Nellie.—The two questions you ask us are in themselves of little importance, but the condition of your mind which lies behind them compels a little advice. Your first question, “What is a good way of getting out of being afraid that there is some illness or disease the matter with oneself?” is easily answered. There is no disease without definite symptoms. You will never get a disease which will leave you very long in doubt about your health. If you want to make perfectly certain, get yourself examined by a physician and have done with your ideas. Your second question is due to the same thing as the first—a morbid self-consciousness. Anybody can think herself into any trouble. You start by fearing that you may get—let us say phthisis. In a few months you begin to think that you may have phthisis. A little time afterwards you come to the conclusion that you are going to get phthisis, the next stage is a conviction that you have phthisis, and the last stage is a feeling of certainty that you have the disease, a certainty which is unshaken by the assurance that your chest is normal, and that the supposed phthisis does not interfere with your health. The first two stages of this history are states of morbid self-consciousness, the next two are on the verge of sanity, the last is a definite disease—not phthisis, but melancholia! You must get yourself to think about other things than your own imaginary evils; a little mental struggle, and it will all come easily. Read the article we published on blushing and nervousness.

Vanity.—Weak ankles are very commonly due to wearing high-heeled shoes. Boots which button up the legs are not so liable as shoes to weaken the ankles, because they protect the latter, but with high-heeled shoes the ankle is left bare, and consequently every time that you twist your foot, you wrench the ankle-joint. We have seen serious disease of the ankle following repeated wrenching or spraining from wearing high-heeled shoes. The higher and narrower the heels are, the more liable are they to do harm.

Hereward the Wake.—Yes! tobacco-chewing is exceedingly injurious. Tobacco contains a large quantity of nicotine, a highly poisonous substance. When tobacco is chewed, this nicotine is taken into the stomach and absorbed.

Blackwater.—We have never heard of a disease or symptom called “blackwater.” We expect that what you mean is “waterbrash”; at all events your description will fit this symptom. Waterbrash is a fairly common symptom of indigestion, especially of those varieties due to excesses of starchy food, and those connected with nervous complaints. Read the answer to “Muriel” (Jan. 21, 1899).

Peggy.—The combination of obesity with thin brittle nails is very common. It seems that the condition of the nails may be directly due to corpulency. The only treatment we can suggest is to relieve the obesity. Conceivably massage of the fingers might be of service.

Dorothy Dimples.—We have answered this question before. We do not think that anæmia is on the increase. Anæmia of girls, that is, chlorosis or green sickness, is from the beginning a chronic disease. The question whether chlorosis is likely to lead to consumption is very important. It certainly is not likely to do so, and our experience leads us to think that anæmic subjects are not appreciably more liable to phthisis than are healthy persons. Theoretically, we should have expected otherwise. Of course some form of anæmia is invariable in the later stages of consumption, as it is in every other wasting disease.

Erda.—Pneumonia is not an hereditary disease, and the children of a woman who has had pneumonia, are no more liable to get that disease than are ordinary persons. Pneumonia is an infectious disease, and is very liable to recur.

STUDY AND STUDIO.

Victoria.—The first number of the Girl’s Own Paper was issued on January 3rd, 1880; of the Boy’s Own Paper a year earlier.

In April.—Without hearing your violin we cannot say whether its tone is good enough for you to play upon it at the examination. If it is “a very nice old” violin, we doubt your being able to procure a better one for £8, but your teacher must really be the judge. The quality of the violin, so long as you have a decent instrument, should not affect your chances of passing. Of more importance is your inability to play from memory. You should practise this art. Doubtless your teacher has a clear synopsis of what you will be expected to do at the examination.

A. V. D. G.—1. Hand gymnastics would not improve your case. All you need is diligent practice, and again practice, guided by strict attention. Do not allow yourself to alight on wrong notes in the manner you describe; always practise slowly at first, increasing the pace until perfect. Do not attempt music that is too difficult for you. We suppose you are taking lessons, as you are only fifteen, and you should be guided by your teacher. 2. “Op.” is the abbreviation for “opus,” the Latin word for “work.” The works of musicians are numbered in a certain order, and the piece you mention must belong to Schumann’s 21st work.

Eglaia.—1. The sign - placed over a note means that the note is to be emphasised.—2. Your writing is disfigured by enormous loops and flourishes, which help to make it illegible. For instance, we fear we have not deciphered your pseudonym correctly. Without these excrescences, your writing would be good. Two answers are our limit: vide rules.

