yn 
 
 DER 
 
 No. 
 
AN X-RAY PHOTOGRAPH OF THE HAND (SHOWING TWO 
 NEEDLES IMBEDDED IN THE FLESH) 
 
GRADED LESSONS ;,,;; 
 
 IN 
 
 HYGIENE 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM 0. KROHN, PH.D. (YALE) 
 
 AUTHOR OP 
 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN PSYCHOLOGY," AND EDITOR OF "THE CHILD-STUDY MONTHLY' 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 1903 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1900 
 BY WILLIAM O. KROHN 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1903 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 EDUCATION DEF?, 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The keynote of this book is health. There has been no 
 attempt to prepare an extended treatise on anatomy and physi- 
 ology. It has been the purpose of the author to present in 
 simple language to the children in the intermediate grades a 
 knowledge of the conditions which tend to preserve and 
 strengthen the body. 
 
 While the facts of anatomy and physiology in this book 
 have been made in a sense secondary to the main theme 
 hygiene yet they embrace the results of the latest investiga- 
 tions in these departments of research, and are ample for a 
 clear understanding of the central subject. The lessons are 
 designed throughout to come within the comprehension of young 
 pupils, as well as to meet the wants of those in the more 
 advanced classes, in emphasizing the common laws of health. 
 This steady progression from the simple to the more difficult 
 is made by easy, natural, well-gradated steps. 
 
 The author regards it not only the most logical arrange- 
 ment, but also in harmony with the best pedagogy, to embrace 
 the main discussion of the effects of alcohol and tobacco in 
 separate chapters. Connected discussion is better than scat- 
 tered fragments. 
 
 5 
 
 541779 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 In the teacher's edition of this book, more specific directions 
 are to be found for presenting the subject-matter of these les- 
 sons. This supplement for teachers also includes suggested 
 exercises for use in gymnastic drill, as well as a series of tests 
 for hearing, vision, memory, and the methods of making phys- 
 ical measurements. There is also contained in the teachers' 
 edition a more extended discussion of the effects of narcotics 
 and alcohol upon the human system, and the methods of 
 teaching the same, * 
 
 WILLIAM 0. KROHN. 
 
 Chicago, May 1, 1900. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. OUR FOOD ... 9 
 
 II. HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS - 22 
 
 III. OUR DRINK - - - - 46 
 
 IV. TEMPERANCE .... 54 
 V. THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS - - 64 
 
 VI. THE BONES - - -^ 80 
 
 VII. THE MUSCLES ' - - 94 
 
 VIII. THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION j- 107 
 
 IX. BREATHING AND THE LUNGS - - - 125 
 
 X. THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN - - 146 
 
 XL THE EYES AND THEIR CARE - - 175 
 
 XII. THE HYGIENE OF THE EAR - 186 
 
 XIII. THE TEETH AND THEIR CARE - - - 192 
 
 XIV. DISEASE GERMS - - - - 196 
 XV. SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE - - 205 
 
 XVI. PHYSICAL EXERCISE - - 228 
 
 XVII. FIRST AID TO THE INJURED ... 242 
 
 XVIII. SELECTED READINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY - 251 
 
"For what will it profit a child if he gain the whole 
 world of knowledge and lose his own health f " 
 
 G. STANLEY HALL. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 OUK FOOD. 
 
 Why We Eat. Does it ever seem strange to you that 
 these bodies of ours do not appear to wear out, though we are 
 constantly using them ? We know that our clothes wear out, 
 no matter how careful of them we may be. A wagon or piece 
 of machinery tends to wear out with each movement it makes. 
 You would not expect your pencil, pocket-knife, bicycle, or 
 skates to keep fresh and new after long and frequent use. Our 
 bodies are constantly wearing out. Every movement of our 
 bodies, however slight, causes at least a small amount of wear. 
 Why, then, do not our bodies waste away ? Because they are 
 being continually repaired. Every little particle of worn-out 
 matter is being replaced by a new one. The food we eat 
 is being changed into the parts of the body that are wearing 
 out. 
 
 You are growing very fast. But a few years ago you were 
 much smaller than you now are. Next year you expect to be 
 even larger and stronger. What is it that makes you grow ? 
 Is it the air that you breathe ? No, not that alone. Air is 
 necessary to life ; but you would soon starve if you had noth- 
 ing but air upon which to live. Water is necessary to life, and 
 yet none of us could live on water alone. You have noticed 
 the little tree in the orchard and the plant in the garden, how 
 
 9 
 
10 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 : fcaidly ^neyigrow 1 . If you should stand the plant or tree in 
 ; tke.- jniddte of ypuf'. schoolroom, on the clean, hard floor, and 
 : gfve* it* sunKgtatj " aif , and water;* without any soil, would it 
 grow ? No ; it would not even live. The roots, by means of 
 which our little tree, when out of doors, was fastened to the 
 soil, could not make their way into the hard floor. 
 
 If the tree is to live and grow, its roots must go down into 
 the soil and find something for the tree just as necessary to its 
 life, health, and growth, as the air, sunshine, and water. The 
 roots, even the smallest of them, work down into the earth and 
 find food for the tree, and it is this food which the roots find 
 that makes plants and trees grow. The richer the soil that is, 
 the better the food the faster they grow. In one garden we 
 find the plants looking pale and sickly, growing scarcely at all, 
 while in another garden the plants look fresh and thrifty and 
 are growing rapidly. What causes the difference? You are 
 quick to answer that in one garden the soil is richer, containing 
 more food for the plants, and the gardener loosens the soil that 
 the roots may have a chance to push their way farther and 
 farther into the earth to get more food. The wise gardener 
 also pulls up the weeds that would otherwise grow around the 
 plants, so that these weeds may not use up the food in the soil 
 that the plants need for their health and growth. 
 
 Why do you eat ? Because the food keeps your bodies in 
 repair so that they will not wear out, and also because it makes 
 you grow. 
 
 Have you ever thought how much one eats in a lifetime ? 
 It is a nice problem in arithmetic to figure this out. Nearly 
 every boy and girl in your school eats at least two pounds of 
 
OUR FOOD. 11 
 
 food in a day. In a year, then, each of you will eat two times 
 365 or 730 pounds of food. This is many times your own 
 weight. By the time you have become sixty years old, how 
 much will you have eaten ? 
 
 What to Eat. Our bodies are repaired and made to grow by 
 what we eat. If you eat inferior food your bodies will be made 
 of poor material, and will not grow as fast as they should, or do 
 their work well. If you eat poor, unhealthful food, your body 
 will have to be repaired often ; that is, you will have to call the 
 doctor to give you some medicine to undo the harm caused by 
 the improper food, whatever it may have been. You see how 
 important it is that we know something about our foods. All 
 of us should know what foods are good for us, and what will do 
 us harm. What foods will promote health and growth, and 
 what will cause disease and retard growth, is certainly very 
 important knowledge. 
 
 Do you think the dark soil in the garden or flower-bed 
 looks anything like the bright-eyed, laughing pansy ? Does the 
 black loam resemble the rich green of the waving branches of 
 the fern ? As we eat the ripe apple, juicy plum, luscious grape, 
 or sweet pear, do we taste anything like the dark, gritty, sandy 
 soil which made it possible for them to exist ? To all of these 
 questions you answer, No. And yet in the same way the roots 
 of the pansy, the fern, and the fruit tree take their food from 
 the soil, and it is then changed so that leaves are made to grow, 
 flowers to bloom, and fruits to appear. 
 
 Is it not equally strange to think that the bread, potatoes, 
 meat, and eggs you eat, as well as the milk and the water you 
 drink in fact, every bit of good food of which you partake is 
 
12 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 taken up by the organs of the body and changed into bone, 
 nerve, and muscle ? And yet, if we can only get the food into 
 the blood, as the root gets the food -from the earth into the sap 
 of the plant, each part of the body will pick out just what it 
 needs to make it strong. The bones will take up from the 
 blood just those little particles they need for their growth and 
 repair, and likewise, the muscles and nerves will do the same. 
 Your own body does not look like the food you eat any more 
 than the plant looks like the soil upon which it feeds. Our 
 food becomes changed in some way into all the different parts 
 of the body skin, hair, bone, muscle, brain, *and nerve. 
 
 Since food thus becomes changed into the different parts 
 and organs of which the body is composed, is it not very impor- 
 tant that we be careful to select the foods that are best suited 
 to the repair and growth of our bodies? But before we con- 
 sider this further, let us follow the food we eat as it makes its 
 journey through the body. The preparation of the food so that 
 it may be used in nourishing the body is digestion. The object 
 of digestion is to separate the food from its hard and useless 
 parts, and then to soften and dissolve it so that it becomes 
 liquid, and can flow with the blood to the various parts of the 
 body requiring food. 
 
 How We Digest. The first step in digestion is the proper 
 cooking of the food we eat. Our digestion, then, really begins 
 outside of the body. Cooking softens the food so that it can 
 be chewed easily. You would find it difficult to chew raw rice 
 grains. Cooking softens the hard grains of rice, wheat, or oats, 
 and it also makes most of the foods taste better. A raw potato 
 does not taste very good, but what boy or girl does not enjoy 
 
OUR FOOD. 
 
 13 
 
 eating nicely cooked potatoes at least once a day? Again, 
 cooking destroys many poisons in food. We will learn more 
 about that in the chapter on " Disease Germs." 
 
 Mouth Digestion After the food is properly cooked, the 
 next step in digestion is to take it into the mouth, where the 
 digestion is continued 
 by chewing and grind- 
 ing the food with the 
 teeth, and pushing it 
 about the mouth with 
 the tongue. We move 
 it from one side of the 
 mouth to the other 
 until it is in little, fine 
 particles. While we 
 ara chewing our food 
 well, it is mixed with 
 a watery fluid, called 
 saliva. There are 
 three glands on each 
 side of the mouth that 
 
 FIGURE 1. The Salivary Glands. 
 
 are busy making and 
 secreting this saliva. 
 You will see their lo- 
 cation in the picture. The saliva which the glands produce is 
 sent into the mouth by means of little tubes called ducts. 
 When we eat, taste, or even look at some foods we like, these 
 glands make so much saliva that we sometimes say the mouth 
 waters. You should remember to eat slowly, in order to give 
 
GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 your teeth a chance to grind up the food, and also give it time 
 to become well mixed with the saliva of the mouth, which 
 helps so much in preparing the fooH for the further steps of 
 digestion. After being thoroughly chewed, the food is swal- 
 lowed. 
 
 Stomach Digestion In the back part of the mouth, at the 
 throat, begins a long, narrow tube, which passes down to the 
 
 stomach. This tube, 
 or food-pipe, is about 
 nine inches long. It 
 is called the esopha- 
 gus. You all know 
 where the pit of your 
 stomach lies. This is 
 the stomach's center. 
 The stomach is simply 
 an enlargement of the 
 digestive tube. It is 
 like a large bag with 
 a coat of loosely woven 
 
 muscles, and it has a queer little gate-keeper or valve (pylorus) 
 at the lower end that will not open and permit the food to 
 pass out until it is sufficiently digested and ready for the 
 bowels or intestines. As soon as the food gets into the 
 stomach, the muscular coat begins to contract, first length- 
 wise and then crosswise. It thus keeps the food churning 
 to and fro, and mixes it with a fluid or juice more powerful 
 than the saliva of the mouth. This fluid in the stomach, so 
 necessary to digestion, is called the gastric juice. It is formed 
 
 FIGURE 2. The Stomach. 
 
OUR FOOD. 15 
 
 in the many pocket-like glands in the lining of the inner wall 
 of the stomach. The stomach churns away from two to four 
 hours after every meal, according to the kind of food eaten, 
 the way in which it has been cooked, and the health of the 
 person eating it. After each meal the stomach should be 
 allowed to rest a while before the next. This is why girls 
 and boys should, as a rule, eat nothing between meals. If you 
 do, the stomach becomes too tired to do its work well when 
 meal time comes again, and so you are not hungry. Irregular 
 habits of eating, as well as improper, unwholesome food, will 
 cause disorders of the stomach, such as dyspepsia. Again, the 
 gastric juice will not digest the foods in the proper length of 
 time if the pieces are too large and not properly chewed or 
 masticated when swallowed. This is another reason for eating 
 slowly. It should also be remembered that the juices so neces- 
 sary to digestion are secreted more rapidly and do their work 
 better if we are in a cheerful mood. If we come to the table 
 cross and peevish, the food we eat will not do us as much good 
 and will not be so well digested as it would be if we were 
 cheerful and happy. Cheer is necessary to good digestion. 
 
 The blood vessels of the stomach dissolve and take up 
 some of the food and carry it away, but most of the pulpy 
 mass, after being thoroughly mixed with the gastric juice, 
 passes through the little gateway, or pylorus, to the intestines, 
 to be mixed with still another juice. 
 
 Digestion in the Intestines. At the lower end of the stom- 
 ach the food canal becomes narrow again. This portion of the 
 digestive canal below the stomach is called the intestines or 
 bowels. The intestinal tube is about twenty-five feet long in 
 
16 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 the grown person. This long portion of the food canal is coiled 
 up and closely packed away in the cavity of the abdomen, 
 below the stomach, so as to take the smallest possible amount 
 of room. The last few feet of the intestinal tube is larger than 
 the rest, and is called the colon. The portion directly attached 
 to the stomach is longer, but at the same -time much smaller, 
 and is called the small intestine. It is about twenty feet long 
 
 and one inch in diameter. The 
 small intestine opens into the 
 large intestine or colon, which 
 is about two inches in diameter, 
 and in the adult about five feet 
 in length. The entire intestinal 
 canal, then, consists of a tube of 
 muscular tissue lined with a 
 mucous membrane. The walls 
 of the intestines are from one- 
 sixteenth to one-eighth of an 
 inch in thickness. On their 
 inner surface, imbedded in the mucous membrane, are innu- 
 merable small tube-like glands that are very important. They 
 pour out a liquid called the intestinal juice, which does its 
 part in the digestion of food. Along the lower side of the 
 stomach there is a large gland called the pancreas or sweet- 
 bread. Each day this pours into the intestines about one 
 quart of a liquid called the pancreatic juice. This juice is even 
 more important than the saliva, gastric juice, or intestinal juice, 
 for it does most of the work of digesting our food. It is so 
 powerful that it breaks up the fats in our food, such as butter 
 
 FIGURE 3. Showing the Three Coats 
 of the Stomach, (g) Inner surface, 
 
 , mucous membrane, (mi) Circular 
 layer of muscular fibers, (me) Outer 
 layer of longitudinal muscular fibers. 
 (p) Ridge of pyloric ring. 
 
OUR FOOD. 
 
 17 
 
 and the fatty portions of meats, into very. small particles so that 
 they will mix with water. The pancreatic juice also changes 
 the starch in our foods, as the starch of potatoes, bread, and 
 uncooked fruits, into the sugar the body so much needs. 
 
 The liver, which is located above the stomach, close Under 
 the ribs and on the right side of the body, is a large chocolate- 
 colored organ, and has for its chief business the making of a 
 fluid called 
 Ule. This fluid 
 is also very 
 necessary for 
 the digestion 
 of the food in 
 the intestines. 
 Fresh human 
 bile is a liquid 
 of a brownish 
 gold color. It 
 is carried to 
 the intestines 
 through a lit- 
 tle tube or duct, called the gall-duct. This enters the intes- 
 tines just a few inches below the stomach. If the liver makes 
 bile faster than it is needed by the intestines, it is stored 
 up in a little pear-shaped sac, known as the gall-bladder. This 
 hangs from the under side of the liver. The saying, " bitter as 
 gall," arises from the extremely bitter taste of the bile in the 
 gall-bladder. Sometimes in cleaning a chicken or other fowl 
 in preparation for cooking, by drawing out the liver, intestines, 
 
 FIGURE 4. THE LIVER Its Under Surface. 
 
18 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 heart, and other organs, the gall-bladder becomes broken, and 
 the bile it contains comes in contact with the meaty portions 
 of the fowl to be eaten. These,, are rendered, because of the 
 intense bitterness, entirely unfit for food. 
 
 While the bile is very important, it of itself does very lit- 
 tle of the work of digestion, but its presence makes the pancre- 
 atic juice more powerful. Mixed with bile, the pancreatic juice 
 is able to do double the work of digestion that it could do 
 alone. Bile is really a waste substance thrown off by the 
 liver, but on its way out of the body it helps greatly in build- 
 ing up the body. The bile and pancreatic juice enter the small 
 intestine at nearly the same place. The liver is really a won- 
 derful organ. Besides making bile, it aids in various other 
 ways in the digestion of food. It also helps to keep the blood 
 pure by removing from it harmful substances that are formed 
 within the body. The liver also acts as a wide-awake sentinel, 
 in that it destroys many of the disease germs : or microbes, that 
 find their way into the mouth and stomach* along with our 
 food. If in healthy condition, the liver will kill germs that 
 might otherwise cause such diseases as typhoid fever, malaria, 
 or la grippe. If any of these little germs, or any other poisons, 
 such as the poisons of poorly canned meats or vegetables, are 
 swallowed along with the food, they are also taken up with the 
 food, and carried by means of the blood tubes into the liver. 
 The liver works hard to keep these poisons from going any 
 farther along the blood tubes to other portions of the body, and 
 thus guards the rest of the body from the effects of the bad 
 food. If the liver gets out of order it sends but little bile, 
 instead of the quart a day it should send into the intestines. 
 
OUR FOOD. 
 
 19 
 
 Poisons are then permitted to pass by unattacked, and the pan- 
 creatic juice cannot do the full work of digestion allotted to it. 
 As a result of a disordered liver we have a rather common 
 form of sickness known as biliousness. 
 
 Movements of the Intestines As the mouth by its move- 
 ments in chewing the food fine, and the stomach by means of 
 its movements in churning the food about, by rocking it to and 
 fro, from side to side and 
 end to end, so in a simi- 
 lar way the small intes- 
 tine makes certain move- 
 ments that mix the food 
 with the bile, intestinal, 
 and pancreatic juices, and 
 forces it farther along the 
 digestive tube or food 
 canal. As the food goes 
 farther and farther along 
 the small intestine, it 
 becomes more and more 
 
 liquid, until, at the end, only indigestible portions remain, 
 such as unripe fruit, seeds, peelings, large pieces of food that 
 were not chewed fine enough, and husks of grains, like the 
 covering of the separate grains of sweet corn, peas, beans, and 
 the coarser forms of cracked wheat or oatmeal. These waste 
 portions remain solid because the juices cannot act on them and 
 digest them. At this stage of digestion in the small intestine, 
 the food looks somewhat like milk with the undigested parti- 
 cles mentioned above floating in it. This food is still in reality 
 
 FIGURE 5. Cross section of Small Intestine, 
 showing the three layers. 
 
20 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 outside of the body almost as much as if it were still untouched 
 on your plate on the dinner-table. It must pass through the 
 walls of the intestine and get into the blood, and then be carried 
 
 to the various parts of the body, 
 before it really becomes food for the 
 bones, nerves, and muscles. 
 
 Absorption of Food. As the 
 food is passed slowly along the 
 small intestine, its liquid parts soak 
 through into the blood tubes, and 
 by the time it reaches the large 
 bowel, or colon, most of the water 
 and all of the useful particles have 
 been removed and carried away by 
 the blood, and only the waste mat- 
 ter, such as seeds, hard portions of 
 unripe fruits, peelings, husks, and 
 the like, mentioned above, remain 
 behind. This is driven on and out 
 of the body. These waste portions, 
 that naturally find their way into 
 the large bowel, should be expelled 
 at least once a day, in order to in- 
 sure good health. If this is done 
 regularly at a certain time, for exam- 
 ple, at about the same hour each morning, the bowels form the 
 habit of always acting at this time. If this waste matter is 
 not given off, we have sick-headache, a feeling of heaviness, 
 and may become ill, for these waste substances are sure to 
 poison the body if retained. 
 
 Small / 
 Intestine 
 
 FIGURE 6. Showing the Digestive 
 Tube, or Food Canal. 
 
OUR FOOD. 21 
 
 You see, then, that there are at least five important organs 
 of digestion. The mouth, the stomach, the intestines, the pan- 
 creas, and the liver. Food is softened and prepared for diges- 
 tion by these five organs by first being properly cooked. 
 Cooking is the first step in digestion. Will you also please 
 remember that there are five digestive fluids: saliva, gastric 
 juice, pancreatic juice, bile, and intestinal juice? 
 
 KEVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Why do we eat? 
 
 2. Why should we eat several kinds of food? 
 
 3. What is digestion? 
 
 4. Why should our food be properly cooked? 
 
 5. What important fluid in the mouth aids digestion? 
 
 6. Why should we eat slowly? 
 
 7. What is the stomach like? 
 
 8. How long does it churn the food? 
 
 9. What important juice in the stomach is necessary to 
 digestion? 
 
 10. Why should we eat regularly, and not between meals? 
 
 11. What part of the work of digestion is done by the intes- 
 tines? 
 
 12. What help is given by the liver? 
 
 13. What juices combine to digest the food in the intestines? 
 
 14. How is the food carried through the body to its different 
 parts, after it is digested? 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 
 
 We have learned that digestion is the process by means of 
 which the food we take into the mouth is changed into liquid 
 form, or a state of solution, suitable for being absorbed into the 
 blood. This change may be rapid or slow, according to the 
 nature of the food-stuffs the digestive juices are called upon to 
 dissolve. We all know that it takes much longer to digest a 
 piece of beefsteak than it does a cup of beef tea. We know 
 that milk is more readily digested than roast pork or boiled 
 cabbage. When a person is not very well, when we wish to 
 save labor for the digestive organs and make digestion as easy 
 as possible, the person is placed upon a "liquid diet." How 
 does this help to save work for the digestive organs and diges- 
 tive juices, when they are not in good, healthy condition? 
 
 You have observed that some animals seern to be eating all 
 the time. The hen appears to be continually picking up seeds 
 of weeds and grasses, grains of wheat or corn, and countless 
 little bugs, as she goes about the yard. Other animals eat large 
 quantities of food at one time, and then lie quiet and sleep for 
 days. I saw a very large snake a boa constrictor at one of 
 the parks the other day, that eats only once in two or three 
 months ; but when he eats it takes a very large meal to satisfy 
 him several chickens, a number of rabbits, and a small army 
 
 22 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 23 
 
 of rats and mice. Other animals, such as the dog, do not 
 chew their food at all. They tear it apart so that the pieces 
 can just be gotten into the mouth and swallowed, and that 
 is all. The stomach and intestines of a dog have thicker and 
 tougher walls, and the digestive juices have more power. 
 That is the reason that dogs can even digest bones which they 
 frequently swallow. You have noticed that the cow will chew 
 her food only a little at first. Notice how fast she eats the 
 grass in the pasture and see how quickly she swallows it. 
 Then while she is resting she brings the food back to her mouth 
 again, and chews it finer. Deer also do the same. It is 
 called "chewing their cud." Once my little girl, when about 
 three years old, saw some deer in one of the city parks chewing 
 their cud; she turned to me and said, "What do deer chew gum 
 for, papa?" Cattle have four stomachs, one of which is called 
 the paunch and is very large. In the full-grown ox it will hold 
 two bushels. The fourth stomach is nearly like man's in size 
 and shape, and is really the true stomach, for it is the one in 
 which most of the stomach digestion takes place. The other 
 three are little more than storehouses and passageways for the 
 food. 
 
 Even some of the small insects have a stomach and intestines 
 which secrete digestive juices. In most worms the digestive 
 tube passes straight through the body. Oysters and clams also 
 possess a stomach and coiled-up intestines. The soft, dark- 
 colored substance at the back part of an oyster or clam is 
 the liver. 
 
 Kinds of Food. Some animals can live on just one kind of 
 food. The cattle on the range will live and fatten on fresh or dried 
 
24 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 grass alone. The horse will do the same; only he should have 
 oats or corn in addition to grass or hay, if he has to work hard. 
 A squirrel likes the kernels of nuj;s and some of the grains, but 
 does not care for grass. A boy or girl eats more kinds of 
 food than any other animal. Man requires a great variety of 
 foods. He eats vegetables for one purpose, meats from some of 
 the animals for another purpose, and could not live in a healthy 
 condition if he did not have some food, such as salt, from the 
 mineral kingdom. 
 
 Different Foods in Different Countries In traveling over 
 the earth, we find the people of one country eat things as food 
 that people of other lands could not bear to eat at all. There 
 are people who eat bees and grasshoppers ; others eat rats, mice, 
 bats, and lizards. In some of the French restaurants roasted 
 snails are regarded as a choice article of food, while to most 
 people they are repulsive. A man who used to chop wood for 
 heating the schoolhouse in which I first taught, used to find 
 nests of black ants taking their long winter sleep in their 
 curiously made houses in the chunks of wood. He would eat 
 the ants with his bread at lunch with great relish. Yet this 
 same man would never eat nice, ripe strawberries, for he said 
 they made him ill. He was certainly a queer fellow, and I am 
 sure his tastes differed from yours as well as my own. 
 
 Conditions That Modify the Demands for Foods The hab- 
 its of life, as well as the character of the climate, make a great 
 deal of difference in the kind and amount of food eaten. The 
 active man who is working hard at some heavy, muscular labor 
 out of doors, especially in winter, requires a larger amount of 
 food, consisting of a great deal of meat, than does a person 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 25 
 
 whose work is not so hard. You have heard people say when 
 they were very hungry, that they could " eat like a wood-chop- 
 per." And we will all agree that the hard-working wood-chop- 
 per and miner require more food than would the tailor seated 
 in his shop, or the clerk in a dry-goods store. The miner, the 
 woodman, and the stage-driver are exposed to cold, rough 
 weather, while the clerk, the tailor, and the newspaper editor 
 are sheltered within doors during their work, which, in addi- 
 tion, does not require as much physical energy as does the 
 heavy work the others do out of doors. An Eskimo in the cold, 
 frozen North can eat fifteen pounds of meat a day, to which he 
 often adds larger quantities of fat or blubber. I have been told 
 by Lieutenant Schwatka, the Arctic explorer, that he has seen an 
 Eskimo eat as much as thirty-two pounds of meat and several 
 tallow candles in a single day. 
 
 Bodily Heat. In this connection we must remember that 
 to keep the bodily functions in proper working order, it is neces- 
 sary that the body keep up a certain degree of heat. You have 
 seen plants killed by the frost and withered by the heat. So 
 the different tissues of the body will die if the bodily heat falls 
 below or rises above a certain degree of temperature. Thus a 
 fever is dangerous, because in conditions where the disease 
 brings on a fever, a higher temperature is kept up than is good 
 for the body, and little portions of nerves, muscles, and other 
 tissues wither and waste away as truly as does the young, ten- 
 der plant when exposed to the burning heat of a summer's sun. 
 The heat of the body should be kept at an average temperature 
 of 98.6 degrees F. (37 degrees C.) if we are to remain in a state 
 of health. One method of keeping the body from losing too 
 
26 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 much heat is to dress in heavier or warmer clothing. But in 
 the cold climate of the frozen North not enough clothing could 
 be put on the body to keep up the heat to the point it must be 
 to continue in perfect health. Another way to keep up the 
 proper temperature is for the body to use more fuel. That is, 
 more food of the heat-making kind must be used. Now meats, 
 especially fat meats, are heat-making foods. Thus, in our severe 
 winters, men working out of doors, exposed to the cold, rough 
 weather, must eat more meat than they do during the warm 
 weather of the summer. More pork, especially the fatty por- 
 tions, such as bacon, is eaten in winter than in summer. The 
 body needs it to keep the temperature sufficiently high to have 
 healthy work done by the organs. So, in the Arctic regions, the 
 Eskimo or Laplander, even if he is clothed in the warm furs of 
 the animals he kills, must of necessity eat large quantities of 
 meat, and it is well known that the fats are especially benefi- 
 cial to him in keeping up the proper degree of bodily heat. His 
 body demands fats and oils just as the bodies of the people liv- 
 ing in tropical regions demand fruits for their cooling effect. A 
 dozen tallow candles are naturally more highly prized as food 
 by the Eskimo than a dozen nice, juicy oranges. His body 
 requires meats, fats, and oils; and so he hungers for them just 
 as the miner or sailor longs for fresh vegetables after living for 
 months on salted meats and canned goods. This need of his 
 body causes the peculiar form of hunger of the Eskimo, and 
 this must be satisfied, at least in a measure, to have the 
 degree of bodily heat so necessary to health. 
 
 In stubborn fevers, such as typhoid, which cannot be 
 driven away by the usual drugs and medicines, the heat must 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 27 
 
 be reduced by severe measures. The sick person haying 
 typhoid fever must often have ice packed about his body, 
 or at least be frequently sponged with cold water, to re- 
 duce the fever before it destroys the tissues of the body. 
 If this is not done, the blood becomes so changed that 
 many of the organs of the body are unable to properly per- 
 form their functions, and, as a rule, when the temperature 
 of the body reaches 107 or 108 degrees F., unless it is 
 quickly lowered, the patient dies. In former times many 
 lives were lost because physicians were afraid to lower the 
 temperature suddenly. 
 
 Different Amounts of Food Required If you live on a 
 farm, you may have noticed that some horses are " easily kept." 
 By this is meant that some horses require but little food to 
 keep them plump and in good condition to do their work. 
 There are other horses that eat a much larger quantity of hay 
 and grain, and do no more work, and yet are so poor and bony 
 that their ribs show. Some pigs can be fattened for the mar- 
 ket more readily and on a smaller amount of food than others. 
 There are turkeys that can never be made plump enough for a 
 Thanksgiving dinner, no matter how much they are fed. Some 
 persons require a very small amount of food to keep them 
 alive and in good health, while others seem to require a larger 
 quantity. A boy or girl in good health and growing rapidly 
 should have more food than one who has passed the period of 
 rapid growth, because it is needed not only to repair the loss of 
 waste and worn-out particles of the body, but to supply the 
 demands made upon the blood on account of the increasing size 
 of the organs. 
 
28 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Healthful Foods. We are now ready to talk more particu- 
 larly about the various foods the body needs. By healthful 
 foods we mean those that assist*best in the repair of waste 
 tissue and are more helpful in promoting the growth of the 
 various parts of the body. Unhealthful foods are those that 
 are harmful. They are such as do not help the growth and 
 repair of the body. To sum up the whole matter we can say : 
 Food is anything which taken into the ~body supplies it with 
 heat, weight, or strength. 
 
 You have already learned that we eat a greater variety of 
 foods than do other animals. You know that our foods are 
 obtained from minerals, plants, and animals. As you think of 
 your breakfast, what foods did you eat that came from animals? 
 What from vegetables ? What mineral substance did you eat ? 
 
 MINERAL FOODS. 
 
 Salt. This is the chief food from the mineral kingdom. 
 Salt is present in every part of the body except the enamel 
 of the teeth. If we do not take salt with our food we suffer 
 greatly, since it is so necessary to the body. In nearly all the 
 foods we use, salt is naturally present in small quantities. 
 Vegetables in growing take up salt from the soil. All the 
 meats contain a little salt absorbed from the blood of the 
 animals. But the salt naturally found in our foods is not 
 enough, so in cooking more salt is added. Sometimes we add 
 it at the table. Food does not taste good if unsalted. A little 
 salt not only makes the food taste better, but it causes the 
 digestive juices to flow, and it creates an appetite. This is a 
 very good illustration of how nature provides for us. Salted 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 29 
 
 food will cause the "mouth to water," and all the digestive 
 fluids to flow freely, so that it is more easily and quickly digested 
 than unsalted food. 
 
 Every stock-raiser knows that animals must have salt to 
 do well. If they are not given any salt their hides grow rough, 
 they become less active, are soon dull and stupid, and finally 
 lose health and strength. Just watch how quickly sheep come 
 at the call of the farmer, if they think they can thus get the 
 salt they crave. Wild animals, such as deer and bear, will go 
 long distances and even risk their lives to get to a salt spring, 
 or "salt lick," that they may secure some of this necessary min- 
 eral substance. It is fortunate that salt is plentiful and cheap, 
 since it is so essential to health and strength. It is found in 
 many portions of our country. Can you tell where and how 
 salt is obtained ? 
 
 Other Mineral Foods. Lime, soda, potash, and iron are 
 taken into the body in various forms, but in very small quanti- 
 ties. A small amount of lime is found in every portion of the 
 body. The bones are more than one-half lime. Altogether there 
 are about ten pounds of lime in our bodies. However, it does 
 not waste and leave the body very rapidly, so we do not have 
 to take more than six grains a day with our food. Your teacher 
 will show you how much six grains of lime are. Soda and 
 potash destroy disturbing acids within the body. This is the 
 reason that in case of a sour stomach or "heart burn," a 
 little pinch of common cooking soda, sometimes called saleratus, 
 will give great relief. Green foods should be eaten, especially 
 at certain seasons of the year, because of the iron they contain. 
 Spinach, lettuce, dandelion greens, and similar foods contain 
 
30 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 iron in a form that can be taken up by the blood better than 
 a similar amount of iron taken as a tonic in the form of 
 
 medicine. 
 
 <* 
 
 ANIMAL FOODS. 
 
 The principal foods obtained from animals are milk, butter, 
 cheese, eggs, and the different kinds of flesh beef, mutton, 
 pork, fish, fowl, and wild game. 
 
 Milk. Pure, fresh milk is the only perfect food. It is the 
 only food that contains all the elements your bodies most 
 require. Being a fluid, it is very easily digested. Physicians 
 use it more than any other food for people who are sick, because 
 it is so easily digested and has the power of sustaining life 
 longer than other foods. Milk should be kept in a clean room, 
 where the air is .always pure. If this is not done, poisonous 
 gases will be absorbed and the milk thus becomes injurious as 
 food. If a pan of milk is placed in an ice-box near a bunch of 
 onions, or in a small room near a can of coal-oil; the milk soon 
 becomes tainted, as you may easily detect on tasting it. In 
 the same way it will absorb poisons from foul air. 
 
 In cities milk is often adulterated by the addition of water. 
 Sometimes this water is impure, and the milk is thus made the 
 means of carrying disease germs to our bodies. Some substance, 
 as formalin, is often added to milk by dealers to keep it from 
 becoming sour. In this way old, impure milk is often sold for 
 fresh, sweet milk, and much harm done to the children using 
 it. Because milk is so easily tainted and adulterated, nearly 
 every large city has an army of milk inspectors connected with 
 the board of health, whose business it is to examine all the 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 31 
 
 milk brought into the city for sale. If the milk is found to be 
 unfit, dealers are not permitted to sell it, and it is destroyed by 
 the inspector. By this method of milk inspection the lives of 
 thousands of little children have been saved in our cities the 
 last few years. Fresh milk is the best kind of food we can 
 take. If its value as a food were better understood, it would 
 be more generally used. It should, however, never be ice-cold 
 when taken into the stomach. 
 
 Butter. Butter is a most important article of food. It 
 supplies the body with much of the fatty material needed. 
 It also gives a better taste to some other foods, making them 
 more readily eaten and more easily digested. Looked at under 
 the microscope, a drop of milk appears as a number of little oil 
 particles floating in water. This oil or fat in milk is called 
 cream. Oil is lighter than water; thus, when a crock of milk 
 is allowed to stand, we know that the " cream rises " to the sur- 
 face, and can easily be skimmed off to be churned into butter. 
 The process of churning cream consists, then, in the beating of 
 the little fatty particles, or oil drops, into one solid mass, or 
 butter. The buttermilk remaining after churning is a healthful, 
 cooling drink in hot summer time, but it contains very little 
 nourishment. 
 
 Cheese. More nourishment is contained in cheese than in 
 most of the lean meats, but it is very hard to digest. This is 
 the reason that it is not used very extensively as a food. In 
 many parts of Europe it is used in place of meat, especially by 
 laboring people. It is a cheap food, and might well be more 
 largely used by men working out of doors, for their active 
 exercise will greatly assist digestion. If cheese be taken with 
 
32 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 a little milk it is more easily digested. This is the reason that 
 " cottage cheese " or " smear-case " is such a wholesome food. 
 
 Eggs. Eggs are very excellent food. They are easily 
 digested when properly cooked, and contain much nourishment. 
 They are most digestible when soft-boiled in the shell, or when 
 "poached " by being broken into a shallow pan of boiling water. 
 Some children do not like the yellow part, or the yolk of the 
 egg, and eat only the white. Thus they do not get all the food 
 elements of the egg, for the white and yolk contain very differ- 
 ent food properties. The white contains no fat, but consider- 
 able water; the yolk contains considerable fat, or yellow oil, 
 and very little water. 
 
