ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. [Illustration: RULES. _I. No charge is made for answering questions._ _II. All correspondents to give initials or pseudonym._ _III. The Editor reserves the right of declining to reply to any of the questions._ _IV. No direct answers can be sent by the Editor through the post._ _V. No more than two questions may be asked in one letter, which must be addressed to the Editor of THE GIRL'S OWN PAPER, 56, Paternoster Row, London, E.C._ _VI. No addresses of firms, tradesmen, or any other matter of the nature of an advertisement, will be inserted._] MEDICAL. EILEEN.--Your troubles maybe due to any number of causes. The great number of symptoms having but little connection with each other, which you describe, strongly suggest that a large part, if not the whole, of your trouble is due to nervousness. There is a disease which, from the number and complexity of its symptoms, is called the protean disease, or, in common parlance, hysteria. This affection varies from the slightest forms of nervousness to absolute mental and physical perversion. It is in the slighter grades of this affection that you will find your own malady. Whether there is anything else besides this the matter with you is impossible for us to tell. It has been our experience that cocoa is quite as indigestible as tea or coffee, though it produces a form of indigestion differing considerably from that produced by tea. Drink nothing but warm milk, and take a liberal diet of easily-digestible food. PRISCILLA.--Trichinosis is a very rare disease produced by eating underdone pork. One of the tapeworms (_Tænia solium_) is far more commonly obtained from the same cause. Both diseases are uncommon in England, for the English eat little pork, and always cook it well first. There is no danger of either disease from eating well-done pork. Where pork is eaten raw--as it is in some hams and sausages--the danger of tapeworms and trichinosis is very considerable; but it must always be remembered that sound meat cannot produce either disease. INDIGESTION.--You are on the right track to treat indigestion, but you have made one or two errors. You should not drink “plenty of water.” The less water you drink the sooner you will be well again. You must not take anything to digest your meals for you. Of course you are referring to pepsin, etc. These may be taken by dyspeptics only when they are incurable or gradually starving to death. Dyspeptics are rendered worse by their use in the long run. You must relieve your constipation. A teaspoonful of liquorice powder will do this very well. Six miles daily is quite sufficient exercise. ANXIOUS.--If you suffer from flatulence you must attend very carefully to your digestion and guard against constipation. The pain of wind may often be relieved by taking half a teaspoonful of spirit of ginger or compound tincture of cardamom in a little water.