Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1884 — THE FAMILY DOCTOR. [ARTICLE]

THE FAMILY DOCTOR.

i The following cure for hiccoughs wan devised several months ago, and /since then has been successfully employed in I numerous instances by several Sit erect and inflate the lungs fully. Then, retaining the breath, bend forward slowly until the chest meets the knees. After slowly rising again to the erect posture, exhale the breath. Repeat this process a second time, and the nerves will be found to have received an access of energy that, will enable them to perform their natural functions. Malaria. —CoL G. H. Mendell says: In the great valley of California, over the whole of it, malaria prevails, often in most violent forms. It exists in uplands, remote from marshy districts, and I have known limited districts of upland adjacent to each other, where malaria prevailed in one while absent in the other. Some years ago, while engaged in a study of irrigation, then beginning to be applied on the dry plains of California, I was led to notice the level of standing water in wells, in reference to which there is a great difference in our interior plains. I soon noticed that shallow wells and malaria were frequent companions. Where the wells were seventy feet (or thereabouts) deep, there was freedom from malaria. Having noticed these coincidences, I' afterward investigated their occurrence in a great many cases by inquiries “of” farmers wtth whom I had conversation. In one or two cases of exceptional malarial districts in the foot-hills, which are generally free from this pest. I found the water in the wells near the surface. Ido not recall a single instance of shallow wells where The family were free from fevers, always intermittent, I believe. I therefore connect the presence of water near the surface of the ground with the existence of malaria. Whether it is due Jo the mere presence or to the fact that it is drank, or to both, I am unable to say. —Health and Home. Atonic Dyspepsia.—Atonic means without, or diminished tone or vigor. As applied to dyspepsia, it denotes a form of it resulting from an enfeebled condition of the system. The tendency to it is quite often inherited. It is frequently one of the characteristics of old age, the entire digestive tract sharing in the general decrease of physical power. It may also have its origin in whatever lets down the normal vitality —sedentary occupations, bad hygienic surroundings, protracted loss of sleep, especially if the hours due to it are spent in study or pleasure, over-brain work, habitual lack of mental employments. The' fallowing are some of the prominent symptoms: A feeling of weight, or a distressing sense of uneasiness in the stomach after eating, and generally lasting for hours; the “gulping” up of rancid and offensive acids, and flatulence in the stomach and bowels ; little or no appetite, and often a positive disrelish for food; an almost entire absence of thirst; an inflamed condition of the throat and back of the mouth (from the extension upward of the irritated membrane of the stomach), rendering the throat dry and the voice husky; constipation, from the enfeebled action of the intestines, the fluid portion of their contents being unduly absorbed; in some cases palpitation of the heart and difficulty of breathing, causing the patient to fear that he has some dangerous heart trouble; languor, and sometimes uncontrollable drowsiness after meals. When the dyspepsia has continued long, the digestive tubules are liable to undergo fatty degeneration and wasting, with loss of power to secrete the gastric juice. Prior to this change of structure the ailment is curable. If it is due to specific causes, these causes must be removed. If it is part of an enfeebled physical state, this must be remedied. The family physician alone can treat the case with any success. The medicines which .the patient, of himself or from the advice of unwise friends, might be likely to take would in many cases only aggravate the disease. Indeed, the physician himself will depend very little on medicine and mainly on a careful regulation of the diet; personal habits, domestic influences. Especially will he urge, where it is possible, frequent changes from one’s ordinary caresand surroundings.— Youth's Companion.