The Healthy Life Part 4

WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE FOR A PERFECT SKIN?

Is 3d. too much?

Many perfect skins to-day are traced to a single sample.

--Advt. in _Lady's Companion_.

The price is reasonable; but I think I would rather see a sample first, wouldn't you?

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OUR SPECIAL FILLING FAST--Headline in _Daily News_.

The correct antidote for the well-known "starvation of over-repletion."

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Cold Anniversary Raised Pie and New Potato Salad.--From the _Seventh Anniversary Menu of The Eustace Miles Restaurant_.

I am told that one old gentleman, misled by the chef's quite innocent use of adjectives, protested to a waitress that the day was really very warm; also that a youthful wag obliterated the initial C from his menu with a pen-knife and then inquired which was the better vintage, '06 or '09.

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But to contend that there is no difference between a good yellow man and a good white man is like saying that a vegetarian chop of minced peas is like a chop of the chump variety.--_New Witness_.

Chop-chop--as the good yellow man might be tempted to say if he came upon this specimen of white wisdom.

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Canva.s.sers can make a very good profit by selling a patent ladies' folding handbag, also wristlet watches.--Advt. in _Daily Mail_.

Nevertheless, the only place for a patent lady is a registry office.

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CAKEOMA PUDDING? You cannot know how delicious they are until you have tasted them.--Advt. in _Lady's Companion_.

One of the things that would never have occurred to you if you hadn't seen it expressed so clearly.

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SAXON.--How cruel of you. Although I have not the honour of cap and gown, I do possess a Cla.s.sical Dictionary. If I can help further, write again. Regarding the recipe, it depends upon its nature. Perhaps VERA is the lady to whom you should address your question--_Lady's Companion_.

My colleague, Mr Edgar J. Saxon, denies all knowledge of this affair.

But I do wish he would be a little more careful in future.

PETER PIPER.

HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading Dr Knaggs deals briefly month by month, and according as s.p.a.ce permits, with questions of general interest._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on one side only of the paper, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]

CAN MALARIA BE PREVENTED?

A. de L. (Lisbon) writes:--For five months I have been a strict "fruitarian," and as I am obliged now to go to Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa) to remain there five rears, I should be much obliged to you if you kindly let me know what I must do to prevent the African fever and biliousness which seem to afflict all Europeans in that part of the world. Any hints you could give me as to maintaining health in such a climate would be most gratefully acknowledged.

I do not think that it is possible for any European, whether he adopts fruitarian or ordinary diet, to entirely escape malaria, since it is caused by a minute parasite which is forced into the blood by a certain form of biting mosquito.

The parasite will, however, surely gain less hold on one whose blood is clean and pure and whose vital force is strong, than on one who dissipates his strength by partaking of meat, alcohol, tea, coffee and other stimulants, or who otherwise gets his blood into a bad state by faulty diet generally.

Therefore, the thing this correspondent should do is to live as much as possible upon the simple frugal fare of the natives. He can take raw c.o.ker-nut freely and eat the fresh fruits which grow in this part of Africa. If he can obtain pineapple or papaw he will find these excellent to help him to retain his health and strength in this country.

UNFIRED DIET FOR A CHILD: IS IT SUITABLE?

Mrs L.B.F. writes:--My husband and I are much interested in _The Healthy Life_, deriving much benefit and good advice from its pages. It is the only magazine, we find, which answers questions that we have long been puzzling over. Reading a work of the "Montessori Method" of training children last night I was disturbed to find I had, according to that book, been feeding my little boy, aged three years, all wrong. It says: "Raw vegetables should not be given to a child and not many cooked ones. Nuts, dates, figs and all dried fruits should be withheld. Soups made with bread, oil, bread and b.u.t.ter, milk, eggs, etc., are the princ.i.p.al foods Dr Montessori recommends. She also advocates the use of sugar."

Our boy has nuts, ground and whole, all the fresh fruits and dried ones, salads, brown bread and nut b.u.t.ter, sometimes dairy b.u.t.ter, no milk, his food mostly uncooked, as we ourselves believe in. If Dr Valentine Knaggs would give us his opinion on this I should be very grateful. The boy is healthy, but I notice a slight puffiness below the eyes of late in the morning. Also his temper does not improve as he gets older. Will he be having too much proteid (nuts) for one of his years, or is the temper natural as a result of bad discipline. His father is away all day, and mothers are, as a rule, soft marks, are they not?

It is difficult to answer fully a question of this sort, as so much depends on the child's temperament and environment. A frail, delicate child with the promise of high mental development requires a finer and softer grade of nutriment than one of a coa.r.s.e animal nature with strong, well-developed digestive organs.

All healthy children, especially boys (as Mr Saxon will attest!), are full of mischief and restlessness, which it is the duty of a mother or a nurse to divert into right channels.[3] The display of temper is probably an indication of this not being done, though it _may_ be due in part to the raw diet not suiting the child.

[3] This correspondent, and all mothers of difficult children, should study the works of Mary Everest Boole, published by C.W. Daniel, Ltd.; also _The Children All Day Long_, by E.M. Cobham.--[EDS.]

The advice I would give would be to alter the diet and make it lighter.

From my point of view, Dr Montessori has not given sufficient attention to the other side of the diet question, preferring to remain more on the side of orthodoxy. Moreover, her own work has been done in Italy, where a climate prevails which does not call for so free a use of vegetables and salads as is the case in our own cooler and bleaker clime.

I suggest, as a beginning, the following diet might be tried, but it is necessarily impossible to guarantee good results unless the cause of the puffy eyes and temper have been definitely located by personal examination:--

_On rising._--A raw ripe apple, finely grated, or simply sc.r.a.ped out with a silver spoon.

_Breakfast at 8._--A scrambled egg on a Granose biscuit with a little finely chopped salad or finely grated; raw roots appetisingly served with a dressing of oil, lemon juice and a little honey. This to be followed by an "Ixion" or "P.R." biscuit, with fresh b.u.t.ter.

_Dinner at 2._--Home-made cottage cheese, or cream cheese, or a nut meat (served cold out of the tin, or, better still, home-made). Two ca.s.serole-cooked vegetables, done with a little fruit juice and lemon to retain colour. This to be followed by a baked apple with cream and a little home-made, unfired pudding made of dried fruits.

_Supper at 5._--A slice of "Maltweat" bread, and b.u.t.ter, and a cupful of clear vegetable soup, or some hot water with some lemon juice added, and slightly sweetened with a little honey.

GIDDINESS AND HEAD TROUBLE.

Mrs L.B.F. also writes:--I sometimes think I must make dietetic mistakes. My husband thinks I am perfectly healthy, so I do not say anything of the giddiness in the morning and after eating, a drowsiness and slight pain at the back of the head and underneath one of my ears. Also under my eyes is on some mornings quite swollen and puffed up. It is not so marked, but I am quite conscious of it. Our diet consists mostly of a salad, with bread or baked potato and cheese or ground nuts or cooked brussels sprouts and a nut meat pie, apple pie and cream, with brown bread and b.u.t.ter, or a raw fruit meal, nuts, apples, grapes, figs, dates and no bread.

Two meals a day, first in the morning at eight o'clock, second at two or three in the afternoon. A gla.s.s of hot water with lemon at nine P.M., and the same in the morning. I do some exercises night and morning and am out in the fresh air often through the day. We live in the country and I have every chance of keeping myself healthy. Perhaps I should say I do not eat many nuts, finding them rather difficult to digest. Should I use an enema when I feel like this, or wait for natural results?