Earnest Student.—The cheapest musical conservatoires are on the Continent, and it is easy to obtain a first-class musical education for a low fee at such places at Leipsic, Dresden, Bonn, or Berlin, but then the cost of board and lodging has to be added. At Leipsic you would have to pay from about £67 to £90 for board, lodging, and musical instruction, and you can obtain all particulars by addressing a letter to “An das Directorium des Conservatoriums” in one of the towns we have mentioned. In London we think the Guildhall School of Music is the least expensive, as the number of subjects may be limited. In the Royal College the fee is £40 a year for tuition; in the Royal Academy, £11 11s. per term, with an entrance fee of £5 5s. In the “Guildhall,” lessons on separate subjects may be obtained from £1 11s. 6d. per term. We advise you (if you can come to London) to write to these three institutions for lists of fees, scholarships, etc., also to Trinity College, Mandeville Place, Manchester Square, W. We might help you more if we knew where you live.

A Kentish Maid.—Why not enter one of the Training Colleges? You have first of all to pass the “Queen’s Scholarship” examination; apply for particulars, Education Department, London, or A. Bourne Esq., British and Foreign School Society, Temple Chambers, London, E.C. After passing this examination, you receive two years’ excellent training at a nominal fee for board and education, the amount of which fee depends on the college. At Stockwell (a splendid college), it is £25 for two (in special cases three) years’ board and education; at others we believe it is less, but these particulars can be obtained from the individual college. You might also with advantage consult Mrs. Watson’s articles on “What are the County Councils doing for Girls?” in the Girl’s Own Paper for 1897.

Amateur Society.—Miss M. Hedge requests us to again bring before our readers her society for studying foreign languages by means of correspondence. A copy of the rules, price twopence, may be obtained on application to her at 19, East Hill, Colchester.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Gertrude P. (Tewkesbury).—We should advise you to get a book on heraldry through some reliable second-hand bookseller. They are not very cheap when large, and that would be the best way of getting a good one. Boutell’s English Heraldry, or his Heraldry Historical and Popular, would suit you, and they are not expensive even when new. They are the smallest books on the subject. Reeves and Turner, 196, Strand, W., publish the first of them. There are several translations of Dante: Cary, and Longfellow’s of the “Divina Commedia.” The “Inferno” was translated separately by Ellaby in 1871. You would get these easily second-hand, we think.

A Regular Reader, Geisha, and Others.—We are always very sorry for people who get stains of any kind on coloured gowns, for they are so difficult to deal with, and the cures for stains are so disappointing in their effects. In the first place, the utmost delicacy is required in manipulating, or the stain will spread and be made worse; and we are always inclined to think that the people who manage to make them are not those who are likely to take them out well. They would probably be careless and “slap-dash.” Copying and marking inks are removed with a strong solution of bleaching powder (borax or soda), after which apply a cold solution of oxalic acid; then rinse in cold water; or instead of the bleaching powder, you might use lemon juice. But we fear “R. R.’s” red dress would not stand it, and you do not mention of what material it is. Geisha’s wine or jelly stain may perhaps be removed by holding the stained part over a basin, and rubbing some common salt into it; and then by pouring through it from the spout of a kettle some boiling water till the stain disappears. Fruit stains, if old, have become almost dyes, and if washed when quite fresh with pure water, would generally come out. In the days of sulphur matches, the vapour from two or three was enough to remove any fruit stain. Salts of lemon would, we fear, take the colour out entirely. Failing the matches, however, you may burn a little sulphur on a small tin cover, and then making a small paper funnel, hold the large end over the sulphur and the small one under the spot. This treatment should take out fruit stains from any fabric.

E. M. P.—Soap-jelly is made as follows:—Take 10 quarts of rain water, 3½ lb. of good yellow soap, 1 lb. of washing soda. Slice up the soap and put on to boil with the water, keep on stirring, and when the soap is dissolved add the soda. Stir carefully, as it easily boils over, and when all is dissolved, pour into a barrel to keep. It will form a jelly when cold, and keeps a long time. Of course, if you find these proportions too excessive, you can make half the quantity.

E. M.—Although perhaps incorrect, it is usual in conversation to drop the “h” in names ending in “ham,” but with certain exceptions, such, for example, as “Etchingham” in Sussex. It is not a “cockneyism” to do so. A certain amount of abbreviation and clipping of words is permissible in colloquial and rapid speaking. We say “won’t,” but write at full length “will not,” and we say “don’t,” but write “do not.” Such clipping of words in writing is bad style. People also write “its” for “it is,” which is likewise objectionable; and if they wish to abbreviate, they should, in this case, write thus, “it’s.” We should simply say “both dogs”; the other words are superfluous.

A Reader.—If the brothers and sisters of your friend are much older than yourself, there is nothing remarkable in their calling you by your Christian name; but it would depend on the degree of intimacy whether you should call them by theirs; and as by your writing you seem to be quite a child, we should say no, unless you were asked to do so. Many young men are rather tenacious on the subject, and resent it from little girls.

FOOTNOTES:

[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text:

Page 480: their to there—“there is nothing”.]