TRIXY - Yes, a girl of thirteen who measures five feet in height is certainly tall. But is Trixy in earnest when she says she can walk six miles an hour? Can she keep it up? Why, it is athlete's work, and certain to do her harm if she persists in the practice.
NURSEY - You tell us your friend is so much affected at the chest and throat by a long and loud fit of laughter as to feel a considerable amount of exhaustion, and to wheeze in his breathing, so that it resembles low whistling. And you ask first whether it is probably the mischief is in the throat or chest, and second, "Would it appear to be a serious weakness?" Did we know his age and the condition of his body, whether fat or lean, we would be better able to answer you. We would say that the mischief was in the bronchial tubes of the lungs; they are just weak enough to be easily irritated, spasmodically so. We do not say it is serious, and if he is young or middle-aged, here is the treatment, good living, exercise, dumb bells preferably - cod-liver oil, the shower bath and avoidance of exciting cause. Why does he laugh so? It makes us smile to think of it.
AMY SIMS - Your first letter was never received. You want advice about loss of voice, and say "my singing voice has lately, without any apparent cause, entirely disappeared, and I can scarcely sing a note." This is what we in the medical profession term "Aphonia," but not complete. It may be caused by cold, or by a kind of partial paralysis of the vocal cords, or from hysteria, or from derangement of the general health. We believe that if you once a week take a seidlitz powder before breakfast, and get an iron and quinine mixture from your chemist's, and take it regularly thrice a day, you will soon regain your voice. Parrish's chemical food does good in such cases, as does cod-liver oil. Write again.
MURIEL M. - The redness in the nose that you complain of as occurring in cold weather can only be remedied by attention to the general health. Your circulation does not seem to be strong. By taking plenty of exercise in the open air you strengthen the heart, and the bath in the morning will prevent you from catching cold, and brace the nerves as well. Take also from ten to fifteen drops of tincture of iron in a little water three times a day. (You give no age but we presume from your handwriting you are between fifteen and twenty.) Attend particularly to the state of your stomach.
VIOLET SILVER asks for "a receipt for red hands." We have none to acknowledge. If she requires a recipe for them we advise her to wear no gloves, and expose them successively to sun and frost.
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