686 
Pie  RURAL.  NEW. YORKER 
May  o,  192:’. 
Health  Notes 
Notes  From  A  Sagebrush  Farmer’s  Wife 
Medical  Treatment 
Like  all  the  other  reading  in  The  R. 
N.-Y.,  “Health  Notes”  are  most  interest¬ 
ing  and  informing,  and  I  will  submit  my 
case  for  discussion  and  hope  to  get  some 
enlightenment.  Since  last  Fall  I  am 
troubled  with  a  coated,  smarting  tongue 
that  is  fluted  all  around.  I  am  in  doc¬ 
tor’s  care  and  take  pills  daily,  but  with¬ 
out  success  so  far.  I  am  also  troubled 
with  gases  in  my  intestines  and  always 
feel  a  fullness  after  eating.  My  head 
feels  drowsy  on  rising  in  the  morning. 
The  joints  in  my  finger  tips  begin  to  get 
little  hard  lumps.  I  am  middle-aged. 
New  York.  A.  B.  c. 
I  am  glad  to  know  that  you  are  inter¬ 
ested  in  “Health  Notes”  and  hope  that 
you  will  find  something  in  them  of  value 
to  you  personally.  I  regret,  however,  that 
it  is  impossible  for  us  to  undertake  to 
diagnose  and  prescribe  for  individual 
cases.  There  are  so  many  things  to  be 
known  and  taken  into  consideration  in 
treating  any  case  that  only  a  physician 
on  the  spot  can  be  trusted  to  prescribe 
intelligently.  iWe  can  discuss  disease  in 
general  terms,  giving  some  of  the  main 
features  common  to  all,  or  to  most,  cases, 
but  each  individual  case  is  more  or  less 
a  law  unto  itself,  and  should  have  indi¬ 
vidual  treatment  by  someone  in  position 
to  ascertain  all  the  conditions  present. 
We  should  be  glad  to  prescribe,  if  it  were 
possible  to  do  so  safely  and  intelligently, 
but  it  is  not  possible  to  do  this  from  a 
distance,  and  we  must  ask  our  readers, 
in  their  own  interest,  to  obtain  the  best 
medical  advice  available  to  them  locally. 
There  are  few  cases  in  which  this  advice 
should  not  be  superior  to  any  that  we 
could  offer,  with  our  necessarily  very  lim¬ 
ited  knowledge.  M.  B.  D. 
A  Ohapter  on  Intestinal  Worms 
Your  paper  describes  all  kinds  of 
worms,  in  the  soH,  animals,  etc.,  but  I 
would  like  to  have  described  worms  in 
people,  cause  and  remedy*  if  you  will. 
I  know  of  different  cases,  but  can  they 
be  cleared  out  of  the  stomach?  One  case 
a  worm  crawled  out  of  the  person  in  bed 
at  night.  Would  they  cause  pimples  on 
the  face?  I  have  heard  people  would 
not  live  if  they  were  all  out  of  the  stom¬ 
ach.  D-  B* 
New  York. 
While  worms  have  been  dethroned  from 
their  former  high  estate  as  one  of  the 
most  frequent  causes  of  childhood  ills, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  some  children  and 
some  adults  do  harbor  worms,  and  that 
these  parasites  may  produce  at  least  part 
of  the  symptoms  generally  attributed  to 
them.  It  is  unsafe,  however,  to  assume 
that  a  child  has  worms  because  it  picks 
at  the  nose,  grinds  the  teeth,  starts  in 
its  sleep,  has  colicky  pains,  a  capricious 
appetite,  a  foul  breath,  feverish  attacks, 
dark  rings  under  the  eyes,  and  even  con¬ 
vulsions.  These  nervous  and  nutritional 
disturbances  are  more  frequently  caused 
by  debilitation  from  improper  feeding, 
hick  of  fresh  air  and  sunlight,  lack  of 
needed  exercise  and  other  mismanage¬ 
ment  ;  only  semi-occasionally  are  worms 
at  the  bottom  of  them.  Neither  should 
the  mucus  that  escapes  in  strings,  or  even 
masses,  from  a  child’s  bowels  be  mistaken 
for  worms,  either  whole  or  digested.  This 
mucus  is  evidence  of  art  unhealthy  con¬ 
dition  of  the  mucus  membranes  of  the 
bowels,  but  it  is  not  all  necessarily  an 
accompaniment  of  worms.  In  fact,  there 
is  but  one  indication  of  worms  that  will 
be  accepted  as  conclusive  by  careful  phy¬ 
sicians,  that  is  the  finding  of  worms  or 
their  eggs  in  the  stools.  All  other  “symp¬ 
toms”  are  untrustworthy. 
