The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-04
Medical Notes..

| ~ SS ~ ~ ~
<o~N~~-~~-~~~-o~~-~ o~-@-~-~~0eO--~~.~~~
A person need not have a delicate skin
to have an irritated skin, and many
who consider themselves tough-slxinned
| are peculiarly subject to irritation by
| objects with which they come in contact
| IN every day life. This may be a simple
redness or it may be severe and even
erys1pelatous. DR.. Harding lists a num-
| Der of plants which cause such inf1am-
nation, among them being the poison ivy,
| dog-wood or poison sumach, and the pois-
on oak. the handling of which will cause
quite severe Inflammation and sickness.
| Many of the common WiIdf1oWers are al
| so irritating to the skin, among them
being the buttercup, field daisy, golden
| rod, wood anemone, clematis, and gar
den nasturtfum. Among the drugs used
| for medicinal purposes tincture of arnica,
balm Of Gilead, hamamelis, common salt.
and belladonna, etc., will often cause
| irritation when applied to the skin, and
| thus do more harm than good, especially
| If the skin is broken. Kerosene may
cause serious trouble, and so may un,
diluted glycerine and almond oil Oc-
cupation also has much to do with the
| condition of the skin. Strong alkalies
and acid liquids, soaps, washing powders,
metal polishes and shoe polishes, paints,
and even chocolate may cause inflam,
nation Of the skin. Many insects too,
are potent factors, among them being
mosquitoes, f1eas, bedbugs, black flies,
Wasps, bees; hornets, spiders, caterpilers,
etc. Yet person may not be affected
by any one of these owing to some IN
herent power of resistance, while others
| may be SO affected by one that eX-
! posture will cause, not only irritation OF
| the skin but fever and delirium I'm
! fortunately there is no way of discover
/ ing the individual susceptibility, and the
individual must discover it himself by
| experience which is apt to be an exceed
-ingly unpleasant one
- -
The Raw Food society, recently organ
lied at Chicago, is trying to form other
societies in other cities. The object of
the society is shown by one of the reso-
luton: That it is out firm conviction
that man could live much longer in pro-
portion to the number of years required
for development by eating raw food; ill
health would be the exception rather
than the rule, and peStilence and con-
tagious diseases would be wiped from
the land. We believe that children rear
ed on uncooked foods will be giants phys
ically and intellectually Like all fads,
this has an, element of truth in it. Meat
juices are most readily assimilated by
the system and require the least effort
for their transformatio into blood, but
this is more than counterbalanced by the
danger from disease. Butchers are cited
as evidence Of the good effects of raw
meat eating, since some chew pieces of
raw meat while at work, but physicians
know that butchers, for this reason, are
affected with intestinal diseases, and the
presence of parasitic worms and trichinae
occur most often in raw ham eaters.
Cooking, moreover, effectually kills all
1F al 10
meat their breeding ground and it makes
it more digestible. Aside from these and
other objections, the idea of eating "a ~
meat is so 1laIiseatfng and so barbarous
that few people of common sense would
harbor the idea for moment. In the
matter of raw vegetables and cereals
the idea is much more irrational for
such food is almost absolutely indigest-
ible by man in its raw state Only by the
process of proper cooking can the cells
be broken up so that the gastric juice can
act upon and digest the food.
It is rather late in the season to fight
mosquitoes, but the women might tako
! up other health questions depending upon
the extermination of nuisances and thus
profit by the example Of the women Of
Richmond Hills, near New York city,
who listened -to~a scientists explanation
of the development of the mosquito and
then formed a club to fight 'em. They
enlisted q number Of small boys in the
cause and armed them with kerosene in
cans, securing the country and literally
treating every puddle, ditch, pond or
marsh, to a dose of oil. As a result the
ladies sat on their porches during the
summer without the annoying hum Or
bite of the mosquito. Women's clubs
have done much good in many lines of
humanitarian work, but the health de-
partment seems an especially good fed
for their energy. If the women of ous
cities and towns would have medical
men instruct them in the elements of the
eausation and prevention of so-called
filth diseases, for insanee, the number of
such diseases would be greatly decreased
and humanity benefited thereby. Clean,
liness is the first law of health and no
one is better adapted TO maintain the law
and order of cleanliness than weme n
whose pride is clean and tidy household
By ell means let such clubs be formed
and let the badge be a miniature broom
and a pail.
The law properly forbids indecent ex-
posture of the person by insufficient cloth,
ing, but it seldom happens that the law
has anything to say about the style. The
local board of Vienna, in one of the dis
tricts, however, has issued an edict
against long dresses, or rather las dis
played placards in the parks notifying
ali women wearing trailing skirts TO hold
them clear of the ground, stating that
the enclosure IS devoted to the recre-
alton Of persons DESTROYS of escaping
from dust IL the streets and they natural
ly object to having the women kicking
up dust in the park. The school board
Of Ell Paso, Tex. requiFe tl7e teachers TO
wear short skirts beCans- long ones
sweep the streets ard gathar germs that
injure the health Of the pupils This is
much more sensible than the ediets of
other school boards who have forbidden
the wearing Of short skirts In school
rooms because II shocked their ideas of
rnodesty.