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SLEEP FOR CHILDREN.

OME remarkably interesting treatises have been recently published relating to the scientific phenomena of sleep, says the Western Medical Review. The authors of these works, while agreeing in the main with the efficacy of "sleep as nature's sweet restorer," still hold the opinion that too much sleep is decidedly harmful, and that the majority of people indulge in the habit to a greater extent than is good for their health. Their views, as expressed on the subject in regard to young children, are both instructive and novel, and in brief are somewhat as follows: that even infants at the breast are allowed too much sleep; that they need not only time to sleep but time to wake if their intellect is to be awakened. The tendency to sleep shown by children and the uneducated is explained on the ground "that their psychic world is so poor that it is almost impossible for them to take any interest in their own thoughts and ideas. It is argued that even during the first four or six weeks of life there ought to be two waking hours during the day, and as the baby grows the duration of wakeful period should gradually increase. All methods of putting children to sleep artificially by means of monotonous sensations are strongly censured, including the crowing of lullabies and the rocking of babies in cradles or simply in the arms. Rocking the child in the arms or cradle is said to produce sleep partly because consciousness is fatigued by a series of monotonous sensations and partly because at the same time artificial anemia of the brain is provoked. Finally the approximate period of sleep necessary for children at different ages is given. Between the ages of one and two years there

should be from six to eight waking hours; between two and three years, seven to nine waking hours; between three and four years, eight to ten waking hours; between four and six years, twelve to fourteen waking hours; between nine and thirteen years, fourteen to sixteen waking hours." There is much common sense in the foregoing remarks, but there is also a tendency to rather unduly press the point as to the harmfulness of oversleeping, particularly in the case of very young infants. Rocking a child in the cradle to any great extent is doubtless harmful, but it is difficult to understand in what manner the "crowing of lullabies" can affect the health of a baby. It is also no easy matter to fix the amount of sleep that a person-child or adult-should take by any hard and fast rule; a large degree of latitude must be allowed in this respect, as it is an absolute fact that individuals of different temperaments and constitutions require varying periods of sleep.

HOW TO EXERCISE.

Look at the city dog or the city horseif any still exists, says Wm. Hemmingway, in Harper's Weekly. Let these animals be pampered, full-fed and kept from work or play, and they become fat, indolent, decrepit, short-lived. They must have exercise really to live. It need not be the rigorous task of the foxhound or the coursing greyhound, or the hard drilling of the thoroughbred racehorse in training. But a reasonable amount of exercise they must have in order to live. So with the city man, the brainworker, the man of sedentary occupation. And inasmuch as "man," of course, "embraces woman"-as the philosopher said-it follows that she, too, needs reasonable exercise if she would

live at her best. But the reasonableness of the exercise must never be forgotten. It would be suicidal folly for the hardworking business man or practitioner of a learned profession to box ten rounds a day with a pugilist at top speed or to run a mile at his best pace or to play three fast sets of tenni. Yet three or four rounds a day, or six rounds every other day, at moderate speed with, say, a couple of minutes' brisk mix-up at the finish; or a pleasant, jogging run, or a set of tennis daily or six sets distributed over a week, would do wonders in keeping the busiest sedentary worker full of the joy of living and doing, and out of the hands of the doctors.

Preferably man should take his physical exercise as play. A pleasant swim of fifteen or twenty minutes' duration, a swift stroll with a friend or two over five or six miles, a lively game or two of squash or tennis or handball-any one of these will do a man more good than hours of monotonous mauling a punching-bag or pushing dumb-bells. The mind, the soul itself, is benefited by play, while the bodily functions are strengthened by the physical work in the game.

THE DIGESTIBILITY OF CHEESE.

The Therapeutic Gazette thinks it is generally held by the profession that cheese is not a particularly digestible article of diet, but that it is generally recognized as offering a cheap and exceedingly nutritious foodstuff. Our attention has been called to this matter by a recent publication of the Department of Agriculture, Circular 166, Bureau of Animal Industry, in which a careful study has been made of this subject, the report being given us by Doane. Careful investigations were made in regard to the different kinds of cheese, and studies were made upon human beings to determine the digestibility and nutritive value of various cheeses. Doane believes that the cheapness and digestibility of cheese will lead to its being employed in larger and

larger quantities; that it is a very healthy food, and is particularly advantageous to the laboring classes, this holding true in regard to all kinds of cheese. Comparing its nutritive value with other highly nitrogenous food materials, he points out that no kind of meat, excepting dried beef, carries such a large percentage of proteid as cheese, and even dried beef contains a much greater percentage of water; fresh beef, weight for weight, has little more than one-half the food value of cheese in either protein or fat, and this holds true practically of all fresh meats, except bacon or fat pork, but their food value is mostly fat, which can be, and is, replaced to a great extent by the carbohydrates of vegetables at small cost. He points out, finally, that there was an absolute lack of any disturbance of the general health of the persons who used cheese in large quantities in the experiments reported in this Bulletin, and furthermore, that those peoples who rely largely upon cheese as an article of diet are noted for athletic attainments and physical endur

ance.

