Tmt  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
395 
whatever  the  job.  That’s  real  year- 
round  service — the  kind  your  tractor 
will  give  if  it  gets  the  right  care. 
Much  depends  on  correct  lubrica¬ 
tion. 
Socony  Motor  Oil  stands  the  extra 
high  operating  heat  tractor  engines 
develop — whether  you  burn  kerosene 
or  gasoline.  Maintains  full  compres¬ 
sion.  Protects  bearings,  cylinders  and 
valve  mechanism  with  an  oil  cushion 
that  defeats  friction.  Keeps  tractors 
lull-powered  and  long-lived  at  least 
cost  for  overhauling  and  repairs. 
The  Socony  Motor  Oil  chart  will 
tell  you  the  correct  grade  for  your 
tractor.  Ask  vour  dealer  to  show 
Health 
Notes 
Acidosis  in  Children 
Will  you  tell  us  as  much  as  possible 
about  acidosis?  I  have  had  it  to  contend 
with  in  the  case  of  my  two  little  ones,  and 
have  had  excellent  treatment  by  our  fam¬ 
ily  doctor,  who  also  provided  me  with 
chemical  to  test  for  it  in  its  first  stage. 
But  he  does  not  seem  to  know  the  exact 
cause  of  it  or  what  course  I  should  pur¬ 
sue  to  prevent  it  other  than  to  “follow  a 
sane  diet.”  Dr.  Wiley,  in  a  magazine 
article,  has  said  it  is  due  to  a  restricted 
diet,  in  children  a  diet  of  milk  and  cex-e- 
als  without  necessary  fruit  and  vegetables. 
And  yet  the  last  attack  we  had  to  treat 
in  our  little  daughter  came  at  a  time 
when  we  thought  she  was  taking  a  very 
well-balanced  diet.  It  seems  it  is  not  gen¬ 
erally  known,  and  yet  is  more  often  than 
not  the  cause  of  serious  illness  in  chil¬ 
dren.  If  it  is  possible  to  make  the  moth¬ 
ers  familiar  wTith  it  and  its  causes,  it  may 
save  some  of  our  babies  from  another  of 
the  many  physical  ills  that  beset  them  in 
their  earliest  years.  I  believe  our  former 
Vice-President,  Mr.  Marshall,  and  his 
wife  lost  the  little  boy  they  had  adopted 
from  acidosis.  mbs.  e.  e.  l. 
Milford,  Ohio. 
Acidosis,  a  comparatively  new  term  in 
medicine,  is  not  the  name  of  a  disease, 
but  the  description  of  a  condition  found 
in  many  diseases.  Under  normal  con¬ 
ditions  the  blood  is  alkaline,  rather  than 
acid  in  its  reaction,  and,  in  fact,  it  con¬ 
stantly  remains  alkaline,  but  the  degree 
of  this  alkalinity  varies.  Under  certain 
abnormal  conditions,  as  in  disease  and 
improper  diet,  the  blood  becomes  less  al¬ 
kaline  than  it  should  be,  and  in  conse¬ 
quence  is  incapable  of  carrying  on  all  of 
its  functions  properly.  The  blood  does 
not  become  acid,  as  the  term  acidosis 
might  lead  one  to  suppose ;  it  simply  be¬ 
comes  less  alkaline. 
The  conditions  under  which  this  les¬ 
sened  alkalinity  becomes  apparent  are 
numerous,  and  for  the  most  part  tempo¬ 
rary.  It  is  one  of  the  accompaniments 
of  disease  of  childhood,  and  also  of  more 
chronic  and  serious  diseases  of  kidneys, 
spleen,  liver  and  other  organs  in  adult 
life.  Temporarily  it  may  follow  a  sur¬ 
gical  operation,  prolonged  and  severe 
diarrhoea,  a  starvation  diet  and  poisoning 
by  various  drugs,  among  which  fs  anti- 
p.vrine,  so  commonly  used  as  a  headache 
remedy.  < 
The  severe  grades  of  acidosis,  known  as 
acid  intoxication,  are  uncommon,  except 
in  some  chronic  diseases  of  the  spleen 
and  kidneys,  and  in  stomach  and  intes¬ 
tinal  intoxications  /of  childhood.  The 
milder  and  more  common  degrees  of  acid¬ 
osis  are  to  be  detected  only  by  laboratory 
tests,  hardly  within  the  range  of  the 
mother’s  ability  to  diagnose  disease,  and 
severe  acid  intoxication  is  emphatically 
a  condition  calling  for  skilled  medical  at¬ 
tention. 
I  judge  that  your  family  physician  has 
advised  you  wisely  in  this  matter,  and  has 
told  you  about  all  that  there  is  to  tell 
the  mother.  There  is  yet  considerable 
to  be  learned  about  this  trouble  before  it 
can  be  reduced  to  its  A,  B,  C’s  and  placed 
in  easily  digestible  form  before  the  laitv 
If,  in  spite  of  a  well-balanced  diet  and 
good  general  hygienic  care,  the  condition 
appears  during  childhood,  it  is  one  for 
the  family  physician  to  advise  with  regard 
to,  and  you  are  fortunate  in  having  a 
family  physician  sufficiently  well  posted 
and  alert  to  assure  your  children  the  over¬ 
sight  of  their  health  needed  beyond  that 
which  you  are  able  to  give.  M.  b.  d. 