Adults,  too,  may  harbor  intestinal 
worms,  and  with  less  likelihood  of  their 
presence  being  manifested,  for  the  nervous 
system  of  an  adult  is  more  stable  than 
that  of  a  child,  and  so-called  reflex  dis¬ 
turbances  are  less  common.  But,  as  with 
the  child,  the  only  positive  evidence  of 
worms  is  worms.  No  one  should  brag  of 
the  possession  of  a  tapeworm,  and  make 
that  an  excuse  for  eating  double  his  por¬ 
tion,  unless  he  can  show  segments  of  the 
worms  that  have  actually  escaped  from 
the  intestinal  tract,  and  even  then  he  had 
better  consult  a  physician  and  get  rid 
of  his  pet  parasite.  It  may  do  him  no 
harm,  but  it  can  do  no  other  good  than 
to  confer  a  sort  of  distinction,  and  pos¬ 
sibly  make  him  a  local  authority  upon 
the  subject  of  worm  medicines. 
•  There  are  several  families  of  worms 
found,  at  times,  in  the  human  body,  but 
only  four  of  any  considerable  importance 
in  the  northern  part  of  our  country.  The 
hookworm  of  the  South  and  various 
worms  that  infest  chiefly  the  inhabitants 
of  European  countries  need  not  be  con¬ 
sidered  here.  The  common  worms  are 
two  varieties  of  tapeworm,  round  worms 
and  pin  worms.  Of  these,  the  most  im¬ 
posing  in  appearance,  though  not  the 
most  common,  are  the  tapeworms.  Coiled 
up  in  a  glass  jar  of  alcohol,  30  or  40  ft. 
of  tapeworm  certainly  make  a  great  show¬ 
ing.  but,  like  most  giants,  the  tapeworm 
isn’t  as  dangerous  as  he  looks.  He  may 
live  for  years  in  the  human  intestine 
without  creating  any  disturbance,  though 
sometimes  he  does.  The  beef  tapeworm 
is  most  often  found,  with  the  pork  tape¬ 
worm  second  in  frequency.  These  worms 
pass  a  part  of  their  lives  in  beef  and  pork 
as  “measles.”  It  is  by  eating  insuf¬ 
ficiently  cooked  "measly”  beef  or  pork 
that  they  obtain  entrance  to  the  human 
body.  Having  obtained  entrance,  they 
complete  their  development  there  and  dis¬ 
charge  segments  and  eggs  to  infect  other 
cattle  and  hogs  than  those  from  which 
they  originally  came.  The  moral  of  this 
life  history  is  obvious;  if  you  would  es¬ 
cape  the  tapeworm,  eat  no  partly  cooked 
meat. 
It  is  not  usually  a  particularly  difficult 
job  to  rid  the  body  of  a  tapeworm  ;  there 
are  several  very  efficient  drugs  for  the 
purpose.  They  need  to  be  given  under 
the  supervision  of  a  physician,  however, 
as  they  possess  poisonous  properties  when 
improperly  taken.  In  contrast  with  the 
big,  flat  segments  of  the  tapeworm’s  body, 
its  head  is  only  about  the  size  of  that  of 
a  pin,  and  this  head  is  armed  with  suck¬ 
ers,  and  in  one  variety  with  hooks,  that 
enable  it  to  cling  tightly  to  the  intestinal 
mucous  membrane.  Unless  this  head  is 
dislodged  and  removed,  the  worm  will 
reproduce  itself. 