THE SALT SHEET IN REDUCING
NIGHT SWEATS.

Dr. T. H. Whiting of Rockford, Ill., tells of a remedy that will relieve night sweats which he considers the treatment par excellence. He continues: "I have tried many remedies, but that which follows, called 'Salt Sheet,' prepared by immersing the sheet in a solution of chloride of sodium, is far superior. Make the solution just strong enough as to taste the water slightly salt. Then dry the sheet thoroughly; then wrap it next to the skin on retiring for the night. It will reduce fever and induce sleep. I have succeeded with it when all other remedies failed."

LAVAGE AND MASSAGE-LAVAGE OF THE COLON.

J. Baumann makes a rectal injection of about a pint of fluid, which is injected

at once. This is followed by a second injection of about a quart. The patient then reclines in the dorsal decubitus and the physician, at his left, massages the fluid up into the colon and spreads it around with gentle manipulations. After massaging against the normal current, he massages then with it, the superficial effleurage toward the anus starting the bowel content in its natural course and regulating peristalsis. This procedure should not be often repeated or the bowel may become accustomed to it, and it should always be done very gently, never hurting the patient.

KNITTING AS A NERVE CURE. It is told of Robert Louis Stevenson that one of the many things he learned to do to keep him amused when he was restless or ill was to knit.

"My prescription, madam, is that you knit two hours daily," said the physician. "Knit!" exclaimed the nervous patient. "Why on earth should I knit?"

The doctor replied: "Because nothing is more soothing to the nerves; because nothing induces to such a calm and cheerful frame of mind. I could prescribe valerian for you, but knitting will be better. It will do you much good. I believe that a month of it will cure you."

He went on to explain that his attention had been called to an article in a medical journal on the beneficent effects of knitting, and he had prescribed the treatment, with excellent success to a dozen women.

"The shining needles," he said, playing swiftly among soft colored silks and wools, engage the eyes pleasantly, and fill the mind with cheery and sane thoughts. At the same time they may produce admirable things-golf waistcoats, golf stockings of wool, delicate evening stockings of silk, shawls, a hundred articles."

The woman smiled, and said she did not know how to knit, but she would learn at once.

MYSTERIES OF SLEEP.

The London Pictorial tells us that many curious facts have been recently discovered about it by the world's savants. For instance, when we sleep the lower half of us weighs more than the upper half. The brain is lighter and the legs are heavier. Experiments have shown that if a man goes to sleep on a bed suspended exactly at the middle point of his weight his head begins to tip slowly up and his feet to go down. This is due to the fact that when we sleep the blood in the brain goes off to the other parts of the body. The moment the brain wakes to life again it draws the blood back.

It happens when one is fast asleep some part of his brain or several parts of it may at the same time be awake. A man may walk, talk, sing or solve mathematical problems, and yet at the same time be safely in the land of nod.

It seems hard or impossible to decide what part of the brain does sleep. Our sense of time, for instance, is stronger when we sleep than when we are awake. Experiments conducted some years ago on a number of men and women between the ages of 20 and 30 showed that 60 per cent. of them were able to wake up in the morning at any time they had decided upon the night before. As the Pictorial expresses it, the resolve seems to wind up something in the subconscious brain, and when the hour has arrived the clock gives in some mysterious way the alarm and the eye-lids open.

Another curious fact about sleep is that the further the part of the body is away from the brain the less soundly it sleeps. A touch on the toe will awaken one much more readily than a touch on the shoulder.

THE USE OF WATER IN HEALTH AND DISEASE.

There is no doubt that, as a rule, the majority of people do not take enough pure, fresh water internally. Many more

or less severe diseases, not excluding tuberculosis, have their origin in an impaired digestion. Often due to chronic constipation. There is no better remedy for this prevalent affliction of ordinary constipation than the judicious use of water. To take two glasses of fresh water in the morning before breakfast, not all at once, but in three or four portions, during the half hour just before eating the morning meal, and in addition to this, a few glasses during the day, not at meal time, but an hour or two before or after, will certainly greatly help to combat a tendency to habitual constipation. Water is particularly beneficial if taken about a half hour before retiring. Water cooled by placing a bottle of water in the ice-box or by surrounding it with ice, or cooled simply by placing it outdoors in cold weather, is always to be preferred to so-called ice-water, which the average American likes so well.

The daily use of water not only keeps the body clean, but is the means of strengthening the nervous system, thus increasing the natural resistance to disease. Begin with a child from the tenth to the twelfth month, and gradually accustom he or she to the use of cold baths. The best way to begin is after the daily warm bath, to rub the child a few times with the hand dipped in cold water and then dry him rapidly; sooner or later a cold sponge bath may be given, and eventually a little douche or spray. It is absolutely necessary in the use of cold water that the reaction shall follow rapidly. This reaction is manifested by a pleasant warmth perceived by the child, and is made visible by a reddish appearance of the skin.