 Meats. The meats used as food are rich in nourishment. 
 They are very desirable because of their pleasant taste as well 
 as their excellent food properties. Beef is regarded as the best 
 meat for general use. It is more easily digested than veal or 
 pork. Some of the cheaper beefsteaks, such as round steak, are 
 more nourishing than some of the more expensive portions, ten- 
 derloin steak, for example. Mutton ranks next to beef, and is 
 a very healthful food if properly cooked. Some people, how- 
 ever, do not like the taste of mutton. Mutton broth, like beef 
 tea, is very nutritious and easily digested, and is, therefore, a 
 very valuable food for the sick. Veal is not easily digested. 
 It is not a very good food, for it does not contain much nour- 
 ishment. As a food it does not compare in value with either 
 beef or mutton. Pork is not readily digested, but is more nutri- 
 tious than veal. It can be eaten only by those who have 
 strong digestive powefs, and by those who exercise a great deal. 
 Fish contains important food elements. While not quite so 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 33 
 
 easily digested as meat, it can in a measure take the place of 
 meat as a change. People used to think it a particularly good 
 brain food, but the brain is really nourished by the same ele- 
 ments as the other parts of the body. Fish, therefore, is not 
 nearly as nourishing for the brain as a good beefsteak would be. 
 Fish should always be eaten when fresh, for it is very quick to 
 decay. Salted fish, like any salted or " cured " meats, are more 
 difficult to digest than fresh, and yet salted codfish is a very 
 excellent food, being nourishing and at the same time cheap. 
 We find shell-fish, such as oysters and clams, very good for food, 
 more especially when eaten raw. When cooked they are 
 harder to digest. When raw, their own juices assist a great 
 deal in their digestion, and by cooking, these juices are so 
 changed as to be of no use whatever in digestion. Because of 
 their easy digestion, fresh, raw oysters are an excellent food in 
 sickness. Crabs and lobsters are harder to digest than oysters, 
 but when well cooked are good food. 
 
 Animal and Vegetable Foods Compared. It is now a well- 
 known fact that almost all animal food is more easily digested 
 than vegetable food, and should be used by children and sick 
 persons, whose organs of digestion are not as strong as those of 
 grown persons in perfect health. Growing boys and girls need 
 some meat, and should have it, or eggs, at least once a day. 
 Of course it is possible to live a healthy life without eating 
 meat, but vegetables are by no means the best kind of food. 
 Animal food contains practically no starch, and as the vegetable 
 foods are rich in starch, some vegetable foods must be eaten in 
 order to supply the body with the starch and sugar so much 
 needed. 
 
 3 
 
34 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 VEGETABLE FOODS. 
 
 Bread While bread is sometimes called the " staff of life," 
 it is not a perfect food when used alone. It contains very little 
 fat in proportion to the amount of starch. Bread is half starch, 
 and only one-seventieth fat. Butter must be added to make 
 it a complete diet. So while bread may be the staff of life, 
 bread and butter together are " a gold-headed cane," as some- 
 one has said. Cheese, being rich in fats, may take the place of 
 butter. In some of the countries of Europe, black bread and 
 rich cheese form the main articles of diet of the peasants. 
 Together they make a fairly complete and very nourishing food. 
 With milk, bread is also a valuable food, especially for the 
 young. Bread made of whole wheat flour contains more food 
 elements than the flour used to make white bread. Newly 
 baked bread is very difficult to digest^ since it is apt to form 
 such a soft, pasty mass in the mouth that by the time it 
 reaches the stomach it is a solid lump which the digestive 
 juices cannot easily enter and dissolve. 
 
 Potatoes are a good food with meat, but hard to digest. 
 They contain no fat. In fact, potatoes alone do not constitute 
 a very complete food. They should be eaten with butter, meat, 
 or meat gravy. Beans are a valuable food for a strong, healthy 
 person, but persons with weak digestive organs should not eat 
 them. When either beans or peas are used, they should be 
 cooked a long time, and in eating them, one should be 
 very careful to see that they are thoroughly chewed. The 
 cereals, as oats, corn, and rice, are chiefly starch. Rice con- 
 tains about ninety per cent starch. Corn contains more fat 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 35 
 
 than the other grains, but all vegetable fat is hard to digest, 
 and is of little value as food. Turnips, cabbage, parsnips, and 
 other vegetables give variety to our list of foods. They are all 
 difficult to digest, and contain very little nourishment. 
 
 Fruits All fruit is hard to digest. Apples, pears, grapes, 
 peaches and similar fruits really contain but little food. They 
 contain some sugar, a slight amount of mineral matter, and the 
 acids that give them their taste. These acids, in a measure, 
 stimulate the appetite and promote the flow of saliva and gas- 
 tric juice. The main use of fruit does not consist in the real 
 food contained, but in the fact that it is not digested but car- 
 ried down the intestines quite rapidly, thus sweeping along 
 before it refuse food and waste substances that have accu- 
 mulated, thereby keeping the intestines clean and in good 
 condition. Eipe fruits in their season are the most beneficial, 
 while too ripe or unripe fruits often cause illness. Much of the 
 danger of unripe fruits may be removed by cooking. Green 
 vegetables, such as raw cabbage, lettuce, radishes, beets, and 
 celery, act like fruit and are similar, but they contain even less 
 nourishment than fruit. A great danger in eating much fruit 
 is that it may sour and decay in the intestines, just as it does 
 outside the body. When this occurs, as is often the case, 
 severe, painful illness arises, as this decayed fruit in the bowels 
 is very poisonous. Nuts are often highly praised as foods 
 because they contain more fats than do other vegetable foods, 
 but the fat or oil contained in nuts is especially hard to digest. 
 Spices, such as mustard, pepper, and cloves, burn the stomach 
 just as they burn the mouth. If we put mustard on the skin 
 it will make the skin red. Spices do not nourish the body in 
 
36 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 any way, and therefore are not food. Having no value as 
 food, they are often used to season bad food, and to cover up 
 the taste of injurious foods, and in this way they may also 
 prove quite harmful. 
 
 Candy and Preserves These contain chiefly sugar. A 
 certain amount of sugar is needed by the body, so a limited 
 amount of pure candy is healthful. The harm arising from 
 eating candy lies in the fact that it is apt to be eaten between 
 meals, when the stomach should be given a chance to rest. 
 Again, too much candy may be eaten at one time. Whether 
 in the form of candy or other sweets, excessive amounts of 
 sugar cause the liver to be overworked and a bilious attack 
 results. 
 
 Time Required for Digestion You have noticed that 
 some foods are easily digested while others are quite difficult 
 of digestion. Some foods are not good, especially for young, 
 growing persons, because they require too much time for diges- 
 tion, thus giving the stomach little or no opportunity for rest. 
 The time required for stomach digestion was first discovered in 
 a very interesting and peculiar way. A man by the name of 
 Alexis St. Martin had an opening from the surface of his body 
 directly into the stomach, as the result of a gunshot wound, 
 so that the stomach could be looked into, and the time required 
 for digesting the various foods could be closely observed and 
 studied. Other cases, similar to that of St. Martin, have since 
 occurred, and more observations have been made, so that we 
 know that stomach digestion requires from one to four hours as 
 shown in the following table: 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 37 
 
 HRS. MIN. HRS. MlK. 
 
 Rice, 1 00 Beef, broiled, 3 00 
 
 Pigs Feet, soused, - 1 00 Mutton, boiled, 3 00 
 
 Venison Steak, broiled, 1 30 Mutton, roasted, - 3 15 
 
 Salmon Trout, boiled, 1 30 Oysters, fried, - 3 30 
 
 Apples, sweet, 1 30 Potatoes, boiled, - 3 30 
 
 Milk, boiled, 2 00 Eggs, hard boiled, - 3 30 
 
 Codfish, salted or cured, 2 00 Pork, broiled, - - 3 30 
 
 Tapioca, 2 00 Beef, fried, 4 00 
 
 Cabbage, raw, 2 00 Salmon, boiled, 4 00 
 
 Goose, roasted, 2 30 Ducks, roasted, 4 00 
 
 Oysters, raw, - 2 30 Cheese, - 4 00 
 
 Potatoes, baked, - 2 30 Cabbage, boiled, - 4 30 
 
 Chicken, boiled, 2 45 Pork, fried, 4 30 
 
 Turkey, roasted, - 2 45 Veal, fried, 4 30 
 
 Beef, roasted, 3 00 Pork, roasted, - 5 20 
 
 Cooking. You have already learned that cooking is the 
 first step in the process of digestion. By cooking, our food is 
 rendered soft so as to be easily chewed. Cooking, as a rule, 
 also improves the taste of the food so that it is more agreeable. 
 It also destroys many of the disease germs that lurk in food. 
 Cooked food, then, should taste well, and be soft or brittle, so 
 that it can be chewed fine. If food remains tough, it is not 
 well cooked, or it was unfit in the first place. Improper cook- 
 ing may make what would otherwise be the best foods harmful 
 to us. There are three good ways of cooking broiling, roast- 
 ing, and boiling. 
 
 Broiling is the best way in which to cook meats. Eoasting 
 is the next best, and boiling comes next. Frying is apt to 
 make the meat hard and dry, and therefore difficult of diges- 
 tion. When food is to be fried, great care should be taken to 
 
38 GKADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 have the pan itself, or the lard or butter, if they are to be used, 
 very hot before the food is placed in it, and kept hot until 
 cooked, so that as little fat as possible may be absorbed by the 
 food. In cooking meats, the natural juices should be kept in 
 them as much as possible. In broiling a beefsteak over a hot 
 fire the heat almost instantly seals up the meat so that the 
 juices cannot escape. In boiling, the meat should be placed 
 in boiling water, and roasts should be placed in a very hot 
 oven in order that the juices may be retained. If, however, 
 we wish to make soups, such as mutton or beef broth, we then 
 desire to use the meat juices rather than the meat itself. In 
 this case the meat should be cut into small pieces and placed 
 in cold water, and then gradually brought to the boiling point. 
 In this way the nourishing juices are extracted. Cooking is an 
 art that should be carefully studied, in order that our food 
 may be so prepared as to do the most good. 
 
 Adulteration of Foods. Many of our foods are sometimes 
 spoiled by persons who manufacture or sell them, putting into 
 them cheaper substances that are dangerous to health. Such 
 persons seem to care little for the purity of foods, but are 
 chiefly interested in making the most money possible out of 
 them. So common has this adulteration become that in most 
 of the states the law-making power has passed pure food bills 
 to prevent the sale of such adulterated articles. These laws 
 are most worthy and should be strictly enforced, for what is 
 money-making by a few individuals compared with the health 
 of the people of an entire city or state, which may be greatly 
 endangered by the use of these impure or adulterated foods? 
 The foods most often adulterated are sugar, candy, syrup, milk, 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS 39 
 
 butter, chocolate, coffee, flour, baking powder, breadj and jellies. 
 Sugar, syrup, and candy are sometimes made from corn by a 
 peculiar process, by means of which the starch of the corn is 
 changed into glucose, and a kind of sugar not so sweet or 
 healthful as sugar made from sugar-cane or sugar beets. This 
 sugar is quite apt to ferment, or sour, and decay within the 
 bowels, thus causing disease. Some candies are colored with 
 poisonous matter. The plain, cheap candie are, as a rule, the 
 purest and most healthful, as it is the high-priced confections 
 that are the most frequently adulterated. 
 
 Milk is often adulterated by the addition of water and some 
 white substance, such as chalk. This not only thins the milk 
 and makes the same amount less nourishing, but at the same 
 time the water thus added is often impure, and in this way 
 disease germs are added to the milk, causing sickness and death. 
 
 Butter is sometimes made entirely from lard, tallow, and 
 cotton-seed oil, to which coloring matter is added to make it 
 look like pure, yellow butter made of rich cream. This product 
 is called lutterine, or oleomargarine. It can be sold for about 
 half what good butter would bring. If the lard or tallow is 
 obtained from diseased animals, the butterine made from it is 
 apt to prove very injurious. If cleanly made from pure lard or 
 tallow, it is not so harmful and may be used without danger, 
 especially in the place of " cooking butter." But when so made 
 there is not so much profit in selling it as when made from 
 cheaper, unclean materials. Almost all of the states have laws 
 against the sale of butterine, without its being so stamped as to 
 plainly show to the person buying it that it is not genuine but- 
 ter, but an imitation. Such laws are right in protecting the 
 
40 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 people against false or counterfeit foods, and in preventing 
 people from being imposed upon. Has your state such a law ? 
 
 Chocolate, coffee, and flour are*-adulterated in various ways. 
 The chief way of adulterating flour is to add very fine corn 
 meal or corn flour. This is heavier than pure wheat flour, and 
 as flour is sold by weight, the person buying it is cheated. Be- 
 sides, the fine corn flour added is not so nourishing as the same 
 amount of wheat flour would be. 
 
 Bakery bread and cake are often made impure by the addi- 
 tion of ammonia for the purpose of making the loaf lighter and 
 whiter. Not only is ammonia injurious, but a loaf of bread 
 made in this manner weighs less than the same sized loaf 
 would if made without such an ingredient. Consequently the 
 customer does not get the same amount of nourishment from a 
 five-cent loaf of bread made with ammonia that he would in 
 a similar loaf made without it. 
 
 Baking powder is often made impure and harmful by the 
 addition of alum. Any baking powder containing alum is 
 injurious. You know how home-made jellies and preserves 
 taste. They are also wholesome foods. When made from the 
 pure juices of fruits and pure sugar they are expensive. On 
 this account much jelly is sold at a low price, made from a 
 brittle, glue-like substance called gelatine, to which acids are 
 added, besides some unhealthful coloring matter to make them 
 look like the pure jellies made at home from currants, straw- 
 berries, grapes, and other fruits. 
 
 Perhaps you have heard people speak jokingly of wooden 
 nutmegs, hickory hams, and oats made by whittling shoe-pegs, 
 all said to be the invention of the ingenious Connecticut Yan- 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 41 
 
 kee of fifty years ago. But these are as nothing compared 
 with the food adulterations of to-day, which are so skillfully 
 carried out that detection of the adulteration is difficult. They 
 grow out of a general demand for cheap things, and when the 
 genuine article cannot be supplied at a profit, we find some 
 skillful adulteration taking its place. In addition to those 
 already noted, please observe the following list. Not only do we 
 have artificial eggs, artificial butter and adulterated wheat 
 flour, but we have buckwheat adulterated with wheat mid- 
 dlings, cider vinegar distilled from grains, lemon extracts made 
 without lemon oil, and vanilla extracts without a trace of 
 vanilla. We buy "Vermont Maple Syrup" that never was 
 within a thousand miles of Vermont, but was made in a little, 
 dingy city factory. Milk is robbed of its cream, filled with lard, 
 and sold all over the world in "American Pure Cream Cheese." 
 Nearly all of the cheap strained honey is made without the 
 effort of a single bee. Artificial smoke is made out of poison- 
 ous drugs, for the purpose of quickly curing hams and bacon. 
 Oysters are partially embalmed with chemicals. Spices made 
 from ground pepper hulls, ground cocoanut shells, and ground 
 bark are manufactured and sold by the ton. Canned fruits are 
 often preserved with antiseptic drugs which interfere with 
 digestion. This is only a partial list, but it is enough to show 
 that we are oftentimes cheated in buying food. 
 
 The adulteration of food is wrong, and people are right in 
 insisting that laws be passed to prevent the sale and use of 
 impure foods. 
 
 Diseased Foods Animals become sick, and when in this 
 condition are sometimes killed, and their parts sold as food. 
 
42 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Vegetables may also be diseased. Such meat or vegetables are 
 never good for food. Dishonest dealers will sometimes sell 
 them to those who are not aware,, of their condition, and thus 
 cause illness and sometimes death in the persons eating them. 
 Diseased food is as bad as decayed or spoiled food. Consump- 
 tion is often caught by 
 persons eating the meat 
 from diseased cattle, or 
 drinking milk from cows 
 having this disease. Of 
 the different meats, pork 
 most often contains disease 
 germs. Meat should never 
 be eaten raw. It should 
 always be well cooked, as 
 the heat employed in cook- 
 ing will destroy any germs 
 of disease % that might be 
 lurking in the meat. 
 
 Other Harmful Foods. 
 Food which is decayed 
 
 or spoiled, and thus tastes musty or tainted, is always unfit, and 
 may even be poisonous. Spoiled milk is perhaps the worst of 
 all. Young children should never drink milk which is the least 
 bit sour. Moldy bread, tainted meat, or decayed fruit should 
 never be eaten. Meat which is pale, yellowish, or very dark, 
 is unhealthful. Canned foods, especially canned fish, canned 
 beef, potted ham, tongue, and similarly prepared meats, spoil 
 very quickly after being opened and exposed to the air. Any 
 
 FIGURE 7. Diseased Pork, highly magnified, 
 showing Trichinae. 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS. 43 
 
 canned food should be eaten the same day it is opened. 
 Unripe foods, whether fruits or vegetables, are unfit, more par- 
 ticularly if they are not cooked. 
 
 Partial Starvation A very good illustration of what is 
 meant by partial starvation is found in the experience of many 
 sailors and some of the unfortunate miners in the Klondike. 
 Men, in their rush to the gold fields of Alaska, in selecting the 
 food supply to be taken out with them seemed to consider only 
 the amount of space such food would occupy on the crowded 
 boats, or what it would weigh when they " packed " it over the 
 trail. Many of them did not consider at all the question 
 of health. Therefore the meats selected were either salted, 
 smoked, cured, or dried. These would have been all right 
 if other necessary foods had also been taken along, but 
 a constant diet of salted or cured meats, without the 
 counteracting acids of fruits, produces the dreadful disease 
 known as "scurvy." The life of many a poor fellow that 
 died of scurvy in the gold fields, would have been saved, if 
 with the salted meats and canned goods upon which he made 
 his meals, he had occasionally taken some juice of the lime or 
 lemon. Sailors found this out long ago, and the ship's doctor 
 always has on hand a good supply of these acid juices with 
 which to prevent scurvy. Scurvy is a disease resulting from a 
 form of partial starvation. 
 
 It is certainly true that every person requires not only a 
 certain amount of food, but also a variety. The kinds of food 
 which the body demands and must have, fall into four groups: 
 
 1. Proteids. 3. Carbo-hydrates. 
 
 2. Fats. 4. Salts. 
 
44 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Proteids are necessary food elements, and are found in such 
 foods as beef, mutton, eggs, milk, and cheese. The proteids are 
 tissue formers. No new tissue v ean be formed in the body 
 without them; so lacking these, growth is impossible. Milk is 
 the best food for children, because it contains several proteids. 
 Eggs and meat should be added as soon as children are able to 
 properly chew and digest them. It is a positive fact that the 
 diet of children should be more nutritious, instead of less nutri- 
 tious, than that of adults. If there are not enough proteids in 
 the child's food he suffers from partial starvation. This lack 
 of food with respect to quality occasions starvation of the body 
 as truly as a lack of the proper amount of food. Many children 
 suffer from proteid starvation. 
 
 The fats include such foods as butter, cream, the fatty 
 substance in milk, and the fats of meats. In proportion to the 
 whole amount of food eaten, the child requires more fat in 
 his food than does the adult. Children often suffer from fat 
 starvation. Growing bone needs fat, and that' is one reason 
 that children require so large a proportion of fat in their foods* 
 We must repeat what we have said before in this chapter, that 
 the fats derived from animals, such as rich milk, butter, and 
 fatty meats, are much more easily digested than the vegetable 
 fats. 
 
 The carlo-liydrates include such foods as starch and sugar. 
 These are as necessary to complete feeding as are the proteids 
 and fats. The carbo-hydrates are usually fed in abundance to 
 children, as they constitute the chief element in wheat, crack- 
 ers, oatmeal, and bread. Carbo-hydrate starvation, then, is not 
 very common, except that some children do not get enough sugar. 
 
HEALTHFUL AND UNHEALTHFUL FOODS, 45 
 
 The salts include common salt, lime, soda, and potash. 
 These we have already mentioned as necessary food elements. 
 
 To sum up in a general way our talk about healthful and 
 unhealthful foods, we must say that every particle of food that 
 enters the stomach either benefits or harms the body. The 
 amount of strength we have, the quality of our health, and the 
 bodily heat all depend upon the kind of fuel we use in the 
 machinery of our bodies. Many diseases are due to improper 
 food. Each pain you have is a little signal notifying you that 
 somewhere in your body there is either a lack or excess of 
 supply. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. When a person is sick, why do we give him much of 
 his food in liquid form? 
 
 2. Why are different kinds of food eaten in different 
 climates? 
 
 3. How is the bodily heat kept up to the proper degree? 
 
 4. Do all people require the same amount of food? 
 
 5. What is meant by healthful foods? By unhealthful 
 foods? 
 
 6. What foods do we get from the mineral kingdom? From 
 animals? From the vegetable kingdom? 
 
 7. Why is milk called the only "perfect food"? What is 
 the necessity for milk inspection? 
 
 8. What is the food value of butter, cheese, and eggs? 
 
 9. How do the different meats compare as foods? 
 
 10. What is the comparative value of animal and vegetable 
 foods? 
 
 11. Are fruits eaten simply for their food properties? 
 
 12. Why should our food be properly cooked? What are the 
 different methods of cooking? 
 
 13. What is meant by adulteration of foods? Give illustra- 
 tions of food adulterations. 
 
 14. What is meant by "partial starvation"? 
 
.'*' 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OUB, DEINK. 
 
 If a boy or girl weighs one hundred pounds, it is estimated 
 that 70 per cent of this amount is water. Nearly three-fourths, 
 then, of the weight of the body is due to the water it con- 
 tains. If all the liquids and moisture could be dried out of your 
 body, it would shrink up so as to be surprisingly small. Pure 
 drinking water is necessary to life and health. The body 
 naturally craves water more than it does food. A person can 
 live longer without food than without water. Water is the 
 only substance that will quench thirst. Other drinks, such as 
 milk, tea, and coffee, consist of water containing certain solids, 
 and do not quench thirst so completely as water: 
 
 We know that the liquid part of the blood carries the food 
 we eat to all parts of the body. This liquid in the blood comes 
 from the water we drink and the water contained in the foods 
 we eat. You can see the water in fruit, for it is the water 
 that makes the fruit juicy. Water constitutes one-half of the 
 weight of beef, and three-fourths of the seemingly dry and 
 mealy potatoes we eat. Milk is nine-tenths water. 
 
 Uses of Water The chief uses of water to the body are : 
 1. To soften the food in cooking. 2. To form the liquid part 
 of the blood, and thus carry food in the blood to all parts of 
 the body. 3. To take up and remove the waste elements in 
 
 46 
 
OUR DRINK, 47 
 
 the tissues of the body. 4. To carry away from the skin on 
 the surface of the body, by means of sweat or perspiration, 
 impurities and extra heat that may arise from food or exercise, 
 thus keeping the temperature of the body at a healthy point. 
 
 Pure Water. The water we drink, as we find it in nature, 
 always contains more or less mineral matter, some gases, and 
 occasionally some vegetable matter, and even small animal 
 organisms. Absolutely pure water is not found in nature. It 
 can only be made absolutely pure by distilling it. But dis- 
 tilled water is unpleasant to the taste, being flat and insipid. 
 When the mineral matter, such as lime, soda, potash, or even 
 sulphur is not in excess, it is useful to the system. We know 
 lime is important in the formation of the teeth and bones; 
 therefore water containing a small amount of lime benefits the 
 body, especially when it is growing. Water sparkles because 
 of the gases contained. Water containing no air or gas tastes 
 unpleasantly flat. Some substances found in water are harm- 
 less and even beneficial. Other substances you will find are 
 harmful and dangerous to health. You can plainly see that it 
 is just as necessary for our health that our drink should be 
 pure as that our food should be pure. People should never 
 drink water that is taken from a well located near a slop-hole, 
 cesspool, manure-soaked barn-yard, or other filthy place. 
 
 Impure Water. It is a great mistake for people to think 
 that water gotten from any kind of a well is good for drinking 
 purposes. Many people are not careful as to the location of 
 the well, often digging it in some low place where they can get 
 water most easily. When located in a low place, impure sur- 
 face water draining off the soil will often flow or seep into the 
 
48 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 well, thus making its water impure. No mistake can be more 
 serious, if we value our health, than to locate a well in a poor 
 place. A well to supply drinking water should not be located 
 near a barn, and should be at least fifty, and better still, a hun- 
 
 FIGURE 8. Showing how water may become impure in badly located 
 wells, from surface drainage. 
 
 dred feet from any cesspool, drain, or other place where slops 
 and refuse are thrown. It is also best that the well should 
 not be in the house. We must remember that germs of disease 
 may be carried through the soil for quite a distance, especially 
 if there is a stratum of rock sloping toward the well. Wells 
 
OUR DRINK. 49 
 
 dug in gravelly soil are often better than those that are sunk 
 into rock, for impurities may be carried a long way through the 
 cracks or crevices between layers of rock. As a rule, water 
 from deep wells is purer than water from shallow wells. 
 Driven wells are the best. They are made by driving iron 
 pipes into the ground, until they pass a layer of rock or stratum 
 of clay, commonly called "hard pan." Water reached under 
 such a stratum of rock or clay is not so apt to be impure as 
 that found nearer the surface, which may be made impure by 
 drainage and seepage. 
 
 Disease Germs in Water. Sometimes upon examining 
 drinking water under the microscope, or analyzing it by the 
 methods of chemistry, we discover that it contains decaying 
 animal or vegetable matter, and also little animals so small as 
 not to be visible to the naked eye. These dangerous little 
 animals are called germs. Though they are the smallest forms 
 of life known to exist, they are the most dangerous enemies 
 known to life and health. Why are these minute animals so 
 dangerous? 1. They are very industrious little fellows, and 
 their chief business is to manufacture poisons of a very deadly 
 character. 2. They increase in numbers with great rapidity. 
 Some kinds of these germs develop so rapidly as to double in 
 number every fifteen minutes. Think, then, of the immense 
 number that might develop at this rate from a single germ in 
 twenty-four hours. They are also tough little fellows. Some 
 of them cannot be killed by extreme cold. If water containing 
 them is frozen into ice, many of them will stay there for 
 months, and then when the ice melts, and they are thrown 
 out again, become active poison makers. They can, however, 
 4 
 
50 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 be killed by boiling the water containing them. Typhoid 
 fever, diphtheria, yellow fever, and cholera are the most deadly 
 of the common diseases, that may be "caught" by the presence 
 of germs in water. 
 
 FIGURE 9. Organisms found in impure water (highly magnified) . 
 
 Impure drinking water thus causes a great amount of sick- 
 ness. Investigations by the boards of health in many states 
 and cities show that thousands of deaths occur every year 
 because of impure water supply. The disease germs in the 
 water supply of an army often cause many more deaths than 
 the bullets in battle. To escape typhoid fever and similar 
 deadly diseases we must be certain that our drinking water is 
 
OUR DRINK. 51 
 
 free from every kind of filth. In one of our large cities 
 recently, hundreds of people died from typhoid fever, which 
 was found to have been spread by milk cans having been 
 washed in impure water containing these disease germs. 
 
 To Purify Water The only way to purify water contain- 
 ing germs is by boiling. This is especially necessary in large 
 towns and cities where it is sometimes quite difficult to secure 
 good, pure drinking water. Filters strain some of the impuri- 
 ties out of the water, and by their use muddy water may be 
 made to look quite clear. But no filter is fine enough to strain 
 out the little disease germs. No filter is germ proof. Boiling 
 is the only safe method of purifying water. 
 
 Mineral Waters. When much mineral matter is present, 
 the water is called mineral water. Many such waters are 
 found in various springs over our country, and some of them 
 are excellent in healing certain diseases. The chief mineral 
 substances found in them are lime, soda, lithium, iron, potash, 
 sulphur, and salt. Some of them contain so much pure salt 
 that they furnish much of the salt we use in cooking and on our 
 tables. Can you tell the difference between hard and soft water ? 
 
 Lead and Zinc Poisoning There is good ground for the 
 objections we hear against lead pipes for the carrying of drink- 
 ing water. The small amount of mineral matter in the water 
 may attack the lead and thus form a deadly poison. The dan- 
 ger increases the longer the water is permitted to stand in the 
 lead pipe. In using water from lead pipes, it is best to allow 
 the water to run or be pumped long enough for all that has 
 been standing in the pipe to run out, and fresh water to enter 
 from the well or water-main, 
 
52 GKADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Water as a Beverage -Pure water is the best beverage a 
 person can use. Persons with stomachs too weak to bear tea 
 or coffee are greatly benefited by drinking a cup of hot water 
 instead of these beverages. Beverages other than water are 
 good just in proportion to the amount of water they contain, 
 and the harmlessness of the other substances 'found in them. 
 Pure lemonade, made of lemon juice, sugar, and water, is a 
 wholesome drink, but the red lemonade of the circus, and the 
 bright-colored "soda-pop," often contain harmful coloring matter 
 and injurious acids that are used in place of lemon juice just 
 because they are cheap. Thus drinks may be adulterated in 
 much the same way that foods are. 
 
 It is not wise to drink too much water with our meals, for 
 in so doing we are apt to weaken the digestive juices to such 
 an extent that our food will not be properly treated in the 
 mouth, stomach, and intestines. Stomach and bowel troubles 
 may result from this cause. 
 
 It is also harmful to the stomach to put* ice-cold water into 
 it, thus chilling it so it will be unable to do its work perfectly. 
 
 Tea and Coffee. These are often used in place of water, 
 chiefly for the sake of variety. Tea and coffee contain no 
 food. They act in a peculiar way as a sort of whip to the 
 body. They are stimulating. A substance that causes the 
 body to do more work without giving to it any extra energy 
 or weight is called a stimulant. When you come to study 
 Latin you will find that stimulus is the Latin name for an ox 
 whip. It is wrong to whip the body into attempting to do 
 things beyond its strength, just as it is wrong to try to whip a 
 horse into pulling a load much too heavy for it. Tea and cof- 
 
OUR DRINK. 53 
 
 fee act upon the mind in such a way that the tired condition 
 of the body is not felt. They do not increase the strength of 
 the body, but simply deaden the tired feelings. They are 
 injurious to boys and girls, for they retard growth, and the 
 nervous system of the young person is more readily harmed 
 by a stimulant than that of an older person. 
 
 If not taken in too great quantities, or made so as to be 
 too strong, tea and coffee are not harmful to a healthy person 
 over fifteen years of age. When long and hard work must be 
 done, or when a person must endure great exposure, then tea 
 and coffee are valuable stimulants. Thus Nansen and other 
 Arctic explorers, as well as soldiers on long, forced marches, 
 have found them necessary. 
 
 Adulteration of Tea and Coffee The leaves of various 
 other plants are added to tea leaves and then dried. The 
 "green" teas are often colored with copper, making them 
 injurious. Chicory is raised chiefly for the purpose of adul- 
 terating coffee. The root is roasted and ground, and it is found 
 in almost all the cheaper grades of coffee. 
 
 Beer, ale, wine, cider, gin, Irandy, and whiskey all contain 
 alcohol, and are therefore harmful. They can never take the 
 place of water as a beverage because of their injurious effects 
 upon the bodily organs. All alcoholic drinks produce a feverish 
 condition and create a demand for more water than the system 
 naturally requires. They increase rather than quench thirst. 
 The poisonous nature of alcohol is fully discussed in subsequent 
 chapters. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TEMPERANCE. 
 
 There are certain unmistakable laws of right living clearly 
 impressed upon the constitution of man. If he should live 
 according to these laws he would always be strong and healthy. 
 By this time you have learned that the vigor and health of 
 many persons are seriously impaired by neglect. Failure to eat 
 nourishing food, to breathe pure air, to keep the body clean, 
 and to exercise, are frequent causes of physical weakness and 
 disease. There are people whose lives are really shortened 
 because they have failed to spend a few minutes a day in 
 regular judicious exercise. Lack of anything the body needs 
 for healthy growth always works injuriously. 
 
 While there are many persons whose health has been seri- 
 ously impaired because of the lack of those things so essential 
 to bodily vigor, there are many more who have brought lasting 
 injury upon themselves by excesses in one or more directions. 
 
 Temperance. Improper eating and improper drinking pro- 
 duce more sickness than all other causes. It seems all the more 
 strange that man of all animals should be the one to indulge in 
 excesses of appetite, when he possesses the most knowledge 
 concerning the ill-effects of such indulgences. Man is sur- 
 rounded by an abundance of wholesome food, yet he often 
 makes himself sick by excesses in eating and drinking, acting 
 as though he would never again have an opportunity to partake 
 
 54 
 
TEMPERANCE. 55 
 
 of food and drink. Such men live to eat, rather than eat 
 to live. 
 
 A horse will never drink merely for the sake of sociability, 
 and a squirrel with a house made of acorns will eat just enough 
 for his needs, but some men eat all kinds of foods and drink 
 disagreeable concoctions merely for the pleasure of eating and 
 drinking. Temperance is the exercise of moderation in regard 
 to all our appetites. Intemperance is the gratification of any 
 appetite or inclination which does not fulfill bodily need. 
 
 Intemperance in Eating. This is one of the most common 
 forms of intemperance. Eating injudiciously never fails to 
 cause bodily derangement of some sort. The injuries of over- 
 eating are shared by all parts of the body brain, nerve, bone, 
 muscle, stomach, liver none are exempt from the harmful 
 effects. A child who habitually makes a meal consisting of 
 sweet cake, is intemperate, and he afterwards pays dearly for 
 such indulgence. Not only will he suffer pain, but his organs 
 of digestion become deranged and incapable of doing their best 
 work, and for years he suffers because of his folly. Sometimes 
 when sufficient plain food has been taken at a meal to satisfy 
 the appetite, a man will take something to give him a new but 
 false appetite, or will partake of some rich dessert, highly spiced 
 and sweetened, which he eats merely for the pleasant taste, and 
 not because it contains necessary food elements. A perverted 
 appetite frequently leads us to eat cake, candy, and fruits 
 between meals, thus overworking the stomach by giving it no 
 opportunity to rest. If we are hungry enough to eat bread or 
 meat between meals, then the appetite should be satisfied, for 
 
56 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 this is a call from the cells of the body for food, rather than 
 from the palate for agreeable taste sensations. 
 
 The Alcohol Habit. The use of drinks that contain alcohol 
 is the worst kind of intemperance. This form of intemperance 
 is a terrible curse in America. It tends to destroy the work 
 that the school strives to build up. The American school has 
 for its object such education of children as will lead them to 
 become good citizens. 
 
 Because alcohol enters the body by means of the digestive 
 tube, in the same way in which food does, rather than that it 
 is of itself a food, it is here treated as naturally following the 
 discussion of proper food and drink for the human body. If 
 we eat a sufficient amount of wholesome food to-day, we do not 
 require a larger amount of the same food to-rnorrow. Not so 
 with alcohol ; the appetite for it grows with the using. 
 
 Is Alcohol a Food ? You recall that food is any substance 
 which, when taken into our bodies, will produce heat, weight, 
 or strength. Has alcohol any of these qualities which must be 
 possessed in order to class a substance as food ? Are its effects 
 neither beneficial nor harmful, or is it injurious to the human 
 body ? We will proceed to answer these questions. 
 
 Does Alcohol Produce Bodily Heat? It is often claimed 
 for alcoholic drinks that they possess a special advantage in the 
 readiness with which they are able to produce bodily heat. 
 This is an error. In the ordinary forms in which it is taken 
 alcohol lowers the temperature of the body, as the clinical 
 thermometer of the physician plainly reveals. It is true that a 
 drink of wine or whisky sends the blood to the skin. This is 
 seen in the flushed face. The sending the blood to the skin 
 gives a sensation of heat. We fed warmer. We are deceived, 
 
TEMPERANCE. 57 
 
 for we are actually cooler. The more blood there is at the sur- 
 face of the body, the more quickly is its temperature lowered. 
 Alcohol does not create bodily heat. 
 
 Does Alcohol Increase Tissue ? Alcohol unites so readily 
 with water that it tends to extract the fluids of the body from 
 the healthy tissues, and in this way it attacks and destroys 
 them. Scientists seem to agree that alcohol is a tissue 
 destroyer and not a tissue builder. 
 
 Does Alcohol Create Energy ? This is a question that has 
 provoked much discussion. Kenowned physicians tell us there 
 are some diseases in which the temporary use of alcohol is of 
 service in the effort to prolong the life of the patient. Thus it 
 would seem to indicate that in certain limited quantities it is 
 a force-producer. But so is strychnine. Probably no drug is 
 more favorably regarded by the modern physician as an efficient 
 heart tonic than strychnine in very small doses. The situation 
 is practically the same with respect to alcohol. In certain very 
 small quantities, and under definite conditions of experiment, it 
 will act for a limited time as a force-producer. Whether this is 
 sufficient to class alcohol as a food is a question that can be 
 best answered when we consider the harmful effects of alcohol, 
 which, we think, more than offset the one reason for regarding 
 it as a food. Alcohol is not economic food, not necessary food, 
 not tissue-forming food ; but on the other hand, seems on being 
 decomposed within the body to yield up some energy. But, if 
 in yielding up this energy certain processes are set in motion 
 that cause a cheapening of the individual physically, mentally, 
 or morally, they should be called unTiealthful foods rather than 
 healthful foods, if the word " food" is to be used at all. Even 
 those who apply to alcohol the term "food," in the technical 
 
58 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 sense that it is a force-producer, do not advise its use. Pro- 
 fessor Atwater, who has recently demonstrated anew this force- 
 producing quality of alcohol, says; " I myself believe that the 
 more advisable course is habitual abstinence." 
 
