JANUARY 15. 1916 



HEALTH NOTES 



PHYSICAL CULTURE — SOMETHING IN FAVOR 

 OF IT, EVEN FOR FARMERS. 



In your potato book you say a few things to the 

 effect that physical culture is unnecessary with farm 

 work. I worked on a farm from the age of 1'2 to 

 16 (am still there), and at that time I could not Co 

 things that others stronger tlian I could. I took .;p 

 physical culture, and in one or two years I was their 

 equal, and in a few things stronger. 



John H. Rossf.k. 



Tambourine, Queensland, Aus. 



My good friend, I think that what you 

 aUude to is where I spoke of lifting a bush- 

 el of i^otatoes to pour them into a sack that 

 was hung on a wheelbarrow, etc. That kind 

 of exercise seemed to bring almost every 

 muscle of my body into play more or less; 

 and by the time I had sacked several hun- 

 dred bushels in that way I had gained in 

 weight, and you may be sure I gained in 

 appetite. At the present time I find it a 

 benefit to go through a part of my physical- 

 culture exercises every morning just before 

 taking my bath. As soon as I am out of 

 bed I swing my arms until I am warmed up 

 enough so I do not mind taking a bath in 

 moderately cool water. 



WOMEN DOCTORS FOR WOMEN. 



Mr. Root:— Yon say on p. 519, July 1, 1914, 

 " No doctor is qualified to treat husbands and wives 

 until he is a married man himself. . . Perhaps I had 

 better modify it by saying that any doctor 25 years 

 old should be married, and should have some chil- 

 dren I would suggest that his wife go 



with him, especially when he has women patients." 

 To all of which I devoutly say amen! But why not 

 go one better, and advocate women doctors for 

 women ? Do you know that, in my opinion, men 

 doctors for women is one of the most disgusting 

 things we could have, and one of the most debasing 

 things for the women. Do you know that women 

 being treated (and young girls too) at our public 

 hospitals are exposed to the gaze of a body of male 

 students'! Could you imagine any treatment which 

 would destroy her natural modesty quicker? I 

 have even heard (and I have no reason to doubt it) 

 that at one hospital in Sydney women are confined 

 on a warm slab in the presence of a large class of 

 students. Can you imagine the feelings of these 

 poor creatures at the time of their greatest tribula- 

 tion being subjected to this treatment? I am told 

 that this is unavoidable, as the students must learn ; 

 but in my humble opinion they need not be male 

 students. 



Then, again, the percentage of bad immoral men 

 in the medical profession is just as great as in any 

 other walk of life; and the amount of harm done 

 in family life is very great. Why run the risk of 

 this at all when women doctors can do the work just 

 as well ? If you helped the cause of the women 

 doctors it would help very materially to further this 

 very necessary reform. 



Major Shallard. 



Many thanks, my good friend, for your 

 very excellent and kind suggestion. It is 

 l^robably true — at least at the present time 



— that our most able and efficient physicians 

 are men ; but there is no reason, as I see it, 

 why a woman doctor, when she has charge 

 of a critical case, should not call in an able 

 male physician to consult with. Your sug- 

 gestion (and how true it is!) that our 

 doctors should be the most moral men — - 

 next to the clergy, in fact — reminds me 

 there are quite a few who do not hesitate to 

 use their position as a means to commit 

 foul crime. During my short life I have 

 known one or two cases where the family 

 physician broke up a family; and I have 

 come in touch, also, with doctors who gave 

 the vilest counsel and advice to young men 

 and boys, that one can well imagine. As an 

 illustration, the family physician, one whose 

 office is to lead the way to health, is too 

 often a user of both alcoholic stimulants 

 and tobacco. The papers of late have been 

 declaring most vehemently that no drunken 

 man, or, for that matter, drinking man, 

 should presume to run an automobile. But 

 what is an automobile compared with the 

 human form? Think of a surgeon, with 

 his keen lance, taking a drink before he 

 undertakes an operation! 



COUGH MEDICINES — A CAUTION, 



When we gave a list of recipes for cough 

 medicines made of honey in our issue for 

 Oct. 1, the recipes were first submitted to 

 a competent physician. He replied that 

 there was nothing in them that would prob- 

 ably do any harm, but did not commit him- 

 self any further. I now notice that one 

 recipe calls for lobelia. When I first began 

 to go to school I was troubled every winter 

 more or less with severe coughing-spells. 

 They not only disturbed me, but sometimes 

 they threatened to disturb the whole school. 

 I think our family phj'sieian told my moth- 

 ed to give me at such times a little lobelia 

 tea, sweetening it enough to be pleasant to 

 take. When the cough was on I would take 

 just enough lobelia to make me begin to 

 feel a litle sick at my stomach. The cough 

 then would let up. Later on I carried lo- 

 belia pods in my pocket and would chew a 

 small fragment when the cough began to 

 trouble me. Below are some valuable sug- 

 gestions, and a caution in the use of the 

 much advertised " cough lozenges," 



MEDICINE TO ASSIST PUBLIC SPEAKING. 



The honey-in-cooking number had under Health 

 Notes a pretty strong article against patent medi- 

 cines; but in its list of recipes there were eight or 

 nine for cough medicines. It looks as if the idea 

 was that cough medicine is a sort of medicine that 