Round  worms  look  verv  much  like  angle- 
worms,  and  are  the  most  common  of  these 
intestinal  parasites.  They  are  more  com¬ 
mon  in  children  than  in  adults,  and  do 
not  usually  exist  in  very  large  numbers. 
Instances  have  been  known,  however,  of 
their  being  present  in  such  numbers  as 
to  clog  the  intestine.  They  are  taken 
into  the  body  with  polluted  water  or  con¬ 
taminated  food,  and,  like  other  worms, 
make  their  presence  known  when  they, 
or  their  eggs,  escape  from  the  bowel. 
Santonin  is  the  best  expellant.  of  round 
worms,  hut  it  also  is  a  drug  that  should 
be  prescribed  in  nroper  dosage,  and  with 
proper  precautions,  by  a  physician. 
Pinworms,  or  seatworms,  look  like  bits 
of  white  thread,  from  a  third  to  a  half¬ 
inch.  long.  They  live  in  the  lower  bowel 
and  produce  intense  itching,  with  some¬ 
times  irritation  of  adjacent  parts.  Worm 
remedies  are  given  to  drive  them  down 
in  the  bowels,  and  they  are  then  removed 
by  small  injections  of  soapy  water,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  like  injections  of  a  tea  made 
from  quassia  chips,  one  ounce  to  the  pint 
of  water.  Reinfection  is  easy,  as  children 
get  the  eggs  of  these  small  worms  under 
the  finger  nails,  in  scratching,  and  then 
transfer  them  to  their  mouths.  Only 
strict  cleanliness  of  body,  underclothing 
and  bedding  will  suffice  to  prevent  this. 
These  worms  are  sometimes  very  difficult 
to  eradicate,  especially  in  adults. 
Much  more  might  be  said  about  worms, 
but  the  above  are  a  few  of  the  outstand¬ 
ing  facts  with  regard  to  the  most  com¬ 
mon  ones.  The  human  body  should  be 
kept  free  from  them  by  personal  cleanli¬ 
ness  and  care  in  the  preparation  of  foods. 
Their  eggs  are  discharged  upon  the 
ground,  where  they  may  be  eaten  in  the 
food  of  lower  animals  or  contaminate 
such  vegetables  as  are  eaten  raw.  This 
means  that  green  foods  should  be  made 
clean,  and  that  meats  should  be  thor¬ 
oughly  cooked.  More  than  that,  dirtv 
fingers  should  never  be  put  into  the 
mouth.  The  mouth,  by  the  wav,  is,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  nose,  the  portal  of  en¬ 
trance  of  nine-tenths  of  the  communicable 
diseases  that  afflict  mankind.  Contagion 
seldom  flies  through  the  air;  it  is  carried 
upon  soiled  fingers.  And  it  is  most  easily 
gotten  rid  of  by  the  plentiful  use  of  soap 
and  water.  All  families  who  wish  to  be 
known  as  belonging  to  the  real  aristocracy 
of  the  land  will  emblazon  a  cake  of  soap 
upon  their  coat  of  arms,  and  the  verv 
elect  will  have  a  barrel  of  soft  soap  in 
the  cellar.  m.  b.  d. 
Virtues  of  Lemon  Juice 
Would  you  tell  all  the  good  qualities  of 
lemon  juice?  A  friend  of  mine  was  ad¬ 
vised  by  his  doctor  to  take  the  juice  of 
half  a  lemon  in  a  glass  of  cold  water 
the  last  thing  before  going  to  bed  and 
the  first  thing  in  the  morning  for  rheuma¬ 
tism  and  high  blood  pressure.  I  began 
taking  it  over  a  year  ago.  The  only  good 
feature  I  see  in  it.  I  haven’t  had  a  cold 
since  taking  it.  and  before  in  the  Winter 
Iwas  having  one  cold  after  another. 
Oanajoharie,  N.  Y.  a.  e.  s. 
