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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2449, 13 March 1909, Page 12 (Supplement)

008 BABiESc (By Ilygeia.) Published under the auspices of the Society for the : Promotion ot the Health of Women and Children . —— QUACK FOODS AND MEDICINES. Anxious, expectant mothers write from time to time asking whether this or that patent food or patent mecunno, which has been strongly ie* commended to them would be likely to provo beneficial. One .can reply m general to all such inquiries that 1 epeated investigations into similar substances have only served to show that the claims put forward arc witlioin foundation. Health cannot be bought or sold in packets or bottles. WENDELL HOLMES ON QUACKERY. Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes said hall a century ago—“ There is no offence ,or danger in expressing the opinion that the community is still overdosed. The best proof of it is that.no families take so' little medicine as those of doctors, except those of apothecaries .... Somebody buys all the quae a medicines that build palaces for the mushroom —say, rather, tlio toadstool —millionaires. Who is it? These people .have a constituency of millions. The popular belief is all but universal that sick persons should feed on noxious substances. A doctor was called not long since to a man with a terribly sore mouth. On inquiry he found that the man had picked up a box of unknown pills, in Howard street, and had proceeded to take them, on general principles, pills being good for people. They happened to contain mercury, and hence the trouble for which he consulted our associate.” The more wc know of life the moi e obvious .it becomes that health and vigor depend on very simple and move or less universally attainable conditions.. There is no short cut to bodily fitness. The way is the- same for all. All the progress that has been made during tho last century in the science of medicine and surgery has not served to advance us appreciably beyond the ancient Greeks as to the fundamentals for health. Indeed, it is only quite recently that we have attained to as clear a view as the ancients had regarding absolute essentials. They realised the conditions under which alone the’r ideal tin sound mind in the sound body—couid be attained, and-they handed down their imperishable conclusions to us and to all time. The fresh open n<v: exercise; moderation and regularity in food, drink, and habits generally : bathing; occupation; pleasurable recreation, etc. —these were recognised as the first necessities of healthy, living 2500 yeans ago, and there is prim tically nothing to add now. Of all factors hearing on tho perfect Jiealtn for mother and offspring the most essential is EXERCISE. 1. Sensory Exercise.—Stimulation through all sense channels, but specially stimulation through the skin by contact with the changing open air and sunlight, and stimulation through vision by light and the changing pageant of the outside world. 2. Motor Exorcise.—ln general when people speak of exercise tlyy mean essentially “voluntary motor exercise” (exercise of muscles through the will); but sensory functioning, sensorv exercise, is even more important, because this is what “runs us,” this is the main source of stinuihv, tion of all our bodily machinery—including even the voluntary muscles, which, though under the control of tho will, do most of their work and are kept in tone without the intervention of thought, or even the arousing of consciousness. As for the essentia: vital organs (nerve-centres; heart, lupgs, digestive and excretory organs, etc.), they depend for their activities almost entirely on the stimuli coming to them through the sensors nerves? One. cannot possibly overstate the advantages of active, open-air life. Most of our physical disabilities conic from living in houses and not outside them! , Looking at what I have written, 1 am afraid that tho right impression may not bo conveyed. In upholding the need for sensory and reflex stimulation as contrasted with exercise ol the voluntary muscles alono (if that were possible), I have been writing from the -point of view of simple healthy outdoor exercise and recreation, contrasted with formal Sandow or breathing exercise done indoors for a short time each day. 0. course, the latter does good, but a game of tennis, or —if one wants a less strenuous and less violent form of recreation (as is desirable during pregnancy) —a game of croquet where procurable, is infinitely better than any mere formal exercise, because almost all the senses are engaged as well as all tho -muscles, and there is also tho enjoyment of the game and the associated social diversion. It goes without saying that walking nexceilent, and .forms for most of us the staple form of recreative exercise but unless there are other resources as well, walking in the form pf forced constitutionals is apt to become irksome, tiring, and monotonous. COTTAGE GARDENING. Tho tending of a fey favorite flowers, and even the growth of some small fruit and vegetables, in one s own garden is not beyond the reach or most mothers in these days ef independent suburban cottages, yet how few avail themselves of their advantages. The window gardens of Londoners, living in a vast crowded city, show how much could bo doucTfo make the surroundings of our own homes a greater source of health and attraction to the whole family, and at the same time a way to health for the wife and mother who needs something to draw her out into the open air and sunshine. OVERTAXED MOTHERS. Of course there are some mothers whose hands are so full from morning till night that they can scarcely find a moment for escape,into tho open air from the cares of housework and the. tending of a numerous family of small children. What aro such women, to do, especially when another baby is expected ? We can only suggest cooperation with a. neighbor, if one is • available, who is willing to take joint charge for, say, an hour or so every day in return, for similar friendly help, in order that both mothers may feel secure of a daily respite for rest and outing. Surely a satisfactory arrangement could often' be made with a. helpful neighbor’s girl. It must be borne in mind that for the woman who isflbusy all day long with her housework there may be no, lack of

more muscular exercise; but proper j sensory exercise, change, and recrca- I tion (re-creation) are wanting, and these can only lie supplied by spending some, time daily away from tno house. •COME IN. , A short walk in the open air, icnlowcd by a rest in the sunshine, wil do such a woman .a world of good, and her husband should spare no pains to secure hor il possible s-11 ciit/oinoon* *\ week of pleasant outing at the seaside or elsewhere. The whole future health and fitness of mother and child aro dependent on attention to the mother’s health and spirits at such times and nothing should be allowed to Sa aside these considerations. There is no time in a woman's life m which she so much, needs sound udvice and a helping hand to induce her to overcome the difficulties which stand in the way of her doing justice t:> herself and her family as when she is carrying an unborn babe. It is as much in the interest of the husband as of tho .wife that tho health of mother and child should bp made the one paramount consideration until the baby is born and long afterwards. Between, the ideal husband and the selfish hopeless drunkard there arc ail ■ shades of men who make or mar the destiny of those dependent on them. Regarding the matter from a puie:,. selfish standpoint, the education oi men in what is needed for maintainintr the health and fitness of their wives and children is almost as important in the long rim for the men themselves as it is for the rest oi the family, and we .commend the Uur Babies” column to husbands as we.i as wives. * To men who are too manly to iieip their wives or to concern themselves about babies let us commend Follen Adams’s poem: DER OAK AND DER VINE. I don’d vas preaching voman’s righdts, Or anyding like dot, Und I likes to see all beoples Shust gondented mit dheir lot; Budt I vants to gondradict dot shap Dot makes dis ieedle shoke; “A voman vas der glingiug vino, Und man, der sliturdy oak.’'

Shust go oup to der paseball groundup. Und see -dhose “sliturdy oaks” All plank'd roundt übon der seats Shust hear dheir laughs and shokes! Dhen see dhose vomens at der tubs, Mit glothes eudt on der lines: _ Vhieh vas der sliturdy oaks, mine friendts, Und vhicli der glinging vines?

Ven sickness in der householdt come-'., Und veeks und veeks he slitays, Who vas id figlidts him mitoudt resdt Dhose veary nighdts und days? Who beaco und gomfort alvays priogs, Und cools dot fefered prow? More like id vas der tender vine Dot oak he glings to, now.

Maybe, vhen oaks dliey glmg some more, Und don'd so sliturdy peon, Der glingiug vines dliey hat some shance To heib run life’s masheen. In belt und sickness, shoy and pain, In calm or shtormy veddher, "I was beddher dot dhose oaks and vines Should alvays gling togeddher.