 Alcohol is Poisonous Alcohol tends to destroy tissue, 
 derange bodily functions, and cause the brain to act dishonestly. 
 While technically it may be called a food, practically it is a 
 poison, and there is always danger in its use. Being a dangerous 
 drug, it should only be used when prescribed by a physician. 
 More hard work can be done without alcohol than with it. 
 
 Alcohol and Physical Training. That alcohol is harmful 
 and not beneficial is shown in the very strict rules laid down 
 by athletic trainers. No person, in training for athletic events 
 under the direction of a competent instructor, is permitted to par- 
 take of any alcoholic beverage. The trained athlete requires 
 nutritious foods, and experience in physical training has shown 
 that alcohol retards rather than assists his muscular develop- 
 ment, and interferes with quick and reliable action of the 
 nerves, fibers, and cells. 
 
 Physical Effects of Alcohol The precise effects of alcohol 
 upon the body have not been fully determined, but enough is 
 known to justify the statement that its effects on the whole 
 are bad. There are certain diseases directly traceable to the 
 use of alcohol. If the individual does not partake of alcohol 
 he escapes these diseases. They include a fatal form of disease 
 of the liver and kidneys, as well as chronic indigestion, disease 
 of the eyes and of the arteries. The best authorities say that 
 there is not a single kind of nervous disease known that can- 
 not be caused by alcoholic excesses. 
 
TEMPERANCE. 59 
 
 The Mental Effects The fact that the habitual use of 
 alcohol causes so much insanity is an indication of the disturb- 
 ing effect that it has on the mental processes. Alcohol 
 materially affects the rapidity and accuracy of thought. It 
 makes one inaccurate, incapable of steady application, and 
 tends to make the mind act more slowly. After the so-called 
 stimulating effects of alcohol have passed away, there is always 
 a marked reaction causing mental depression. This paves the 
 way for irritability, which is next door to loss of self-control. 
 The use of alcohol, as will naturally be inferred from our 
 discussion of habit, gradually tends to weaken a person's 
 will. 
 
 Alcohol as a Stimulant Most authorities admit that for 
 a very brief period alcohol may act as a stimulant, and spur one 
 to greater activity. Stimulus means " whip." However, after 
 the burst of energy there is a rebound ; the pendulum swings 
 to the other extreme, and there is less than the usual capacity 
 for work. Does the healthy body need such a whip ? 
 
 The Answer The use of alcohol in any form is wholly 
 unnecessary for the use of the human body in health. Think 
 of the joy of possessing a good body well built by the use of 
 good food and pure water, and well knit and well proportioned 
 by judicious and regular exercise. Strive to treat your body so 
 that it will be found rich in clean, pure blood; possess nerves 
 that are steady and honest in their action, a brain as clear as a 
 bell, and a mind that is quick and accurate in its operations. 
 To accomplish all these you need no other stimulant than pure 
 air, proper exercise, wholesome food, and the invigorating sun- 
 shine. By the use of alcohol, you run the risk of losing one or 
 
60 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 more of these priceless qualities so essential to happy, useful 
 lives. The use of alcohol in any form tends to remove one 
 from a position of security to the.* border-line of danger. He 
 may cross the line without effort on his part, or even in spite 
 of his best effort, and become more of a slave than a master. 
 When once the habit of using alcoholic drinks is formed, and 
 there is an awakening of the individual to his condition, he may 
 battle royally, earnestly, perseveringly, and desperately, but the 
 chances are against his success. It is safe to predict that 
 usually drink will win the struggle, deplorable and unwelcome 
 as such a fact is. 
 
 If there is no need of alcohol in any form for the healthy 
 body, then why should any one begin its use when there is so 
 much risk and so much danger involved ? 
 
 Tobacco Intemperance. Tobacco is especially injurious to 
 the young. It stunts growth, weakens the nerves, stupefies the 
 brain cells, interferes with digestion, and in many ways coun- 
 teracts the benefit of good food, besides diminishing the nat- 
 ural appetite. It contains nicotine, and this is a violent poison. 
 Tobacco is a frequent cause of weak eyes, is apt to irritate the 
 linings of the mouth and throat, and in many cases seriously 
 affects the heart. 
 
 The effects of tobacco on the individual after he has com- 
 pleted his growth and is over thirty years of age depends on 
 the amount used and on the temperament of the person using 
 it. The tendency, however, i$ always toward injury. The safe 
 rule is never to use it. Men never express regret for not having 
 formed this needless habit. Tobacco intemperance is always 
 injurious to the body at any age. It is an expensive habit, 
 
TEMPERANCE. 61 
 
 a man is just as well off without it, and the growing boy always 
 suffers from its use. 
 
 Effect of Tobacco on the Young From measurements of 
 187 students of the class of 1891, at Yale University, it was 
 found that the non-smokers gained in weight during the college 
 course 10.4 per cent more than the regular smokers, and 6.6 
 per cent more than the occasional smokers. In height the 
 non-users of tobacco increased 24 per cent more than the 
 regular users, and 12 per cent more than the occasional. In 
 increase of chest girth the non-users had an advantage of 26.7 
 per cent and 22 per cent, and an increase of lung capacity of 
 77.5 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively. These observa- 
 tions with respect to the dwarfing effects of tobacco are borne 
 out by similar ones on the class of 1891, Amherst College, 
 made by Dr. Edward Hitchcock. He found that in weight 
 non-smokers increased during their course 24 per cent more 
 than the smokers ; in increase in height they surpassed them 
 37 per cent; in gain of chest 42 per cent, and in gain of lung 
 capacity 75 per cent. Again, in France, the difference between 
 the students in the polytechnic schools who smoked and those 
 who did not, in scholarship, as shown by their respective class 
 standings, was so great that the government prohibited abso- 
 lutely the use of tobacco in all government schools. 
 
 The employers of labor in many of the large railroad offices 
 and business houses refuse to hire boys who use tobacco. The 
 head of one of the largest wholesale dry goods houses in the 
 world recently stated his reasons as follows: 
 
 "The use of tobacco has a peculiarly demoralizing effect 
 oil the moral nature of the young. In addition to making 
 
62 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 boys tired, stupid, and lazy, it makes them irritate, perverse, 
 careless of the rights and feelings of others, besides, in many 
 instances, leading to lying and even, stealing." 
 
 Such facts as these certainly indicate very clearly why a 
 boy should not use tobacco in any form. 
 
 The Cigarette Evil The bad effects of tobacco on the 
 young are even worse when used by them in the form of cigar- 
 ettes. Many cigarettes are drugged with opium, and the enam- 
 eled paper is usually made by a process involving the use of 
 poisons. The effect of cigarette smoking on boys is clearly 
 shown in the following quotation from a statement communi- 
 cated to me by the principal of one of the Chicago schools,* 
 after careful investigation of the influence of this pernicious 
 habit on school work. 
 
 " It is only within the last five or six years that the habit of 
 cigarette smoking has made its appearance among the boys of 
 the public schools of Chicago, but during that brief period it 
 has increased to such an extent that several thousand have 
 become addicted to the habit, and the majority of these boys 
 are so affected mentally and physically that they are unable to 
 make further progress in their studies. 
 
 "As to my personal knowledge of the effects of this habit on 
 schoolboys. I have carefully observed them for the last three 
 years, during which period at least 125 boys addicted to this 
 habit have been at one time or another under my charge. 
 These boys smoked from two to twenty cigarettes a day, and 
 not more than ten of them were able to keep pace with their 
 class; yet nine-tenths belong to educated and intelligent fami- 
 
 *Mary Darrow Olson, Principal McCosh School, Chicago. 
 
TEMPERANCE. 63 
 
 lies. Among these 125 boys were found nearly all of those 
 pupils who were from two to five years older than the average 
 age of children for the grade, as well as ninety per cent of those 
 boys hard to discipline, and all of those who were in the habit 
 of playing truant. 
 
 "An Anti-Tobacco Society was organized, which most of the 
 boys joined. From frank and friendly conversations with 
 them many of their temptations and difficulties were made 
 clear. Twenty-four stated that the reason they failed to learn 
 their lessons was because most of the time they were too sleepy 
 to study; thirty said they were always dizzy after smoking, 
 and did not feel like thinking; twenty-two could not write 
 neatly because their hands trembled ; several, to use their own 
 words, felt shaky when they walked. A large number were 
 unable to run any distance, some not more than a block, 
 although before they began to smoke they could run as far and 
 as fast as any one. Nearly all told me they had headaches 
 constantly. With scarcely an exception they stated that they 
 were unable to learn their lessons, though kept night after 
 night for that purpose. 
 
 "From 88 schools 2,402 pupils were reported as addicted to 
 the cigarette habit, and only six per cent of these were able 
 to do the school work of their grade. As there are 235 
 schools in Chicago, and as 88 of them report 2,400 cigarette 
 smokers, it is safe, in making a conservative estimate, to say 
 that there are 5,000 cigarette smokers in the Chicago schools, 
 not more than 400 of whom are able to advance with their 
 class." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 We will now talk about the way in which the body gets 
 rid of some of the waste materials. The skin and the kidneys 
 together, acting in much the same way, constitute a very large 
 part of the sewer system of the body. They do much in get- 
 ting rid of the waste products that would be injurious for the 
 body to retain. Let us first study the structure of the skin. 
 
 The Skin. The skin is the soft, satin-like covering of the 
 body that fits it like a smooth glove or closely fitting garment. 
 It is so elastic that it is never too large or too small. If you 
 take up a little fold of the skin you will notice that it can be 
 stretched like a sheet of india-rubber. Like rubber, when you 
 let go, the skin quickly contracts and appears as before. At 
 the openings of the body, such as the mouth, ears, and eye- 
 sockets, the skin is so closely united with the lining membrane 
 of these cavities, as to be continuous with it. You can hardly 
 tell, as you examine your lips, where the outside skin leaves off 
 and the lining skin begins. 
 
 Two Skins. Perhaps you are not aware that you have 
 two skins, or rather two layers of skin. There is an outer one, 
 called the scarf skin, and directly beneath it the true skin. 
 The scarf skin, or outer layer, is called the cuticle or epidermis. 
 The inner layer, or true skin, is called the dermis. Did you 
 
 64 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 65 
 
 ever peel the bark off a young tree, or attempt to make a 
 whistle from a piece of a branch or twig? If so, and you 
 have closely watched, you have noticed that there are really 
 two barks an outer bark, almost as thin as paper in young 
 trees, but very thick and rough in older ones, and an inner 
 bark that fits tightly against the wood of the tree and its 
 branches. You know that a good deal of the outer bark can 
 be peeled off without doing the tree much harm. If you strip 
 off any of the inner bark you are apt to do the tree much 
 injury, for you thus make the tree bleed by causing its sap to 
 run. Sap is the blood of the tree, and the bark is the skin. 
 If the tree lives, and the bare place heals over, an ugly scar is 
 formed. 
 
 The Scarf Skin or Epidermis. Our bodies are very much 
 like trees, in that they also have two skins. You can run a pin 
 through the thin outer layer, or scarf skin, without causing 
 pain, because it has no blood or nerves. It is this outer skin 
 that puffs up when we have a blister caused by rubbing or 
 burning. This puffed-up blister is filled with a water-like fluid, 
 called serum, from the blood of the true skin or dermis being 
 poured in between the two layers of skin. If you open the 
 blister with a needle, the water runs out. If you now remove 
 the little patch of scarf skin and examine it, you will find that 
 it is very thin and much like the skin that lines the inside of 
 an egg-shell. The outer skin protects the inner skin, and yet it 
 is so thin that the nerves in the latter can feel through it. In 
 some parts of the body, as the palms of the hands and the soles 
 of the feet, it is thicker, because of the greater protection 
 needed at these places by the true skin. 
 5 
 
66 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The Pigment. The under side of the scarf skin is colored 
 by little particles of coloring matter, called pigment. In differ- 
 ent races this coloring matter differs in kind and amount. In 
 white persons there is very littfe pigment present, while in 
 albinos there is none at all. In Indians the pigment is of a 
 reddish copper color, while in negroes it is black. In some 
 races the pigment is yellowish, while in others it is brown. 
 Freckles are due to the fact that the pigment is not evenly 
 spread out on the under surface of the scarf skin, but is in 
 patches. 
 
 The Dermis or True Skin The inner skin is filled with 
 blood vessels and nerves. It is more important than the scarf 
 skin. For this reason it is called the true skin. It is thicker 
 than the outer skin, just as the inner bark of a young tree is 
 thicker than the outer bark. It is impossible to prick the inner 
 skin with a needle without causing pain or drops of blood to 
 appear. There are little thread-like muscles within the skin 
 that cause it to contract, giving the appearance of "goose-flesh," 
 or "goose-pimples," when we are suddenly chilled. Some of 
 these muscles are attached to the hairs in such a way that they 
 can make the shorter hairs stand up straight, as is sometimes 
 done when one is badly frightened. You have seen this done 
 in the case of a short-haired dog when he is cross, or the fright- 
 ened cat he is chasing. In the deeper portions of the skin are 
 two kinds of sacs, or glands the sweat glands and the oil 
 glands. 
 
 The Sweat Glands In almost all parts of the skin are to 
 be found tiny tubes with their lower ends coiled and tied into 
 a knot, and their outer ends open on the surface of the scarf 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 67 
 
 Epi- 
 dermis 
 
 skin, or epidermis. If you look at the palm of your hand you 
 will see not only many coarse lines, but also many fine ridges 
 with little furrows or valleys between them. If you examine 
 each of these little ridges with a magnifying glass, you will see 
 a number of little dark spots arranged along each ridge. Each 
 of these little dark 
 
 points is the mouth : IHAIB 
 
 of one of the very 
 small tubes men- 
 tioned above. Each 
 of these tubes is 
 called a sweat duct. 
 These ducts, or tubes, 
 run down through 
 both the outer and 
 inner layers of the 
 skin, and at the under 
 side you will see the 
 end of the tube rolled 
 up into a coil or ball, 
 as can be noticed by 
 looking at the pic- 
 ture of a highly magnified section of skin on this page. These 
 coiled-up ends of the tubes are called sweat glands. It is in 
 these little glands that sweat, or perspiration, is made. 
 
 The Perspiration Perspiration, or sweat, is being given off 
 all the time, and it usually dries as fast as it forms. If it is 
 warm weather, and we have drunk a good deal of water, or if 
 we have been heated by exercise, we find that the sweat, or 
 
 Blood 
 
 Tube 
 
 FIGURE 10. (Modified from Kolliker) A vertical sec- 
 tion of the Skin, showing the two layers, the glands, 
 and a hair shaft. 
 
68 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 perspiration, is given off in larger amounts, so that it collects 
 in drops that can be seen on the forehead, face, and other por- 
 tions of the skin. If you wish to see for yourself that per- 
 spiration is leaving the skin all the time, you can easily make 
 an experiment that will prove the fact. Take a small, cool 
 piece of ordinary window glass, touch it to the skin and it will 
 
 soon be clouded over 
 with moisture. A sim- 
 ilar experiment is to 
 place your hand inside 
 a glass fruit jar that has 
 been cooled. You will 
 soon see the moisture 
 gather on the sides of 
 the jar. About a quart 
 of perspiration is pro- 
 duced each day, and in 
 a hot day much more. 
 These pores, or open- 
 ings of the sweat ducts, are found over the whole surface of 
 the skin. There are nearly three millions of them in all, mak- 
 ing from five hundred to two thousand to each square inch, 
 according to the part of the body examined. The total surface 
 of the skin in the grown-up person of average age is seventeen 
 and one-half square feet. 
 
 Necessity of Keeping the Pores Open. If your body were 
 covered over with a paste or varnish, so that all these little 
 pores or openings of the sweat ducts were closed, you would 
 certainly die. An animal covered thus with varnish dies in 
 
 FIGURE 11. A portion of the Skin from the 
 palm of the hand, highly magnified, show- 
 ing the openings of the pores. 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 69 
 
 about eight hours. Nearly four hundred years ago, one evening 
 at a play in one of the courts of Europe, a boy was covered over 
 with gilt so as to look like a cherub. In a few hours he be- 
 came very sick, and died before morning, in spite of all the 
 doctors could do for him. He was poisoned because the per- 
 spiration was kept in his body instead of being allowed to 
 escape freely as nature demands. 
 
 A Cold. You should never pull off your coat and sit down 
 in a draught of air to cool off quickly. This suddenly checks 
 the perspiration, and the result is what is commonly called a 
 cold. A cold is really a form of illness resulting from the sud- 
 den closing up of the sweat pores of the skin, thereby prevent- 
 ing the waste matter from flowing out, as it would if the pores 
 were kept open. When we are suffering from a cold we take 
 a glass of hot lemonade or similar hot drink, and cover up 
 warmly in bed to promote perspiration. In this manner, by 
 taking a "sweat," we can quickly cure a cold. To perspire is 
 good; to perspire freely after exercise is also good; but to sud- 
 denly check the perspiration by allowing the body to cool rap- 
 idly is always harmful. 
 
 Oil Glands. There are also in the skin many little oil 
 glands, that are, as a rule, located near the root of a hair, 
 and they empty their oil into a little sac in which the hair 
 rests. The hair takes up this oil, and it is better for your hair 
 than any oil the barber can use. If the skin is healthy, this 
 natural oil will keep the hair smooth and glossy. A stopped- 
 up oil gland will produce a pimple; stoppage of several oil 
 glands at one time will cause a boil. 
 
70 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 FIGURE 12. The root of a human Hair 
 beneath the skin, highly magnified, 
 showing the two clusters of oil glands. 
 
 Hair. There are many 
 curious little pockets in the 
 /skin, and from each of these 
 pockets grows a hair. In 
 birds these little pockets are 
 larger than in' our skin, and 
 from them grow feathers in- 
 stead of hair. On the head 
 the hair is coarse and long. 
 On the arms and back of the 
 hand it is softer and shorter. 
 A good head of hair keeps 
 one from. taking cold. Foot 
 ball players do not usually 
 wear caps while playing the 
 game, but wear their hair 
 unusually long instead. Why 
 is this done ? 
 
 The average number of 
 hairs on the head is about 
 120,000. The hair, like the 
 color of the skin, differs with 
 different races. In the In- 
 dian it is straight and black. 
 What kind of hair has the 
 negro ? The hairs of a white 
 person are not perfectly 
 round, but are oval. The 
 
 hairs of the Chinese and Japanese are perfectly round. 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 71 
 
 The hair should be frequently washed, or shampooed, with 
 good soap that is not too strong, and soft water, in order to 
 keep it in good condition. As we grow old, the coloring mat- 
 ter is no longer present in the hair sac, and as a 
 result colorless or gray hair appears. Hair dyes 
 for coloring the hair are poisonous. So are the 
 solutions used to bleach the hair. 
 
 Nails. The nails of the toes and fingers 
 also grow out of little pockets in the skin, very 
 much as the hairs do. Both hairs and nails are 
 really parts of the outer skin, or epidermis. 
 The nails lie for the most part upon the bare sur- 
 face of the true skin. The tender true skin 
 lying under the nails is called the " quick." Do 
 you know why ? 
 
 The nails are made to give firmness and 
 protection to the fingers and toes. The nails of 
 the fingers are of great service in picking up 
 small objects, in untying a small hard knot, and 
 in many other ways, just as the claws of a bird 
 are useful in assisting it to hold to the twig of a 
 tree. For what purpose are the claws useful to 
 a cat ? To a dog ? 
 
 Hang-Nails. Sometimes a little narrow strip of skin near 
 the root of the nail becomes torn up, and hangs by one end. 
 This is called a hang-nail. If you have ever had one, you 
 know that they are very sore and painful. But biting them 
 off makes them much worse. They should be snipped off close 
 tc the skin with sharp scissors. 
 
 FIGURE 13. A 
 piece of hu- 
 man Hair as it 
 looks under 
 a magnifying 
 
72 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The nails should be kept clean. The black-looking dirt 
 under the ends of the nails contains not only much filth, but 
 often little active germs of disease similar to those that we 
 have learned live in impure water. Sickness has been con- 
 veyed in this way. 
 
 Uses of the Skin. The skin is very useful in several ways. 
 
 1. The skin protects the "body. The skin is so soft and close 
 fitting, and yet gives so easily with every movement of the 
 arms and legs, that it is a perfect covering for protecting the 
 body. 
 
 2. It removes waste. The sweat glands are constantly at 
 work removing from the blood some of the worn-out particles 
 of the body which cannot possibly be of further use. These 
 waste particles are carried in the watery perspiration through 
 the sweat ducts to the pores at the surface of the body, where 
 they pass off into the air. 
 
 3. Breathing through the skin. There are animals that 
 breathe altogether through their skin. A frog can breathe so 
 well through his skin that he will live several days after his 
 lungs have been removed. Some little animals can be killed 
 by means of a drop of camphor on their skins. It smothers 
 them much as water in our lungs would smother us. To some 
 extent we breathe through the skin. "We should be very care- 
 ful that the skin be kept clean and healthy so that it will not 
 by any chance breathe impurities into the blood. Perspira- 
 tion, when dried and allowed to accumulate on the skin, may 
 be carried back into the system and do much harm. 
 
 4. The skin regulates the temperature of the body. It is a 
 well-known fact that when water dries up, it cools everything 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 73 
 
 around it. A hot, dirty street in the summer-time may be 
 thoroughly sprinkled, and in drying again, the air becomes 
 cooler. When the air about us is warm, or we are heated by 
 exercise, the heat of the body is reduced by the extra amount 
 of sweat going to the surface of the skin. When the air 
 is cold there is less perspiration, for there is less demand for 
 the body's being cooled off. The skin with its millions of 
 sweat glands, acts as a self-regulating device for keeping the 
 heat of the body at the proper point. 
 
 Bathing. We have spoken of the necessity of keeping the 
 pores of the skin open. If they were to be closed by means of 
 a paste or varnish, death would result. Now at times patches 
 of varnish do gather on the skin, closing the pores. The 
 sweat, that does such good service to the body in carrying out 
 the waste particles, dries on the skin, and that is why we 
 should bathe at least once or twice a week to keep the skin 
 healthy and the pores open, that the poisonous waste may pass 
 out instead of being kept in the blood. At each bath the skin 
 should be rubbed briskly with a towel, so as to cause a healthy 
 glow. The skin cannot do its work well if the sweat glands 
 are not permitted to fulfill their purpose. A neglect of the 
 skin, by failing to bathe frequently, gives the lungs and kidneys 
 more than their share of the work to do. 
 
 Bathing is necessary, then, because three million tiny little 
 sewers or sweat ducts are pouring out filth and dead waste 
 matter on the surface of the skin. The watery portion of this 
 waste dries up, leaving upon the skin thin scales that can 
 scarcely be seen. Water not only cleanses the skin, but stimu- 
 lates the circulation of the blood. 
 
74 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 For the purpose of promoting public health, many of our 
 largest cities have provided free public baths. This is in 
 recognition of the fact that frequen-t bathing is a good method 
 of preventing disease. That the people who have poor bathing 
 facilities in their own homes are glad to avail themselves of 
 these free public baths is shown by the fact that such a large 
 number take advantage of such an opportunity. In Chicago, 
 as an example, several such free baths are maintained, and 
 recently in a single month eighty thousand persons gladly made 
 use of the privilege. 
 
 We should not lathe in water that is too cold or too hot ; 
 nor when we are very tired; nor just before or just after a 
 hearty meal. Many people, especially boys, prefer to bathe by 
 going in swimming. This is fine exercise, and an excellent 
 way in which to take a bath, but we should remember that it 
 is dangerous to go in when too warm, too tired, or directly after 
 a meal. Many persons are drowned every year by forget- 
 ting these cautions, being taken with cramps while in the 
 water. 
 
 A Fair Skin. Bathing keeps the skin fair and smooth, 
 provided the waste matters in the blood are given off in the 
 proper manner. We should arrange our foods so that there 
 will be the smallest possible amount of waste matter to be 
 given off. You must keep the stomach in good order if you 
 would have a fair skin. If the stomach is loaded down with 
 improper food, irregularly eaten, and too heavy meals that are 
 highly seasoned and spiced, the food will not be digested, and 
 the skin will be of a " muddy " appearance, instead of fair and 
 beautiful. 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 75 
 
 Face Powder. Paint and powder are in reality a kind of 
 dirt that clogs up the pores of the skin, and in the end makes 
 the skin look worse than ever. A healthy skin has no more 
 need of face powders than a healthy body has need of the 
 doctor's powders. 
 
 Clothing. For the sake of health, it is important that care 
 be taken as to proper clothing. There is almost as much dan- 
 ger from too much clothing as there is from not enough cloth- 
 ing in cold weather. By overdressing any part of the body, 
 as the throat, for example, more than the proper share of the 
 blood goes to these parts, and they become inflamed. Many 
 sore throats are caused by wearing scarfs and mufflers about 
 the throat. The harm comes from overheating this part of the 
 body, making it "tender," and also from sudden cooling. 
 Tight clothing is always injurious. There is no useless space in 
 the human body. The organs within the body need all the 
 room nature has made for them. Tight clothing about the 
 waist crowds the organs whose perfect condition is so necessary 
 to health, and compresses some of them out of place and out of 
 shape. Girls need just as much room for their livers, stomachs, 
 and lungs as do boys. The injury done by tight lacing among 
 American girls is greater, so far as health is concerned, than 
 the injury done to Chinese girls by their fashionable mothers 
 binding their feet so as to deform them into little, rounded 
 stumps. A deformed liver, crowded-up lungs, and a squeezed 
 stomach, are worse for the health than deformed feet. The 
 wearing of flat-heeled shoes, rightly called " common sense," is 
 better for the health than the very high-heeled French shoes, 
 that are sometimes "the style" among some people. Tight 
 
76 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 shoes do not permit of proper circulation of the blood, and 
 often cause swellings, corns, bunions, and other deformities and 
 diseases of the feet. The stockings should not be held up by 
 tight elastic garters round the leg, but by supporters, fastened 
 at the waist, or over the shoulders. 
 
 If paper was not so easily torn, it would make excellent 
 
 FIGURE 14. Schematic drawing, representing a Corn, 
 as it appears in section on a microscopic slide. 
 
 clothing for cold weather, as it is of such a nature as to keep in 
 the bodily heat. On the coldest nights we can keep very warm 
 in bed by spreading a couple of newspapers over us between the 
 covers. 
 
 THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 You have already learned of the work of the skin in helping 
 the body to get rid of certain poisons. You will also learn of 
 the work the lungs do along the same line. The kidneys also 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 77 
 
 assist us in getting rid of many impurities, the retention of 
 which would greatly injure health. 
 
 The kidneys are among the most important organs of the 
 body. They are two bean-shaped bodies of the same size, each 
 one being a little larger than 
 half the size of the closed fist, 
 so that in the grown person they 
 weigh five or six ounces. One 
 lies on each side of the back- 
 bone, at the back part of the 
 cavity of the abdomen under the 
 lower edge of the lowest ribs. 
 The kidneys in our own bodies 
 are very much like those of the 
 sheep or hog. 
 
 The Structure of the Kid- 
 neys The kidney is full of lit- 
 tle tubes or sewer drains, very 
 much like those found in the 
 skin. In fact, the kidneys are 
 not very different from the skin. 
 They are very similar to a roll 
 
 of skin, turned outside in. The glands in the kidneys, that cor- 
 respond to the sweat glands in the skin, pour their drainage 
 substance into the cavity within the kidney, shown in the pic- 
 ture of the kidney cut in half. 
 
 The Work of the Kidneys The general plan of work 
 that the kidneys are called upon to do is quite like that of the 
 skin, though different in some respects, and even more impor- 
 
 FIGURE 15. A human Kidney, a little 
 more than one-half natural size in 
 an adult. 
 
78 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 tant. The kidneys separate poisonous matter from the blood, 
 which, if not removed, would soon cause death. The general 
 name given to the poison is ur$a. The sweat glands help us 
 to rid the blood of some of the urea and mineral matter. 
 Though the kidneys do not get rid of much more water than 
 does the skin, they do rid our bodies of many times more urea 
 and mineral matter. If the kidneys 
 become diseased, they cannot get rid of 
 the urea, and then the whole body be- 
 comes poisoned, and Briglit's disease sets 
 in. This disease is very serious. 
 
 Healthy Kidneys You can readily 
 guess that the skin and kidneys are in 
 very close relation. Anything that causes 
 the sweat glands of the skin to be in- 
 active, or closes the pores, makes just 
 that much extra work for the kidneys, 
 and as any organ that 'has to do more 
 than its share of the work is liable to 
 become diseased, the kidneys, from over- 
 work caused by inactivity of the skin, 
 may become seriously diseased. 
 
 One way of keeping the kidneys in healthy condition is to 
 keep the skin healthy by proper bathing. In addition we 
 should drink plenty of pure water, not too hard, that is, not con- 
 taining too much of certain minerals, and we should avoid eat- 
 ing too much rich food, such as pastry. Pepper, mustard and 
 alcohol are especially harmful to the kidneys. 
 
 FIGURE 16. A vertical sec- 
 tion of a Kidney, showing 
 its pelvis. 
 
THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS. 79 
 
 Danger from Colds Some diseases of the kidneys are 
 caused by exposure to the cold, especially if the body is per- 
 spiring freely at the time. A cold, you recall, checks the 
 activity of the skin by closing its pores ; the blood leaves the 
 skin and goes to the internal organs, such as the kidneys, 
 giving them more than their share of the work to do. At the 
 same time a cold, in driving the blood inward, makes the kid- 
 neys do double duty in excreting the poisons, and this over- 
 work, together with the extra amount of blood, may cause 
 inflammation of the kidneys. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOE, STUDY. 
 
 1. What are the uses of the skin ? 
 
 2. What is the structure of the skin ? 
 
 3. What causes the differences in complexion in different 
 persons ? What is an albino? 
 
 4. Do* you know any animal that sheds its skin every 
 year? 
 
 5. What is a cold? 
 
 6. Why is it a good thing to take a hot lemonade when 
 one has a cold ? 
 
 7. How is the temperature of the body regulated by the 
 sweat glands? 
 
 8. Why should we bathe ? 
 
 9. How is chapping of the skin produced, and how may it 
 be prevented ? 
 
 10. Why should not the nails be cut too close to the flesh ? 
 
 11. What causes white spots on the nails? 
 
 12. Why do scars remain white, even in negros ? 
 
 13. What are "blackheads" ? 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 THE BONES. 
 
 The main part of a tree you call the trunk, and likewise the 
 main part of your body is called the trunk. The tree trunk 
 has growing out from it branches or limbs ; your body has two 
 arms, or upper limbs, and two legs, or lower limbs. At the top 
 of the trunk is the head, or skull, joined to the trunk by the 
 neck. The main parts of the trunk are, as you already know, 
 the chest, the abdomen, and the backbone, or spinal column. 
 Each arm is joined to the main part of the body at the shoulder, 
 and this joint is called the shoulder joint. We have each arm 
 divided into upper-arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand. The 
 fingers are branches or parts of the hand. Each leg has a hip- 
 joint, thigh, knee, lower leg, ankle, and foot. The toes are 
 branches or parts of the foot. In this chapter we will consider 
 the bony framework that gives to the body and its parts not 
 only form and strength, but also a means of preserving the 
 shape and solidity of the body. 
 
 The Framework of Bones If we should attempt to build 
 a house without a good framework of sills, studding, and rafters, 
 it would quickly fall in on itself or collapse. You may have 
 visited a ship-yard and have seen the framework of a big ves- 
 sel, with its great ribs of oak or steel. The bones are the 
 framework of the body, just as the timbers that are put up in 
 
 SO 
 
THE BONES. 81 
 
 building a house, or the ribs of a vessel, are its frame. If the 
 body had no bony framework, it would be soft and pulpy like 
 that of an oyster. We would then have to live in a shell, as 
 does the oyster, to keep from being crushed. We would also 
 be unable to run about or do any work. 
 
 Inside of the body, under the flesh, is a stiff, strong frame, 
 made up of many bones, closely joined and neatly fitted 
 together. The muscles, which we will soon study, make these 
 bones move, and also make the body plump. We have already 
 learned that the skin covers the muscles as the muscles cover 
 the bones. Sometimes we say a slender person is nothing but 
 " skin and bones." This cannot be true, for if there were no 
 muscles, but simply skin and bones, the person could not 
 move his bony framework. About one-seventh of the body is 
 bone, while a little more than one-half is muscle. There are 
 in each human body 206 bones, and they are very different in 
 size and shape. It would be quite a puzzle to build a toy 
 house of more than two hundred blocks, each one of which had 
 its own proper place, and would not fit anywhere else. You 
 would have to work a long while to put such a block house 
 together. 
 
 The Skeleton All the bones of the body properly fitted 
 together, each bone in its proper place, make up the skeleton. 
 The smallest are the three little bones of the ear, the ham- 
 mer, anvil, and stirrup. The largest bone is the upper bone of 
 the leg the thigh bone, between the hip and knee. 
 
 The skeleton is divided into four main parts ; namely, the 
 skull, the trunk, the arms, and the legs. 
 
82 
 
 GKADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 FIGURE 17. Skeleton of a Man. 
 
 Shape of the Bones. 
 
 The bones in the different 
 parts of the body are very 
 different in shape. We 
 have flat, curved plates, 
 or shell-shaped bones to 
 form the skull. Round 
 bones, like pebbles, are 
 found in the wrists and 
 ankles ; while little, slen- 
 der bones form the fin- 
 gers and toes. The 
 backbone is made 
 up of a large num- 
 ber of rings of 
 bone. In the arms 
 and legs we have long 
 bones. Each of these long 
 bones is really a hollow 
 tube with a very hard out- 
 side. The inside is filled 
 with a soft fat, called 
 marrow. Such a bone is 
 called a marrow - bone. 
 You know the frame of 
 a bicycle is made of hol- 
 low tubing. This gives 
 strength and lightness 
 much the same as in the 
 long bones of the body. 
 
THE BONES. 
 
 83 
 
 Strength of Bones Each bone is 
 hard and very strong. The bones are so 
 made as to bend, as would a tough stick 
 of wood of the same size, before breaking. 
 A good, healthy bone is twice as strong 
 as an oak stick of the same size. 
 
 The Skull The skull is made up of 
 a number of plates of bone, so put to- 
 gether as to form a hollow, bony box, 
 which holds the soft, delicate brain, and 
 at the same time protects it. There are 
 eight of these plate-like bones forming the 
 brain box ; there are three little bones in 
 each ear, and fourteen bones in the face. 
 This makes in all twenty-eight bones of 
 the head. 
 
 The Trunk The bones of the trunk 
 are the ribs (twenty-four bones), the breast- 
 bone (one bone), the pelvis (two bones), 
 and backbone (twenty-six bones). They 
 form a framework that protects and con- 
 tains the vital organs, such as heart, lungs, 
 liver, stomach, kidneys, and intestines. 
 The tongue-lone (one bone) is included in 
 the bones of the trunk, making fifty-four 
 bones. 
 
 The backbone, or spinal column, runs 
 
 the entire length of the back, and instead of being but one 
 bone, is made up of twenty-six separate rings of bone. Be- 
 
 FIGUEE 18. Section of 
 Thigh-Bone, sawn in 
 two lengthwise, show- 
 ing the arrangement 
 of different kinds of 
 tissue. 
 
84 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 tween the rings of bone are thick pads of gristle, which act as 
 springs or cushions, and keep the body from being jolted when 
 we walk, run, or jump. 
 
 The ribs extend from the side of the backbone around the 
 sides toward the front of the body, where they are joined by 
 the gristle or cartilage of the flat breast-bone. 'The ribs look a 
 little like the hoops of a barrel. With the backbone and 
 breast-bone they form a box-like cage called the chest, which 
 contains, and at the same time protects, the heart and lungs. 
 
 The Arms. Each of the arms, above the wrist-joint, has 
 five bones. They are the collar-bone, which joins the shoulder 
 to the breast-bone; the shoulder-blade, at the back of the 
 shoulder; the upper arm-bone between the shoulder and the 
 elbow, and the lower arm-bones between the elbow and wrist. 
 There are eight little bones in the wrist, five bones in the body 
 or palm of the hand next to the wrist, and fourteen bones in 
 the fingers. This makes thirty-two bones in each arm, or sixty- 
 four bones in both of the upper limbs. 
 
 The Legs. The bones of each leg are the thigh-bone 
 (called the femur), extending from the hip-joint to the knee, 
 the knee-cap, the two lower leg-bones, the heel-bone, six other 
 little bones in the ankle, five bones in the instep (the part of 
 the foot next below the ankle joint), and fourteen bones in the 
 toes. This makes in all thirty bones in each of the lower 
 limbs, or sixty bones in all. We have, then, in the 
 
 Skull and face - - 28 bones. 
 
 Trunk 54 bones. 
 
 Arms - - 64 bones. 
 
 Legs, 60 bones. 
 A total of 206 bones in the human body. 
 
