mango, thickened soups, crack
ers with milk, scraped beef and minced
chicken. The majority of patients were sat
isfied with this regime until their tempera-
ture had been normal for some time and
later they were fed still more literally
In the fatal cases the diet has been re-
stricted to milk. The relative mortality
under a liberal and strict diet cannot as
yet be accurately determined, but the evil
dence seems to be in favor of the liberal
diet.
The influence of diet in both the causa-
ton and cure of ricketts, and scurvy are
strongly emphasized by DR.. Owens. In a
child affected with scurvy it was found
that the diet had been one almost abso-
lutely void of vegetables, consisting of
bacon, meat fish, and cocoa or tea, oc-
casionally bread and butter and little
potato. His diet after admission to the
hospital was fresh fruit and vegetables,
beef jelly, sweetened lemon juice, milk,
bread and butter, and under this diet there
was marked improvement. AS there is
no hard and fast line between ricketts,
and scurvy, diet has an equal influence in
both cases.
The proper after treatment of sprains
consists not only in massage and gymnastic
exercise, according to DR.. Hasbrook,
| but should include the use of some ap-
paratus to fix the joint and limit the mo-
ton, thus rendering the joint free from
pain and allowing a proper use of the
muscles. BY this treatment the joint will
be lastingly repaired and will stand Sc
we're handling without being resprained.
This apparatus is not complicated. For
| instance for the hand or wrist, a simple
leather bracelet, wide possible. but
not so wide as to actually prevent the
use of the joint. is effectual.
curious case is reported by DR.. Halli-
well, in which woman, becoming choked
by crust of bread which became lodged
| in her larynx, tried to push it down with
her finger. and not succeeding, she tried to
ram ii down with hatpin head first. The
| hatpn slipped from her fingers and passed
| into the stomach, necessitating an opera
| ton for it's removal. DR.. Waring recently
| reported a in which a child aged
about fifteen months swallowed a brass
screw one and one-fourtn inches long me
screw passed through the body without
| causing any disturbance and was recovered