Perhaps  the  best  quality  possesed  by 
lemon  juice  is  that  of  making  first-class 
lemonade,  though  real  lemon  pies,  with 
meringue,  crowd  this  indispensable  article 
of  diet  hard  for  second  place.  In  the 
old  days  of  long  sea  voyages  and  under 
conditions  of  housing  and  feeding  suffered 
at  times  by  prisoners  or  soldiers,  lemon 
juice  was  a  preventive  of  scurvy,  a  disease 
now  seldom  seen  in  adults,  though  com¬ 
mon  in  improperly  fed  infants.  Lemon 
juice  owes  its  value  to  the  presence  of 
citric  acid,  an  acid  also  found  in  straw¬ 
berries  and  other  fruits.  Curiously 
enough,  however,  citric  acid,  when  di¬ 
vorced  from  lemon  juice,  is  inferior  to 
the  whole  juice  of  the  fruit.  Lemon  juice 
is  prescribed,  as  you  suggest,  for  sufferers 
from  “rheumatism,”  and  frequently  with 
good  results.  It  is  a  source  of  one  of 
the  needed  vitamines,  is  a  good  fruit 
juice  for  those  with  whom  it  agrees  and 
who  need  this  addition  to  their  diet.  and. 
when  taken  with  a  liberal  quantity  of 
water,  encourages  the  consumption  of 
that  often  neglected  beverage.  In  view 
of  its  many  good,  and  few  bad.  qualities, 
it  is  hard  to  see  how  “handing  a  lemon” 
to  anyone  could  have  ever  become 
synonymous  with  doing  him  a  disfavor. 
M.  B.  D. 
Ice  Ckeam  and  Butter. — We  are  hav¬ 
ing  a  delightful  Spring  after  a  mild,  open 
Winter.  Idaho  should  be  famous  for  her 
climate.  Her  occasional  high  wind  is  her 
only  drawback,  and  the  past  year  has  been 
singularly  free  from  winds.  I  have  en¬ 
joyed  the  Winter,  but  the  children  have 
grumbled  considerably  over  the  lack  of 
skating.  We  had  a  deep  ice  pit  dug.  and 
the  next  day  Srring  was  here,  and  the 
little  ice  that  had  been  on  the  canal  was 
gone  in  a  morning  of  warm  sunshine. 
Some  farmers  went  as  far  as  Wilson’s 
Lake  and  got  ice  on  hayracks,  but  we 
decided  that  it  would  be  impracticable 
for  us.  So  we  shall  have  to  buy  our  ice 
this  Summer,  and  can  have  ice  cream  not 
oftener  than  once  a  week  in  consequence, 
since  we  do  not  go  to  town  oftener  than 
that  for  supplies.  We  have  so  much  de¬ 
licious  cream  that  we  had  hoped  for  a 
different  arrangement.  Freezers  at  $9 
should  be  put  to  use.  And  that  reminds 
me  that  my  ice  cream  freezer  is  in  almost 
Effective  Hired  Help 
constant  use.  I  wonder  if  anyone  else, 
besides  myself,  uses  an  ice  cream  freezer 
to  churn  in?  It  makes  th£  best  churn  I 
ever  had.  It  is  my  habit  to  put  enough 
cream  in  the  freezer  for  the  amount  of 
butter  I  want,  usually  two  gallons  at  a 
time,  allow  to  sour  slightly,  test  with  a 
thermometer.  If  too  cold,  one  may  pour 
warm  water  around  the  freezer,  in  the 
wooden  bucket,  and  if  too  warm,  the 
same  may  be  done  with  cold  water.  The 
butter  comes  quickly,  may  be  washed  in 
the  freezer,  and  also  worked  there.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  valuable  discoveries  I 
ever  made. 
