The Saint Paul globe., 1900-01-28
MEDICAL NOTES.

| These ''sto1aes" were invented In France,
but are now made In Germany. They
are hollow and filled with rarided air.
! They vary in shape; some are cubical,
| some are heXagonal and some arc brick
| shape. They are laid Ike bricks. in
| special mortar, the corners being filled
| out by half or quarter stones These
smaller patterns are necessary because
IT is impossible to trim the stone. An
! operating room at the Elizabeth hospital
| of the Sisters of Mercy, in Cassel. has
recently been constructed of these
stones. There are no windows except
| ing 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 diffuse the direct light
of the SUM- 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
|
do to throw stones
In speaking of dust, smoke and gas In
cities at the New Jersey Sanitary asso-
citation, 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. Railroad cuts do the same
Street dirt is injurious and poisonous In
every way. The wear of wagons con-
stantly keeps this on the increase and
the finely pulverized dust is not only
carried into the lungs of the people by
| the wind but by the additional work Of
| the street cleaner. Prof. Sedgewick says
| that it should be made penal offense
! for any work like street cleaning to be
/ done without plentiful sprinkling to pre-
vent this dust from polluting the air.
He might have added that street cleaning
| should be entirely done at night, as 1t
! could be easily done by the aid Of pow
| erful, portable electric lights to enable
the men to see what they were about.
While the present conditions prevail
| disease cannot be prevented. for the
sweepers brooms stir up clouds OF
! dust to be inhaled by every passer.
I ,Catlin, many years ago, wrote Gu.
rious book eLtitled "Shut Your Mouth"
in which. taking the Indians as a shining
example, he advocated nose breathing as
an essential for maintaining health.
| DR.. Haight, in this connection, says the
! mouth breather is usually fourd shallow
through the upper part of the chest and
with very small lung capacity. SUI
ficient air is not inhaled, 80 that the
blood is not sufficiently oxygenized and Is
v.1no oy1in
leads to poisoning, as Is. shown by las
situde, headache, stupidity and sleepless-
ness and gradually renders the nerves OF
| speciaI sense less active. He also De-
| Heves that mouth breathing causes loss
! of appetite, mal-nutrition and general
disturbance of health. Mouth breathers
are also particularly subject TO throat
and lung troubles owing to the direct
contact with chilled or germ laden air.
These dangers are to great extent
avoided where air is inhaled normally
| through the nose, the air being warmed
and the germs being as 1T were strained
out. The moral is a plain one smut
! your mouth.
Tn typhoid fever, as in many other dis
eases, accompanied with depression OF vi
! tality. it is the usual custom to give
| limited diet, milk being the chief depend
ent. Dr. Moorehouse, after considerable
| exnerience, reports marked success In
I s,1ch cases with diet of well-cooked rice,
! soft boiled or poached eggs on soft toast,
macaroni, blanc mango, th1ckened soups,
4 crackers with milk, scraped beef ana
| minced chicken The majority of patients
were satisfied with this regime Until tlieir
! temperature had been normal for some
time. and later they were fed still more
| literally. In the fatal cases the diet has
heep restricted to milk. The relative NOR
| tality under a liberal and strict diet can
not be accurately determined, but the evl-
| dence seems to be in favor OF the nperal
| diet.
The influence OF diet in both the causa-
+ion and cure of ricketts, and scurvy are
! strongly emphasized by DR.. Owens. In
! a child affected with scurvy 1t was found
| that the diet had been one almost abso-
| lutely void Of vegetables, consisting OF
bacon, meat, fish and cocoa or tea, occa-
| sionally bread and butter and a little po-
| tato. His diet after admission to the hos
pital was fresh fruit and vegetables, beer
Jelly. sweetened lemon juice, milk, bread
and butter, and under this diet there was
| a marked Improvement. AS there is no
| hard and fast line between ricketts, and
/ scuryy, diet has an equal influence Ill
| both cases.
The proper after treatment of sprains
| consists not only in massage and gymnas-
tic exercises, according to DR.. Hasebrock,
but should include the use of some ap-
paratus to fix the joint and limit the mo-
! tion thus rendering the joint free from
| pain and allowing 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
he ov,d xxyT-iSt Gfy,or,l ,le
leather bracelet, as wide as possible, but
not so wide as to actually prevent the
use of the joint, is effectual.
|
A curious case Is reported by DR.. HALL
we'll in which a woman, becoming choked
nv crust Of bread which lodged in heI
Iarynx. tried to push it down with heI
finger, and not succeeding she tried tc
ram it down with hat pin, head first
The hat pin slipped from her fingers and
nassed into the stomach, necessitating ar
operation for its removal. DR.. Waring
recently reported a case in which q
child, aged fifteen months, swallowed g
brass screw one and one-quarter inches
long The screw passed throught the
body without causing any disturbance
and was recovered five days later
1t isn't often that a delinquent debtor
to physician Is ever troubled with q
guilty conscience or feels compelled to
pay conscience money. In a recent will
however, pleasing exception to this rule
occurs. The testator says that a certain
physician saved his life in the year 1887
and that he had nothing wherewtth tc
pay the doctor, but promised to pay al