The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-04-04

Imagination has always visual
lied and named these interfering
sprites and fixed their habitats-
the brownies belong 10 the woods
and old abandoned houses, the
kabolds inhablt mines, and the
lcprechauns caves and treasure
spots, But gremlins strikes my
fancy as the best name Of any.
What shall we call those grem.
Inns who inhabit, at times, thi,
majestic frame Of our body?
Daumier, the great French satiri.
cal artist. has drawn some Of them
wonderfully. To look at his pic
ture of headache makes even a
strong man squirm and it sends
a neurotic to bed. There the poor
victim sits. with his head IN his
hands, while, two little fiends have
put an anvil on top his Uranium
and are gleefully banging away at
it with sledge hammers, while two
others have strung a cord around
his forehead and are pulling the
two ends tight, and another pair
are ringing chimes Just outside
his ear.
His sketch "Gout" is more COM
plete than 10 pages Of clinical de-
scription-that swollen toe fairly
makes a sensitive man like myself
cringe, as a malignant little devil
gnaws at it with long carnivorous
incisors, and digs its long claws
into the quivering flesh.
The English cartoonists, Row
landson and Gilray, have also left
some graphic thumbnail sketches
Of the gremlins Of disease-"Fever
and Chills." shows the poor VIC
tim shivering over a fire while a
great clammy lizard is clutching
him in a chilling embrace; mean
while a hot, furry, feverish mon
ster is waiting his turn TO throw
himself on the sufferer the mo-
ment the lizard relaxes his grip
Cor grippe).
One of the funniest is Gilray's
depletion Of a screaming old wo-
man in the clutches of the grem-
Inns of Cramps and Gas" They
have strung a rope around her
middle and are tightening it while
one impishly bounces up and down
on the tight rope at one taut end,
and another with bellows occa-
sionally is giving her a heave Of
gas.
How does one get rid Of these
gremlins Of discomfort? Well, in
cantasons have always been a
favorite method Of banishing
them, according to mankind's an
Gent mythology. Nothing will do
govt as much good, as | can per-
sonally testify, as a good thor
ough, sincere, deep-souled cussing.
And they yield to very simple
remedies, such as my aspirin doc
tor uses - phenicetin, and soda
bicarb, and no: lemonade and
coffee.
Inc gas gremIlns seem to be
troubling a number Of my readers
lately, to judge by my correspond
ence. A very wise physician thinks
that little understanding on the
part Of the patient, of the physiol-
ogy Of gas in the digestive tract.
goes a long way towards helping
them and he tells them something
Ike this:
Gas is constantly being formed
IN the intestines in large amounts.
The volume Of gas made in the
course Of the day is several times
greater than the volume Of the
body. An equable distribution Of
gas throughout the intestines is
essential to the proper function
ing Of the bowels. A healthy ami
NAL when slaughtered is found to
have the intestines rounded out
with gas, not lying fat like rib
bons.
What you observe as being IN.
usual is not due to gas but to mus
cular action. The movements Of
the lntestines are too lively and