THE CONSTIPATION MONOMANIA. J. F. Goedhart, in the Pacific Medical Journal, reminds us that men and women were not born into this world for the one supreme object of procuring a daily evacuation of their bowels, as so many seem to think. Nor do I believe, he con

tinues, that "the instinct of death" hovers over those who do not realize this seemingly revivifying hope. It is obvious that, although we have no certain knowledge of what Adam did, a habit has been gradually formed that largely owes itself to convenience. But some there are, nay many, whose natural rythm is a two or three day one. Even a weekly interval is by no means so very phenomenal, without ill health; and, personally, I make bold to affirm that there is many a one with a small appetite who would be in much better health if he or she accepted a habit of some days' interval and kept themselves meantime unharrassed by aperients. (There are many constipated who are very healthy) and there would be thousands more so if, instead of assuming disease because they are constipated, they called themselves healthy and ceased to self-centre. And this large group seems to me to hit hard the doctrine of intestinal autointoxication. Carried to the extent that it has been of late years, I cannot but think it unsound and baneful. I will go further, and say that the treatment of the supposed condition by so-called intestinal antiseptics has seemed to me decidedly inconclusive; and as to surgical measures for its relief, based as I believe them to be, upon unsound principles, except for the relief of quite occasional organic results, they are destined to fall into oblivion. I quite admit that "the intestinal flora," as I see is the vogue just now, may not be all that is desirable, but in the neighborhood of a stercorin factory one can hardly expect the wilderness to blossom as the rose. Nay, more, if it were to do so, one might confidently predict that the departure from the normal would be so wide that death would be lurking in the bushes.

DRINKING WATER.

Alida Pattee, in her standard work on Dietatics, thus discusses the various

preparations of water for drinking pur

poses:

Boiled water-Water simply sterilized by boiling and kept in bottles in a cool place is extensively used when there is suspicion as to its purity. It is rather unpalatable. Boiling renders harmless all the organic impurities and precipitates the salts of lime. It must always be borne in mind that typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and other pestilences are largely water-borne diseases, and whenever there is any suspicion that water is contaminated, the most available method for purification is boiling. Before filling the bottles have them thoroughly cleansed and rinsed with boiling hot water, as a few drops of unboiled water would be sufficient to contaminate the whole. To prevent breaking, place bottles in pan of warm water before pouring in the boiling water.

Distilled water.-This is water in its purest state. It is said by many authorities to be unsuited for a beverage because of total absence of mineral matter and gases, on account of which mineral matter is greedily abstracted from the walls of the stomach, thereby causing congestion and irritation. It is generally used for medicinal and chemical purposes. If employed as a beverage it should be aerated to improve the flavor.

Carbonated water.-Ordinary water may be artificially charged with carbon dioxide, as soda water, etc. Among the most common carbonated waters (naturally charged) are vichy, apollinaris, and seltzer (effervescing waters) and Poland (uneffervescing). These are valuable in case of fever and to tempt people to drink more water; also in relieving nausea and vomiting. They are used to advantage with acid drinks and to dilute alcoholic liquors. Carbonated water of any kind should not be taken in excess, as such waters are apt to produce indigestion, by retarding the action of the gastric juice.

Alkaline mineral waters are carbonated (naturally charged) and differ from ordinary water in the greater amount of gaseous (carbon dioxide and sulphuretted hydrogen) and solid matter (sodium chloride, potassium, magnesium, iron, sulphur, etc.), which they contain. Some mineral waters have no medicinal value, and are simply used for quenching thirst; others have purgative, laxative, or diuretic effect. The following are a few examples of the latter class: Sulphur Springs, Saratoga, Vichy, Hunyadi, Londonderry, and Lithia waters.

The benefit derived from the water cures so often prescribed is not usually from the water itself, but from the change, treatment, and quantity of water taken. Much benefit can be derived by following the same treatment at home.

Temperature of drinking water.Luke warm or tepid water (65° to 92° F.), which in theory should be most suited for drinking, is insipid or even repugnant to most people. Hence as a beverage water is either taken warm (92° to 100° F.), hot (100° F. and over), cool (65° to 92° F.) or cold (32° to 65° F.) The taking of hot water in large quantities has been found of benefit for weak digestions and in much chronic invalidism. It acts as a stimulant to gastric digestion; relieves thirst more quickly than cold water; is more quickly absorbed, and leaves the stomach sooner. Cool water is the normal beverage for quenching thirst. Ice water is unsuitable for all individuals when overheated, and with meals for dyspeptics and those in delicate health. Fever patients, however, may take it ab libitum; for most robust individuals who crave it with or without meals it seems to do no great harm, if taken slowly and in moderation. Its coldness acts as a natural check against overindulgence. It probably slows the movements of the stomach and as long as