THE BONES. 85 
 
 Comparison of the Hand and Foot In many respects the 
 hand and foot are very much alike The toes are shorter than 
 the fingers, and are not so movable. You cannot move the big 
 toe as you can your thumb. The instep is much stronger than 
 the wrist, because it must do heavier work. It must not only 
 be strong enough to hold up the weight of the body, but in 
 addition must bear the weight of any load we carry. On the 
 
 FIGURE 19. Mechanism of the Hip- Joint. 
 
 whole, the foot would make a very clumsy hand, and yet we 
 know of people without arms that can use their feet quite well 
 to do the work usually done by the hands. An "armless 
 wonder" may so educate and train his toes to do the work of 
 the fingers as to be able to hold a pen and write quite well, 
 or even hold a brush and paint pictures with them. 
 
86 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The Joints. The places at which two or more bones are 
 fastened together are called joints. Some joints move quite 
 freely, as the ball-and-socket joinf of the shoulder or hip, or the 
 hinge-joint of the elbow, knee, or finger. Others have no 
 motion, as the bones of the skull. Hinge-joints can open and 
 shut in one direction only, like the blade of a penknife. If the 
 arm or leg is straight at the elbow or knee, and should be bent 
 in the wrong direction, the bones are either broken or put out of 
 joint. In a ball-and-socket joint, as that of the hip or shoul- 
 der, the end of the long bone is rounded like a half of a ball. 
 This rounded end fits into a cup, or socket, in the other bone, 
 making it possible for the arm or leg to be moved and turned 
 in any direction. 
 
 Cartilage. The ends of the bones which rub togecher at a 
 joint are protected by a smooth, tough covering which acts as 
 a cushion and keeps the ends of the bones from wearing. The 
 tough cushion is made of gristle and is called , cartilage. You 
 have seen this at the end of one of the bones in a joint of beef, 
 or "soup-bone." 
 
 The inside of the cup, or socket, is lined with a little fine 
 skin, or membrane, made into a bag which is filled with a fluid 
 like the white of a raw egg. This liquid oils the joints, keep- 
 ing them from becoming dry. Just as we oil a rusty hinge to 
 keep it from squeaking, or oil the joint where the blade is 
 attached to the handle of a knife to make it open and shut 
 easily, so nature provides for the oiling of the movable joints of 
 the body. If the joints were dry, every movement of the body 
 would become not only difficult, but very painful. 
 
THE BONES. 
 
 87 
 
 FIGURE 20. A section of Bone, showing periosteum 
 partially removed. 
 
 The joints are held together by means of stout bands of 
 
 muscle, called ligaments. 
 
 The Periosteum. Live bone is covered smoothly over with 
 
 a tight, tough, strong, 
 
 thin membrane. This 
 
 cover extends over 
 
 the whole surface of 
 
 the bone, except at 
 
 the joints, where the 
 
 cartilage takes its 
 
 place. This membrane, or thin, skin-like covering of the bones, 
 
 is called the periosteum. It is very important for two reasons : 
 first, the muscles grow fast to the periosteum 
 much more easily than they would to dry 
 bone; second, if a portion of the diseased 
 bone is removed, as in the case of the femur, 
 or thigh-bone, and the periosteum is not in- 
 jured, new bones will form in the place of 
 the decayed bone that has been removed. If, 
 however, the periosteum itself is removed or 
 injured, the bone substance dies, and new 
 bone is not formed. The periosteum is full 
 of blood vessels, and in this way the bone 
 receives the nourishment needed for health 
 and growth. 
 
 Of What are the Bones Composed? The 
 bones contain mineral matter, such as chalk 
 
 . 
 
 and lime, and animal matter to make them 
 
 y ac tOU h and ke6 P them fr m crumblin g- 
 
 FIGURE 21. Bone 
 
 tied in a knot after 
 
 tionofacid. 
 
88 GRADED LESSORS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 mineral matter keeps the bones from bending too easily, and con- 
 sists chiefly of lime. This can be dissolved out of the bone by 
 soaking it in weak acid'. The bone will then keep its size and 
 shape, but will be very easily bent like a rubber tube. When 
 the mineral matter is out of the bone, it is so easily bent that 
 we can tie it in a knot, as you see in the picture. The bones 
 of young people contain a larger proportion of animal matter 
 than the bones of older persons, and are more easily bent. This 
 is the reason little children often become bow-legged. In walk- 
 ing at too early an age, the 
 weight of the body causes the 
 bones of the legs to bend. 
 
 If we burn a bone, it be- 
 comes much lighter and much 
 more brittle. By burning a 
 bone we take out the animal 
 matter and leave only the 
 mineral lime and chalk which 
 
 FIGURE 22. Foot of Chinese Woman. 
 
 will not burn. The mineral 
 
 matter is needed to keep the bones stiff and firm, while the 
 animal matter is required to make them tough and keep them 
 from breaking easily. 
 
 You remember that our food must contain some mineral 
 matter to keep the bones in healthy, firm condition, and pre- 
 vent them from becoming soft and gristly. Like the tender, 
 green twigs of a tree, the soft bones of a young child bend very 
 easily. We all know that the branch of a tree not only may 
 be very easily bent, but may be kept bent for a time, and will 
 grow hard and firm in this position, always remaining bent and 
 
THE BONES. 
 
 deformed. Likewise, the body of a child may be deformed. 
 In China it is the fashion for rich ladies to have small feet, so 
 when they are children the bones of their feet are bound and 
 pressed together. This deforms the foot both in size and 
 shape. Tight, pointed shoes make our toes grow out of shape 
 by cramping them and twisting 
 them to one side. A high-heeled 
 shoe deforms the instep. 
 
 Improper Positions. When we 
 are young our bones are so soft 
 and so easily bent that they very 
 readily grow out of shape if we 
 allow ourselves to make use of im- 
 proper positions in sitting; standing, 
 walking, or lying down. In this 
 way we may grow to be flat- 
 chested, round-shouldered, with 
 badly curved backbones, and have 
 a number of other deformities. By 
 sitting, standing, or walking erect 
 we may make our backs straight, 
 our shoulders even, and our chests 
 full. A soldier is straight because FlGURE 23. -showing curvature of the 
 he has been compelled in drilling to s P ine - caused b y sittin s in im - 
 
 i i,- u i i^ i,- u i proper positions. 
 
 keep his back straight, his shoul- 
 ders even, and his chest out. 
 
 Many boys and girls have misshapen and deformed bodies 
 because they have not had school seats and desks to fit them. 
 We must sit, stand, and walk with our shoulders well back and 
 
90 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 FIGURE 24. Improper position, be- 
 cause of too high a desk. 
 
 our chests well out, so as to have 
 well-formed bodies. A school seat 
 or desk, too high or too low, will 
 cause ugly curves in the backbone, 
 and thus deform the body. 
 
 School Seats and Desks The 
 seats and desks should be so made 
 as to be raised or lowered accord- 
 ing to the height of the boy or girl 
 using them. The seats should be 
 low enough to permit the feet to 
 rest upon the floor. If the school 
 seat cannot be lowered so that the 
 
 feet can touch the floor, a board plank or a couple of bricks 
 should be placed on the floor so that the feet will not have to 
 hang without any support. If the feet are not resting on the 
 floor or some support, the legs become very tired, and in addi- 
 tion, deformity and injury 
 of the body are caused. 
 Older people do not seem 
 to know that the legs of 
 little children become tired, 
 in church and other places 
 where the seats are too high 
 for the feet to touch the 
 floor, much more quickly 
 than do the legs of grown- 
 up people. 
 
 , -r . . , , , n . , , FIGURE 25. Incorrect position, due to seat and 
 
 Neither should the seat desk be mg too low. 
 
THE BONES. 
 
 91 
 
 be too low. It is just as harmful for a large, long-legged boy 
 to sit in a seat too low, as it is for a smaller boy to sit in a 
 seat too high from the floor. The boy with long legs will have 
 to bend them up or twist them about the seat so that they do 
 not grow straight, and do not help to support the weight of the 
 body in sitting. Besides, his position will be very uncomfort- 
 able, and he cannot do as 
 good school-work as if he 
 were more comfortably seated. 
 We cannot do our best study- 
 ing when we are tired, and 
 we can by no means do the 
 good work of which we are 
 capable if we are compelled, 
 by the size or shape of the 
 seat, to sit in an uncomfort- 
 able position. But most seri- 
 ous of all is the danger of 
 deformity that will result 
 from continued use of an ill-fitting seat and desk. 
 
 Adjustable Seats. In order to make it possible for school 
 seats and desks to be of the proper height, they are now being 
 made so that they may be raised or lowered. Such a desk or 
 seat is called adjustable, because its height can be readily 
 changed. There are many such seats and desks now being 
 used. The one here pictured* is raised and lowered in the 
 same manner as is a revolving office chair. 
 
 FIGURE 26. An adjustable seat and desk. 
 (See foot-note.) 
 
 *From "Hygienic Desks for School Children,' 
 Review, June, 1899. 
 
 by Dr. Mosher, in Educational 
 
92 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Growing Out of Shape By standing habitually on one foot, 
 sitting bent forward for any considerable length of time while 
 reading or studying, sleeping with! head raised too high on a 
 very thick pillow, walking in a slipshod, careless mariner, we 
 are placing ourselves in great danger of having our bodies grow 
 
 out of shape. While we are 
 young the framework of our 
 bodies is growing, and our bones 
 very easily take the shape we 
 give them. To give them the 
 right form we must fix firmly the 
 habit of holding the body erect. 
 In holding the shoulders back, 
 we make the chest stand out 
 full, giving more room for the 
 heart and lungs, and we can in 
 this way breathe % more air and 
 have better blood, and at the 
 same time make the forms of 
 
 FIGURE 27.-The same seat and desk as our bodies more and more as 
 used in writing. 
 
 they should be. 
 
 Broken Bones. Sometimes by rough play, a fall, or other 
 accident, the bones may be broken in two, just as a stick may 
 be broken. At the broken place the ends are splintered much 
 as in the case of a broken stick. The bone should be set in 
 proper shape as soon as possible after the injury, and the parts 
 held firmly together in the same position by means of a thin 
 piece of board, or shingle, called a " splint." Sometimes it is 
 necessary to use a plaster-of-paris cast in bandaging the 
 broken member, in order to hold the broken parts together 
 
THE BONES. 
 
 93 
 
 securely. After being placed together right, Mother Nature 
 does the rest of the work. The broken ends are quickly sur- 
 rounded with a jelly-like substance from the blood. This grows 
 harder each day by taking into itself mineral matter from the 
 the blood, until at the end of a few weeks hard bone is formed, 
 firmly binding the broken 
 and splintered ends together. 
 Sometimes the portion thus 
 mended becomes even stronger 
 than the original bone. 
 
 Sprains Sometimes the 
 little muscle bands, or liga- 
 ments, that hold the bones 
 together at a joint, are over- 
 stretched or even torn by 
 sudden twisting or turning. 
 A finger or thumb may be 
 sprained by being bent too far 
 back, and an ankle by being 
 turned suddenly to one side. 
 A sprain is a very serious acci- 
 dent. Sometimes a sprain is even more serious than a broken 
 bone. There should be complete rest of the part sprained until 
 it can be used without pain. If the ligaments are torn so badly 
 that the ends of the bones are out of place at the joint, we have 
 a dislocation, or bones out of joint. This is always a serious 
 accident. In pulling at your fingers to make them " crack " at 
 the knuckles, you are weakening these joints, and at the same 
 time causing the knuckles to grow into large lumpy knots. 
 
 FIGURE 28. The same seat and desk as used 
 in study. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE MUSCLES. 
 
 You know the bones are covered over with a soft substance 
 which we call flesh. We eat the flesh of animals, and as you 
 look at a beefsteak you will discover that some of the flesh is 
 white or yellowish, while the rest of it is red. The white or 
 yellow flesh of a piece of beef is fat. The red, lean flesh is 
 composed of muscles. 
 
 The bony framework of the body is covered over with 
 muscles, and they form a little more than half of its entire 
 weight. As the brain does the mental work, so the muscles do 
 the physical work. Of course you are aware that the arms 
 and legs, the fingers and toes, the mouth and tongue, the eyes 
 and heart, are all moved by means of muscles. Bend the arm 
 at the elbow so as to bring the hand to the shoulder as strongly 
 and as far as possible, and you will notice the muscle of the 
 upper arm bunch up under the skin. You can both see and 
 feel it. If you are right-handed, and therefore use the muscle 
 of the right arm more than you do that of the left, the muscle 
 of the right arm is larger. Look at the back of the hand as 
 you move your fingers, and you can see the action of the cords 
 that run from your arm to the finger ends. Clasp the left 
 hand tightly round the right arm just below the elbow, and 
 you can readily discover the action of the muscles of the arm 
 
 94 
 
THE MUSCLES. 
 
 95 
 
 FIGURE 29. Showing some of the Muscles of the Human Body. Observe the marked 
 differences in shape. 
 
96 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 that have so much to do with the movements of the fingers. 
 Place the tips of the fingers at the side of the face, just in 
 front of the hinge of the lower jw; now shut the teeth firmly 
 and note the bulging of muscle. 
 
 Number and Shape of Muscles. You have about five hun- 
 dred different muscles in the body. They are arranged in such 
 a way as to give the body a rounded and beautiful appearance, 
 
 and at the same time 
 to do the best work in 
 moving the body and 
 its parts in the easiest 
 and most useful fash- 
 ion. 
 
 The muscles are of 
 many different shapes 
 and of various sizes. 
 The largest muscle of 
 the back, the chief one 
 
 used when we raise the body from the ground by means of the 
 arms, weighs several pounds. One of the muscles of the legs, 
 the one used when we cross the legs "tailor fashion," is two feet 
 long. One of the muscles inside the ear, the stirrup muscle, is 
 but one-sixth of an inch long and weighs only one grain. 
 Many of the muscles are arranged in pairs so that we have two 
 alike both as to size and shape one for each side of the body. 
 Structure of the Muscles If you look at a piece of corned 
 beef that has been well boiled, or a slice of chipped dried beef, 
 you will discover it seems to be made of bundles of small fibers 
 or threads of flesh. With a sharp needle or pointed knife- 
 
 FIGURE 30. Showing the Structure of Muscles. 
 
THE MUSCLES. 
 
 97 
 
 blade you can pick one of these small fibers into smaller and 
 finer threads. Looked at under the microscope, it is found that 
 any one of these is made 
 up of still finer fibers, finer 
 than the finest silk thread, 
 even much finer than the 
 finest thread of a spider's 
 web. Each one of these 
 very fine threads of flesh is 
 called a muscular fiber. 
 Many of them bound to- 
 gether into a single bundle 
 make a muscle. 
 
 How the Muscles Act. 
 When we make a muscle 
 act, each of its tiny little threads makes itself shorter and 
 thicker, just as a stretched rubber thread becomes thicker if we 
 
 FIGURE 31. Showing how the muscles shorten 
 and thicken, when bending the arm. 
 
 FIGURE 32. Showing how the muscle appears when arm is extended. 
 
 let go of one end and permit it to go back to its original size 
 and shape. Measure with a tape the circumference of the 
 
98 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 upper arm when the arm hangs down free; measure it again 
 when the arm is bent with the hand to the shoulder. In the 
 same manner measure the foreajrm a short distance below the 
 elbow when the hand is open, and again when the hand is 
 tightly clenched. By such experiments as these we learn that 
 when a muscle works it becomes shorter, thicker, and harder. 
 
 Muscle does its work by shortening. In shortening it pulls 
 on the bones and produces motion. When a muscle shortens 
 it is said to " contract," but inasmuch as it occupies the same 
 amount of space all the time, the word " contract " is scarcely cor- 
 rect ; for when muscle shortens it does not get smaller, but 
 thickens in proportion, and thus fills the same amount of space 
 it did before. 
 
 A muscle cannot be kept shortened any great length of 
 time. If you "hold your arm out straight as long as you can 
 possibly do so, it at first feels tired, then finally it pains. The 
 muscles are so related to each other as to have periods of 
 action and then periods of rest. In many of our bodily activi- 
 ties, such as walking, one set of muscles acts while the other 
 set rests, or gets ready to act again. This is the reason that it 
 is not so tiresome to walk one hour as it would be to stand 
 perfectly still for a much shorter time. One muscle (biceps) 
 bends the arm at the elbow; another muscle (triceps) unbends 
 or straightens the arm. When one of these muscles is short- 
 ened, the other is lengthened. In order to be ready for action, 
 the muscles are always slightly stretched. This is the reason, 
 when a cut is made into the flesh, the wound always gapes open. 
 
 Muscle Fastenings. Most of the muscles are made fast to 
 the bones, and, as a rule, one end of the muscle is attached to 
 
THE MUSCLES. 
 
 99 
 
 one bone and the other to another bone. Sometimes one end 
 is fastened to a bone, and the other end attached to the skin 
 or other muscles. There are 
 some muscles that are not 
 attached directly to the bones, 
 but are made fast by means of 
 hard, firm cords called tendons. 
 You can feel tendons by plac- 
 ing the thumb of one hand 
 upon the wrist of the other 
 hand, then by working the 
 fingers of the latter hand, you 
 will quickly discover these 
 small, hard cords moving under 
 the skin. The tendon just 
 above the heel supports the 
 weight of the body when we 
 stand on tiptoe. It is the 
 largest tendon in the body, 
 and is called the tendon of 
 Achilles. Your teacher will 
 tell you how it got its name. 
 
 Motion. Motion is the 
 most prominent sign of life. 
 If an animal shows no move- 
 ments whatever, it is no longer 
 
 alive. We move to get our food ; and we move when we eat and 
 digest it. We move to avoid injury, as when we dodge. Even 
 during sleep the movements, of breathing are seen. Place your 
 
 FIGURE 33. Knee-Joint, showing tendons. 
 
100 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 hand on the left side of your chest, and you feel your heart 
 beat. Your finger placed at the wrist can feel the beating 
 pulse. To properly taste food,;'we move the tongue about; to 
 see, we open our eyelids and turn the face toward the object ; to 
 smell, we sniff with our nostrils ; to hear, we turn the head ; and 
 there is motion within the ear so as to adjust' its various parts 
 that we may hear correctly ; to feel, we move the hand or finger 
 to touch the object. There is motion when we speak, when we 
 write, when we laugh, when we sing, and there is motion in the 
 expression of the face. Motions are necessary to every process 
 of life, and all motions are produced by the muscles. How 
 important, then, the muscles are! How necessary that we 
 keep them healthy by the proper food and exercise ! 
 
 How to Make the Muscles Strong If we rightly use our 
 muscles, they will surely become strong. As a rule, the 
 muscles we use the most are the strongest, unless they have 
 been so overworked that they give out. The arm we use the 
 more is stronger than the other arm. The arms of the black- 
 smith, boilermaker, or carpenter are much stronger than the 
 arms of persons who do not exercise them. The calf of the 
 leg of a soldier on the march, or of a letter-carrier who must 
 walk a great deal, develops into a great bunch of hard muscle 
 because of much use. Men who work out of doors at healthful 
 labor are much stronger than tailors or clerks, who use only 
 a few of their muscles, and are confined by their work indoors. 
 Boys and girls who live where they can play and work out of 
 doors are very fortunate. They will become much stronger 
 and be more healthy than the boy or girl shut up in the dingy 
 rooms of a tenement house in one of our crowded cities- 
 
THE MUSCLES 
 
 FIGURE 34. Muscles of the Back. 
 
102 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 eli ol the very rich who are not so fortunate as to have 
 , s,om regular work to do that would give their muscles exercise, 
 < -and' wh coin's tead of walking, running, skating, or romping with 
 other children, ride about in a carriage, and are treated much 
 as delicate flowers in a hot-house, are also to be greatly pitied. 
 They are often saved from the work that would do them much 
 good, and develop their growing muscles, by servants and 
 others who are employed to do their work for them. It may 
 be very nice to have fine clothes of delicate colors, but I am 
 sure every boy and girl will agree with me that it is a great 
 deal better to have clothes that permit us to exercise all we 
 wish without soiling or tearing them. Little Lord Fauntle- 
 roy, with his close-fitting velvet suit, fine slippers, and long, 
 carefully arranged curls, may be the kind of a boy for a pic- 
 ture, but the boy who is healthy and happy is the one with 
 strong, loose clothes that have big pockets bulging out with 
 string, nails, marbles, and other of his treasures, who can thus 
 use his muscles freely as he does his work or plays games. 
 
 Necessity for Exercise The muscles get food, nourish- 
 ment, and strength from the blood. Exercise causes more blood 
 to flow to the muscles, and in this way exercise brings more 
 food to the muscles, making them develop. It is a well-known 
 fact that the time to develop, train, and educate any muscle is 
 at the time of its most rapid growth. The proper time to 
 develop, train, and educate the muscles of the arm is when 
 they are growing most rapidly. After the muscles have ac- 
 quired their growth they cannot be benefited so much by 
 exercise as they would, could they have been intelligently and 
 extensively used earlier. Exercise while we are young does 
 
THE MUSCLES. 
 
 103 
 
 much more good than it will when we are older. As we become 
 older, our muscles become more fixed in form and size, and exer- 
 cise of them does not accomplish what it would have when 
 they were younger and more plastic. We will speak of the 
 best kinds of exercise for 
 boys and girls in a separate 
 chapter. You will then 
 learn what exercises are 
 helpful in the growth and 
 development of the muscles, 
 and what exercises are 
 harmful. 
 
 Necessity for Rest To 
 use the same set of muscles 
 very long not only renders 
 them very tired, but very 
 weak. After our muscles 
 have been properly exercised 
 they should be rested. To 
 become too tired is not only 
 very painful but very injuri- 
 ous. It has been proven 
 that great fatigue actually 
 poisons the blood. If we 
 
 inject some of the blood of a very tired animal into a healthy 
 rabbit, it will die because of the poison of fatigue in the 
 blood of the tired animal. Exercise is good, if it is of the 
 proper kind and amount, but overwork and overstrain of the 
 muscles are always injurious. Some children do not grow to 
 
 FIGURE 35. Muscles of the Face and Neck. 
 
104 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 their full size or strength, because when yet young and growing 
 fast, at the age of from ten to fourteen, they quit school and go 
 to work at some employment ttto heavy for them, either in 
 store, factory, mill, or mine, and by overworking their muscles 
 become very tired, thus stunting their growth and preventing 
 their reaching the full development necessary to heal thy, happy 
 lives. Muscles used until they are strained become weaker in- 
 stead of stronger, for they will wear out faster than they can 
 be fed by the blood. 
 
 Round Shoulders. Curvature of the spine and round 
 shoulders are generally the result of improper positions. A 
 person becomes round or " stooped " shouldered by standing or 
 sitting in an improper position until the backbone, or spinal 
 column, loses its right shape. Sitting at a desk too high or too 
 low injures the muscles as much as it does the bony framework, 
 which, as you recall, was discussed in the last chapter. The 
 muscles of our backs, if they are properly used, hold us up, 
 throw our shoulders back and keep us in an erect position. A 
 lazy person will let his shoulders stoop, and hold himself up by 
 leaning against a table, desk, or the wall while standing. 
 Sometimes such a person will wear shoulder-braces to keep the 
 shoulders in their proper position. These braces usually do 
 harm because they rest the muscles and prevent them from 
 doing the work they should, thus allowing them to become 
 weak. Soldiers have a better way. They make the muscles 
 hold the shoulders back by their constant drill in the line, and 
 standing and walking in an erect position. It is easy to get 
 these muscles so well developed by military drill that it will be 
 perfectly natural for us to sit and stand erect, and be painful 
 
THE MUSCLES. 105 
 
 for us to let our shoulders become stooped and round as the 
 body lops forward, even for a few minutes. Military drill is a 
 very good thing for schoolboys, whether they receive it in a 
 gymnasium, or get it by organizing a military company of their 
 own. It would be a good thing if in every school there was 
 such a military company formed and a short drill had every 
 day. Bound shoulders, then, come from careless habits of 
 sitting and standing, or from improper seats and desks in the 
 schools. Such a position as we have in stooped shoulders nar- 
 rows the chest, makes it of less capacity, and weakens the 
 lungs, thus in a measure causing injury to the health. The 
 reason that the peasant women of Europe, who work so hard, 
 have such straight, erect bodies, is that they are often compelled 
 to carry heavy burdens on their heads. These heavy loads can- 
 not be carried on the head unless one walks erect and steady, 
 so these women come to have straight backs. Careless habits 
 in sitting not only do much harm, but are very difficult to cor- 
 rect, and if not corrected in our youth, the muscles become so 
 fixed and " set" that such habits are not overcome in later life. 
 Effects of Inactivity We know, then, that in order to 
 make the muscles strong, they must be used. To make the 
 whole body strong, every group of the five hundred muscles in 
 the body must be exercised. If your arm should be tied in a 
 sling and kept there, and you should, as a result, use only the 
 other arm, the idle arm would become small, puny, sickly, and 
 weak, while the used arm would continue to develop and grow 
 large and strong. Any part of the body, any set of muscles 
 which is not used, will surely become w^eak in the course of 
 time. We should, therefore, take a certain amount of exercise 
 
106 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 or muscle activity each day, just as we necessarily take a cer- 
 tain amount of wholesome food and drink each day. Both are 
 equally important to life and health. 
 
 Self-Acting Muscles There are some muscles in the body 
 that do not act simply when we wish them to do so, but they 
 act when it is necessary, whether we wish them to or not. 
 The muscles which cause the heart to beat, or cause us to 
 sneeze or hiccough, are of this class. Did you ever try to stop 
 sneezing or hiccoughing? If you have, you have discovered 
 that though you tried very hard you could not succeed in your 
 effort. The muscles which- act of themselves are called invol- 
 untary muscles. The muscles that move the arm, hand, or 
 tongue, act when we wish them to do so. They receive their 
 orders from the will, and act accordingly. Such muscles are 
 called voluntary muscles. If the muscles of the arm were of 
 the self-acting kind, we could not direct its movements. If the 
 muscles of the heart had to be directed by us, and were not 
 self-acting, we would have to stay awake all the time to keep 
 the heart beating and its muscles going. Do you not think 
 it a very good arrangement to have some of the muscles of the 
 body self-acting or involuntary ? 
 
 Effect of Alcoholic Drinks upon the Muscles. Alcoholic 
 drinks never do any good to the muscular system, and often do 
 great harm. Continued use of alcohol as a beverage causes 
 lasting changes for the worse in muscle structure. The fat 
 cells become too abundant and take the place of proper mus- 
 cular tissue. Indulgence in alcoholic drinks frequently causes 
 enfeebled heart action and "fatty degeneration" of the heart. 
 Alcohol diminishes the power of endurance. Men endure more 
 cold and more hard work without alcohol than with it. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE BLOOD AND ITS CIBCULATION. 
 
 You have already learned that all parts of the body derive 
 their food and nourishment from the blood. Each part selects 
 from the blood just the food it needs. The solid food we eat 
 is dissolved, as you remember, by the process of digestion, and 
 is then taken up by the blood and carried to every portion of 
 the body. 
 
 Every living plant or animal of the higher sort secures its 
 food by means of a fluid circulating through it. In plants 
 this fluid is the sap; in insects, a colorless, watery blood; in fish, 
 a red but cold blood; in man, red, warm blood. On account of 
 its necessity to life it is often called the "river of life," and 
 sometimes the "vital fluid." 
 
 The Blood. One-twelfth of the weight of your body is 
 blood. When you weigh one hundred and twenty pounds, 
 your body contains about ten pounds, or nearly two and one- 
 half gallons of blood. 
 
 You have perhaps seen a microscope, and know that it is 
 an instrument which, when we look through it, makes objects ap- 
 pear many times larger than they really are. Looked at through 
 the microscope, the foot of a fly appears as large as your hand. 
 When we look at a drop of clear but impure water through a 
 microscope, we see that it is full of living little animals that 
 
 107 
 
108 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 cannot be seen by the naked eye. Now, if you place a single 
 drop of blood under the lens of the microscope, and look at it, 
 you will discover that the color of the blood is caused by 
 little, flat, round particles, so small that it takes three thou- 
 sand of them, placed side by side, to measure an inch. These 
 discs are called corpuscles. While the blood appears, to the 
 unaided eye, like any red fluid, such as dark red ink, the 
 
 microscope plainly shows that 
 there are two parts to the blood, 
 a colorless, watery fluid, called 
 plasma, and the tiny bodies called 
 corpuscles. 
 
 The Corpuscles of the Blood 
 
 Most of the corpuscles are red, 
 and they give to the blood its 
 color. A few of them are white. 
 The red ones are more important 
 as well as many times more numer- 
 ous, for they act as food carriers 
 to all parts of the body. In the healthy person there are three 
 hundred red corpuscles to every white one. These little red 
 bodies go floating through the veins and arteries like little rub- 
 ber boats, for they sometimes stretch out long and thin, in 
 order to get through the narrow channels, valves, and gateways 
 in the small blood tubes. In a drop of blood there may be 
 found from three to five millions. 
 
 The Use of the Corpuscles The red corpuscles, which we 
 have compared to little rubber boats floating in the waters of 
 the blood, have a very important work to do. They go to the 
 
 FIGURE 36. The Corpuscles of the 
 Blood. 
 
THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. 109 
 
 lungs which are filled with the fresh air just breathed in, and 
 they come close to the air in the lungs and take from it as big 
 a load of oxygen as they can carry. Oxygen is a gas contained 
 in the air, and is one of the many things that strengthens, re- 
 freshes, and repairs the body. These little red corpuscle 
 boats float down from the lungs through the limbs to the very 
 tips of the fingers and ends of the toes, through the finest little 
 hair-like blood canals, and to the finely woven web of blood 
 vessels on the surface of the brain, carrying oxygen to the 
 nerves, muscles, and other tissues of the body. Just as soon 
 as they give up their oxygen, these same corpuscles hasten 
 back through the veins to the heart, and then again to the lungs 
 for another load of life-giving oxygen gas. Because of the special 
 work they perform, the red corpuscles are called oxygen carri- 
 ers. The white corpuscles have work to do in keeping the 
 body in good repair, and seem to stop at any portion of the 
 body where, on account of disease or injury, there is any mend- 
 ing to do. They also destroy poisons. 
 
 While no part of the body could live without the blood to 
 nourish it in the manner we have described, we must not forget 
 that the blood also renders another great service by gathering 
 up the waste and poisonous materials and carrying them on to 
 be cast out of the body. No part could live if these waste 
 impurities were not carried away. Not only is the blood the 
 feeder, but it is also the sweeper and cleaner of the body. 
 
 Circulation of the Blood Because the blood goes round 
 and round in your body from the head to the lungs and back 
 again, then to the hands, feet, and heart, and then back again to 
 the heart, in something of a circle, it is said to circulate. The 
 
110 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 tubes through which the blood is carried to and from various 
 
 parts of the body, are called blood vessels. There are three 
 kinds of these blood tubes or blood ves- 
 sels. One set carries the blood out from 
 the heart to the remote parts of the body; 
 these are the arteries. Through another 
 set of blood vessels the blood flows 
 back to the heart; these are called the 
 veins. The arteries and veins are blood 
 vessels through which the blood is car- 
 ried, but the blood stream of one flows in 
 an opposite direction to that of the other. 
 At various points in the body, more es- 
 pecially at the places farthest away from 
 the heart, are little hair-like canals, or 
 tubes, arranged in a sort of network. They 
 connect the arteries and veins. These 
 little blood vessels form the 'third set and 
 are called capillaries. 
 
 The Arteries. The arteries or blood 
 tubes that carry the blood from the heart 
 to the various parts of the body, have 
 strong, tight, and tough sides, or walls, 
 so that they cannot easily leak or burst. 
 These walls of the arteries contain many 
 
 FIGURE 37. Large Arteries little muscles that make them larger or 
 of the Leg. smaller, as the case may be, according to 
 
 the amount of blood required to be conveyed to the different 
 
 parts of the body. 
 
THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Capillaries. While the arteries are quite large near the 
 heart, they divide and subdivide as they leave the heart, and 
 go toward the extremities, until they 
 have separated into a large number of 
 very fine tubes called capillaries. The 
 network of the capillaries is so fine 
 and delicate that they touch every cell 
 of the living body. You cannot prick 
 through the skin with a needle, or cut 
 your finger even very slightly, with- 
 out tearing the walls of some of these 
 little capillaries and causing the blood 
 to appear on the skin. The walls of 
 the capillaries are not so tough, thick, 
 and tight as those of the arteries. In- 
 deed they are very thin, so that the 
 fluid part of the blood, the plasma, 
 containing food, can soak or seep 
 through to every little particle of nerve, 
 muscle, and bone near them. Even 
 some of the white corpuscles are able 
 to squeeze their way through the side 
 walls of the capillaries to places where 
 they are needed to do the repair work. 
 The tubes are as small as the finest hairs, 
 
 and the red corpuscles can just squeeze their way through 
 toward the ends of the veins. 
 
 The Veins. The capillaries again come together and form 
 larger tubes, called veins. The veins increase in size the nearer 
 
 FIGURE 38. Veins of the Leg. 
 
112 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 FIGURE 39. Valves of the 
 Veins. A, vein spread 
 
 they are to the heart. They carry the blood from the various 
 parts of the body to the heart. The blood in the veins 
 contains mugh waste matter and poison- 
 ous impurities thrown off by the bodily 
 tissues through which it flows. The veins 
 are all provided with little gates, or valves, 
 that open only in one direction. These 
 little valves are so arranged that they 
 will permit the impure blood to flow only 
 toward the heart (see Fig. 39), and will 
 not let any of this poison-laden blood get 
 back to the cells of the body, which the 
 blood, when pure in the arteries, fed, 
 apart; B, section length- swe pt, and cleaned. Every vein is found 
 
 wise through the vein. ."?' 
 
 close to the artery which brought the 
 
 blood to it. The blood is kept constantly moving in the tubes, 
 but only in one direction from the heart, through the arteries, 
 and through the finely branched network of the capillaries. 
 These then merge into tiny veins, which unite to form 
 larger veins, through which the blood con- 
 tinues its journey back to the heart. The 
 various parts of the body receive a supply of 
 blood in proportion to their size and the ex- 
 tent to which they are used. Thus, the brain 
 weighs but one-forty-fifth as much as the rest 
 of the body, but uses one-eighth of all the 
 blood supply. A piece of bone weighing as 
 much as the brain would receive very li ttle blood 
 
 , . . , . FIGURE 40. A. Valve 
 
 in comparison, because bone is quite inactive. open< B. valve closed. 
 
THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. 
 
 113 
 
 Arterial and Venous Blood Compared When the red 
 
 blood corpuscles have a plentiful supply of oxygen, they are of 
 a bright red color, and the blood in which they flow is a bright 
 scarlet. This bright blood is found in the arteries, and is called 
 arterial blood. After passing through the capillaries, these 
 same corpuscles that were 
 bright red in color have be- 
 come dingy and dark, because 
 they were robbed of their 
 loads of oxygen by the tissue 
 that was starving for the life- 
 giving food, and were loaded 
 down with impurities such 
 as carbonic acid gas and other 
 poisons. When they reach 
 the veins they give the blood 
 a darker, bluish, color. The 
 blood found in the veins is 
 called venous Hood. Arterial 
 blood has more oxygen; ven- 
 ous blood more carbonic acid. 
 Arterial blood is purer than 
 
 VenOUS blood. Arterial blood FIGURE 41.-The Heart. 
 
 brings oxygen to the tissues ; venous blood takes carbonic acid 
 back to the heart and lungs, where it is gotten rid of and breathed 
 out or exhaled from the body. The blood is always kept mov- 
 ing in the three sets of blood vessels or tubes the arteries, the 
 capillaries, and the veins. What keeps the blood in constant 
 motion ? 
 
 8 
 
114 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The Heart. If you place your hand over the chest a little 
 to the left of the breast-bone, you will find your heart beating 
 steadily in a machine-like manner. The heart is really a live 
 pump that keeps pumping away as long as we live. If it stops 
 pumping we die. If you count your heart-beats as you stand 
 still, you will find that there are about eighty per minute. 
 
 When we run and jump, 
 or go rapidly upstairs, the 
 heart beats much faster 
 than when standing or sit- 
 ting. The heart is made 
 up of involuntary mus- 
 cles, and is almost the 
 size of its owner's tightly 
 doubled fist. 
 
 The heart lies to the 
 left of the middle of the 
 body, and -just below the 
 level of a line drawn con- 
 
 FIGURE 42. Showing Cavities of the Heart. 
 
 necting your two armpits. 
 
 The heart has four chambers or cavities. First, it is divided 
 lengthwise by a firm, tough muscle wall so as to make two bags. 
 Each half is a complete bag, and each is also a complete pump. 
 The lower part of each side of the heart is called a ventricle, 
 while the upper portion of each half is called an auricle. The 
 middle muscle wall that divides the heart lengthwise from the 
 base of the point, or apex, has no direct openings, so that the 
 ventricles are not connected with each other, and the auricles 
 elo not open into each other. Each ventricle has two openings. 
 
THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. 
 
