The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1942-05-29

questions of general interest
only, and then only through
his column.
health. / gather this, for one
thing, from the emphasis that the
movies put on the maneuver: in
variably the actor who is playing
the part of a frequenter Of night
clubs is shown arising in>the morn
ing, going TO the mirror and stick
ing out his tongue and looking at it
more or less ruefully.
The old family doctor used TO
use the tongue in this way. | culled
from an old medical book the sug-
gestion that a "beefy" tongue oc-
ours in chronic Inflammation of the
bowel or liver; that a "furred"
tongue means nervous prostration
II the fur is brown; if the tongue
is dry with assures, the condition
is grave; light fur means an irri-
tation Of the stomach; yellow fur
means liver arrangement. If the
tongue is red along the center it
means intestinal irritation; il
CLASSY, it is very unfavorable; if
it is bright red it indicates gastric
Inflammation and if it is red and
cracked it means kidney trouble.
Since these are about all the kinds
of tongues there are, if you follow
this system and depend on your
tongue, you are pretty certain to
be suffering from something.
Fortunately all this tongue lore
has been given up as misinforma-
ton, but to a certain extent the
tongue is the mirror of the sys-
TEN. The general conditions in
which the tongue shows character
istic changes are the anemias, de-
ficiency diseases and few general
fevers, such as scarlet fever.
Raw, red tongue, raw red gut"
is a colloquialism which indicates
that in many of the anemias the d.
gestive tract is disturbed through
out its whole course. Nearly any
kind of anemia shows itself in the
first part of its course in a sore,
red tongue, often with little pain
full blisters on it. AS the disease
progresses if no treatment is ad-
ministered, the tongue becomes
small and atrophied so that the
little papillae are smoothed out.
The vitamin deficiency diseases
often show up in the tongue first.
This is true, for instance, Of
pellagra in all of it's varieties,
whether early or full-blown; also
in other forms of vitamin B de-
ficiency. The well-known sore
tongue Of the Southern mountain
eer who used to spend the winter
eating salt pork, molasses and corn
pone was a sample of this.
The underside of the tongue
probably shows jaundice before it
can be seen in the whites of the
eyes or the skin at all. The yellow
discoloration Of the tongue is the
most delicate test Of jaundice. A
well-known diagnostician has esti-
mated that there are twenty diff
ferent general conditions Of the
body which are reflected in the
tongue.
But the old, "furred" tongue is
really not Of any significance at
all. am sorry to disillusion the
Hollywood diagnosticians, but it
Is no real indication, pro or con, Of
a hangover. The night club habitus
may feel like the dickens all over,
but his tongue will remain clear
and normal. 1t is true, however,
that. chronic alcoholism produces
changes in the tongue in about so
per cent Of cases. Most of these
are due to the deficient diet which
the alcoholic eats.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
j. VI. DIS there any Diff
ference between a goiter and an
enlarged thyroid gland? Why does
a mountaineering thyroid cause
one TO be stout? What keeps the
gland from functioning?"
Answer: The general name for
an enlargement of the thyroid is
goiter, but there are many diff
ferent kinds. A mountaineering
thyroid causes person to be stout
because the function of the thy
roid gland is to keep nutrition run
ming continuously at a definite
level. This means that it causes
foods to be burned. When it does
not function the food accumulates
in the tissues in the form of fat.
A mountaineering thyroid gland
stops functioning because the cells
Of the thyroid atrophy. What
causes this to happen is a mystery.