An  Overdose  of  Ginger 
I  wish  some  doctor  would  comment  on 
the  habit  of  nibbling  preserved  ginger.  I 
recall  that  many  years  ago  someone  made 
me  a  present  of  a  whole  box  of  imported 
ginger.  I  thought  it  was  pretty  nice,  and 
selfishly  kept  it  in  a  bureau  drawer,  keep¬ 
ing  a  little  in  my  pocket  most  of  the  time, 
so  I  was  nibbling  it  every  day.  By  the 
time  it  was  gone  I  felt  that  I  needed  a 
full  new  set  of  inner  tubes.  Of  course, 
it  wasn’t  fatal,  since  I  am  here  yet.  I 
talked  with  the  doctor  about  it.  He  said 
somthing  about  aromatic,  stimulant, 
carminative,  etc.  I  guess  it  was  all  those 
things*  but  it  didn’t  explain  anything 
what  it  had  done  to  me.  .Tust  this  last 
Christmas  Santa  Claus  brought  another 
member  of  the  family  a  box  of  ginger.  I 
advise  that  she  treat  it  very  gingerly,  also 
that  she  be  generous  with  her  friends. 
Don’t  pass  it  to  me ;  I  don’t  want  any. 
Hingham,  Mass.  U.  s.  B. 
I  don’t  quite  understand  why  you  ate 
the  most  of  your  box  of  preserved  ginger 
joui'self  and  yet  advise  the  other  recipi¬ 
ent  of  a  like  present  to  divide  up,  unless, 
of  course,  you  want  to  save  this  other 
member  of  the  family  from  the  fate  which 
befell  you.  No,  I  cannot  approve  of  the 
use  of  this  condiment  in  your  family, 
where  they  may  be  what  the  doctors  call 
an  idiosyncrasy  toward  it.  In  case  you 
receive  another  box,  particularly  or  the 
imported  kind,  mail  it  directly  to  me,  and 
I  will  see  that  it  harms  no  one — else. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  ginger  is  an  aro¬ 
matic  stimulant  and  a  carminative  and 
all  that,  but.  as  you  suggest,  I  think  it 
he**-  to  use  it  gingerly,  except  as  I  have 
stud  before,  iu  pumpkin  pie.  I  have  been 
criticised  for  criticising  the  administra¬ 
tion  of  ginger  to  the  lower  animals  as  one 
of  the  ingredients  of  a  geueral  “tonic,” 
but  I  am  still  unable  to  see  how  the  ap¬ 
plication  of  a  volatile  and  irritating  oil 
to  any  animal’s  insides  can  tone  it  up. 
A  moderate  arnouut  would  irritate;  an 
excessive  amount  would  inflame,  but  J 
cannot  see  that,  in  either  case,  any  par¬ 
ticular  good  would  be  accomplished. 
M.  B.  D. 
Rash  on  Skin 
For  the  last  few  months  I  have  had 
much  trouble  with  a  rash,  which,  al¬ 
though  not  causing  any  physical  discom¬ 
fort,  is  very  unseemly.  The  doctor  says 
it  is  not  indigestion,  but  says  certa'in 
foods  have  certain  matters  in  them  which 
when  brought  into  conjunction  form  a 
serum  which  poisons  the  blood.  I  am 
healthy  in  every  other  way,  and  have  a 
good  physique,  being  5  ft.  9  in.  tall  and 
weighing  14S  lbs.  '  N.  a.  p. 
Mattituck,  N.  Y. 
Your  skin  rash  is  probably  the  result 
of  what  is  called  protein  poisoning  from 
eating  certain  foods  which  disagree  with 
you.  Such  rashes,  and  even  more  serious 
irritations,  are  very  common,  many  peo¬ 
ple  having  learned  from  experience  that 
they  cannot  eat  certain  articles  of  food 
without  suffering  some  unpleasant  effect. 
This  poisoning  is  of  the  same  nature  as 
that  which  produces  hay  fever  in  those 
susceptible  to  the  irritant  action  of  the 
pollen  of  hay  fever  causing  weeds.  The 
dust  and  dandruff  from  the  skin  and  hair 
of  horses  or  other  animals,  and  the 
emanations  from  feathers,  affect  others 
similarly.  It  must  not  be  understood 
from  this  that  “proteins”  are  poisons  in 
the  commonly  accepted  sense  of  that 
word ;  they  are  simply  elements  in  the 
make-up  of  animal  and  vegetable  bodies, 
certain  of  which  may  affect  certain  peo¬ 
ple  disagreeably,  producing  skin  rashes, 
asthmatic  attacks,  or  other  evidences  of 
irritation  in  those  susceptible  to  them. 
The  simple  remedy  for  these  trouble1* 
is  to  avoid  thofi/-  sources  of  irritation 
which  experience  nas  taught  one  to  fear. 
The  production  of  immunity  to  protein 
poisoning  through  the  use  of  preparations 
made  from  the  offending  proteins  them¬ 
selves  must  be  left  to  the  skill  and  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  trained  physician,  m.  b.  d. 
A  dusky  rookie  was  doing  guard  duty 
for  the  first  time.  Along  came  one  of 
those  officers  who  wear  silver  chickens  on 
their  shoulders.  The  rookie  naturally 
got  excited  and  flustered.  “Halt!”  he 
yelled,  and  then  stopped.  “'What  are 
you  going  to  do  next?”  inquired  the  Colo! 
nel  after  he  had  remained  on  the  spot 
like  a  graven  image  for  some  seconds. 
“I  ain’t  sure,  boss,”  admitted  the  darky. 
Then  he  added  dangerously :  “But,  by 
golly,  yo’  better  stan’  right,  whah  yo’  is 
till  I  thinks  what  Ise  to  do.” — American 
Legion  Weekly. 
SOCONY  MOTOR  OIL 
fa  TRACTOR  LUBRICATION 