 115 
 
 The gateway at the upper part of each ventricle opens from the 
 auricle just above. This hole has a valve-like gateway, which 
 is easily and tightly closed by two curtains. An opening in 
 the side furnishes a passageway into an artery. The blood 
 cannot get back from the ventricle into the auricle. As soon 
 as the ventricle becomes filled 
 with blood, the muscles that 
 form its walls contract, mak- 
 ing the ventricle smaller. 
 This squeezes out the blood 
 so that it goes into an artery. 
 Course of the Blood 
 
 Through the Heart You 
 
 can follow the course of the 
 blood as it passes through 
 the heart by closely observ- 
 ing the accompanying dia- 
 gram. The venous blood 
 first enters the heart at the 
 right upper chamber, or ante- 
 room, Called the right auricle, FIGURE 43.-A diagram, showing Course of the 
 
 Blood Through the Heart. 
 
 and passes down through the 
 
 valve-like gateway into the right ventricle. The right ventricle, 
 by suddenly squeezing itself when it becomes filled, sends the 
 blood to the lungs to come in contact with the air we have 
 inhaled, and the blood thus becomes purified and bright 
 red again, the corpuscles having rid themselves of their load 
 of poisonous carbonic acid, and having taken up a fresh load 
 of oxygen from the air. This purified and enriched blood then 
 
116 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 passes to the left auricle, the upper chamber at the left side of the 
 heart. From here it passes into the left ventricle, which, as soon 
 as it becomes filled, suddenly squeezes its muscle walls together 
 and forces this new arterial blood to the various parts of the 
 body through the arteries and capillaries, from which it passes 
 through the veins back to the heart to take thfe same journey 
 over again. It takes from twenty to thirty seconds to send a 
 drop of blood on such a "round trip" as we have described. 
 
 Why the Heart Beats You have learned that food, water, 
 and oxygen are taken into the blood, and that this " vital fluid " 
 contains all the food needed to repair the wasted tissues as they 
 wear out from constant use. But if the blood simply remained 
 in one place, and was not forced about, it would not do any 
 good. It would soon get rid of its food, become loaded with 
 poisons from the waste substances, and the various parts of 
 the body would gradually die. You have noticed, if you ever 
 wrapped a rubber band or thread tightly around your finger, 
 that the part thus shut off from the active blood coursing to and 
 fro from the heart, became so numb and cold that it was prac- 
 tically " dead." If the blood stood still, every part of the body 
 would be quickly affected in the same way. The heart beats 
 in order to keep the blood in continual motion. It does not 
 make as much noise as does the snorting fire-engine as it squirts 
 the stream of water over the fire, but it does its work just as 
 effectively. The heart has two important nerves connected 
 with it that regulate the rapidity of its beats. One nerve 
 causes the heart to go faster, as when we have been jumping 
 or running, or going upstairs in a hurry. The other nerve 
 makes the heart slow up if it tries to go too fast. These two 
 
THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. 117 
 
 nerves are the heart's regulators, in the same sense as a watch 
 or clock has its regulators to fix its rate of movement. 
 
 Why the Heart is Double The heart is wisely arranged 
 in having two similar sides, or halves. The one half receives 
 the blood from the body and sends it to the lungs to get oxy- 
 gen from the air. While the right auricle and ventricle are 
 thus occupied, the left side is busy sending the newly enriched 
 blood to the various parts of the body, and in this way the 
 heart is enabled to do double the amount of work it could do, 
 if, like the heart of a fish, it had but one auricle and one 
 ventricle. The walls of the left ventricle are thicker and 
 stronger than those of the right ventricle. This is because 
 more force is required to send the blood from the left ventricle 
 to the remote parts of the body than is required to send it 
 from the right ventricle to the lungs. 
 
 The Amount of Work the Heart Does. We can hardly 
 realize the amount of work this busy little organ does each 
 day and hour in keeping us alive. The heart beats, on an 
 average, more than four thousand times an hour, and about a 
 hundred thousand times a day. If all the force exerted by 
 the heart in a single hour was used at one time, it would be 
 enough to lift a big load, for it would raise over ten thousand 
 pounds a foot from the ground. 
 
 The Heart Rests All the tissues of the body to be kept 
 in healthy condition must have rest. The heart has its time to 
 rest. It does not have long recesses such as you have in your 
 school. Each recess is no longer than the time required by 
 you to wink your eye. After each part has done its work by 
 contracting its walls, it rests just an instant before it contracts 
 
118 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 again, just as in walking one leg rests while the other is being 
 used in taking a step. The rest periods of the heart are ex- 
 tremely short, only six-elevenths of a second, but if all the little 
 short recesses were added up together it would make a total 
 time of about thirteen hours each day. Are you not glad that 
 the heart does not take all its rest at one time ? What would 
 happen if it did so ? Is it not fortunate that the heart is a 
 self-acting, involuntary muscle, instead of a voluntary one that 
 had to be continually ordered to do its work, as we must do in 
 the case of the hand or arm? How wide awake we would 
 have to be to keep the heart going ! We would have no time 
 to do anything else no time to do any work or engage in any 
 play. We would never have a moment's sleep or rest, and be- 
 sides we would not be able to keep it going regularly, and thus 
 would not keep the body healthy. Nature has certainly 
 acted wisely in making the heart self-acting. 
 
 How Fast the Heart Beats Sometimes the heart beats 
 more rapidly, at other times more slowly. The heart is very 
 easily influenced by our thoughts, our feelings, and the various 
 physical activities. You know that it beats faster when we run 
 upstairs, jump the rope, or run to the bases in playing ball, 
 than when we stand still. It beats faster when we are stand- 
 ing than when we are sitting; faster when we are sitting 
 than when we are lying down ; faster when we are awake 
 than when we are asleep. The more active we are, the more 
 rapidly does the heart work. Why ? Because when we are 
 more active the tissues of the body wear away more rapidly, 
 more waste matter and impurities are thrown off, and more 
 fresh, pure blood is required by the parts of the body that 
 
THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. 110 
 
 have been so actively engaged, and the heart must pump the 
 blood - faster to accomplish this. 
 
 Effect of Mental Activity on the Heart's Action Like- 
 wise, mental activity affects the rapidity with which the heart 
 does its work. The kind of mental activity also makes a differ- 
 ence. The heart beats differently when we are engaged in 
 reading a piece of poetry than when we are adding a column of 
 figures. When engaged in hard study and severe mental work, 
 there is more fatigue poison going from the tired brain into the 
 blood than when the brain has but a small amount of work to 
 do. Excessive mental activity makes the heart work faster 
 in pumping fresh blood to the brain, just as great physical 
 activity makes it send the blood more rapidly to the various 
 parts of the body. Excitement, as in happiness, joy, anger, 
 and fright, makes the heart beat rapidly. In sorrow, sadness, 
 grief, or low spirits, it beats more slowly. 
 
 In Fever. When one has a fever the heart beats more 
 rapidly than when one is well, because more poison is thrown 
 off into the blood by the various tissues of the body, and the 
 heart works faster to do the extra work. When the fever is 
 very severe and the temperature of the body very high,. the 
 heart cannot make the blood carry off these poisons fast enough, 
 and some of the poisons and impure waste matters gather on 
 the surface of the brain, making the fevered patient delirious. 
 
 The Pulse. The pumping of the heart makes the blood go 
 through the arteries in spurts or waves. At some places in the 
 body large arteries, which are usually buried very deeply in 
 the muscles, come near the surface. If the finger is placed on 
 the skin at one of these points, these distinct waves can be felt 
 
120 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 at each beat of the heart. This is called feeling the pulse. In 
 men there are, on an average, about seventy pulse-beats a 
 minute. In women the heart beats more rapidly than in men, 
 making about eighty beats per minute. In old age it beats 
 more slowly than in middle life, while in very young children 
 there are often as many as one hundred and thirty pulse-beats 
 a minute. Feel your pulse at the wrist or temple, and count 
 the beats for one minute while you are sitting. Then rise and 
 walk rapidly once around the room and compare the result with 
 what you got while sitting. Also compare the pulse before and 
 after eating a meal. Why does the physician feel the pulse of 
 a sick person? 
 
 Sounds of the Heart The action of the heart is almost 
 noiseless. Yet, if you place your ear directly over a person's 
 heart, you will observe that each time the heart beats it makes 
 two sounds. One sound quickly follows the other, and there is 
 a short period of silence. These two sounds are not exactly 
 like each other, but in a healthy person each of the sounds has 
 its own peculiar character. The first of the two sounds is a 
 comparatively long, booming sound; the second is a short, 
 sharp, sudden one. In certain diseases of the heart, the char- 
 acter of these sounds becomes changed into a murmur or rum- 
 bling sound, so that a physician can tell by listening to the heart 
 sounds whether this important organ is diseased or not. 
 i Fainting. Sometimes the heart beats with little force, or 
 even stops beating for a brief period, and all parts of the body 
 immediately begin to suffer. The brain, while it weighs but 
 one-forty-fifth of the rest of the body, uses one-eighth of the 
 total blood supply in the body. This being the case, it is natu- 
 
THE BLOOD AM) ITS CIRCULATION. 
 
 rally the first to suffer from the weak action or stopping of 
 the heart, even for a very brief period. When the brain is 
 thus affected, and is starving for pure blood, the mind at onse 
 stops acting and the person faints. His face becomes very 
 pale because it has little blood, and he is as senseless as in the 
 deepest sleep. For this reason, when a person faints, we lay 
 him down with the head low, so that the blood can get to the 
 brain, and we rub vigorously the arms and legs toward the body, 
 so as to compel the blood to go to his heart, and thus start 
 this organ to begin its work again. By throwing cold water in 
 the face of the person who has fainted, we make his heart beat 
 harder. Very quickly the person revives, and is soon, appa- 
 rently, as well as ever. 
 
 THE LYMPHATICS. 
 
 The lymphatic system consists of lymph spaces, lymph tubes, 
 and lymphatic glands. The lymph spaces are minute chinks or 
 crevices within the tissues in all parts of the body. The lymph 
 tubes open out from the lymph spaces, uniting into larger 
 tubes with valves very similar to those in the veins. (See 
 page 112.) The main lymph tube is called the thoracic duct. 
 Through it is conveyed all of the lymph except that from the 
 right side of the head, neck, chest, and the right arm, and it 
 empties into the veins at the left side of the neck. The right 
 lymph duct, which drains the smaller portion of the body as 
 above indicated, empties into the veins at the right side of the 
 neck. The lymphatic glands are little kernel-like masses along 
 the lymph tubes through which the lymph passes. 
 
122 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The Lymph Leaving the red corpuscles behind in the 
 blood vessels, the fluid that leaks through to feed the tissues of 
 the body 4s colorless. This becomes 
 the lymph. It is really the blood 
 minus the red corpuscles. Very little 
 of it can soak back into the blood tubes 
 because of the pressure of the blood 
 within the vessels, caused by the 
 heart's continual pumping, which forces 
 the blood through the arteries. To 
 take this lymph back to the heart, this 
 other set of tubes, called lymphatics, is 
 required. 
 
 The lymph always flows in one 
 direction only toward the heart. These 
 tubes, then, that convey the lymph are 
 like drain-pipes. They take up the 
 fluid that has soaked out of the thin 
 walls of the small blood vessels, and 
 which bathes and feeds the tissues, and 
 convey it away to be again poured into 
 the blood at the large vein in the neck. 
 It naturally contains much waste mat- 
 ter thrown off by the tissues, and 
 
 FIGURE ^-Lymphatic System mugt gQ through the heart along wifch 
 
 the venous blood to be again made 
 
 pure. The entire plan of the lymphatic system is to furnish a 
 means of drainage for the body. 
 
 In the disease known as dropsy, the lymphatic vessels do 
 
THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. 123 
 
 not work properly, and the tissues are filled with the fluid 
 almost to bursting. The flesh in such a person may be com- 
 pared to a piece of very wet, soggy, marshy land, the drain tiles 
 of which are not in order, and do their work imperfectly. 
 
 The Work Performed by the Lymph. The lymph is derived 
 from the blood and is full of the proper food for the bodily 
 tissues. Its work is to deliver to these tissues just the material 
 needed to keep up health and the proper activity. After it 
 delivers these food materials it must take up what is left, and 
 what can be used by some other organ, as well as the waste 
 products from the tissue cells. The office of the lymphatics, 
 then, is to take up and carry from the tissues to the veins all 
 the material that the tissues do not need. The tissue cells of 
 the body get all their nourishment from the lymph, and into the 
 lymph they must throw their waste matter. 
 
 The Spleen The spleen is an oblong, flat body that lies 
 upon the left side of the stomach, and varies in size at different 
 periods of life. Its size is increased after digestion, and is 
 always large in well-fed and small in starved animals. In some 
 diseases, such as ague, a very noticeable enlargement of the 
 spleen takes place, and this is the so-called " ague cake," of 
 which doctors sometimes speak. 
 
 The spleen is a reddish'gray, pulpy mass, and while the 
 body has been carefully studied for many years, it is not yet 
 known what work the spleen really has to do. It forms no 
 secretion to be poured into any cavity like the liver and 
 other glands. In case of accident and disease it has been 
 removed by the surgeon's knife, and life continues without 
 any serious results. 
 
124 CHAJDED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Massage. By massage we mean a system of either gently or 
 vigorously rubbing, pressing, or kneading the muscles. This 
 greatly helps the flow of the blo6*d and lymph, and by thus 
 assisting circulation, does much toward washing out the waste 
 particles of the body that can be affected by this rubbing of 
 the skin. Massage, in a measure, takes the place of exercise. 
 People who are sick and weak cannot take the exercise they 
 should, and massage rubbing will prove a good substitute. It 
 is an excellent thing for any one to rub the body with the hands 
 or a dry towel, especially if it is impossible to take the exer- 
 cise his health requires. A "dry rub" is thus frequently as 
 beneficial to health as a bath. 
 
 The Circulation Modified by Alcoholic Drinks. Alcohol 
 diminishes the capacity of the blood to absorb oxygen. It 
 decreases the working power and lowers the temperature of 
 the body. Alcoholic drinks make the blood poorer in quality 
 and thus impair the nutrition of the tissues. 
 
 The tendency of alcohol is to cause fatty matter to be 
 deposited in the walls of the arteries, taking the place of the 
 tough elastic material that should form these walls throughout. 
 By this action of alcohol the artery is weakened. At the places 
 where the fatty matter collects the walls of the artery are 
 stretched by blood pressure, they become thin, and there is a 
 pronounced bulging. This bulging of the arteries is called an 
 aneurism. Eventually it may burst and the person bleed to 
 death. Alcoholic drinks, as a rule, excite the heart and hurry 
 its beat. The time of rest between heart beats is thereby 
 shortened. The heart is overworked. An overworked heart 
 in time naturally becomes a diseased heart. 
 
 Tobacco always tends to make the action of the heart 
 irregular and less vigorous. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 You remember that oxygen is a necessary food that the 
 little red corpuscles carry all through the body. From this you 
 know that plenty of air is as necessary as the food we eat. 
 Without food, men have lived more than a month. Without 
 water, one can live a few days. Without air, one can live only 
 a few minutes. All living things breathe. The plant breathes 
 by means of its bark and leaves. The little insect, or the tiny 
 ant, depends for its existence upon air as much as you do. The 
 angle worm, which you may have used to bait your hook when 
 fishing, breathes through its skin. In human beings there 
 is a very beautiful and perfect arrangement by means of 
 which the air needed for life and health may be plentifully 
 supplied. 
 
 Why We Breathe. You remember that in the last chapter 
 we were told that the bright red, pure blood was carried by the 
 arteries to every part of the body. As this blood goes through 
 the arteries it gives up its food to each part as needed. The 
 blood then becomes darkened by the impurities it takes up, as 
 well as because of the oxygen the little red corpuscles have 
 given off, and is carried back to the heart through the veins. 
 But the heart cannot send this used, impure, and poisonous 
 blood back to the different parts of the body. So, as soon as 
 
 125 
 
126 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 WINDPIPE 
 
 the blood gets into the right ventricle of the heart, it is forced, 
 by the heart's pumping movements, to the lungs. In the lungs 
 the dark, impure blood is- changed jp bright, pure blood again. 
 The lungs, then, are very important organs, since, by means of 
 them, the blood is purified and again rendered fit for use. We 
 shall study the lungs and their work in this chapter. 
 
 Can you see any veins in the back of your hand which look 
 like blue lines under the skin ? As you examine them you find 
 
 that they t are blue or purplish 
 in color. Certainly they do 
 not appear to be bright red. 
 But if you cut your finger, or 
 prick it with a sharp needle, 
 the blood that' comes out is 
 bright red. What has changed 
 it from the dark blue or purple 
 color to red ? The air. Just 
 the instant the air, or rather 
 the oxygen it contains, comes 
 in contact with the blood, it 
 changes it to bright red. The 
 lungs have for their special 
 work the carrying of the air to the blood without interfering 
 with its circulation through the body. How is this done ? In 
 the lungs the air gets very near the dark, impure blood, feeds it 
 oxygen and changes its color to a bright red by mixing with it. 
 The blood gets fresh air from the lungs, and in turn gives up 
 .to the lungs certain impurities that have been collected in 
 passing through the body. These are sent out from the body 
 
 DESCENDING 
 AORTA 
 
 FIGURE 45. The Lungs and Heart, front 
 view. 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 127 
 
 when we exhale air, just as oxygen is brought to the blood 
 when we inhale fresh air. 
 
 How We Breathe. We must now study more closely this 
 important work of the lungs. In breathing, air is taken in 
 through the nose to the back part of the mouth (called the 
 pharynx), and through a tube in the neck to the lungs. This 
 tube in the neck is close up against the food-pipe, or esophagus, 
 and is called the windpipe, or trachea. If you feel the front 
 of the neck with the fingers and thumb, you will easily dis- 
 cover the windpipe. It is a pile of hard rings one on top of 
 another. These are not completed rings but are C-shaped, or like 
 horseshoes. They are arranged on top of each other with the 
 opening of the horseshoe toward the back of the neck. 
 
 The windpipe first divides into two main air tubes, each 
 called a Ironchus. This division occurs four or five inches below 
 flie back part of the mouth. One of the bronchi, or large air 
 tubes, goes to each lung. Below this main division the air 
 tubes divide again and again, many times, until we have the 
 finest possible air tubes, like the little, fine, netted veins of 
 a maple leaf. At the end of each of these little tubes is a tiny 
 air sac. There are thousands upon thousands of these air sacs, 
 and together they make up the two lungs. A lung is a soft, 
 spongy piece of flesh made up of a collection of air sacs. Each 
 air sac of the lung is like a little toy balloon, filled with air each 
 time we inhale. You feel and see your chest expand as each 
 one of these thousands of air sacs is filled. When the breath 
 rushes out as we exhale, the chest falls again. Take a tape 
 line and see how many inches you measure around your chest 
 when you inhale and fill the lungs every air sac with all the 
 
128 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 air they can contain. Now exhale every particle of air that 
 
 you can, and measure your chest to see how much smaller it is. 
 
 The lungs fill the upper part,jof the body just below the 
 
 Voice-box 
 
 FIGURE 46. The Air Tubes and Air Cells. 
 
 neck, and are covered by the bony framework of the ribs. They 
 rest on a broad band of tough muscle, called the diaphragm. 
 The upper part of the trunk above this muscle is called the 
 chest, and contains the heart and lungs. The lower part, that 
 below the diaphragm, is called the abdomen, and contains the. 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 129 
 
 intestines, stomach, and liver. The diaphragm is a partition 
 made of muscle, the edges of which are attached to the lower 
 ribs. This partition between the chest and abdomen is not 
 straight across, but dome-shaped or arched upwards. 
 
 The Two Breaths In inhaling, the arch of the dome-like 
 diaphragm is lowered, the ribs 
 bend outwardly, and the air 
 rushes in through the nose and 
 swells out the lungs to the size 
 of the chest. This is called in- 
 spiration. Then the chest again 
 becomes smaller by the ribs bend- 
 ing in toward the backbone to 
 their former position, and by the FIGURE 47. illustrating the position of 
 diaphragm arching itself higher the dia ? hra g m in expiration and 
 
 inspiration. 
 
 to its former shape and expelling 
 
 the air from the lungs. This out-breathing is called expiration. 
 The action of the lungs is very much like that of a pair of bellows. 
 When you take a long breath the air rushes into the lungs just 
 as it does into the bellows, and you feel your chest expand as the 
 little air sacs are filled, just as you see the bellows at the black- 
 smith's shop get larger when they are filling with air. When the 
 breath is forced out by the contracting chest, we have the same 
 sort of thing that occurs when the blacksmith pulls on the han- 
 dles of the bellows, making them force the air out. Your dog 
 pants noisily and rapidly after running a considerable distance. 
 Does it not remind you of a small, noisy pair of quick-acting 
 bellows ? 
 
 An adult breathes about eighteen times a minute. That 
 9 
 
130 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 is, one breath is taken to every four beats of the heart. We 
 do not seem to rest in breathing, but inasmuch as the breath- 
 ing muscles work only during iirspiration, and not in the act 
 of expiration, they rest about half the time. The lungs like 
 the heart work very hard, and we should give them plenty of 
 
 room by avoiding 'tight clothing. 
 They should also have plenty of 
 fresh air that their work may be 
 made as easy as possible. 
 
 The Nostrils and Soft Palate. 
 The air finds its way back to the 
 lungs through the mouth, or the 
 two openings of the nose, which 
 are called nostrils. We should 
 breathe through the nose rather 
 than through the mouth, for rea- 
 sons that will be stated later. 
 FIGURE 48.-showing a group of Air ne nostrils are air-passages lead- 
 
 Cells, greatly magnified. . , , ,., mi 
 
 ing back through the nose. These 
 
 again come together in an open space at the roof of the mouth 
 behind the soft curtain that hangs down at the back part. 
 This curtain is called the soft palate. Through the opening 
 behind the soft palate the air passes down through the windpipe 
 and into the lungs. 
 
 The Windpipe and Air-Tubes. You have already learned 
 that the large tube, called the windpipe, extends from the 
 root of the tongue down into the chest where it divides into 
 two branches, one going to each lung. These branches are sub- 
 divided again and again into hundreds of little branches, until 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 131 
 
 they are no larger than the finest needle. The air-tubes are 
 called the bronchial tubes, and at the end of each is a group of 
 air cells such as you see enlarged in Figure 48, where they are 
 puffed out as they appear when filled with air. You observed, 
 on feeling of the windpipe at your throat just above the point 
 of "Adam's apple," that it is hard and gristly, made of rings 
 of cartilage piled upon each other. The air-tubes, even some 
 of the small ones, are made of the same hard rings, but in the 
 smallest branches they disappear. If the windpipe were a soft 
 tube of membrane, like the esophagus, it could not be kept 
 open continually for the air to pass through, and we would 
 smother or choke to death. If a piece of tough meat, 
 improperly chewed, lodges in the windpipe, instead of the eso- 
 phagus, the air is shut off from the lungs, and the person dies, 
 unless, by means of the fingers, the obstruction is pulled out 
 and the air permitted to rush into the lungs before it is too 
 late. In some diseases, such as croup, the air-tubes and wind- 
 pipe become obstructed with an exudate or mucus, sometimes 
 smothering the child to death. " If, however, in such a case, the 
 person so afflicted will inhale the steam from slacking lime, 
 relief quickly comes, for this steam cuts through the thick 
 mucus, or phlegm, and opens up the tubes so air can again 
 get to the lungs. In diphtheria the throat sometimes swells 
 shut, so that air cannot enter the windpipe. Then the doctor 
 saves the patient's life by cutting into the throat and inserting, 
 through the muscles of the neck into the trachea, a glass tube, 
 which serves as an artificial windpipe, permitting the patient 
 to breathe comfortably until the throat again opens to permit 
 the passage of air in the natural way. In drowning, water 
 
132 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 enters the lungs, shutting off the air, producing death in less 
 than five minutes. At any time before death actually takes 
 place life can be restored by moans of artificial respiration, 
 which will be described in a later chapter. At the outer end 
 of the smallest tubes within the lungs, next to the tiny air 
 sacs, there are no rings of cartilage to keep the tubes wide 
 open, but little muscular fibers instead, As a result of disease 
 these fibers sometimes shrivel and contract, making the tube 
 opening much smaller, and it is sometimes a hard matter for 
 the suffering patient to get the air through in either direction. 
 This condition is very painful, and with it there is a sense of 
 smothering. The disease is called asthma. In the disease 
 known as pneumonia, as a result of inflammation, many of the 
 little air sacs are filled with a fluid. This fluid is often in so 
 great a quantity as to necessitate its being drawn off from the 
 lungs by inserting a large, hollow needle, in order to save life. 
 
 Sounds of the Chest. The lungs make certain peculiar 
 sounds in breathing. In health the sounds are quite different 
 from what they are in lung diseases. The doctor listens to 
 these sounds to tell whether the lungs are healthy or not, and 
 in this way can detect a case of croup, lung fever, or pneumonia. 
 
 The Voice-Box Close under the chin at the top of the 
 windpipe you find a large lump which moves as you swallow. 
 This is a little box at the opening of the windpipe, and is made 
 of pieces of gristle or cartilage almost as hard as bone. It is 
 called the larynx, or voice-box, because by means of it we are 
 able to speak, sing, or read aloud. Two little white bands 
 stretch across this voice-box, and when we speak these bands 
 or cords vibrate as do the strings of a violin, banjo, or piano. 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 
 
 133 
 
 These little bands are called vocal cords. T^e kind of sound 
 we make depends largely on the tightness with which these 
 vocal cords are stretched within the voice-box. 
 
 FIGURE 49. A. Appearance of the Vocal Cords .in singing a high note. B. The V- 
 shaped glottis as seen in quiet breathing. C. Round appearance in deep breathing. 
 
 The Epiglottis. At the top of the larynx, or voice-box, is 
 located a peculiar trap-door which can open or shut just when 
 it should do so without our thinking especially about it. It is 
 called the epiglottis, and closes down over the top of the larynx 
 whenever we swallow anything, keeping food and drink from 
 
134 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 entering the air-passages of the lungs. If we eat or drink too 
 rapidly, this little trap-door does not have time to close itself, 
 and thus prevent our being choked* Did you ever get a crumb 
 in your windpipe? How it made you cough! But this cough- 
 ing expelled the air rapidly from your lungs and forced the 
 crumb up into your throat again. 
 
 The Pleura. In the chest the lungs are covered and 
 enclosed by a soft, moist, very thin membrane, called the pleura. 
 The interior of the chest walls is also lined with a similar mem- 
 brane or pleura. In a healthy condition these two membranes 
 keep themselves moist by continually exuding a small quantity 
 of fluid. This moisture keeps them smooth, and when they 
 rub together as we breathe, the two lungs in moving are not 
 irritated, and breathing is painless and easy. Sometimes, as a 
 result of cold, this membrane becomes inflamed, and breathing 
 becomes exceedingly painful and difficult. This disease is 
 known as pleurisy. 
 
 Slow Burning within the Body The human body is in 
 many respects like a stove. In the stove we put fuel ; the fuel 
 is consumed, and we get heat. In the body we consume food 
 as fuel; it is slowly burned, and we get heat from this food- 
 fuel. The tissues of the body are slowly burning or oxidizing 
 all the time, that is, substances from the bodily tissues unite 
 with the oxygen of the air. 
 
 Put a piece of bread into a hot stove and it quickly burns. 
 The larger part of it passes off as smoke and gases into the 
 air. Only a few ashes remain. A fire to burn well must have 
 plenty of air. You open the damper of the stove to give more 
 air, making the fire burn better. Air must unite with some 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 135 
 
 substance in every fire, else there would be no burning, and no 
 heat. The blood carries food through the body, and its red 
 corpuscles bring the important element of air oxygen from 
 the lungs. The food and air join together in a slow process of 
 burning. The gases (smoke) are carried back to the lungs to 
 be forced out of the body. The ashes are gotten rid of by 
 means of the skin and kidneys. By the slow burning of food 
 within the body the proper degree of warmth is kept up, and 
 besides, some of the resulting heat is turned into strength by 
 means of which the body does its work, just as the steam- 
 engine gains its power from the fuel it consumes. The amount 
 of heat produced in the body in a single day is the same that 
 would result if the amount of food daily eaten were burned 
 outside the body. The body is more like a steam-engine than 
 a stove, for both have the power of motion. Both move, both 
 use fuel (food, coal), both take in air, both are warm, both give 
 off smoke. In the body the smoke is invisible except on a 
 frosty day, but in both it is quite the same thing; carbonic 
 acid gas and water being the chief things which make the smoke 
 in both cases. 
 
 The Air Before and After. Fresh air contains oxygen. 
 Oxygen sustains life. Carbonic acid gas destroys life. We 
 breathe in order to get oxygen from the air into our bodies, and 
 to drive the poisonous carbonic acid gas from our bodies into 
 the air. The blood, while in the lungs, unloads the carbonic 
 acid gas and other impurities it has collected from all parts of 
 the body to be exhaled, and loads up with oxygen from the air 
 that has just been freshly inhaled. Exhaled air contains, then, 
 certain poisonous matters. 1. Carbonic acid gas. 2. Invisible 
 
136 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 poisonous gases arising from decaying animal substance, and 
 called "organic waste matter." This animal substance you can 
 readily detect by its odor as you eliter a crowded room that is 
 not properly ventilated. 
 
 In each breath, then, we trade something that is life- 
 destroying (carbonic acid gas and organic waste matter) for 
 something that is life-giving (oxygen). But we cannot breathe 
 pure oxygen. It would cause too rapid burning within the 
 body. Hence, in the air we breathe, oxygen is diluted by being 
 mixed with nitrogen. There is a very small amount of car- 
 bonic acid gas in the air we inhale. The air we exhale contains 
 one hundred times as much of 'this poisonous gas as the air we 
 inhale. In each breath, we rob the air inhaled of one-fourth of 
 its oxygen. Look at this table which shows the composition of 
 100 parts of inhaled and exhaled air: 
 
 Carbonic Organic 
 Oxygen. Nitrogen. Acid Gas. Waste Matter. 
 
 Inhaled air 21 79 .04 
 
 Exhaled air ----- 16 79 4.00 1 
 
 Nose and Mouth Breathing Compared. It is a very harm- 
 ful practice to breathe through the mouth instead of through 
 the nose. Air should always reach the lungs through the nos- 
 trils, which are devised by nature to strain the air, to warm it, 
 to moisten it when too dry for the lungs. The nostrils being 
 also the seat of the sense of smell, we are thus warned when the 
 air is impure. If a person persists in breathing through the 
 mouth, the throat becomes dry, cold air will chill the warmer 
 blood in the capillaries of the lungs, and the particles of dust 
 will not be strained out, which alone may cause much harm. 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 137 
 
 If one breathes through the mouth habitually, the lungs are 
 sure to become diseased. One of the easiest ways to prevent 
 taking cold is to breathe through the nose. 
 
 Adenoid Growths. In the back part of the nasal passages, 
 more especially in rapidly growing children, are frequently 
 found in little grape-like clusters, a form of growth that 
 obstructs free breathing through the nose. These growths 
 are called adenoids, and can readily be removed by any skillful 
 physician. They should never be allowed to remain, for they 
 not only interfere with breathing, but they cause defective hear- 
 ing, which is just as great a misfortune to a school child as 
 defective vision. If the pupil cannot hear the teacher's ques- 
 tions perfectly he cannot answer them correctly. If he cannot 
 hear distinctly the teacher's explanations, how can he have a 
 clear understanding of the problems explained ? A large num- 
 ber of schools have wisely arranged to test the vision and hear- 
 ing of all the pupils. The pupils who cannot hear well or are 
 near-sighted are placed in the front part of the room where 
 they can see the blackboard or hear the teacher's explanations 
 with less difficulty. 
 
 As a result of habitual mouth-breathing, the face is dis- 
 torted, the upper lip becomes shortened and thickened, the 
 upper teeth stick out, and the face loses its pleasant expression. 
 All these mouth-breathers have defective hearing, and do you 
 know that many true cases of stupidity in school children 
 exist in connection with defective hearing and mouth- 
 breathing? You know how hard it is to give attention to 
 study when you have such a severe cold that the nostrils 
 are " stopped up," and for the time you can breathe only 
 
138 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 through the mouth. The habitual mouth-breather has the 
 same uncomfortable feeling all the time. He cannot study 
 well. He cannot give the best attention. A physician 
 should always be consulted when mouth-breathing has become 
 a fixed habit. 
 
 One Boy's Debt. From several hundred letters received 
 by me from teachers and school superintendents, I select the 
 following to show you how serious adenoid growths are. 
 Archie, the little boy mentioned in this account, entered 
 the first primary grade at the age of six years. The end of 
 each succeeding year, for four years, found him larger and 
 stronger physically, but mentally incapable of any better work 
 than he did in his first school-year. At the beginning of his 
 fifth year the teacher was obliged to continue him in his Sec- 
 ond Eeader, telling him, however, that he still ought to be in 
 his Primer. His superintendent says : " One day in Novem- 
 ber I began noticing him. There he was, a boy eleven years 
 old, sitting idly, his under jaw hanging down, vacant-eyed, and 
 that utterly expressionless face which we find in idiots. He 
 seemed to take no interest in what was going on around him ; 
 when called upon to read he had lost his place, and his teacher 
 scolded him for what she supposed was carelessness. The next 
 morning I found Archie in one of the stores with some other 
 children looking at the Christmas toys displayed on every side. 
 I asked him what he wanted Santa Glaus to bring him ; he 
 pointed to a little ' dumb watch.' But I said, ' Archie, why 
 not wish for a watch like mine that ticks loud and runs. Just 
 listen, now, and hear my watch tick/ I thus tested the little 
 fellow's hearing, and found that he could hear my watch tick 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 139 
 
 only when within a few indies of either ear, while I could hear 
 it easily at twenty feet. I felt that I had a clew. I took him to 
 my own physician, who examined him, finding at the back 
 of the nose adenoid growths, which had affected his hearing; 
 in a moment he removed them, and the boy went back to 
 school. The doctor and I told no one of what we had done, 
 not even his parents or his teacher; in fact I did not mention 
 it in my home, for reasons which you will understand later. 
 In about three weeks from the time the operation was per- 
 formed, my little son, who is in the same room with Archie, 
 said at the dinner-table, ' Papa, you ought to see how fast 
 Archie is learning; he gets all the head marks in spelling, and 
 he beats us all in reading.' His teacher next came to me and 
 said, ' What have you done to Archie ? His improvement is 
 wonderful, he is the brightest one of his class/ I explained 
 what had been done for the poor little fellow whom we had so 
 mistreated for almost Jive years. At the close of this term's 
 work Archie stood at the head of a class of twenty-two; for 
 almost five years he had been at the foot." 
 
 Foul Air. Air may be polluted in various ways. The fol- 
 lowing sources of foul air are among the most common: Cellar 
 Air. Cellars are kept closed; thus no light and but little 
 fresh air can enter. The decaying vegetable matter gives off 
 injurious gases that cause disease. Disease is often caused 
 by the foul air arising from the cellar under the house. Unless 
 the cellar is so built as to admit sunlight and fresh air, and 
 is frequently cleaned, it becomes a reservoir of foul air, capa- 
 ble of causing much sickness that could be avoided. Coal Gas 
 is frequently used in towns and cities for lighting, and it is a 
 
140 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 deadly poison to the lungs. It sometimes escapes in large 
 quantities from leaky gas-pipes, or it may be sent out into the 
 room by a stove that does not dr^w well. Great care should 
 be taken to prevent coal gas from mixing with the air we 
 breathe, especially in our sleeping-rooms. Death by asphyxia 
 frequently results from carelessness in this respect. Sewer Gas 
 is a poisonous product arising within the drain-pipes of houses 
 because the plumber did not properly construct them. In 
 most of the cities and towns the plumbing of houses is under 
 some sort of supervision in order that the possibility of sewer 
 gas may be avoided, thus preventing many cases of fever, 
 diphtheria, and other diseases. 
 
 Malaria. A house or school building should never be 
 located on low, flat ground, near a marsh or swamp. Air from 
 stagnant water, or wet earth, may be full of disease germs. 
 Malaria (ague, chills and fever) is always caused by these germs. 
 A schoolhouse or a residence should always ,be built on a 
 knoll or rise of ground, where perfect drainage may be had. If 
 there is perfect drainage the soil about the building cannot 
 remain wet, and will not become "sour," serving as a breeding 
 place for disease germs. 
 
 Dust. If the fine dust particles in the air are not too plen- 
 tiful, the moist lining and the little hair strainers of the nose 
 will prevent their getting into the lungs. Kain and snow storms 
 wash the dust out of the air, making it fresh, sweet, and clean. 
 Soft coal, where it is used to a great extent, is a source of irri- 
 tating dust. All dust entering the lungs is harmful. For this 
 reason it is much better to have the playgrounds about our 
 schools in sod rather than covered with cinders or dry earth. 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 141 
 
 There will be less dust, therefore, less disease. In some occu- 
 pations laborers are continually exposed to the danger of 
 inhaling large quantities of dust. Coal miners, pottery workers, 
 pearl button makers, flax workers, and tool grinders, are 
 especially liable to asthma and similar diseases because of the 
 dust-laden atmosphere with which they are surrounded while 
 they work. The dust continually entering the lungs finally 
 weakens them by causing repeated inflammation of the air-sacs 
 and smaller air-tubes. On the other hand, certain of the finest 
 laces can be made only in damp rooms. In some cities of 
 Europe many poor women are employed in making this lace. 
 They never live over three or four years, if they continue their 
 work, because the damp air produces rapid consumption of the 
 lungs. We have, then, a number of " occupation diseases," that 
 is, diseases caused by the improper and unhealthful conditions 
 amidst which certain occupations are carried on. 
 
