p. 703 | HOME AND HEALTH NOTES by A. J. B.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 29, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 44.

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HOME AND HEALTH NOTES.

By A. J. B.

—The greatest curative agent is motion, or exercise.

—According to the New York Tribune, there are no drunkards in the State of Kansas.

—It is estimated that in this country alone the waste from bad cooking amounts to over $1,000,000,000 a year.

—Milk is a good food; but it should always be boiled. The tubercular germs are easily killed by the boiling process.

—Owing to the rigorous sanitary regulations enforced by the Americans in Cuba, yellow fever has almost disappeared from that island.

—The total number of retail liquor dealers in the United States last year was 296,000. New York had the greatest number, Illinois the second greatest number, and Ohio the third.

—The next session of the German Reichstag will witness the passing of a law conferring upon the women of that country the right of free speech in public, a privilege heretofore monopolized by the men.

—Since it is true that all diseases are caused by the retention of impurities in the system, great care should be taken to induce and to compel regular action of the bowels. The use of drug sedatives should be avoided. An internal bath, or enema, is often beneficial, but vigorous physical exercise is better.

—According to statistics compiled by the Marine Hospital Service, embracing some “1,190 cities and towns having a population of 1,000 or more,” the United States had, during the last calendar year, “an annual mortality of 17.47 per 1,000 of population.” North Dakota was the most healthy State, its death rate being only 6.95 per 1,000.

—The New York Board of Health has issued “a manifesto declaring the long skirts worn by some women on the streets inimical to health because they carry disease germs into the homes.” Also the city of Pottsville, Pa., recently “ordered all women to wear short skirts on the streets.” What a pity that so many women, scrupulously clean in every other way, insist upon sweeping the streets with their skirts. Most municipalities are provided with men hired to do such jobs with brooms.

—After repeated experiments, Dr. M. J. Rosenau, of the Marine Hospital Service, found that “the plague bacillus cannot live long in letter mail. In seven tests made with cultures of the organism on paper, we found that it usually died within twenty-four hours. At most it kept alive eight days on paper allowed to dry, and fourteen days on paper kept in a moist atmosphere. To live this long it must be kept cool, or, just as in all our other experiments, it died very quickly when dried at the body temperature. We had similar experiences with plague blood upon paper. Letter mail is therefore not apt to carry the infection of plague a long time, especially in warm weather.” A fortunate thing, indeed! However, the same physician succeeded in keeping the plague bacillus, or germ, alive seventeen days in cheese and seventy-two days in butter; but “on the surface of food products it usually died very quickly,” and “did not live twenty-four hours on orange peel.” He also obtained “similar results with figs and raisins and a large quantity of Chinese food products.” The germ was kept alive in rice eighteen days.

—The annual report of Surgeon-General Sternberg shows that “deaths from all causes in the army during 1900 amounted to 28.75 per 1,000, as against 30.58 in the previous year.”

—Mrs. H. H. Foxton, of Ann Arbor, Mich., is selected by the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union “to go to the Philippines and work among the soldiers, and also to collect evidence against the canteen.” She will sail the 15th of next month, and will be gone two years.

—The only true way to banish intemperance is to stop the unnatural physical conditions which create the appetite for strong drinks. Foods that do not contain sufficient nourishment often lead persons to crave stimulants. Spicy foods should also be avoided. There are many intemperate people who never touch liquor.

—The westward march of Asiatic cholera began, according to Modern Medical Science, with its first appearance “in England at Sunderland, October, 1831, and in North America at Quebec, in June, 1832. It became epidemic in Bengal in 1817, spreading to Russia and Germany. In 1831 it carried off 900,000 persons. In 1832 it appeared in New York, and in 1834-49 and in ’66 it reappeared. In 1848 over 50,000 perished from cholera in England and Wales.”

—As a result of thorough tests made by Dr. Doty, quarantine officer of the State of New York, it is proved that the dosing of ponds and marshes with crude oil is sufficient to destroy mosquitoes and malaria. His successful experiments have been carried on in “the worst mosquito-and-malaria-haunted parts of Staten Island.” Similar doses administered to rain barrels, outhouses, or stagnant water anywhere in the yard, will aid materially in ridding the neighborhood of both mosquitoes and malaria.

—Marshall, the English economist, states that “$500,000,000 is spent annually by the British working classes for things that do nothing to make their lives nobler or truly happier,” and that “the simple item of food waste alone would justify the above-mentioned estimate. One potent cause of waste to-day is that very many of the women, having been practically brought up in factories, do not know how to buy economically, and are neither passable cooks nor good housekeepers.” The same principle applies in this country.

—According to Popular Science, “an unexpected and dangerous method of manipulating candy has just been brought to notice. The candy is made to glitter by means of splinters of glass, so that it has the appearance of sparkling crystal sugar. There are some specimens of even high-class confectionery, said to be of French make, which contain a liberal sprinkling of glass splinters. When the candy is dissolved in warm water, the splinters tumble to the bottom of the fluid into a miniature heap of broken glass. The splinters present both sharp points and sharp edges, which are certain to cause injury to the walls of the digestive canal. It is difficult to imagine a more powerful mechanical irritant than jags of glass, which might easily cause laceration and hemorrhage.” All the candy that one’s system requires may easily be made at home.

—There is more truth than fiction in the following contribution to a New York health journal by a lady writer: “It is a duty to study ourselves. Learn to interpret your natural instincts. Know yourself. We of this age have made wonderful progress in science, invention, and education; but what, as a nation, have we done for physical development in comparison to these? Look at our women, regardless of culture, education, or position; all worshiping at the shrine of the corset! crushing naturalness and freedom of action to satisfy the goddess of Fashion! Why do women of good common sense, in other ways, do this?—Because they are afraid to think for themselves; afraid of what society or the gossips may say. Sins against our bodies are sins against the Creator, and bring inevitable ruin upon us, and extend their influence even to the unborn generations. We strive, most of us, for money, admiration, and social position; neglecting God, our souls, our minds, and our bodies for these nothings of life. Will, energy, and continuity are necessary in order to acquire either spiritual, mental, or material treasures, and so is it with physical perfection. To live right, from the physical standpoint, is to, first of all, be cheerful and hopeful at all times, eat proper, wholesome foods, exercise daily, and bathe regularly, breathing fresh air at all times, and wearing loose, comfortable clothing. These admonitions, from the world, are well worth heeding by some who pretend to know all about health reform.” A. J. B.