Sugar  Beets. — The  two  men  and  the 
boy  are  working  hard  putting  in  the 
crops.  We  now  have  nearly  all  our  sugar 
beets  in.  'Strangely  enough,  it  is  dif¬ 
ficult  to  get  the  farmers  to  plant  sugar 
beets,  while  they  are  all  ready  to  take  a 
chance  on  potatoes,  the  most  unreliable 
crop  we  have  as  to  yield  and  price.  On 
tlfe  other  hand,  we  made  $82.33  per  acre 
clean  profit  ou  our  beets  this  year,  and 
we  have  not  yet  received  the  final  bonus 
on  them.  It  is  a  crop  whose  payment  is 
guaranteed  ;  in  fact,  by  all  odds  the  best 
crop  a  farmer  here  can  put  into  the 
ground.  I  do  not  think  I  ever  saw  a 
prettier  crop  than  the  one  we  had  last 
year — enormous  beets,  a  perfectly  clean 
field  of  them  reaching  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  see.  We  averaged  18  tons  to  the 
acre. 
Lettuce. — Last  year  the  farmers  of 
Idaho  plunged  into  lettuce  growing. 
Idaho  has  an  ideal  climate  for  lettuce, 
especially  can  Fall  lettuce  be  successfully 
grown.  I  have  served  head  lettuce  grown 
in  my  garden  on  my  Thanksgiving  table, 
having  brushed  the  heavy  snow  from  the 
heads,  and  stored  in  the  cellar  like  cab¬ 
bage.  There  was  an  over-abundant  crop 
last  year,  and  the  farmers  around  Nampa 
lost  $40,000  on  their  lettuce  crop.  I  was 
all  for  growing  head  lettuce,  being  suc¬ 
cessful  myself  in  its  cultivation,  but  after 
last  year’s  experience,  I  am  saying  noth¬ 
ing. 
Live  Stock. — This  is  beginning  to  be 
a  cow  country,  and  with  reason.  Unless 
we  get  cows  into  this  country  we  may  as 
well  leave,  for  we  are  going  to  be  forced 
out.  There  are  2.000  more  cows  just 
now  in  this  part  of  Idaho  than  there  were 
one  year  ago.  All  the  farmers  around 
here  pay  their  runnning  expenses  with 
their  cream  checks.  Chickens  and  hogs 
follow  logically.  If  everybody  ate  eggs 
after  the  manner  of  Warren  G.  Noggle, 
a  student  at  the  State  University,  there 
would  be  profit  in  chicken-raising.  On 
Easter,  in  an  egg-eating  contest,  this 
young  man  ate  31  soft-boiled  eggs.  He 
won.  However,  his  feat  was  not  an  ex¬ 
pensive  one,  for  eggs  are  now  only  13 
cents  a  dozen.  Intrinsically  they  are 
worth  more,  but  that  is  all  the  grocery 
man  will  give  the  farmer’s  wife.  We 
are  trying  an  experiment  this  year,  one 
which  I  have  hitherto  condemned.  We 
have  some  very  good  purebred  White 
Plymouth  Rocks  which  we  are  crossing 
with  some  purebred  Leghorns.  Both 
strains  cannot  be  beaten  in  the  State  of 
Idaho,  and  have  both  sprung  from  prize 
chickens.  Our  Leghorns  beat  our  Ply 
mouth  Rocks  completely  in  egg-laying, 
but  the  Plymouth  Rocks  are  big,  hand¬ 
some  birds.  We  may  find,  to  our  sorrow, 
that  we  have  no  flock  at  all  in  the  end, 
but  there  is  fun  in  experimenting. 
Tree-planting. — There  is  a  movement 
on  foot  to  have  the  farmers  plant  more 
trees.  One  of  our  leaders  in  all  agricul¬ 
tural  movements  for  the  betterment  of 
the  farmers  here  advises  planting  Caro¬ 
lina  or  Lombardy  poplars,  or  the  Amer¬ 
ican  or  golden  willows.  Besides  the  civ¬ 
ilizing  effect  of  trees  in  a  desert  country 
such  as  ours,  we  need  windbreaks  badly 
along  the  west,  for  our  prevailing  wind 
is  from  the  west.  If  we  had  such  wind¬ 
breaks,  the  moisture  would  be  conserved 
and  there  would  not  be  need  of  so  much 
irrigation.  After  the  temporary  trees 
have  formed  a  windbreak,  evergreens  may 
be  planted  ifor  permanent  windbileak. 
Eastern  farmers  could  hardly  believe  how 
completely  treeless  we  are — the  trees  so 
few  and  so  young  as  to  be  almost  unno- 
ticeable. 