 Ventilation. Enough has been said about the dangers of 
 breathing impurities to show the necessity of a plentiful supply 
 of fresh air in our houses, schools, halls, churches, and other 
 meeting-places, which are often so poorly ventilated. In earlier 
 days when our houses were heated by open fireplaces with 
 their big " back-log," there was a roaring draught up the chim- 
 ney, making perfect ventilation. To a great extent stoves are 
 now used in place of open fireplaces. Stoves do not use much 
 air, and consequently do not serve as a good means of ventila- 
 tion. Steam and hot-water pipes are very satisfactory for heat- 
 ing, but when they are used we must provide some method for 
 bringing in fresh air. Hot-air furnaces bring in fresh air that 
 is heated on the way into the room. When a schoolroom is 
 
142 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 heated by a stove, it should have a sheet-iron shield or jacket 
 about it. As the air about the stove becomes heated it rises, 
 and cold air rushes in under the jacket to take its place. Such 
 an arrangement heats the room more evenly and prevents the 
 pupils near the stove from being overheated. It is an excellent 
 idea to have small ventilating flues built info the chimney 
 around the smoke-flue or hole where the stove-pipe enters the 
 chimney. These small ventilating flues furnish good outlets 
 for foul air. 
 
 But a perfect system of ventilation provides an inlet for 
 fresh air as well as an outlet for impure air. No system of 
 ventilation is complete unless it provides both of these features. 
 To insure perfect health there should be for each person more 
 than a cubic foot of fresh air every minute. If there are forty 
 pupils in your school, there should be such perfect ventilation 
 that forty bushels, or a big wagon-load, of fresh air can get into 
 the room every minute, and an equal amount of foul air be 
 gotten rid of in the same time. Fresh air is a necessity. If it 
 does not enter the schoolroom in sufficient quantity, the pupils 
 become drowsy, languid, and begin to have what doctors call 
 school-headaches. Children can never do the best school work 
 without fresh air. It is a prime necessity to mental as well as 
 healthy physical growth. We know that in schools where 
 there is poor ventilation there is much greater likelihood of 
 the pupils " catching " diseases. We also know that in such 
 schoolrooms children do not make the same rapid progress in 
 mental growth that they do in those that are well ventilated. 
 Pure air in our schoolrooms means better lessons, clearer brains, 
 fewer headaches, and more genuine enjoyment in our work. 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUNGS. 143 
 
 Every school should have a recess each half-day, and dur- 
 ing these recesses all the children should go out of doors, not 
 only to play in the open air and till their lungs with oxygen, 
 but also to give the teacher an opportunity to open the win- 
 dows and completely air the schoolroom. Class-rooms should 
 be ventilated winter and summer at each recess and noon 
 period, by opening all the doors and windows. While such 
 ventilation is going on, the pupils in the yard or halls are not 
 only getting exercise, but will also bring back with them fresh 
 air in their clothes. The time spent in recesses will be more 
 than made up by better work when school again assembles 
 after such an intermission, for the brain will be quicker and the 
 work will seem easier. The Prussian Minister of Education 
 requires that the windows of the class-rooms shall be open all 
 night in summer weather ; when the weather is cold they are 
 kept open from the close of school till dark, and from four in 
 the morning until school opens at seven o'clock. 
 
 How to Ventilate If there are no foul-air shafts for the 
 escape of impure air, and no inlets for fresh air, a good method 
 is to raise the lower sash of a window, and place a board under 
 it so as to completely fill up the window casing. This will 
 establish good ventilation between the two sashes. This 
 method provides for constant change of air, and yet prevents 
 draughts of air from entering the room and causing " colds." 
 The schoolroom and the living-rooms of a house should be 
 kept at a temperature as near 70 degrees Fahrenheit as possible; 
 sleeping-rooms should also be well ventilated, since we spend 
 about one-third of our lives in them. In our sleeping-rooms 
 the temperature should not be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 
 
144 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Cleanliness of Schoolrooms. If cleanliness does not exist 
 in the schoolroom, no amount of ventilation will correct the 
 evil. The pupils themselves caruhelp a great deal in this mat- 
 ter by keeping their bodies perfectly clean, and also their 
 clothing and shoes. There should be scrapers and foot-mats 
 where shoes can be quickly cleaned before entering the school- 
 room, and there should be basins provided where children can 
 wash themselves when necessary. Cloaks, overcoats, hats, caps, 
 gossamers, rubbers, umbrellas, all give off unpleasant odors, 
 especially when wet, and on this account should never be 
 taken into the schoolroom, but should be placed in the hall or 
 the especially provided, well-ventilated cloak-rooms found in 
 our best modern schoolhouses. 
 
 Very often schoolrooms do not have the proper kind of 
 floors. Floors -that collect a large amount of dirt and dust 
 endanger health. If the boards of the floor are too soft, they 
 sliver easily, and these slivers grind into dust, and besides, 
 they hold moisture too long after being scrubbed, making the 
 room smell musty. Close-fitting, "matched" flooring of maple, 
 oak, or hard pine makes the best floor. To avoid raising dust 
 the floor should be first sprinkled with wet sawdust before 
 sweeping. Dry sweeping does not remove the dust, but simply 
 drives it from one place to another. Schoolrooms should be 
 swept daily and scrubbed often. Linoleum makes a good floor- 
 covering. It is easily swept and washed, and deadens the noise 
 made by the pupils' feet. It is in every way better than the 
 coarse cocoa matting so often found in the aisles of school- 
 rooms. These are always collectors of dust and disease germs. 
 The dust-trough that runs along the lower edge of the 
 
BREATHING AND THE LUtfGS. 145 
 
 board should be cleaned every evening after school. Only good, 
 soft blackboard erasers should be used, and they should be 
 dusted at the close of each school day. Each pupil in the 
 school can do a great deal toward keeping the schoolroom clean. 
 Since dirt breeds disease, and cleanliness insures health, is it 
 not the duty of every child in your school to help the teacher 
 in keeping the room as clean as possible ? 
 
 Effect of Alcohol on the Lungs Alcohol acts directly on 
 
 the "breathing center" in the spinal bulb at the base of the 
 brain and thus diminishes the amount of air taken into tht 
 lungs. The walls of the minute air sacs may become so 
 thickened as to be less elastic and their size thus gradually 
 decreased. The breathing capacity of the lungs is thereby 
 reduced. 
 
 EXEECISES. 
 
 1. In a history or encyclopedia read an account of the Black 
 Hole of Calcutta. 
 
 2. What are the facts concerning the Grotta del Cane and the 
 Upas Valley? 
 
 3. Discuss Fire Damp, Black Damp, and Choke Damp, that 
 often work such serious injury to men working in mines. 
 
 10 
 
f 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE NERVES AND THE 
 
 You have already learned that the human body is made up 
 of many parts, each of which has its own particular work to do. 
 Stomach, skin, liver, bones, kidneys, muscles, heart, and lungs 
 each has a special task to perform, but all must work in har- 
 mony with each other in order that the body may act as a 
 whole and be kept healthy. All of these members of the body 
 must be under the control of some central authority or govern- 
 ment; they must be parts or members of a great system, just as 
 the parts of a complex piece of machinery, for example, a loco- 
 motive, are under the control of an engineer. This control and 
 direction of all the parts of the body in relation to each other, 
 is in charge of and is exercised by the nervous system. 
 
 The Nervous System The term "nervous system" refers 
 to all the nerves of the body, and includes the brain and spinal 
 cord. The general object of the nervous system is to connect, 
 control, and direct the actions of the different parts and organs 
 of the body, so that they will work in harmony. Let us illus- 
 trate. You run the bases in a ball game : your heart beats 
 more rapidly, more blood is pumped through it to the lungs, and 
 more oxygen is required. You therefore breathe faster. The 
 presence of the food in the mouth calls forth saliva from the 
 glands, and a little later causes the gastric juice to flow from 
 
 146 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 
 
 147 
 
 the lining of the stomach. You stand looking down the road, 
 and a little grain of dust gets into your eye. When this hap- 
 pens, the tear gland of the eye tries to wash out the cause of 
 the pain. You are frightened. 
 The cold chills run up your 
 back, your heart stops beating 
 for a moment, and then you 
 run. Your finger tip touches 
 a hot iron, and you quickly 
 jerk your hand away. A little 
 snake runs across the path on 
 your way to school, and before 
 you know it you stop still, 
 and if you are afraid, you 
 shudder. There is something 
 that makes all these organs 
 and parts of the body work at 
 the proper time. This some- 
 thing is the nervous system. 
 
 A thing that is not alive 
 does not respond when touched 
 or handled. If you handle a 
 piece of iron, a lump of coal, or 
 a block of wood, there is no 
 movement in answer to your 
 touch there is "no sign of life." Suppose you are walking 
 through the busy streets of a great city, and you jostle against a 
 lamp-post, barber-pole, or tree. You find that none of these ob- 
 jects are the least disturbed. There is no response of any sort 
 
 FIGURE 50. Nervous System of a Man. 
 
148 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 FIGURE 51. Nervous System of a Grass- 
 hopper. 
 
 on their part. You, however, 
 respond with a sudden start, 
 your face changes expression, 
 you almost lose your temper. 
 With your hand you rub the 
 bruised part of 'your body. You 
 feel. The lamp-post, barber- 
 pole and tree do not feel. Or, 
 to express the same thing in a 
 different way, you have a ner- 
 vous system ; the other things 
 have no nervous system. 
 
 Nerve Messages The 
 nerves are very much like tele- 
 graph wires. Your head con- 
 tains something quite similar 
 to a telegraph office. The brain 
 in the bony skull-box is the 
 central instrument that sends 
 out and receives messages, and 
 the little white thread-like 
 nerves running all through your 
 body are the wires connecting 
 every part of it with the brain. 
 You wish to write your name. 
 The brain sends a message to 
 the hand, and it begins to move 
 in just the way it should to 
 make the letters composing 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 
 
 149 
 
 your name. The message is taken from the central office, or 
 brain, to the muscles of the hand by means of the nerves 
 in almost the same way that a telegraph or telephone mes- 
 sage is transmitted along copper wires. This is a motor 
 message, being an order to move. Or, perhaps a bee stings you 
 on the hand ; at once a message is sent rapidly along special 
 little nerve-wires to your brain, and you have a sensation of 
 pain. This is a sen- 
 sory message. It 
 conveys a sense im- 
 pression to the brain. 
 
 The Parts of the 
 Nervous System. 
 The nervous system 
 consists of (1) the 
 brain, (2) the spinal 
 cord, and (3) the 
 nerves to and from 
 the brain. The brain 
 and spinal cord are 
 called nerve centers. The reason for that we shall soon see. The 
 nervous system is composed of two kinds of substance in every 
 way different from each other. One of these is the "white matter," 
 the other the "gray matter." Nervous tissue is the finest tissue 
 in the whole body. It is the "master tissue," for it controls, 
 directs, and regulates all other tissue. 
 
 The Brain By the brain is meant the whole mass of ner- 
 vous matter which is contained in the bony box called the skull. 
 On the outside it is grayish in color. Under its gray cells the 
 
 FIGURE 52. Section through a portion of the human Brain; 
 showing the number and depth of the convolutions and 
 the arrangement of white and gray matter. 
 
150 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 brain is white, for this part consists of nerve fibers. It is within 
 the brain that the nerve fibers begin. The brain is connected, 
 either directly or indirectly, with, all parts of the body. 
 
 The human brain is not smooth, as are the brains of the 
 owl, parrot, frog, chicken, squirrel, or marmoset. Instead of t a 
 smooth outer surface it has many folds, or wrinkles, as you see 
 on page 151. By observing closely you will find that in the 
 human brain these wrinkles" are greater in number and deeper 
 than in the brain of the cat or monkey. The older we grow, the 
 
 FIGURE 53. Brain of Parrot. FIGURE 54. Brain of Owl. FIGURE 55. Brain of Cat. 
 
 more we are educated, and the more our brains are developed, the 
 more numerous and deeper do these folds become. The fissures 
 between the folds, or convolutions, furnish nice little channels 
 through which the rich, red, arterial blood can flow over the 
 surface of the brain to feed and nourish the hard-working cells 
 that are continually hungry for oxygen, The brain needs a 
 very large amount of blood in order that it may do the great 
 work it has to perform. While the brain weighs only one- 
 forty-fifth as much as the rest of the body, it uses one-eighth 
 of all the blood in the body. To do its work, to grow, to become 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 
 
 AVERAGE HUMAN BRAIN. 
 
 151 
 
 FIGURE 57. Side view. 
 
152 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 educated, and to keep in good health, the brain must have an 
 abundance of rich, pure blood. The more the blood flows over 
 the brain surface, the deeper do ;the fissures become, and the 
 greater their number. This makes it correct to say that the 
 greater the number and depth of the fissures of the brain, the 
 more intelligent and better educated is the persbn. 
 
 Size of the Brain It is not 
 the animal whose brain is the 
 largest and the heaviest that 
 is the most intelligent. It is 
 rather the animal whose brain 
 is most convoluted, most wrin- 
 kled, and the one in which 
 these wrinkles are the deepest 
 and the largest, that has the 
 highest order of intelligence, be- 
 cause in such a brain there is 
 more brain surface and more gray 
 matter rich in cells to do the work 
 
 FIGURE 58. Brain of a Monkey. . ., , . 
 
 that the brain must perform. A 
 
 brain with a great many wrinkles has more surface than one of 
 the same size with fewer convolutions. Look at the picture of 
 the brain of Gauss, the celebrated mathematician. (Figure 59.) 
 Your teacher will tell you what wonderful mental ability this 
 great scholar possessed. Notice how many convolutions and 
 how deep they are. Such a brain has an unusually large surface, 
 and therefore an unusually large amount of gray matter filled 
 with nerve cells, and is a better brain than one with less sur- 
 face, less gray matter, and fewer cells. 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN". 153 
 
 While it is true that some of the greatest scholars the world 
 has ever known had large brains, it is also true that the largest 
 brains known have been those of insane persons. I have before 
 me now on my table as I write, the brain of an insane man and 
 the brain of a highly educated young woman. The brain of 
 the insane man is much larger and heavier than the other, but 
 no one would think of saying that he was more intelligent. 
 The woman, with her fine brain and its many convolutions, 
 
 FIGURE 59. Brain of Gauss, the celebrated mathematician and astronomer. (Vogt.) 
 
 was a celebrated artist. The man had been idiotic almost from 
 birth, had always had criminal tendencies, had never been able 
 to read or write, and was violently insane during the last years 
 of his life. The woman's brain, while smaller, has more and 
 deeper wrinkles, more brain surface, and more gray matter. 
 That of the man, while larger, has fewer and more shallow 
 fissures, less brain surface, and less gray matter. The woman 
 was very intelligent and well educated. Her brain was devel- 
 oped. The man was always stupid and could not be educated 
 His brain was not developed. 
 
154 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The Divisions of the Brain The brain consists of three 
 parts or main divisions. (1). The large brain, or cerebrum; 
 (2) the small brain -or cerebellum; (3) the spinal bulb, or 
 medulla ollongata. 
 
 The cerebrum is the largest division of the brain, being about 
 four-fifths of the whole. It is divided into halves or hemi- 
 spheres. The gray matter here, as in the rest of the brain, lies 
 
 FIGURE 60. Brain of a Hottentot. 
 
 on the outside, and forms a gray rind from one-twelfth to one- 
 eighth of an inch in thickness, according to the degree of 
 development or education. The thicker this gray outside 
 layer, that is, the more gray matter, the better is the person 
 educated. The cerebellum lies under the back part of the large 
 brain and is joined to it. It also has the gray matter on the 
 outside and many fine little fissures, giving the cerebellum, 
 when cut through, a leaf-like appearance, called arbor vitce. 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 
 
 155 
 
 The spinal bulb is the smallest division of the brain, being only 
 an inch and a quarter long and about an inch in thickness at 
 its largest part. It connects the rest of the brain with the 
 spinal cord. 
 
 The Work of the Cerebrum Receives Sensory Messages. 
 The various parts of the body are continually sending news to 
 
 FIGURE 61. Showing the various Brain centers. 
 
 the cerebrum, telling what is affecting them from without. 
 Thus the nerves of the eye take messages of things seen. The 
 nerves of the ear of things heard. The finger tips contain fine 
 nerve endings that can feel acutely, and by them touch mes- 
 sages are sent to the brain. We get the news of the outside 
 world by means of such experiences as seeing, hearing, touch- 
 ing, smelling, tasting, and the like. These different kinds of 
 news gatherers and news carriers are called the senses. All 
 
156 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 the messages that come through the eye are carried to the 
 lower portion of the back part of the brain. This is called the 
 visual center. Any activity of the brain cells within the center 
 of vision, no matter to what such activity is due, gives rise to 
 sensations of vision. Thus, even with the eyes closed, if you fall 
 striking the back part of your head, you " see*" stars." This is 
 because the jar has affected the back part of the brain, which 
 is most active when we see things, much more so than any other 
 portion of the brain. If disease should attack this part of the 
 brain it would result in total blindness, even if there were 
 nothing the matter with the eyes. Messages of hearing are 
 delivered to the portion of the brain just above the ears. If 
 this brain center is injured we become deaf, though our ears 
 remain perfect. 
 
 Sends out Motor Messages. Besides receiving messages, 
 the gray matter of the cerebrum, or large brain, directs the 
 motions of our bodies and their parts. The portion of the brain 
 lying just beneath the top of the head and toward the front of 
 the ears, sends out all the orders for motion, whether it be playing 
 the piano, using the typewriter (see finger center), or directing 
 the muscles of the face, arms, legs, or those finer muscles em- 
 ployed in speech. Speech is one of the highest acts of the 
 mind. The lips, tongue, and vocal cords obey the brain cells of 
 the "speech" center. If this part of the brain were injured, 
 we would lose the power of speech. Sometimes a clot of blood 
 forms in the little fold or wrinkle at the speech center, and in 
 such a case the person cannot say the simplest words, such as 
 "yes" and "no," until a piece of the skull bone over the speech 
 center is removed and the little hard clot of blood washed 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 157 
 
 away. Such a person can still make noises with his mouth, 
 but cannot talk; he can understand what is said to him, for 
 the sense of hearing is not affected; he can write, for the brain 
 center that directs the motion of the fingers is still in good 
 order. 
 
 Some time ago, while in Germany, my attention was called 
 to a very interesting case of loss of speech in one of the hospitals 
 of Berlin. A German army officer had been thrown from his 
 horse during one of the military parades which took place in 
 the celebration of the anniversary of the battle of Sedan. In 
 falling, his head struck the hard street pavement. At first 
 he was unconscious. Soon after his return to consciousness it 
 was discovered he could not utter a single word. Every attempt 
 to speak resulted in dismal failure. Nothing came of his pain- 
 ful trials but a series of meaningless sounds. After five weeks 
 an examination of the brain itself was determined upon, and 
 it was found that the trouble was due to an injury to the 
 speech center itself. A small portion of the skull being re- 
 moved, a little hardened clot of blood was found directly over 
 the speech center (see figure on page 155). This blood clot was 
 carefully removed and the wound sprayed with a jet of warm 
 distilled water. Three weeks after this operation was performed, 
 the patient had fully regained his ability to speak. 
 
 Education of the Whole Brain In order that all parts of 
 the brain be developed, it is necessary that they all be exer- 
 cised. When we see things, only one part of the brain is 
 active, and only one part developed thereby the visual center. 
 The rest of the brain is practically idle. In hearing, another 
 part of the brain is exercised. And so in case of each 
 
158 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 kind of sense experience, only one portion of the brain 
 gets any exercise and acquires the development that naturally 
 results from this activity. In order to have the whole brain 
 properly developed, every one of its parts must be exercised, 
 otherwise some portions die of disuse and inactivity. To be 
 really educated there must be education through the activity 
 of all the senses. There must be training of all the muscles. 
 Manual training is of great value, not only in teaching the use 
 of tools, but in giving to us a development of certain portions 
 of our brains that would otherwise die from disuse. You 
 know how flabby our muscles become, and how they finally 
 atrophy, if they are not exercised. The same thing occurs in 
 the case of the nerve cells of the brain. Those that are not 
 exercised die and can never be created again. If they drop 
 out, none ever take their place. 
 
 Each study in school is for the purpose of giving us a certain 
 kind of mental training, a particular kind of brain exercise. 
 Arithmetic gives us brain training with reference to memory, 
 while nature study helps us in training the powers of observa- 
 tion. The boy who lives on a farm develops good observing 
 powers, because he spends so much time out of doors that he 
 is continually seeing interesting things. Many children in the 
 crowded tenement houses of the city have never seen a bee, 
 squirrel, or chicken, and do not know that leathern things come 
 from the skins of animals, wooden things from trees, or milk 
 from cows. They do not even know that meat comes from ani- 
 mals. Such children have their powers of observation blunted 
 because they are shut in and unable to see things that the more 
 fortunate boy in the country, and smaller towns and cities, can 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 159 
 
 see. The child who has no chance to observe is cheated, and 
 can never be educated in the same broad way and to the same 
 degree that he could were he more fortunately surrounded. 
 
 Every study in the school, every activity in work or play, 
 can accomplish some special object along the line of mental 
 training and brain development. For this reason we sometimes 
 study subjects we do not like very well, because no other 
 study could give us the same kind of mental exercise. 
 
 Work of the Cerebellum. The little brain, or cerebellum, 
 is of great service in helping us to balance the body in walking 
 or standing. If it is diseased or injured we become dizzy 
 and cannot walk straight. The reason a drunken man staggers 
 and is unable to walk properly is because the alcohol he has 
 taken makes the blood gather or " congest " over the cerebellum. 
 This pressure of poisoned blood prevents the balancing center 
 from acting perfectly. If a bird has its cerebellum injured, it 
 cannot fly, but will flutter its wings in an aimless manner. 
 
 Work of the Spinal Bulb. The spinal bulb, or medulla, 
 not only serves as a means of conveying messages between the 
 brain and spinal cord, but it is the seat or center of con- 
 trol of some important self-acting, or involuntary, muscles. 
 The center of breathing is in the spinal bulb. If this little 
 part of the spinal bulb be injured, breathing stops, and the 
 person dies instantly. For this reason this place is called 
 the " vital knot." The spinal bulb is also the seat of the 
 centers of sneezing and swallowing. 
 
 The Brain is a Center. You can now see why the brain is 
 called a center. It directs all the important muscular activities. 
 It is the central station to which all the sense messages about 
 
160 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 things outside of our bodies are telegraphed. It is the physical 
 basis of all our mental activities. Without the brain we could 
 not see, hear, or have any sense experience. We could not 
 remember or imagine things. We could never feel pleasure, we 
 could never talk to our friends, we could not even love our 
 parents. We could not direct, control, or educate the muscles, 
 were it not for the brain. How important it is, then, for us to 
 keep it in a healthy condition. 
 
 The Spinal Cord. The spinal cord is the great "trunk line," 
 made up by joining in one bundle the nerves from all parts of 
 the body that go to and from the brain. It is a long tube of 
 nervous matter and extends through the whole length of the 
 spinal canal in the backbone. It is, therefore, from fifteen to 
 eighteen inches in length in the adult. Differing from the 
 brain, in the spinal cord the white matter is on the outside, 
 and the gray matter is within. The cord contains both nerve 
 fibers and nerve cells. This makes it possible for it to do 
 both kinds of work. It not only carries the commands of the 
 brain, but it does some work itself because of the cells it 
 possesses. (1) It is a pathway to and from the brain, carry- 
 ing sense impressions to the brain and motor impulses from the 
 brain to the muscles. (2) It performs some activities without 
 the brain's help, and thus saves the brain a large amount of 
 work, especially in the lower animals. A frog with its head 
 cut off can perform some movements quite well. A bug known 
 as the Praying Mantis, will continue to fight its opponent a 
 long time after its head has been severed. It does not need 
 its brain to fight, the spinal cord is enough. 
 
 The spinal cord also contains nerve centers that tell the 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 1G1 
 
 cells throughout the body when to eat and grow, and inform 
 the arteries how much blood to send to each cell. We put the 
 food into the body, it is taken up by the blood, and the spinal 
 cord tells the tissues when and where to use the food. It is 
 the center of the sympathetic system of nerves. We have no 
 control over the action of the spinal cord. We cannot feel it 
 acting and we cannot keep it from acting. The spinal cord 
 performs its important work without our being compelled to 
 think about it. It acts when we are asleep as well as when we 
 are awake. 
 
 Nerve Fibers. You have perhaps already observed that 
 there are two kinds of nerve fibers. (1) Those that carry mes- 
 sages from the sense-organs^ like the eye, ear, and skin, to the 
 brain, and (2) those that carry messages from the brain to the 
 different parts of the body, directing them in their work. Thus 
 the mind through the brain, and the brain through the busy 
 little telegraph wires, or nerve fibers, receives word when the 
 skin is cold, when it is in pain, as from a sharp pin, when it 
 is burned, as with a hot iron, when it is tickled, as with a straw 
 or feather. Likewise when the beautifully colored red rose or 
 the delicately tinted sunset attracts the lye, a great number of 
 little nerve fibers carry the message to the visual center at the 
 back part of the brain, and the delightful object is perceived by 
 the mind. In a similar way the pleasant taste of fruits, the 
 bitter taste of medicines, the agreeable odor of the fragrant 
 flower, and the delightful strains of music, arise from impres- 
 sions on the sense-organs. These impressions are at once 
 hurried to the brain for the mind to perceive, remember, and 
 think about. 
 11 
 
162 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 In a similar way, when the mind decides to do anything, 
 the brain sends the message to the muscles best fitted to do the 
 work. If we are going to draw a, beautiful picture, the message 
 is sent to the fingers, and not to the toes. If we are right- 
 handed, this message is sent to the right hand, and not to the 
 left. If we are going to sing, the message is sent to the vocal 
 cords that they stretch just tightly enough to make the proper 
 note. If we decide to study hard, the brain rivets our eyes on 
 our books, and we do not see what is going on around us. We 
 give attention to the teacher ; that is, our mind decides to 
 hear the teacher's explanation of a problem, and we do not hear 
 the noises outside of the schoolhouse, but only what the teacher 
 says. 
 
 Speed of the Nerve Messages. The nerves act with great 
 quickness. When we sometimes wish to say that something 
 acts very quickly, we say that it is " as quick as thought." 
 Yet there are some things that travel faster than we can think. 
 Light, electricity, and even sound travel faster' than the tele- 
 graphic messages from the eye, ear, or skin to the brain. The 
 nerve messages from the ear travel faster than those of any of 
 the other senses, even faster than the nerve messages from 
 the eye. The slowest nerve messages are those that carry 
 impressions of pain to the brain. They travel at the rate of 
 twenty-six feet per second, while the fastest messages of hearing 
 go at the rate of two hundred and fifty feet per second. The 
 average speed of the nerve messages, taking all kinds into con- 
 sideration, is one hundred and ten feet per second. If our hand 
 is burned by contact with a hot iron, we first have an impres- 
 sion of touch, then heat, and last of all, pain, received by the 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 163 
 
 brain, for sensations of touch travel faster than those of heat, 
 and of heat faster than those of pain. 
 
 School Headaches The brain sympathizes with all the 
 other parts of the body. If the stomach and other organs of 
 the body do not work properly, the brain sympathizes with 
 them, and we have a sick headache. If we are not breathing 
 pure air, or if the schoolroom is too warm and close, and we are 
 compelled to breathe the same air over and over again, because 
 of poor ventilation, we first become so dull and sleepy that 
 we can hardly study, and finally we have a severe headache. If 
 we fail to take exercise to make our blood circulate well, we 
 suffer from headaches. 
 
 Kinds of Headaches and Their Causes. Children should 
 never have headaches; but they frequently suffer from them 
 because of irregularities, carelessness, and ignorance on their 
 own part with respect to such things as proper food, exercise, 
 amount of sleep, and ventilation. They come as warnings that 
 certain conditions are wrong and must be changed to prevent 
 long and serious illness. Mother Nature kindly warns us by 
 means of headaches whether we are abusing our bodies or 
 living in the right manner. 
 
 Headaches Due to Poor and Insufficient Blood These head- 
 aches occur very frequently in children between the ages of 
 eight and fifteen years. They generally occur at the top of the 
 head, sometimes in the forehead, and consist of a dull, boring 
 pain, usually most severe early in the morning. These head- 
 aches are usually accompanied with a slight dizziness and 
 feeling of faintness. In a person suffering from this kind of 
 headache there is a paleness of the gums and roof of the 
 
164 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 mouth, showing that there it not enough rich blood to nourish 
 the body properly. Blood-making foods should be eaten, and 
 blood-circulating exercise should be taken. These two things will 
 do more to insure health and freedom from this kind of headache 
 than all the drugs in the world. Milk, eggs, beef, mutton, and 
 such nourishing foods should be eaten. Kick foods, such as 
 pastry, should be given up entirely. Meals should occur at 
 
 Constipation. 
 Fatigue. 
 
 Defective Vision. 
 
 Indigestion. In-") 
 sufficient > 
 blood. j 
 
 Poor Blood Sup- 
 ply, Excite- 
 ment, Worry. 
 
 - Eye. 
 
 "."."."1T.-5- -/-- Decayed Teeth. 
 
 .v~-"r Ear Disease. 
 
 FIGURE 62. Showing location of Headaches, according to their causes. 
 
 regular hours. Exercise should be taken every day to the 
 extent of creating an appetite and assisting digestion. 
 
 Headaches Due to Indigestion These headaches are com- 
 mon to children of all ages, and are due to errors in eating. 
 They are generally located in the forehead. They come on sud- 
 denly and continue until their cause is removed. They are 
 easily recognized by the fetid breath, the coated tongue, distress 
 in the stomach, and constipation or diarrhoea. I have known 
 them to arise in many cases from the habit of eating cold 
 lunches, and from eating too rapidly. 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 165 
 
 Headaches Due to Ear Disease. These headaches are ex- 
 tremely painful, and are usually located just back of the ear. 
 Even a gentle touch at this locality makes the pain unbearable. 
 These headaches are due to the formation of pus, as often occurs 
 after such diseases as scarlet fever. 
 
 Headaches Due to Eye Strain. These headaches occur in 
 children who either have eye defects or who study and read in 
 poorly lighted rooms. If light is reflected on the blackboard so 
 as to dazzle the eyes, or if the writing on the blackboard is too 
 small to be read easily, or if the child is "far-sighted" or " near- 
 sighted," such headaches are very likely to occur. Heading 
 print that is too fine, or too large, on poor paper, with poor 
 light, will also cause these headaches. They are quite similar 
 to other " nervous " headaches. The pain is located either at 
 the back part of the head or at the temples above and back of 
 the eye. Excitement will also cause nervous headaches, as will 
 mental fatigue due to overstrain in school work. 
 
 Headaches from Fatigue Poison Fatigue is a poison. 
 When we are fatigued by work and worry there is a poison 
 present in the blood just as truly as there is in typhoid fever, 
 diphtheria, and other infectious diseases. If the blood is pois- 
 oned by fatigue as a result of mental overstrain, the brain is 
 first affected. The brain using much more blood in proportion 
 to its size than do the other parts of the body, suffers most if 
 the blood is poisoned from fatigue or any. other cause. When 
 one is out of his head, or delirious, during a raging fever, 
 it is because of the poisons in the blood due to the rapid 
 burning of bodily tissue. The brain must continually have a 
 new supply of blood. The brain cells are continually starving 
 
166 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 for oxygen. If the corpuscles bring poison instead of oxygen, 
 the brain cells feed on poison. They suffer from this, and can- 
 not do their work honestly. They cannot be depended upon. 
 
 The headache resulting from fatigue is a dull, burning, 
 heavy pain (not a sharp, shooting pain) in the front part of the 
 head. It is a warning for us to lay aside work and worry for 
 a little while, and take brisk exercise in the open air. 
 
 Other headaches to which children are subject are those 
 present at the beginning of such illnesses as typhoid fever, 
 scarlet fever, and diphtheria. Children suffer from headaches 
 that result from malaria (especially in some of the Southern 
 States and in other " ague " districts). Any poison in the sys- 
 tem will produce a headache. I know of a case where a little 
 girl suffered from headache nearly every day. Every effort was 
 made to find the cause, but without success, until it was noticed 
 that she was in the habit of buying a certain kind of chewing- 
 gum wrapped in tinfoil. The lead in the tinfoil came in con- 
 tact with the gum, and produced lead-poisoning. When she 
 gave up this habit, she no longer had the headache. 
 
 Rest. The brain, as well as the rest of the body, would 
 soon fail to do good work if compelled to work too long or too 
 hard. Eest is necessary for all parts of the body. It is espe- 
 cially necessary for the brain. The best form of rest is change 
 of the kind of work rather than absolute idleness. The hard- 
 est kind of work for a child is to sit or stand perfectly still. 
 Idleness is not rest. If the mind is tired, the best thing in the 
 way of rest is some brisk physical exercise. This is the reason 
 we have recesses in our schools. Eecesses should not be spent 
 in the schoolroom, but should be used as an opportunity for 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 167 
 
 free play and outdoor exercise for both boys and girls. Young 
 children in the first two or three grades should have more 
 recesses, even if they are shorter, than older pupils. Exercise 
 brings a new supply of blood to the brain, and gives it new life, 
 making the mental work of study and recitation much 
 easier. 
 
 We do not spend an entire day in the study of one subject 
 in our schools. Why would it not be a good arrangement to 
 study and recite arithmetic all day Monday, language lessons 
 all day Tuesday, spelling all day Wednesday, and so on ? We 
 all know that such a school program would be ruinous. There 
 would be none of that delightful mental rest that comes with 
 change of subjects after short intervals. We would be so 
 tired of one subject before the day was over that we could 
 no longer give attention to it, and could not drive our minds 
 and brains to do any more work. The brain in such a case 
 would be no longer able to digest the facts pertaining to this 
 one subject. It would be like the stomach of the man who 
 agreed to eat one quail a day for thirty days. Brain and mind 
 rest comes best with frequent changes of program. The recita- 
 tion and study periods of any one subject should not be so long 
 as to make our brains weary of that subject, giving us a feeling 
 of mental fatigue and disgust so far as that particular study is 
 concerned. Not only should the study and recitation period 
 of each subject be comparatively short, but each subject should 
 be followed by one that is a complete change, that is, one that 
 calls into activity other portions of the brain, and gives rise to 
 mental operations quite different from the ones that have been 
 going on. Thus arithmetic should be followed by such a sub- 
 
168 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 ject as reading, and reading by elementary science or nature 
 study a complete change, therefore, a rest. 
 
 Sleep. Sleep is the only fotrn of complete and general rest. 
 During sleep a less amount of blood flows over the brain sur- 
 face, and there is rest from activity quite similar to that of 
 trees that hibernate or sleep in winter, when the sap goes down 
 from the branches to the roots. If a boy or girl eats and sleeps 
 well and regularly, securing a sufficient amount of sleep every 
 twenty-four hours, it can scarcely be said that his brain is over- 
 worked. 
 
 In some of the large cities, such as London, New York and 
 Chicago, recent investigations have shown that hundreds of 
 poor boys are compelled to work forty hours each week, in 
 addition to the time spent in school, at such employment as 
 selling newspapers, delivering milk, and running errands. 
 Many of these boys are compelled to begin their outside work 
 at three o'clock in the morning, and carry on their school work 
 under great strain. During the afternoon session they often 
 become so sleepy, as the result of nature's demand for rest, that 
 they cannot do good school work. 
 
 The average amount of sleep required at 
 
 4 years of age is 12 hours, 
 
 7 years of age is 11 hours, 
 
 9 years of age is 10 1-2 hours, 
 10-12 years of age is 10 hours, 
 12-14 years of age is 9 hours. 
 
 If there is any great departure from these averages the 
 child is not in normal health. Disturbances of digestion are 
 often the cause of sleeplessness. Poorly ventilated and over- 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 169 
 
 heated rooms also cause restlessness and disturbed sleep. A 
 window in one's bedroom should be kept at least partially open 
 during the entire night. Children under fourteen should be 
 allowed a little more sleep in winter than in summer, and when 
 they are growing most rapidly. It is a deplorable fact that 
 very young and growing boys and girls are, especially in winter, 
 taken to concerts and other evening entertainments. It is not 
 surprising that they come to school the next .day tired, when 
 they should be rested, the fatigue showing in the bagginess of 
 the eyelids and the dark circles around the eyes. Coming to 
 school in this unrested condition, they are unfit for the best 
 mental work. 
 
