THE LADIES’ WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2672, 30 November 1909, Page 3

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

VERY DUTIFUL WIVES' AND A NOVEL BREAKFAST PLAN.

The curious home-life of the East is described with unusual insight in "The Turkish People,” by Lucy M. J. Garnett (Methuen and Co.)- That the Turk has not yet, in Meredith’s phrase, "doubled Cape Turk,” may bo gathered from the following short extract describing a very attentive wile: "Like all Orientals, the Osmanli matron is an early riser, and after partaking of a cup of coffee and a cigarette. she is ready to wait upon her husband. "She places his slippers by the side, of his couch and holds his pelisse ready, and as soon as lie is comfortably seated on the divan, after making his morning toilet and performing the first of the five daily prayers, she pours out his coffee from the little ibrilc, in which it has been brought in by a slave, places the cuip in the silver zarf, and hands it to him. "She also fills his tchibouk, should he prefer one to the more fashionable cigarette, hands him the amber mouthpiece, and then proceeds to light the fragrant, finely-shredded' Latakia by placing on the bowl with a tiny pair of tongs an ember of glowing charcoal. She remains in attendance, seated on a cushion at his feet, while the slaves roll up the bedding and stow it away in the wall-cupboards. "The children then troop in, uncombed and unwashed, in their quaint night-gear —wide trousers and quilted jackets of colored cotton —to kiss the hand: of their sire and to be caressed by both parents. No nursery breakfast, however, awaits them; and they presently begin, to. glamor, for pence with which to purchase their morning meal. "The ten and twenty para pieces distributed, . the children scamper down to the courtyard gate, near which they are almost sure to find a vendor of ring-shaped cakes covered with sesame seeds; or. if he is not in sight, they make their way to the nearest chandler’s shop, where they have their choice of halva —a sweetstuff made from sesame seed and honey cheese, or fruit, as a relish to their bread. "After this irregular meal the boys and girls over eight years old are tidied up and sent, escorted by a male servant, to f the parish school, where the children of the rich and poor meet on a common footing. The babies, meanwhile, roam freely about the haremlik attended by a slave who performs, after a fashion, the duties of nursemaid.”

WHEN CHILDREN BITE THEIR NAILS.

The habit of biting the nails, while not a disease in itself, nevertheless may be taken as a distinct warning that something is wrong with the nervous mechanism of the offender. The word offender is used advisedly here, because too often mothers of children, who bite their nails look on the'habit more as the outcropping of some inherited, tendency to wrong-doing than as a symptom of some physical abnormality. Punishment, then, is-the fast treatment that should be resorted to in attempting- to break a child oh the habit. The ill-effects on the health caused by habitually biting at the. nails arc many. The victim lias often the *ibit of standing with the head slightly bowed and the chest contracted, and the resulting evils of this stooping are too apparent to need emphasis here. '- More than this, the whole shape or the lips and contour of the mouth is very apt to be changed by the pressure of the finger tips. Again, tiny fragments of the nails are •apt.-to be sw allowed with a more or less irritating.effect in the intestinal tract. Fragments of nails have been found in diseased appendices after their removal for appendictis. BAD FOR THE DIGESTION. The constant biting and chewing at the nails lias a decidedly adverse effect on the digestion. When eating, the act of chewing stimulates the salivary glands and leads to the pouring out into the mouth of the saliva. Tins saliva contains a most important digestive ferment. . . Chewing at the nails produces a similar stimulation of the glands, leads to an unnecessary outpouring ot the ier-ment-carrying saliva, and the result is that the gland is overworked, and overtired when, mealtime comes anti ma v not be able to supply the digestive juices .when they are really needed. Foods, then,which require the sail; vary ferment for their digestion wil pass into the stomach without beinj. tirst thoroughly mixed with saliva, ant so dyspepsia or indigestion results. The slight lack of nervous" stability which isl.be commonest cause of th< habit, may bo.due. to,general weakness , ‘uiishftable'. food; going- to .bed, kop iat. (witli the resulting curtailment m W hours of sleep), lack-of. ventilation n the sleeping- rooms, or to excessive men tal oxeitement .<lue ;to'eitl>er playmg.o ’• studying too hard.- ". The feeling of "the. teeth being o; ' ed gel’ ’ occasionally noticed in acid dys pepsia, sometimes starts the habit. The only treatment necessary to cur 99 cases of 100 is to appeal to th child’s vanity, and.to build up her g< npral, health (nail-biters are nearly a ways girls") by giving suitable nerv< building and blood-forming food b cutting down her brain activity bot.li i school and play hours, by keeping he out of doors as much as possible, an by making her go to bed early. For the first week or two. of- tn treatment inking the nails is some turn useful simply as a reminder. Afte this, however, the mother should mak every effort to get the child mtereste in the cure by carefully manicunn and polishing its nails, and then coi trusting -the new and improved stal with the former condition. In a case know T n to the writer tli ' child could never refrain from bitin its nails long enough to give any < , them a start to grow. As they nev< got long enough to be trimmed c rounded the shining example of wm could- bo done with them if they wei unbitten w’as beyond proof. Finally the child' was persuaded i wear a glove night and day on or hand, while free permission was g ven to bite the nails of the other. A • ter a week of this the nails on the gkr ed 'hand were smoothed, rounded, pm] ; tinted, and highly polished. The result made such an appeal 1 ; the-child’s vanity that she immediate] . gave up biting the nails of the oth< hand, so that they, too, might becon , things of beauty. The gift or a man ; cure set or a ring . for each hand sometimes enough to bi;eed ‘ the' re j\ desire for reform, which must be tl ... basis of all successful treatment^ -• The habit is - an-unhealthy one, ar seems to increase rather than allevia > any tendency to nervousness. It as U r serious a matter to be neglected, ar 3 the careful mother should try eve: ■ legitimate means of breaking, up t] 0 habit before it becomes, as it som * times does, a chronic, incurable contc sion of nervous weakness.