Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1883 — THE FAMILY DOCTOR. [ARTICLE]

THE FAMILY DOCTOR.

The best remedy for a sprained ankle or wrist, until medical rid arrives, is to bathe the afflicted member in arnica, and if it is not near at hand, cold water is the next best thing. For Frosted Feet. —Smear cloths liberally with pine-tar and bind them with the frozen parts. Let the swathing remain on some thirty-six or fortyeight hours, and the work is done —all but washing your feet. Pine tar is the best known agent to remove the fire from burns. For Itching Feet.—The following is a cure for the intolerable itching of the feet caused by frosting: Soak the affected parts in water os hot as it can be borne, in which all the alum has been dissolved that it will readily take. Fifteen minutes is long enough to continue the bath. Never sleep in a room, if there is no fire, with all of the windows and doors closed. The average room does not contain more than one-third the air needed by the sleepers. Never sleep in the same clothes worn by day, but hang them where they can “air.” Never drink water that has stood in the sleeping room all night in open vessels. Never go to bed with cold feet, but first soak them in hot water, then dash on cold water, followed by thorough friction. "Weakening Treatment.— lt is a law of our nature that weakness will result not only from violent and undue labor, but as well from indolence and inactivity, but no more certainly than that insufficient clothing, bathing in water so cold as to produce a shock and a permanent chill, etc., must prove as adverse to the health as the opposite extreme. It is no more foolish, foolhardy, to brave all weathers insufficiently clad, than to attempt to endure as much heat aspossible, to which foul air is added. While a proper amount of exposure iu the cool and cold season, if properly clad, will invigorate, promote the health' and fortify one so as to be able to endure cold weather with impunity, and thus enable them to escape the ordinary “colds,” it is equally true that the “fussy” may and do so debilitate themselves by the opposite extreme as to suffer un-' usually from colds and sickness. Just to the extent that one is deprived of the invigorating influence of pure air and out-of-door exercise, weakness must result, ia addition to the debilitating result of indolence and of unnatural heat. The individual, therefore, who, with a false and absurd idea of carelessness, remains in a hot and uncomfortable room, at a temperature which would be oppressive in the summer, enduring, all possible heat, does violence to nature, and is thus predisposed to colds and ; .consequent disease. The individual Who wears as much clothing as can be borne, and the same on a mild day as on the coldest, will certainly reduce the power of the body to generate heat, and just to that extent induce sickness. That one who, for fear of having cold feet, puts them in the oven on every occasion, and who carries the hot brick to bed, in the mildest and coldest weather alike, will secure cold feet and a hot head. In otlifer words, nature evolves only just the heat needed under the circumstances —less and less the more artificial heat is supplied—necessarily reducing the strength. Avoid alike, unnecessary exposure to both heat and cold, both debilitating in their extremes, while the medium is invigorating. It is safe to be comfortable.—Hr. J. H. Hanaford.