 Children should never go to bed hungry. When hungry, 
 one cannot go to sleep readily, nor sleep so soundly. Instead 
 of going to bed hungry, one should partake of some easily 
 digested food, such as bread and milk, crackers, or even a 
 glass of milk without anything else. Good milk, you remember, 
 is a perfect food, and besides it promotes, rather than retards, 
 sleep. -Overwork, over-excitement, or the reading of horrible or 
 exciting tales just before bedtime, also constitute a frequent 
 cause of serious disturbance of sleep. Trouble and worry like- 
 wise are sleep-robbers. 
 
 During sleep the brain cells regain their strength. Sleep 
 does most good when it is regular. A person gets the most 
 benefit from sleep if he goes to bed at about the same .hour 
 each evening. The beneficial rest of mind and body that 
 comes so naturally and completely with sleep cannot be secured 
 in any other way. All animals that have well-developed and 
 highly organized nervous systems must take rest in sleep. 
 
170 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Dreams Sometimes when the rest of the brain is asleep, a 
 few of its cells for some reason keep acting. They act in so 
 lively a manner as to leave memories when we awake, as if they 
 were real occurrences. These activities of a few brain cells 
 during sleep constitute our dreams. We dream most impos- 
 sible things at times, which goes to show that only a few cells 
 have been active. When more are active, as when we are 
 awake, our ideas are clearer, for then the cells act more honestly, 
 and correct each other. 
 
 Habit. I know an old man who, for twenty years, had 
 been what is known to railroad men as the "night caller," his 
 work being to call those engineers and firemen who were 
 obliged to run the night trains. Keaching an advanced age, 
 after such a long term of faithful service, the railroad super- 
 intendent decided to give him more pleasant employment. 
 Instead of being compelled to work the entire night, exposed 
 to all sorts of weather, he was offered a position which would 
 pay him a little better salary, and at the same time exact 
 shorter hours of labor, which, best of all, would be in the 
 daytime. At first the old man gratefully accepted, and entered 
 gladly upon the new work. After a few days he became dis- 
 satisfied with this new and better position, and this dissatisfac- 
 tion so grew upon him that in a short time he came to the 
 railroad official and begged that he might be permitted to go 
 back to his old-time night work, even at a less salary than he 
 was then receiving. That is, he was desirous of exchanging 
 what ordinarily would be termed comfort for discomfort, only 
 because he had worked so long at night that he could not feel 
 satisfied with other work. He had learned to sleep better in 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 171 
 
 the daytime than at night, and his whole life had become the 
 reverse of that followed by the majority of men. Men who 
 have grown old in prison have asked to be readmitted after 
 having served their sentences, and on this request being denied, 
 they have committed some crime that involved their being 
 sent to prison again. People like to do things as they have 
 always done them like to live as they have always lived. 
 
 If the brain cells have acted in the same way a few times, 
 they tend to act in exactly the same way again. When you 
 bend your arm, your coat or dress sleeve wrinkles in exactly 
 the same manner each succeeding time. When a piece of 
 paper is once folded, it folds more easily in the same place the 
 second time. A door-lock works better after having been fre- 
 quently used. A piece of machinery works more easily, there 
 is less resistance, after it has been run some little time. Our 
 brain cells are subject to the same rule. Certain brain cells 
 that act together once, act together more readily a second time, 
 still more readily the third time, and so on. They form the 
 habit of acting together. If our brain cells in the speech cen- 
 ter act in such a way as to make us say, "I done it," for "I did 
 it," or any other grammatical error, it is easier for them to act 
 together the second time and cause us to make the same mis- 
 take. The more they act together in using wrong language or 
 profane words, the harder it will be to overcome this habit. 
 Our nervous system, our brain cells, may become our strongest 
 ally, or our worst enemy, according to the habits formed. If 
 the proper brain cells have acted together from the first, then 
 good habits are formed that help us at every stage of our 
 existence. How important, then, that we begin right, in order 
 
172 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 that our nervous system may form habits of helping rather 
 than hindering us. We must acquire habits. We cannot help 
 acquiring them. Shall they be gQpd or bad ? 
 
 Character. The habits acquired determine character. All 
 of our habits of life and action, whether mental or physical, 
 have some sort of basis in the physical organization and 
 training of our bodies. The first command, in the form of 
 a nervous impulse, carried from the brain to certain groups 
 of muscles in order to cause some definite form of activity 
 picks its way, as it were, in order to find the path of least 
 resistance. The next impulse from the brain to bring about 
 similar muscular activity will follow this path that has already 
 been used. In the course of time this nerve pathway becomes 
 so well marked, so deeply cut that it is a "fixed habit" of 
 action. We all know how difficult it is to change a fixed 
 habit. 
 
 Groups of nerve cells that have once acted together tend 
 to act together again. The more they are associated in their 
 activity, the more easily and readily do they act on each 
 succeeding occasion. Have you not observed that a person in 
 learning to play the piano must closely attend to every move- 
 ment of the fingers, but after long practice his fingers seem to 
 strike the proper keys without any special effort or direction ? 
 Certain of the brain cells have become so accustomed to work 
 together in the long periods of practice, that they act almost of 
 their own accord, accurately and quickly, just as soon as the eye 
 in glancing at the sheet of music perceives the note that should 
 be sounded, and sends this message to the brain. Habitual 
 
THE NERVES AND THE BRAIN. 173 
 
 actions are always performed with less effort, in less time, and 
 more accurately than new activities could possibly be. 
 
 Our nervous systems become accustomed to certain ways of 
 living, and certain modes of activity. The paths connecting 
 the brain cells concerned in these frequent activities, are the 
 easiest ones for the brain impulses to employ. The more one 
 coasts down the snowy hillside, the smoother does the path 
 become, and the faster and farther does his sled travel. The 
 more one does a certain thing, the more likely is he to do it 
 again. This is illustrated in every one of our habits. If these 
 habits are good, our nervous system is our ally, and it is com- 
 paratively easy for us to do what is good. We do not have to 
 struggle and battle against habitual tendencies; instead, our 
 habits help us. If these habits are wrong, then they are as a 
 millstone round our necks in our efforts at correct living. 
 
 This principle of habit applies in every particular to the 
 practice of using alcoholic beverages. Each succeeding time 
 the taste for drink is indulged, the less does one's power of 
 resistance become. The real meaning of the word "habit "is 
 "that which holds us," and when a form of action becomes a 
 habit, we are held in firm grasp. Let me illustrate. A college 
 mate of mine, a fine-appearing young man belonging to one of 
 the leading families in this nation, had been in the habit of 
 taking a social glass of liquor. From some cause he became 
 seriously ill, and his mother, who was traveling in Europe, was 
 cabled for. By the time she crossed the Atlantic to be at her 
 boy's bedside, he became stronger and almost well, and with 
 the thought of surprising his mother and allaying her anxiety, 
 he planned to go to New York and meet her at the steamer on 
 
174 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 its arrival. During the ten days of his illness he had not 
 tasted any sort of liquor, because of the doctor's orders. In 
 going from the college "to the railway station, enjoying the 
 delightful morning air, his path led by a saloon. He was 
 warned by his physician to never again partake of alcoholic 
 drinks. He was determined to obey this injunction, but as he 
 was passing the saloon door his whole nervous system seemed 
 to cry out for drink, and weakened as he was because of his 
 period of illness, he could not resist. He entered the saloon, 
 drank the liquor, and this brought on a relapse of the fever, 
 from which he died because, through habit, his nervous system 
 was his enemy rather than his ally. 
 
 Healthy Brain Requires Healthy Body. The brain cells are 
 the first to suffer if the blood is not pure, if the air is bad, if 
 the food does not digest, or if anything else interferes with our 
 bodily health. The best brain work comes easiest to the person 
 having a healthy body. Proper physical exercise is of great 
 value in brain health and brain training. A sound mind in a 
 sound body should be the result of all education on the part 
 of the school, the home, and the individual himself. 
 
 EXERCISES. 
 
 1. Debate in class: "Is the dog or the horse the more intelli- 
 gent animal?" 
 
 2. Write, in the form of a composition, an account of a 
 dream you have had. 
 
 3. Give a written account of the earliest event in your life, 
 which you now remember as having occurred, stating your age at 
 the time of its occurrence. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 THE EYES AND THEIR CAKE. 
 
 Our bodies are truly wonderful. Perhaps the most won- 
 derful and delicate organ of the human body is the eye. Have 
 you ever thought what great care nature has taken to protect 
 the eye ? It is set deep in a bony socket, the edges of which 
 serve as a strong guarding ring; the eyebrows overhang it so as 
 to keep water or perspiration on the forehead above from run- 
 ning into the eye; the eyelids are fringed with lashes, and 
 serve as curtains, closing over the eye instantly when the light 
 is too strong. In the same manner the eyelids protect the 
 eyeball from dust and dirt. The nose also helps to protect the 
 eye from blows or jars from the front or side. That the eye, so 
 necessary to comfort and success in life, is highly prized by 
 Mother Nature, is shown by the safeguards and means of pro- 
 tection provided. Much of the health and care of our eyes, 
 however, depends entirely upon ourselves. If we mistreat 
 them we are sure to suffer in many ways. Much carelessness 
 with respect to the use of our eyes will cause harm that can 
 never be remedied. 
 
 Description of the Eye The eye is a globe filled with a 
 clear fluid. It has three coats or layers. The outer one 
 (sclerotic) is white, and this is what is called the white of the 
 eye. The second layer (choroid) is black, so as to absorb sur- 
 
 175 
 
176 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 plus light, that the object looked at may be clearly seen. It 
 serves the same purpose that the black lining of a photog- 
 rapher's camera does. When the photographer takes a picture, 
 he covers his head and the camera into which he is looking 
 with a black cloth to shut out surplus light. The only light 
 he desires to enter his camera is that which comes direct from 
 the object, the picture of which he is taking. The inner coat, 
 or third layer, is a thin membrane called the retina. It is 
 made up of many nerve cells, and is the sensitive plate of the 
 eye on which all images of objects must be received before the 
 objects themselves can be seen. 
 
 At the front of the eye is a clear, round window, called 
 the cornea. Back of this is the iris, a round, muscular cur- 
 tain, with a small, round, black hole in it, called the pupil. 
 The iris is blue, brown, gray, or black, and gives to the eye its 
 color. The pupil becomes larger or smaller so as to regulate 
 the amount of light that enters the eye. In very bright light 
 it becomes quite small so as to shut out many of the rays. In 
 dim light it becomes very large so as to permit all the light 
 possible to enter the eye. Have you not observed that after 
 you are in the dark for a few minutes you can see better than 
 when you at first entered the darkness? This is because the 
 pupil of the eye requires a little time to expand, and thus 
 adjust itself so as to receive as much light as possible. When 
 you enter a brightly lighted room, after you have been in 
 the darkness, objects seem blurred. You cannot see things 
 clearly because too much light enters the eye, and the pupil 
 must become smaller (which it does in an instant) before the 
 
THE EYES AND THEIR CARE. 177 
 
 eye can have a clear picture on its retina. Why can a cat 
 see much better in the dark than a person ? 
 
 Behind the pupil is a flattened, double-curved body with 
 layers like an onion, called the lens. It is like a magnifying 
 glass, in bringing all the rays of light together into one bright 
 
 FIGURE 63. Section of an eye looking at a pencil, c, c, cornea ; w, white of eye ; 
 cm, ciliary muscle ; a, a, aqueous humor ; v, vitreous humor ; i, i, iris ; Z, Z, lens ; 
 r, r, retina ; on, optic nerve ; 1, %, pencil ; /', #', image of pencil on the retina. 
 
 spot. The lens of the eye gathers together the rays of light, 
 just as does the lens of a magic lantern in order to throw a 
 clear picture on a screen. In the eye the sensitive retina 
 is the screen, and the optic nerve carries the impression 
 of this picture to the visual center at the back part of the 
 brain, and thus produces vision. The vitreous humor is a color- 
 less fluid, like the white of a raw egg, filling the large portion 
 13 
 
178 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 of the eyeball back of the iris and lens. The aqueous humor is 
 a similar but somewhat thinner liquid, filling the small portion 
 of the eyeball between -the cornea, and the lens. 
 
 How We See The light reflected from the object enters 
 the front of the eye at the cornea, passes through the aqueous 
 humor, the pupil, the lens, the vitreous humor, and throws a 
 picture of the object, upside down, on the screen called the 
 retina, and this is connected with the visual center at the back 
 part of the brain by .means of the optic nerve. When this 
 impulse, or impression, reaches the brain, we see. If the optic 
 nerve is cut, or dies from disease, we become blind, not because 
 our eyes are no longer good, but because their connection with 
 the brain is destroyed. Sometimes a cataract grows over the 
 cornea, or pupil, at the front of the eye, and shuts out all light 
 so that we cannot see. This is a frequent cause of blindness. 
 But nowadays the surgeon does his work so delicately that the 
 cataract or diseased coating can be scraped off, like a blot of ink 
 in your copybook, or a hole can be scraped through it and sight 
 is restored. Much blindness is caused by improper care of the 
 eyes, and many such cases can now be cured because of the 
 wonderful skill of the modern surgeon. 
 
 The Eyes Move Each of the eyes can be turned in any 
 direction by means of six muscles. This arrangement enables 
 us to watch objects from every point of view. By means of 
 these muscles, we can rapidly glance up, down, to the right, 
 to the left, or roll the eyes about. The muscles usually guide 
 both eyes together, just as we guide a team of horses with the 
 reins. In the eyes, however, there are six pairs of reins. 
 
 Being Cross-eyed. Sometimes one or more of the muscles 
 
THE EYES AND THEIR CARE. 179 
 
 is not of the right length, and both eyes will not be guided 
 alike. One eye will then look at one object, while the other 
 looks at something else. Such a person is cross-eyed. By 
 means of an operation the offending muscle can be shortened 
 or lengthened, and the cross-eyed person is cured. The opera- 
 tion is most successful when it occurs in childhood. 
 
 Tears. While we are awake the eyes are in almost con- 
 stant *1notion. To prevent friction from rubbing against the 
 lids, as well as to wash out little dust particles, and thus pre- 
 vent injury, each eye is moistened by a saltish liquid, called 
 tears. These tears are secreted in a gland above and toward 
 the outside of each eye. Each gland is about the size of an or- 
 dinary bean, and is connected with the inside of the nose by 
 means of a small tube. When one weeps, or cries, the tears run 
 faster than this tube or duct can carry them into the nose. Then 
 they run down the cheeks. Tears are useful in keeping the 
 eyeballs clean. 
 
 Near-sightedness. You may have observed that some persons, 
 to see clearly, must hold the book, newspaper, or other object 
 being looked at, close to their eyes. This is called near-sighted- 
 ness. Near-sighted pupils are apt to lean over their desks, 
 causing round shoulders. Others make themselves near-sighted 
 through the habit of sitting in a stooped-over position, as in the 
 bad positions shown in the accompanying picture. 
 
 Far-sightedness Other persons cannot see objects close to 
 them as well as they can those at a distance. This is called 
 far-sightedness. 
 
 Spectacles All persons with defective vision, whether 
 suffering from near or far-sightedness, should wear well-fitted 
 
180 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 spectacles, which will make it possible for them to see as well 
 as any other person, and without discomfort. In far-sighted- 
 ness they must wear spectacles -'with lenses of such curvature 
 as to cause near objects to be seen clearly. In near-sightedness 
 the lenses must, of course, be of just the opposite curvature. 
 
 After ''middle life, and 
 as we become older, most of 
 us will find our eyesight 
 becoming defective. This 
 is due generally to the lit- 
 tle muscle controlling the 
 shape of the lens. This 
 muscle loses its power as 
 age advances, and because 
 of this the lens can no 
 longer adapt itself so as to 
 see objects at different dis- 
 tances. The eyes should 
 be examined by a skilled 
 oculist without delay, and 
 
 suitable glasses should be used. This condition of defective 
 vision should not be neglected. As the years advance, " stronger " 
 glasses will be necessary. 
 
 The Blind Spot. The place on the retina where the optic 
 nerve enters the eye is totally blind. This spot has no nervous 
 elements sensitive to light. To prove the existence of the 
 blind spot, close the right eye and look steadily with the left 
 at the cross in Fig. 65, holding the book directly in front of, 
 and moving it to and from the face. At about one foot from the 
 
 Good Positions. 
 FIGURE 64. 
 
THE EYES AND THEIR CARE. 181 
 
 face the black disk entirely disappears; when nearer than this 
 or farther from the face, it is seen. In this simple experiment, 
 it is absolutely necessary to keep the left eye focused on the 
 cross. The blind spot is about one-thirteenth of an inch long 
 in the average human eye. 
 
 Care of the Eyes. Trouble with the eyes may arise from 
 a number of causes. If the whole body is weak and the health 
 poor, the eyes are also apt to be weak. Continued stomach 
 trouble frequently causes serious and permanent eye trouble. 
 Poor circulation of the blood always affects vision. One should 
 
 FIGURE 65. 
 
 never study or read eaily in the morning before breakfast/when the 
 stomach is empty, for such a practice will quickly cause inflam- 
 mation of the eyes. A cold causes serious discomfort with 
 respect to vision in much the same way that it develops a sore 
 throat, by inflammation of the delicate membrane lining it. 
 After any serious illness, during convalescence, great care should 
 be taken in the use of the eyes. Many diseases, such as scar- 
 let fever, measles, and diphtheria, seriously weaken the eyes, 
 so they cannot do the usual amount of work until there is per- 
 fect restoration to health. Pale ink, greasy slates, dirty black- 
 boards, and hard lead pencils that do not make a black mark, 
 are very trying to the eyes. 
 
182 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Eyesight and School Work Directions to Pupils. 
 
 1. Sit upright, sit square. 
 
 2. Keep your eyes at least twelve inches from your 
 work. 
 
 3. Write on a slope, not on a flat table. 
 
 4. Eead with your book well up ; do mot lay it down 
 flat. 
 
 5. Do not read very small print. 
 
 6. Do not work in a bad light. 
 
 7. If you cannot properly see your work, tell your 
 teacher. 
 
 Out of School. 
 
 1. Do not read lying down. 
 
 2. Do not read by twilight, or by a poor light, or when 
 the eyes are tired. 
 
 3. Do not face the light in reading. 
 
 4. Do not look steadily at the sun or a very bright 
 light. 
 
 5. When your eyes feel tired after reading for a time, 
 rest them by looking at objects at a distance. 
 
 Poor Print and the Eyes Badly printed school and other 
 books read by children cause undue strain of the eyes. The 
 type should be plain, clear, and sufficiently large. It should be 
 Eoman rather than Gothic. This book is printed in Koman- 
 faced type, and of the proper size for school books. After a 
 number of tests upon a great many children in the laboratory 
 of one of our largest universities, it was found that the style 
 and size of type used in this book is that which is most easily 
 read by persons older than nine years. It is called Long 
 Primer. 
 
THE EYES AND THEIR CARE. 183 
 
 The following show the various sizes of type: 
 
 (Double Pica.) (Great Primer.) (Pica.) 
 
 1 JlC S1ZC and Style Of type used in 
 
 (Long Primer.) (Bourgeois.) (Minion.) (Pearl.) 
 
 printing the pages of this book is more easily read than any other. 
 
 None smaller than the one indicated as Long Primer should 
 ever be used in school books. The largest type here shown is 
 too large for any school book. Type that is too large is as 
 injurious to the eyes in study, as type that is too small. 
 
 Impressions from old and worn-out type are apt to be im- 
 perfect. The long letters become broken or worn off at the 
 ends, the a and e are not distinct, and the b and h, as well as 
 the p, g, and q, are hard to distinguish. The lines should not 
 be too close together, and should not be too long. A cream- 
 tinted paper is easier on the eyes than pure white. Straw- 
 colored manila paper is far better than white paper for pencil 
 work by artificial light. School tablets made of manila paper 
 are both cheaper and better for pencil work than white paper. 
 A soft pencil should be used, as it will make a plainer mark. 
 
 Testing the Eyes. A child with normal eyesight ought to 
 be able to read the pages of this book in a good light at a dis- 
 tance of forty inches, and as close as six inches, and at all 
 distances between these two. A child that cannot read it as far 
 as from fourteen to sixteen inches from the face should have his 
 eyes examined by an oculist. A rough test can be made with 
 the following heavy black letters, looked at from the designated 
 distances with each eye separately. 
 
184 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 OF 
 
 Can you read these letters at the distance of forty feet? 
 
 P H E 
 
 Can you read these letters at the distance of thirty feet? 
 
 Z P L R D F 
 
 Can you read these letters at the distance of twenty feet ? 
 
 A F E T B X V 
 
 Can you read these letters at the distance of fifteen feet ? 
 
 VBSHOKNEDA 
 
 Can you read these letters at the distance of ten feet ? 
 
 FIGURE 66. Test-type Letters. 
 
 In thus testing your eyes place the open book in good 
 light against the wall of the schoolroom. Test each eye- 
 separately. Keep both eyes open. Do not close the eye 
 not being tested, but hold a card, a book, or your hand in 
 front of it. Start at a distance of about fifty feet and walk 
 toward the " test-type " letters, keeping your eye fixed steadily 
 
THE EYES AND THEIR CARE. 185 
 
 on them. If your eyes are as good as they should be, you will 
 discover that you can distinguish the two largest letters at a 
 distance of forty feet. Then walk still closer, and note care- 
 fully at what distance you can read each of the other rows of 
 letters. Observe whether your right eye is stronger or weaker 
 than your left eye. These tests will be exact enough to reveal 
 whether or not your eyes are normal. If they are not, you may 
 find in this fact the true reason for headaches, from which you 
 may suffer at times. In case your eyes are defective, it is 
 always a good plan to consult an oculist. Defects of vision are 
 always more readily cured when one is young. You can safely 
 use your eyes until they begin to ache or burn. They should 
 never cause pain from use. If they do, something is wrong. 
 At the first sign of such discomfort, it is best to stop work and 
 give the eyes a rest. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR, STUDY. 
 
 1. How do birds compare with other animals in keenness of 
 vision? 
 
 2. What is meant by such expressions as "watch like a 
 hawk," "eagle-eye," and the like? 
 
 EXERCISE. 
 Write an account of what is meant by color-blindness. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 THE HYGIENE OF THE EAR. 
 
 The ear is almost as delicate and fully as interesting as 
 the eye. It is even more complicated. Before considering 
 the care of this important and wonderful instrument, we will 
 briefly observe its structure. 
 
 Each ear is made up of three distinct parts: the external 
 ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. 
 
 The External Ear The outer ear is simply a funnel to 
 catch sounds, which are carried through the middle ear to the 
 inner ear. It consists of the part which is seen standing out 
 prominently on either side of the head, and also the auditory 
 canal, extending as far as the drum of the middle ear. The 
 auditory canal is nearly one inch in length. You have seen a 
 person partially deaf curve his hand about his ear so as to make 
 this shell-shaped funnel larger, and thus catch more sound. In 
 some animals the outer ear is movable and can therefore be 
 adjusted to make the sense of hearing more acute. Have you 
 not observed how dogs and horses prick up their ears when 
 trying to listen closely to an unfamiliar sound? The concha, or 
 shell-shaped funnel of the external ear, consists of thin, cor- 
 rugated pieces of cartilage, covered with skin on both sides. 
 
 Ear Wax The auditory canal is lined with a continuation 
 of the skin on the inner surface of the concha. Within the 
 
 186 
 
THE HYGIENE OF THE EAR. 187 
 
 canal, this lining contains glands that secrete a fluid with which 
 to moisten and protect the parts, especially the ear-drum. This 
 fluid is bitter, and prevents insects from crawling very far 
 into the ear. It catches any dust or dirt that might other- 
 wise enter too far into the auditory canal. You will notice 
 that this canal is curved. You cannot see as far as the ear- 
 drum when looking inward because of this curve. A cinder, 
 flying insect, or other harmful object, is thus less apt to injure 
 the ear-drum than if there were a straight channel from the 
 outside. When the fluid that is exuded by the lining of the 
 auditory canal hardens, it becomes wax. You should never use 
 a sharp instrument in removing this, as there is grave danger of 
 injuring the lining, causing 'serious inflammation, similar to the 
 inflammation that exists when one is suffering from earache. 
 
 The Ear-Drum. There is a thin membrane forming a wall 
 across the end of the auditory canal, making the boundary 
 between the external and middle ear. This membrane, together 
 with the tissues to which it is attached, is called the ear-drum. 
 The drum-head, the thin, delicate partition to which we have 
 just alluded, is readily set in vibration by the sound waves 
 received from the external ear through the auditory canal. If 
 it did not vibrate we could not hear, for the sound waves would 
 not then be transmitted. The least puncture of the drum-head 
 destroys its ability to vibrate in harmony with the sound waves 
 received from without. It is essential that this delicate mem- 
 brane be kept from injury of any sort. 
 
 The Middle Ear. Just beyond the drum-head is the small 
 cavity known as the middle ear. Stretched across this cavity 
 is a chain of very small bones, which, from their shape, are 
 
188 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 called the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup. The handle of 
 the hammer is attached to the inner surface of the drum-head, 
 while its head forms a joint with .the anvil. The anvil is also 
 directly attached to the stirrup. At the bottom of the middle 
 ear is a small tube, affording a passage from the upper and back 
 
 FIGURE 67. Section through the Ear. 
 
 part of the throat. By means of this eustacliian tube, for such 
 it is called, a supply of air, so necessary to the health and per- 
 fect action of the middle ear, is kept up. The drum-head would 
 sag inward if there were no air pressure from within the middle 
 ear. This would prevent proper vibration, and seriously interfere 
 with hearing. . The adenoid growths described in Chapter IX., 
 
THE HYGIENE OF THE EAR. 189 
 
 by clogging the eustachian tube, impair hearing. They are prob- 
 ably the most frequent cause of defective hearing in children. 
 
 The Inner Ear. This is the most complex portion of the 
 organ of hearing. It consists of three parts: the vestibule, a 
 small chamber not larger than a grain of wheat, next to the 
 middle ear; the semicircular canals joined to the vestibule, and 
 the cochlea or snail-shell. The three semicircular canals in each 
 ear are filled with fluid, and serve as spirit levels for the body. 
 By means of them we quickly judge of the position of the 
 body, especially the head. A person whose semicircular canals 
 have been destroyed by disease can rarely be made dizzy, no 
 matter how long his body is rotated. The cochlea is directly 
 connected with the auditory nerve, and is the most important 
 part of the ear, because it changes the sound waves into nervous 
 impulses to be transmitted to the hearing center of the brain. 
 
 Some animals, as fish, have only an inner ear. The inner 
 ear is the real organ of hearing. The external ear conducts 
 sound to the middle ear. The drum of the middle ear, with the 
 bones and eustachian tube, makes more clear and distinct the 
 sound waves received from the outer ear. 
 
 Care of the Ears The essential parts of the ear being 
 deeply seated in bone, are in less danger than the eyes, and do 
 not so frequently suffer from injury. Still, the ears do become 
 affected. Hearing is thus impaired, and even destroyed. 
 
 A very common danger results from carelessness on the 
 part of some, especially young children, in introducing foreign 
 bodies into the ear. Some children will thoughtlessly put the 
 end of a penholder or pencil into the auditory canal. A piece 
 of lead may break off and lodge against the drum-head. For- 
 
190 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 eign bodies of this kind are by no means easily removed, and 
 if their removal is attempted by an unskillful person, the drum- 
 head may be punctured, causing 'irreparable injury. Water 
 must be regarded as such a foreign body, liable to cause injury 
 if it fills the auditory canal. For this reason, in diving and 
 ducking when swimming, we should stop our fears with our 
 fingers. 
 
 Temporary deafness may result from closing the auditory 
 canal with a surplus collection of wax. If an attempt is made 
 to remove this with a pin, toothpick, or other pointed instru- 
 ment, there is great danger of injury to the drum. The best 
 method is to drop a little sweet oil into the ear, and then with 
 warm water syringe the canal until it is clean. If an insect 
 should crawl into the ear, it can be killed with a couple of 
 drops of sweet oil and afterward washed out. Insects that have 
 entered the ear can sometimes be coaxed out by holding a light 
 quite near the external opening. They are attracted by the 
 light, and turn round and crawl toward it." 
 
 A blow on the ear is always dangerous, and may cause 
 sudden and permanent deafness. The force of the air com- 
 pressed into the auditory canal and against the drum may cause 
 a bursting of the drum-head, though the blow itself would not 
 be severe enough to cause much pain. Loud sounds, such as 
 the firing of a cannon, sometimes cause deafness. As a rule, 
 such deafness is only temporary. If the loud noises are 
 frequent or continuous, permanent deafness may ensue. For 
 this reason boiler-makers very often become deaf. Some drugs, 
 such as quinine, make the ears ring. This disturbance is but 
 temporary, lasting only a few hours, but may, after a time, 
 
THE HYGIENE OF THE EAR. 191 
 
 from excessive doses, develop into a permanent impairment of 
 hearing. 
 
 Defective Hearing and Dullness. :Such diseases as scarlet 
 fever and diphtheria frequently cause partial deafness in one or 
 both ears. When this occurs in a very young child, it is not 
 readily detected by others, and he grows so accustomed to his 
 misfortune, that by the time he enters school he fails to realize 
 that his hearing is less acute than that of other children. Or 
 the same condition may result from adenoid growths closing 
 the air-passage from the throat to the middle ear. He does not 
 distinctly hear the questions or the explanations of the teacher, 
 and is sometimes charged with inattention. For this reason it 
 is well to have the hearing as well as the eyes of children 
 tested on first entering school. Marked dullness of children 
 in school work is generally the direct result of defective 
 hearing. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOE DISCUSSION. 
 
 1. Which sense is the more important, vision or hearing? 
 Why? 
 
 2. What other senses have we besides vision and hearing? 
 
 3. Which of our several senses is the first to go to sleep when 
 we go to bed? 
 
 4. What is ventriloquism? 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE TEETH AND THEIE CAEE. 
 
 The teeth cut and grind the food and mix it with saliva. 
 Their work in thus preparing the food for digestion in the stom- 
 ach and intestines is very important, and should be thoroughly 
 done. It is necessary that the teeth be protected and cared for. 
 
 The teeth are different from any other part of the body in 
 that they cannot, of themselves, recover from injury. If the skin 
 is torn, a muscle cut, a bone broken, repair at once begins ; they 
 eventually heal, and are soon practically as good as ever. An 
 injury to a tooth is permanent. It has no power to mend 
 itself, but is utterly unable to build over with new growth, as 
 is the case with the other tissues of the body. 
 
 Not only do injured or decayed teeth cause pain, but they 
 interfere with the general health in various ways. A person 
 with decayed teeth cannot chew his food fine, if he would, and 
 chewing with such teeth not only interferes with the later di- 
 gestion, but of itself may cause pain. If it is painful to chew 
 the food because of imperfect teeth, the person so affected soon 
 forms the habit of bolting his food without proper mastication. 
 Again, decayed teeth are often a source of poison to the blood, 
 and in this manner may also jeopardize the general health of 
 the individual. 
 
 192 
 
THE TEETH AND THEIR CARE. 
 
 193 
 
 Structure of the Teeth. Each tooth has its crown, or top ; 
 its fang, or root, and the neck, or portion between the crown and 
 the root. If we saw through a tooth vertically, it would be 
 seen to consist of several distinct substances arranged in layers. 
 In the interior is the pulp, a soft substance supplied with nerves 
 and blood vessels. These nerves and blood 
 vessels enter the tooth through a little hole 
 at the tip of the root. If a nerve or the 
 pulp be exposed to the air, pain or aching 
 will result. Dentine is the name of the 
 substance lying next to the pulp. At the 
 crown it is covered with enamel; at the root, 
 with cement. The dentine comprises the 
 larger part of the tooth, and is a form of 
 bone tissue, being composed of both mineral 
 and animal matter. The brilliant white 
 layer, or enamel, which covers the tooth at 
 
 its crown, is the hardest substance of the FI GURE 68.-Eniarged ver- 
 tical section of a Tooth. 
 
 body. The enamel is an armor-plate, pro- i. Enamel; 2. Dentine; 3. 
 tecting the exposed portion of the tooth and P nerves. BIO d ^^ 
 from decay. A small hole or crack in the 
 enamel is soon followed by decay of the dentine and pulp. 
 The enamel must be sound in order to have healthy teeth. 
 
 Kinds of Teeth The child begins to get his first set of 
 teeth when about six months old, and soon has them all, twenty 
 in number. Between the ages of six and thirteen, according to 
 the state of his general health, the teeth of this temporary set 
 Begin to loosen, and are supplanted by a permanent set of 
 twenty-eight teeth, half of which are in the upper and half in 
 13 
 
194 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 the lower jaw. At the age of from twenty to twenty-five, four 
 more are added. These latter are the four farthest back in a 
 complete set, and are called "wisdom teeth." 
 
 The teeth are divided into four kinds, because of their dif- 
 ferent shapes. Beginning at the middle of either jaw and 
 proceeding backwards, we find the teeth placed in the following 
 order. The first two on either side of the middle have chisel- 
 shaped crowns and are the incisors. They are adapted to cut- 
 ting or biting off the food. The third tooth on either side is 
 the canine. It is almost round, very strong, and a firmly set tooth. 
 The next two are the bicuspids, and have flat crowns. The next 
 three are much larger than the others, with broad, flat crowns, 
 well suited to grinding the food. They are called the molars. 
 
 Care of the Teeth. We are careful to keep our nails clean, 
 because our companions would notice the dirt. But unclean 
 teeth are also open to such inspection, and nothing mars 
 one's appearance more than unsightly, yellow, decayed teeth. 
 A toothbrush and a little silk thread are all- the machinery 
 required to keep the teeth clean. Three minutes a day is 
 ample time for this purpose. The preservation of the teeth is 
 not only necessary for one's appearance, but is also vital to the 
 possession of the best health. The care of the teeth is largely 
 a habit; this habit once formed, you would no more think of 
 going to school without brushing your teeth than of going 
 without washing your hands and face or brushing your hair. 
 Teeth that are kept clean cannot decay. Decay always begins 
 upon the surface, and not within the tooth. By cleaning the 
 teeth, the acid secretions that attack their lime salts are 
 removed, as well as the germs of decay. 
 
THE TEETH AND THEIR CARE. 195 
 
 Much time is wasted by pupils on account of toothache and 
 its companion, earache. One cannot apply himself to study 
 when he has a jumping, thumping toothache. "A stitch in 
 time saves nine." A toothbrush should be used at least twice 
 daily i n the morning, directly after breakfast, and in the even- 
 ing, before going to bed. Particles of food, if allowed to remain 
 in the mouth, get lodged in the teeth, and decompose. The en- 
 amel is attacked, and finally destroyed. After this takes place, 
 but a short time is required for the decay and ulceration of the 
 body of the tooth. The toothbrush used in cleaning the teeth 
 should be soft, and must not be employed so vigorously as to 
 cause the gums to bleed. Lukewarm water should be used ; if 
 it contains some salt, so much the better for the teeth. If a 
 good tooth powder cannot be secured, white castile soap will 
 answer very well. We must be especially careful to clean the 
 teeth after eating candy and confections, for sweet substances, 
 when they decompose, form acids. These acids are severe in 
 their attacks on the lime in the teeth. With a soft wood, or e, 
 quill toothpick, we can remove the larger food particles that 
 have collected. Metal toothpicks are injurious. With a piece 
 of silk thread, or a small rubber band, we can easily clean be- 
 tween the closest fitting teeth. Cracking nuts with the teeth 
 often breaks the enamel. It may also be cracked by sudden 
 exposure of the teeth to cold, as when drinking ice-water. The 
 saliva deposits on the teeth a yellowish brown substance, called 
 tartar. This generally occurs at the line where the surface of 
 the teeth and gums meet. If this deposit is not removed, it 
 may extend toward the root and loosen the tooth. The teeth 
 should be examined twice a year by the dentist, and any cavi- 
 ties promptly filled. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DISEASE GEEMS. 
 
 You are aware of the harm resulting from dust entering the 
 lungs. But still more injurious are the various kinds of live 
 dust that cannot be seen with the naked eye. By live dust we 
 mean little organisms called bacteria. Many of them are the 
 causes of our worst contagious diseases. Some bacteria are 
 beneficial, others are harmful. 
 
 Disease Germs Our bodies are good soil for certain germs 
 of disease. Some of these germs will grow in the human 
 body, but not in the body of an animal. Some diseases, such 
 as consumption, are common to both man and animals. The 
 disease germs of consumption live, grow, and nourish as well in 
 the body of a cow as in the body of a man. In fact, many 
 persons take consumption by drinking milk from cows infected 
 with this dreadful disease. We know that the following 
 diseases are caused by germs consumption, typhoid fever, 
 grippe, diphtheria, cholera, erysipelas, pneumonia, scarlet fever, 
 measles, chicken-pox and small-pox. The little germs, or bacilli, 
 causing different diseases, differ from each other in their 
 appearance. The bacilli that cause typhoid fever do not and 
 cannot cause diphtheria. Though these germs are so small as 
 to be invisible to the naked eye, yet when seen with a power- 
 ful microscope they can be readily distinguished from each 
 
 196 
 
DISEASE GERMS. 
 