Caravan  Settlers. — There  may  be 
farmers  among  The  R.  N.-Y.  readers  who 
remember  .  the  automobile  caravans  of 
Eastern  city  people  who  came  out  here 
to  Idaho  and  settled  on  what  was,  and  is, 
known  as  the  Roseworth  Tract.  1  re¬ 
ceived  many  letters  from  R.  N.-Y.  readers 
at  the  time  from  people  who  contemplated 
accompanying  these  caravans.  Invariably 
I  discouraged  them  from  undertaking 
such  a  project — that  of  goimr  on  sag<  - 
brush  land  at  $1.25  an  acre,  with  poor 
water  rights,  and  across  an  impassable 
<  any  on  from  the  nearest  town.  I  learned 
today  that  the  last  member  of  those  cara¬ 
vans  has  deserted  the  tract.  Poor  city 
People,  coming  out  to  the  blare  of  bands 
and  the.  welcoming  of  the  mayors  of 
cities,  with  their  dreams  of  wealth  won 
from  the  land !  All  their  good  money 
gone,  they  have  melted  away,  with  what 
disappointment  and  hardships  can  be  im¬ 
agined. 
State-owned  Warehouses.  —  One  of 
the  greatest  pieces  of  legislation  that  ever 
took  place  in  the  State  of  Idaho  was  ac¬ 
complished  this  year.  We  are  to  have  a 
State-owned  warehouse.  There  was  a  ter¬ 
rific  fight  in  the  Legislature  about  this 
bill,  and  loud  cries  from  the  opposition 
of  “Bolsheviks.”  “Socialists,”  etc.,  but 
there  was  one  influential  man  behind  it, 
a  Republican  whose  far-sightedness  was 
greater  than  that  of  most  men,  and  he 
practically  compelled  the  success  of  the 
measure.  After  it  had  passed  both  houses, 
fighting  its  way  by  inches,  it  was  said 
that  the  Governor  was  about  to  veto  it. 
That  he  did  not  do  so  was  owing  entirely 
to  this  one  man.  This  warehouse  will 
mean  a  great  thing  for  the  farmers  of 
Idaho,  and  is  the  first  step  in  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  the  things  which  they  need.  The 
farmers  did  not  bring  it  to  pass,  for  as 
yet  we  have  not  the  balance  of  power  in 
the  Legislature,  but  we  care  not  how  we 
obtain  justice,  whether  from  old  party 
members  or  not,  just  so  we  do  get  what 
is  right. 
Farm  Help. — Farm  help  is  very  scarce 
this  year.  One  of  our  acquaintances  has 
As  Our  Farm  Looked  When  We  Came 
to  pay  $85  a  month  and  supply  the  hired 
hand’s  family  with  garden  spot,  butter, 
cream  and  milk.  We  pay  only  $65,  but 
in  this  case  the  man  had  been  wanting 
to  work  for  my  husband  for  a  long  time. 
Many  farmers  around  us  are  unable  to 
get  any  kind  of  help.  This  ought  to  be 
the  opportunity  for  the  “flapper  farmer,” 
if  there  is  such  a  being.  One  of  our  most 
satisfaetorv  hands  last  Summer  was  a 
17-year-old  girl,  daughter  of  the  widow 
school  teacher. 
ANNIE  PIKE  GREENWOOD. 
Jerome  Co.,  Idaho. 
Pneumonia  is  responsible  for  more 
deaths  in  this  country  each  year  than  any 
other  disease,  according  to  officials  of 
the  .United  States  Public  Health  Service. 
It  is  estimated  that  pneumonia  exacts 
an  annual  toll  of  between  13,000  and 
14,000  lives.  There  has  been  a  pro* 
uounced  decrease  in  deaths  from  pneu-1 
monia  as  well  as  every  other  disease 
within  the  last  20  years.  Twenty  years 
ago  1S0.5  persons  in  every  100,000  died 
yearly  of  pneumonia,  while  at  present 
only  123.6  persons  die  from  it. 