 197 
 
 other. To the student of the diseases mentioned these minute 
 germs appear as different from each other as grains of wheat 
 and corn do to us. Some of the best known forms are shown 
 on this page. 
 
 Diphtheria. 
 
 Typhoid Fever. 
 
 Asiatic Cholera. 
 
 Hog Cholera. 
 
 Erysipelas. 
 
 Consumption. 
 FIGUEE 69. 
 
 Pneumonia. 
 
 The Danger. These germs are about us on every hand. 
 They are in the air, in our food, and in the water we drink. In 
 pioneer days man was afraid of wild animals that might attack 
 him and take his life. Nowadays we know that we may be 
 assailed at any minute by countless millions of invisible crea- 
 tures, attacking, poisoning, and destroying our bodies, that they 
 may feed themselves. To-day a person is healthy and strong. 
 
198 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 To-morrow he may drink a glass of impure water containing 
 germs of typhoid fever. These industrious little bacteria soon 
 derange the entire bodily system, and threaten death. A person 
 having consumption may expectorate on the floor of a car, store, 
 church, or schoolhouse. This sputum contains thousands of 
 disease germs that are capable of causing consumption in any 
 one whose body affords suitable soil for their growth. The 
 sputum dries. This drying does not kill the germs. They 
 become mixed with other dust in the air we breathe, and may 
 find lodgment in our lungs. 
 
 Conditions Favoring Disease Germs No condition is more 
 favorable to disease germs than impure air. You have seen a 
 gardener's hotbed in which he forces the growth of plants. A 
 schoolroom improperly ventilated is a hotbed of infection and 
 contagion. Impure air affects the nervous system. The wide- 
 awake child becomes listless, drowsy, inattentive, and filled with 
 fatigue poison. Physical growth is stunted because children 
 cannot help but become pale and poorly nourished when they 
 are compelled to breathe foul air. Appetite, and digestion fail. 
 Sleep, after a day in a stuffy schoolroom, is disturbed and 
 broken. In this condition children become the ready prey of 
 contagious and infectious disease. 
 
 In a poorly ventilated room the poison germs of disease are 
 concentrated. Each cubic foot of air is full of bacteria. In a 
 well-ventilated schoolroom the victims of the contagious diseases 
 are few. The air is not so laden with disease germs, and the 
 child's power to resist disease is greater. If the room is filled 
 with impure air, the reverse is the case, and in such a school- 
 room, if one of the pupils takes whooping-cough, diphtheria, or 
 
DISEASE GERMS. 199 
 
 scarlet fever, many, if not all, of the pupils are liable to contract 
 the same disease. 
 
 Filthy surroundings of any kind, as well as uncleanliness 
 of one's person, afford the same favorable conditions for the 
 spread of contagious diseases as does impure air. 
 
 How Disease Germs are Transmitted Some of the best 
 known contagious diseases of children are spread as follows: 
 
 Chicken-Pox Indefinite; probably by the breath, drinking- 
 cups, and similar means. 
 
 Measles By excretions from the nose; by the breath; by 
 clothing. 
 
 Whooping- Cough By the breath; by expectorations from 
 the throat and lungs. 
 
 Scarlet Fever By contact with cast-off particles of skin 
 from the patient ; carried by clothing or by any article contain- 
 ing the poison; germ persistent a long time; can be destroyed 
 only by fire or disinfection. 
 
 Grippe By a germ conveyed by travel, baggage, and in 
 clothing; contagious; latest authorities isolate cases as rigidly 
 as small-pox, because of serious results; in some cases even 
 causes insanity. 
 
 Diphtheria By the breath; by excretions from the throat 
 and nose; germ persistent; similar to scarlet fever germ. Poor 
 drainage, bad sewerage, and a wet cellar under the house are 
 often contributory causes of diphtheria. 
 
 Time Required by Various Disease Germs. Disease germs 
 require a certain time after being received into the body before 
 the symptoms of the disease they cause become manifest. The 
 following table shows the period that elapses in the different 
 
200 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 forms of sickness before the disease develops from the germs 
 present. 
 
 Disease 
 
 Begins usually on the 
 
 But may at any time between 
 
 Scarlet Fever 
 
 4th day 
 
 1 and 7 days 
 
 Diphtheria 
 
 2d day 
 
 2*-and 5 days 
 
 Small-pox 
 
 12th day 
 
 1 and 16 days 
 
 Chicken-pox 
 
 14th day 
 
 10 and 18 days 
 
 Typhoid Fever 
 
 21st day 
 
 1 and 28 days 
 
 Measles 
 
 12th day 
 
 10 and 15 days 
 
 Mumps 
 
 19th day 
 
 15 and 24 days 
 
 Whooping-cough 
 
 14th day 
 
 7 and 15 days 
 
 Typhoid Fever and Water Supply. The relation between 
 typhoid fever and impurity of the water supply is clearly 
 shown in the accompanying diagram, which presents the com- 
 parative death-rate from this disease in the city of Munich, 
 Germany, extending over a period of thirty years. During the 
 period from 1854-1859 the inhabitants of Munich drank water 
 from wells. The city had no system of sewerage, and consequently 
 many of the wells were contaminated by drainage and seepage. 
 The deaths from typhoid fever during this period of neglect 
 were alarming in their number. In 1866 the city authorities 
 became aroused, and began the construction of a system of 
 sewers for part of the city. This resulted in a partial im- 
 provement of the water supply, and consequently the deaths 
 were reduced nearly one-half (see second column). This system 
 of sewerage was extended in 1874 to other parts of the city, 
 and the improvement of the water supply resulted in a still 
 further lowering of the death-rate (see third column). In 1881 
 
DISEASE GERMS. 
 
 201 
 
 the city authorities began to condemn and fill up many old 
 wells, extend the sewerage system, and they also gave the 
 people purer water to drink, with the result that in 
 1884 the deaths from typhoid fever were reduced to 
 1.4 for every 10,000 inhabitants. That is, in 1854, 
 when the people of Munich drank impure water, the 
 number of deaths from this dread disease was seventeen 
 times as great as it was after the city had a good gen- 
 eral water supply. 
 
 If drinking water is suspected of being impure, all 
 danger can be removed by boiling. Disease germs, 
 such as typhoid bacilli, are killed by boiling, while 
 freezing has little or no effect upon them. 
 
 How Bacteria Are Destroyed. Disease 
 MM germs are constantly about us, and yet in only 
 ; comparatively few cases do they gain a hold 
 
 ;'; upon the body and produce sickness. Why 
 ; are they not more successful in their 
 
 ' I ^^_ attacks upon the healthy body? 
 ||| ':, : First The fluid part of the blood 
 
 . v 'lf: :'.; '^ ; v ; ; and lymph, called plasma, in a healthy 
 Ki '^H^' person is of such a chemical nature as 
 .-; J- Kfftifv t b e a ble to destroy germs of disease. 
 *H& Jlli^?' 1 Second The white corpuscles of the 
 
 ;^jl ^.^ blood seem to be especially endowed 
 % y: i. : with the capacity of a success- 
 
 ^ |5 Slfll ^ detective. They have the 
 ; $i- 8|5ffl power to seek out the bacteria 
 
 1854-1859. 1866-1873. 1874-1880. 18/884. f diseaS6 > wMc 
 
 FIGURE ?o. envelop and destroy. 
 
202 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Third Because people are becoming more observant of 
 sanitary rules. If we keep clean by washing thoroughly every 
 day, properly nourish our bodies, eat digestible foods, take 
 plenty of exercise in the open air, sleep eight or nine hours 
 every night in well-ventilated bedrooms, the microbes of disease 
 will soon go out of business. Bacteria cannot*. thrive without 
 suitable soil, and the causes that render the body liable to suc- 
 cessful attacks upon it are poor nutrition (partial starvation), 
 fatigue, impure air, mental depression, and unwholesome 
 food. 
 
 Antitoxin in Diphtheria The germs of diphtheria can be 
 raised outside the body in gelatine and beef-broth. The poisons 
 they produce may be injected into the blood of a horse. When 
 this is done, there develops in the plasma of the horse's blood a 
 poison that will kill the germs of diphtheria. This germicide is 
 called diphtheria antitoxin. It can be drawn off with the blood 
 of the horse. The blood is allowed to clot, and the clear part 
 (serum) contains the antitoxin. This is preserved in tightly 
 sealed glass tubes, and can be injected into the blood of a per- 
 son suffering from diphtheria, where it tends to overcome the 
 germs and cure the disease. Diphtheria antitoxin is being suc- 
 cessfully used by physicians in battling against this dreadful 
 scourge. The report of the city health officer of Chicago well 
 illustrates the success of antitoxin in the cure of persons ill 
 with diphtheria. In the three years since the use of antitoxin, 
 1896-1898, inclusive, there was an actual saving of 1,950 
 lives by means of this diphtheria germ-killer alone. In the 
 129 cases where antitoxin was used the first or second day of 
 the disease, there was not a single death; while in the 114 
 
DISEASE GERMS. 203 
 
 cases treated with antitoxin the third day of the disease, there 
 were but three deaths from this disease which is usually so 
 fatal. 
 
 Vaccination Cows are subject to a disease that is a mild 
 form of small-pox. By vaccination this same disease may be 
 transmitted to a person. If the vaccine " takes," it causes but 
 little trouble, and the person vaccinated is proof against small- 
 pox. The practice of vaccination was introduced by Jenner, 
 who must be regarded a benefactor in providing a means of 
 protecting mankind against the ravages of such a loathsome 
 disease as small-pox. 
 
 Disinfectants. There are substances that really destroy 
 disease germs. Such substances are called disinfectants. 
 These chemicals have the power of purifying the air of a sick- 
 room, and destroying the germs of diphtheria, scarlet fever, and 
 small-pox, that might be lurking in the clothing, bedding and 
 other articles. There are three methods of disinfection. (1) 
 Fire. (2) Dry heat. (3) Chemical poisons. If the bedding, 
 clothing, and rags used in the sick-room in a case of scarlet 
 fever, for example, are of little value, they should be completely 
 destroyed by burning. Furniture, combs, brushes, and the like, 
 should be washed in a 2 per cent solution of carbolic acid. A 
 person caring for and handling the sick person should wash his 
 hands in carbolic acid, 2 per cent solution, or mercuric chloride, 
 one part to 500 parts of water. 
 
 To disinfect a sick-room, after the patient has recovered, first 
 wash the walls and floors with soap and water. If the charac- 
 ter of the walls will not permit this, they may be rubbed with 
 pieces of fresh bread which will readily gather up the germs. 
 
204 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 These should be immediately burned. The room should then 
 be fumigated by burning sulphur. Copperas, chloride of lime, 
 and carbolic acid are the best chemicals to be used in making 
 solutions for disinfecting, while the fumes of burning sulphur 
 will kill any disease germ known. Coffee, sugar, coal, tar, and 
 other substances are often burned in a room to destroy odors. 
 They simply neutralize the offensive odor with one more pow- 
 erful, but will not destroy disease germs. They are deodorizers, 
 and not disinfectants. 
 
 Pure air, pure water, sunlight, and personal cleanliness are 
 nature's disinfectants. Where these are present, disease germs 
 cannot thrive. Let us always take advantage of them that we 
 may win in our battle against the six D's : dust, dirt, darkness, 
 decay, disease, death. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOE DISCUSSION. 
 
 1. Are there any bacteria that are beneficial? 
 
 2. How are some bacteria employed to rid us of certain pests, 
 such as the chinch bug, which destroys fields of grain in many 
 localities? 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 
 
 There are a number of diseases that were practically un- 
 known in ancient times, when people lived more simply. In 
 this day and age, with its rush and pressure, the sharp compe- 
 tition on every hand, the changed conditions of living, the in- 
 creased liability to fatigue, and the greater tendency to use 
 stimulants and drugs have caused forms of disease to develop 
 that are peculiar to modern life. Not only is there greater 
 liability to the forms of disease resulting from overcrowding in 
 certain districts of our larger cities, but nervous disorders, due 
 to excitement, worry, overwork, the use of narcotic drugs and 
 alcoholic drinks, are on the increase. 
 
 Dr. Baer, of the Imperial Board of Health and chief prison 
 physician at Berlin, writes : " In the past wine was used al- 
 most wholly by the well-to-do classes, and beer was of such a 
 nature that harm was out of the question. Excessive use of 
 alcohol first began with the art of distillation, and with the 
 obtaining of strong concentrated whisky from corn, potatoes, 
 and the like. With the increased use of whisky a series of 
 diseased conditions has appeared, which are designated by the 
 word 'alcoholism.' 
 
 "The climate is an important factor. Drunkenness is more 
 frequent in cold than in warm countries, and is more brutal 
 and injurious in its effects as we go north. Yet this is not 
 
 205 
 
206 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 always true, for in tropical regions it is at present spreading 
 fast, and with great injury, especially in newly discovered 
 lands. The accustoming oneself to the use of alcohol causes, 
 sooner or later, a feeling of heed for it; alcoholism is not, 
 therefore, an inborn, instinctive need, but an acquired one. 
 Experience teaches that the longer this vice xists in a nation, 
 the greater the vice becomes. Persons who use alcoholic 
 drinks, especially whisky, often become sick and die sooner 
 than the moderate drinkers and non-drinkers. When alcohol 
 is taken habitually it injures the whole constitution; all tissues 
 and organs, and especially the blood, manifest sooner or later a 
 changed condition, with which susceptibility to disease is 
 increased. Alcohol intoxication not only calls out diseases and 
 disturbances that the non-drinker does not have, but it is an 
 old experience that in epidemics of cholera, dysentery and 
 smallpox, drinkers are attacked in larger numbers, and with 
 greater intensity, than non-drinkers. The bad constitution of 
 the blood, the weakness of the changed heart-muscles, the 
 sunken energy of the nervous functions, and the frequent 
 accompanying disease of the brain, cause a bad turn in every 
 disease, and a high death rate." 
 
 Says Dr. Legrain,the celebrated French specialist: "Although 
 the effects of alcohol may be only temporary and without seri- 
 ous consequences in a man with a good constitution, who takes 
 it in small quantities on rare occasions, it produces lasting 
 effects in a man of less resistance when taken frequently arid 
 in large quantities. Alcohol is not only a poison for the indi- 
 vidual. First considered as a poison, then as a remedy, and in 
 the sixteenth century as a universal panacea, which for long 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 207 
 
 the rich only were able to afford, alcohol has become by degrees 
 an article of general consumption; it has become a poison for 
 the human race from the day when, the demand exceeding the 
 supply, it had to be prepared from all substances capable of 
 fermentation. 
 
 " The adulteration of good and pure alcohol for the purpose 
 of making it meet the wants which have grown up everywhere 
 in modern society, has been one of the most powerful factors 
 for the degeneration of our race. Moreover, alcohol has been 
 a more dangerous means of conquest than perhaps the cannon. 
 Introduced to the savage tribes, the fire-water has done more 
 damage than war. 
 
 "The progress of commerce and its manifold openings has 
 made alcohol accessible to tribes hitherto untouched by civiliza- 
 tion. The consumption of wine, formerly reserved for the rich, 
 has increased everywhere and has become the ordinary drink. 
 The artificial want thus created has caused the manufacture of 
 fermented liquors to increase." 
 
 Diseases Due to Alcohol and Narcotics. The injury that 
 is wrought by alcoholic drinks and narcotics occurs chiefly 
 through the direct effect upon the nervous system. First, there 
 are certain acute diseases caused by the direct injury of alcohol 
 to the nerves and the brain. Second, there are diseases of the 
 other parts of the body because of the influence of alcoholic 
 drinks upon the nerves that govern the nutrition of these organs. 
 
 "Alcohol is a terribly frequent cause of nervous diseases. 
 In over-stimulating the brain and spinal cord, it impairs their 
 structure, weakens their functions, and often leads to insanity 
 and crime. 
 
208 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 "A small quantity of wine or spirits, taken by one not 
 accustomed to it, congests and excites the brain; the person 
 gets restless and talkative, then dizzy and unable to think 
 clearly. He is soon overcome 'by sleep, and on awaking feels 
 out of sorts. 
 
 " If the dose be increased, the talkativeness is accompanied 
 by indistinct speech, and the dizziness by trembling hands and 
 a staggering walk, both showing loss of control over the volun- 
 tary muscles and the will. The sense of touch is dulled; the 
 eyeballs do not move together so as to look exactly at the same 
 point at the same moment, and objects accordingly appear 
 double. (You may imitate this effect by pushing one eyeball 
 gently while looking with both eyes at something.) Then fol- 
 lows profound drunken sleep, which may pass into a condition 
 of deep unconsciousness from which the person cannot be 
 aroused, and in which the breathing is slow and labored because 
 the involuntary nerve-centers which govern the breathing-mus- 
 cles are affected. Sometimes these centers become at last quite 
 paralyzed and death results, but more often the man sleeps off 
 his drunken fit, to awaken with a state of his nerves to be 
 relieved only by renewed drinking, followed each time by worse 
 results. 
 
 " The nerve-centers, however, soon get used to the stimulant ; 
 it takes a larger amount each time to make them unsteady, but 
 all the while brain and spinal cord are becoming surely, even 
 if slowly, diseased." Professor Martin, of Johns Hopkins 
 University. 
 
 "The first effect that alcohol has on the brain is that of a 
 stimulant, and it probably acts as such in two ways; namely, 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 209 
 
 by increasing the circulation of the blood through the brain, 
 which is thus roused to greater vigor, and by directly stimulat- 
 ing the nerve cells of the nerve-centers. This stimulating 
 effect is observed chiefly after medium doses, and its result is 
 seen in many individuals by an increase of mental and bodily 
 activity, and of acuteness of perception by the special senses. 
 This beneficial physiological effect is, however, soon replaced by 
 poisonous symptoms if these small doses are repeated, or a large 
 quantity of alcohol is taken at once; for alcohol then becomes 
 a depressant and paralyzer of the central nervous system, and 
 symptoms of intoxication appear. This depressing effect is, 
 as Brunton points out, a form of paralysis. The higher centers 
 of the brain are first affected, and then the lower. The percep- 
 tive centers are paralyzed so that correct judgment is no longer 
 possible, while the emotions are uncontrolled and thrown out of 
 working gear, fits of boisterous hilarity and emotional depression 
 being common symptoms. Speech becomes disordered, and 
 symptoms of loss of control of the muscles, due probably to an 
 effect on the cerebellum, appear. The breathing center in the 
 medulla then becomes affected, and at this stage there is deep 
 unconsciousness with hoarse breathing or snoring, while the 
 action of the heart still continues, even after respiration has 
 stopped. There is no question that alcohol taken in such 
 quantities, sufficient to act upon the higher centers of the brain, 
 does an infinite amount of harm." Dr. Murphy. 
 
 That there are many cases of nervous disease directly due 
 
 to the excessive use of alcoholic stimulants, narcotics, and 
 
 drugs, is plainly shown by a glance at the records on file in 
 
 connection with the case histories at our various insane hos- 
 
 14 
 
210 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 pitals and sanitariums. There "is scarcely any form of insanity 
 that cannot be occasioned by the alcoholic habit. Of course 
 there are many patients in our insane hospitals who have 
 never used alcohol, but there ?is not a single form of insanity 
 known to the brain specialists of to-day that cannot be pro- 
 duced by alcoholism. 
 
 In one person alcoholic excess will produce a state of con- 
 tinued excitability (mania). In another there will be continued 
 depression and sadness, with tendency to suicide (melancholia). 
 Then in still others we have a shrinkage of the brain cells 
 a brain hardening resulting in general paralysis. In addi- 
 tion to these, in my experience while engaged in examining 
 patients on their admission to one of the largest insane hos- 
 pitals in the world, I have found many cases of emotional in- 
 sanity, of mania to commit murder, of a general and progressive 
 mental weakness, of delusions of persecution, of an uncontrol- 
 lable desire to set fire to buildings and destroy property, of 
 changed and disordered senses, of depraved pastes with love 
 for filth and a mania to live like an animal, of fixed ideas that 
 the food was poisoned, with refusal to eat, requiring forced 
 feeding, of extraordinary ideas of grandeur and wealth all of 
 these forms of mental disease and many others, arising from 
 alcoholic excesses. 
 
 Dipsomania is the name given to a form of mental and 
 nervous disease in which there is such strong craving for drink 
 that the person is not responsible for his acts committed to 
 secure alcohol. It becomes a mad thirst. He is insane. In 
 one case with which I am familiar a man cut off his hand with 
 an ax and called for rum in which to immerse the bleeding 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 211 
 
 stump of his arm. When the rum was brought he drank it, 
 unmindful of his suffering. This man maimed himself for life 
 to satisfy for a brief moment his mad thirst for drink. He was 
 adjudged insane and sent to the state hospital. His disease 
 was dipsomania. 
 
 Delirium Tremens is a form of temporary mental disease, 
 due alone to alcoholic excess in persons whose nervous systems 
 have been poisoned and shattered by the prolonged use of large 
 quantities ot alcoholic spirits. At the height of the attack the 
 person is a raving maniac. In his racked mental condition he 
 has illusions of sight, and sees foul and terrible creeping things 
 crawling about his_ room and over his body. 
 
 NARCOTICS. 
 
 Some drugs have the power of making the cells of the brain 
 unable to work for a time. They stupefy the brain, deaden 
 the senses, and produce what seems to be sound sleep. Any 
 substance that thus deadens the senses and tends to produce 
 unconsciousness is a narcotic. Morphine, opium, chloral, co- 
 caine, laudanum, chloroform, ether, and the bromides of sodium 
 and potassium are narcotics. Tobacco has the effect of a nar- 
 cotic on most people. At certain periods of a disease, as in the 
 delirium of a fever, when sleep must be secured, or in a surgi- 
 cal operation when the unconscious stupor of the patient is 
 necessary to success, the narcotic drugs are a great boon. They 
 have their priceless value as medicine, but like other medi- 
 cines, should be given at the proper time and in proper doses 
 prescribed by the physician in charge. Taken habitually, the 
 
212 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 narcotics cause diseased conditions to arise, shatter the nervous 
 system, and weaken the mind. 
 
 We must, however, distinguish between the two classes of 
 poisons that mar the health and occasion many of the diseases 
 of modern life. There are certain poisons imposed upon a man 
 because of the occupation he pursues. Workers in lead, mer- 
 cury and sulphur of carbon are quite apt to become diseased by 
 the slow poison of these substances. The antimony poisoning 
 of the type-setter is a disease known only to the present 
 generation, and is due to the continual handling of type con- 
 taining this metal. 
 
 But the poisons that cause by far the greatest havoc are 
 those sought voluntarily by a man on account of the pleasures 
 they give, such as morphine, cocaine, opium, and hashish. 
 The abuse of morphine has greatly increased the last few years. 
 The morphine habit is most vicious. It impairs the mental 
 traits, deadens the senses, weakens the will, destroys the 
 memory, and blunts all moral sense. No* opium fiend or 
 victim of the morphine habit can ever be believed. He seems 
 unable to tell the truth. 
 
 Opium is a gummy substance gained from the poppy. It 
 is used in various forms. (1) Gum opium, which is rolled up 
 in pills and smoked; (2) laudanum, a solution of alcohol and 
 opium; (3) sulphate of morphia, or morphine, and solutions 
 containing it; (4) paregoric, soothing syrup and various patent 
 medicines containing opium as an important ingredient. There 
 are people who become addicted to the patent medicine habit 
 much as the drunkard becomes enslaved to the alcoholic habit. 
 The stupor caused by these patent medicines is as bad in every 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 213 
 
 way as the ill effects of opium smoking or alcoholic excess. 
 Patent medicine drunkenness is just as bad as any other form 
 of drunkenness. The continued use of opium deranges al T the 
 digestive processes, diseases the brain and nervous system and 
 degrades the character. 
 
 Self-Control and the Appetites. One of the most serious 
 effects of continued indulgence of the appetites is the weakening 
 of the will. No one should eat food that is harmful simply 
 because it tastes well. There are foods that please the palate 
 but which, if eaten, would ruin the digestion. We should 
 always deny ourselves unwholesome foods or drinks, however 
 much we may "like" them. By doing this we insure ourselves 
 not only the possession of healthy bodies, but we exercise 
 control over the appetites and thus greatly strengthen the will. 
 Every act of self-control strengthens the will. Success in life 
 is assured to the person who has developed a strong, sturdy, 
 determined will. He will leave no duty undone ; all his obli- 
 gations will be squarely met; promises will always be kept, 
 and no pledge unfulfilled. 
 
 WILL. 
 
 There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, 
 
 Can circumvent, or hinder, or control 
 
 The firm resolve of a determined soul. 
 
 Gifts count for nothing: Will alone is great, 
 
 All things give way before it soon or late. 
 
 What obstacle can stay the mighty force 
 
 Of the sea-seeking river in its course, 
 
 Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait ? 
 
214: GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Each well-born soul must win what it deserves. 
 
 Let the fool prate of luck the fortunate is he 
 
 Whose earnest purpose never swerves, 
 
 Whose slightest action 61* inaction serves 
 
 The one great aim. Why, even Death stands still 
 
 And waits an hour sometimes for such a will ! 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE EFFECTS OF THE CONTINUED 
 
 USE OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS UPON VARIOUS 
 
 BODILY ORGANS. 
 
 The stomach becomes inflamed. It fails to properly se- 
 crete the gastric juice. Indigestion results. 
 
 " It is commonly thought that alcoholic drinks act as 
 aids to digestion. In reality it would appear that the con- 
 trary is the case." G. Bunge, Professor of Physiological 
 Chemistry at Basle, Switzerland. 
 
 " The first effect of alcohol on the process of digestion is 
 to precipitate the pepsin of the gastric juice. Its habitual 
 use brings about exhaustion of the glands by overwork, a 
 chronic congestion of the blood-vessels, which conditions re- 
 sult in some of the worst forms of dyspepsia." Brinckley. 
 
 The liver hardens and shrinks. This unfits it to perform 
 its important duties. When the liver is " out of order " the 
 general health is sure to be impaired. 
 
 The shin has an increased amount of blood sent to it. 
 The glands are hindered in their activity so necessary to' 
 the preservation of health. More work is thus thrown upon 
 the kidneys. 
 
 The kidneys are stimulated to work beyond their power 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 215 
 
 in removing waste products. This overwork may cause dis- 
 eased conditions to arise (Bright's disease). 
 
 " Waste matter is not so easily disposed of when alcohol 
 is present." W. N. Edwards, M. D. 
 
 The muscles lose strength, partly because of increased 
 fat; their power of endurance is also lessened. 
 
 The following statement of Mr. Hornaday is the testi- 
 mony of a naturalist, speaking from careful observations 
 made while on his exploring trip in the tropics : 
 
 " While a traveler or hunter should never drink brandy 
 or whiskey as a beverage, it is a most excellent thing to 
 have in many cases of sickness or accident when a powerful 
 stimulant is necessary. Above all things, however, which go 
 farthest toward preserving the life of the traveler against 
 diseases and death by accident, and which every naturalist 
 especially should take with him wherever he goes, are habits 
 of strict temperance. In the tropics, nothing is so deadly 
 as the drinking habit, for it speedily paves the way for 
 various kinds of disease which are always charged to the 
 account of ' the accursed climate.' If a temperate man 
 falls ill or meets with an accident, his system responds so 
 readily to remedies and moderate stimulants that his chances 
 of recovery are a hundred per cent better than those of the 
 man whose constitution has been undermined by strong 
 drink. There are plenty of men who will say that in the 
 tropics a little liquor is necessary, ' a good thing,' etc. ; but 
 let me tell you that it is no such thing, and if necessary I 
 could pile up a mountain of evidence to prove it. The rec- 
 ords show most conclusively that it is the men who totally 
 
216 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 abstain from the use of spirits as a beverage who last long- 
 est, have the least sickness, and do the most and best work. 
 As a general rule, an energetic brandy drinker in the jungle 
 is not worth his salt, and as a companion in a serious under- 
 taking is not even to be regarded as a possible candidate." 
 -W. T. Hornaday. 
 
 " My experience is fixed by the experience and observa- 
 tion of a lifetime that the regular and routine employment 
 of alcoholic stimulants by a man in health is never, under 
 any circumstances, useful. I make no exception in favor 
 of cold, heat, or rain, nor indeed in favor of old drinkers, 
 when we consider them as soldiers." Surgeon-General Ham- 
 ilton, U. S. A. 
 
 The blood becomes of poorer quality. Its corpuscles can- 
 not carry so much oxygen to the tissues of the body. The 
 temperature of the body is not normal. 
 
 The heart is overstimulated, and is deprived of the rest 
 it needs in order to maintain healthy regular activity. The 
 walls of the arteries are weakened by means of fatty de- 
 posits. 
 
 In the lungs the walls of the air-cells may become thick- 
 ened and lose their elasticity. The size of the air-sacs is 
 gradually reduced, thus decreasing the breathing capacity 
 of the lungs. 
 
 " In most persons alcohol acts at once as an anaesthetic, 
 and lessens the rapidity of impressions and the perfection 
 of the senses. In other cases it seems to cause increased 
 rapidity of thought and excites imagination, but even here 
 the power of control over a train of thought is lessened. In 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 217 
 
 the great siege of Gibraltar, Sir George Elliot, who was a 
 teetotaler, enforced the most rigid temperance, and the long 
 and arduous blockade was passed through with remarkably 
 little sickness. At the siege of Jellalabad in Afghanistan, 
 ' the illustrious garrison ' were quite destitute of all alcoholic 
 liquors, and to the astonishment of the officers, the Europeans 
 had never been so healthy, cheerful, martial and enduring, 
 and free from crime. During the Indian mutiny many regi- 
 ments were debarred from spirits for a long time, and were 
 much healthier than when they got them." E. A. Parkes, 
 M.D. 
 
 Of all the organs, the nerves and the brain are probably 
 the most seriously affected by drugs and alcohol. Senses 
 are blunted, there is overstimulation of the cells in brain 
 and spinal cord. Delirium tremens, dipsomania, and other 
 nervous and mental diseases may ensue. 
 
 " It is possible for nearly every known mental disease 
 to have its genesis in alcoholism." Kraft-Ebbing, Vienna. 
 
 " The influence of all drugs which affect the nervous sys- 
 tem must be in the direction of disintegration. The healthy 
 mind stands in clear and normal relations with nature. It 
 feels pain as pain. It feels action as pleasure. The drug 
 which conceals pain or gives false pleasure when pleasure 
 does not exist, forces a lue upon the nervous system. The 
 drug which disposes to reverie rather than to work, which 
 makes us feel well when we are not well, destroys the sanity 
 of life. All stimulants, narcotics, tonics which affect the 
 nervous system in whatever way reduce the truthfulness of 
 sensation, thought, and action. Toward insanity all such 
 
218 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 influences lead, and their effect, slight though it be, is of the 
 same nature as mania. The man who would see clearly, 
 think truthfully, and act effectively, must avoid them all. 
 Emergency aside, he cannot safely force upon his nervous 
 system even the smallest falsehood. And here lies the one 
 great unanswerable argument for total abstinence not ab- 
 stinence from alcohol alone, but from all nerve poisons and 
 emotional excesses." David Starr Jordan. 
 
 " Through the use of alcohol the brain is so affected 
 that intellectual power is diminished, and frequently lost. 
 The slave to alcohol is not inclined to mental exertion of 
 any sort. He gradually loses the power of consecutive and 
 sustained power upon any subject. It is hard for him to 
 maintain a conversation upon even the most commonplace 
 topics. He is unable to comprehend his own degradation, 
 and still he has no sense of self-respect. Finally, his memory 
 begins to fail, his powers of reasoning and judgment are lost, 
 and he becomes unfit to maintain the ordinary relations of 
 life with his fellow-men. This condition, it is well to re- 
 member, has been brought about by the action of alcohol 
 upon the tissues composing the organs that are concerned in 
 the various life processes, thereby interfering with the nutri- 
 tion of those organs, and of the entire system, deranging 
 the action of the nervous system, and disturbing the brain 
 itself. Alcohol is the most common cause of insanity." 
 W. E. Baldwin, M. D. 
 
 " Helmholtz has said, in describing his method of work, 
 that slight indulgence in alcoholic drinks dispelled instantly 
 his best ideas. Professor Gaule once told the writer that, 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 219 
 
 as an experiment during the strain of his i Staatsexamen/ 
 he suddenly stopped his wine and beer, and was surprised 
 to find how much better he could work. An eminent pro- 
 fessor in Leipsic once said that the German students could 
 do ' twice the amount of work 7 if they would let their beer 
 alone. Dr. August Smith has found that moderate non-in- 
 toxicant doses of alcohol (forty to eighty centimeters daily) 
 lowered psychic ability to memorize as much as seventy per 
 cent." C. F. Hodge, Professor of Neurology, Clark Uni- 
 versity, Worcester, Mass. 
 
 " Alcohol is, in the first place, a brain poison. What 
 do heart or liver diseases, what does death even, signify in 
 comparison with an unbalanced mind ? Mental disorders are 
 far worse than death, for they destroy the germ of human 
 personality, the humanity in man. The poisoning of the 
 brain by alcohol is all-pervasive. We need not descend to 
 the drunkard. In looking at the moderate drinker we see 
 that his sensibilities are less fine, he cares less for the strict 
 truth, he is more negligent of the proprieties, less active 
 mentally, etc." Dr. August Forel, Professor of Psychiatry 
 at University of Zurich; Director of Insane Asylum, Bor- 
 gholzli. 
 
 " All indications point to the conclusion that it is the 
 nervous tissue which is especially exposed to the cumulative 
 action of the alcoholic poison. The alcohol sets up a chem- 
 ical action in the nervous tissue which at first inaugurates 
 only imperceptible changes, but once inaugurated, the poison 
 goes on until the tissue passes into a permanently diseased 
 condition." A. Strumpell, M. D., Berlin. 
 
220 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 " The first effect that alcohol has on the brain is that 
 of a stimulant, and it probably acts as such in two ways, 
 namely, by increasing the circulation of blood through the 
 brain, which is thus roused to greater vigor, and by directly 
 stimulating the nerve-cells of the nerve centers. This stimu- 
 lating effect is observed chiefly after medium or dietetic 
 doses, and its result is seen in many individuals by an in- 
 crease of mental and bodily activity, and of acuteness of per- 
 ception by the special senses. This beneficial physiological 
 effect is, however, soon replaced by poisonous symptoms, if 
 the dietetic doses are too often repeated, or if a large quan- 
 tity of alcohol is taken at once; for alcohol then becomes a 
 depressant and paralyzer of the central nervous system, and 
 symptoms of intoxication appear. This depressant effect is, 
 as Brunton points out, one of progressive paralysis. The 
 higher centers of the brain are affected, and then the lower. 
 The perceptive centers are paralyzed so that correct judg- 
 ment is no longer possible, while the emotions are uncon- 
 trolled and thrown out of working gear, fits of boisterous 
 hilarity and of emotional depression being common symp- 
 toms. Speech becomes disordered, and symptoms of inco- 
 ordination, due probably to an effect on the cerebellum, ap- 
 pear. The respiratory center in the medulla then becomes 
 affected, and at this stage there is coma with stertorous 
 breathing, while the 'action of the heart still continues, even 
 after respiration has stopped. There can be no question 
 that alcohol taken in sufficient quantities to depress the 
 higher centers of the brain does an infinite amount of harm. 
 
 " I have often been made impatient in listening to the 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 221 
 
 lecturer presenting the ' scientific aspects of the alcohol ques- 
 tion ' to an audience, to see him illustrate extensively with 
 charts, and spend hours to show the effects of alcohol upon 
 the coats of the stomach, and upon the structure of the liver 
 and kidneys, and never allude once to the brain, when the 
 fact is that alcohol's principal effect is upon this organ, and 
 the functions of this organ so far transcend the functions 
 of all others that I might say there is no comparison." 
 Crothers. 
 
 " The children of drinking parents do not inherit a 
 healthy nervous system. It has been shown that a large 
 percentage i. e., about half of the institutions for feeble- 
 minded children, for epileptics, and for deaf-mutes are the 
 children of drinking parents." Dr. Adolf Frick, Zurich. 
 
 " Alcohol in the body acts as a paralyzant on certain 
 portions of the brain, destroying the more delicate degrees 
 of attention, judgment, and reflective thought." Graham 
 LusTc, M. D. 
 
 " Alcohol acts injuriously on the judgment and power of 
 self-control, and never improves the person who takes it. 
 Men are injured without knowing it, and by slow degrees 
 so poisoned that their health is enfeebled and their life is, 
 on the average, cut short." J. J. Ridge, M. D. 
 
 i The most serious and widespread derangement of the 
 natural taste is that caused by alcohol drinks. Alcohol has 
 been demonstrated to be a poison. Its continued use, even 
 in what is called moderate quantities, will pave the way for 
 many diseases, some of which are sure to overtake those who 
 have the habit of using drinks with alcohol in them. When 
 
222 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 it is seen that by the use of alcohol an intelligent man may 
 act without reason; that a kind-hearted man may become 
 brutal to his most loved friends ; that it may cause an honor- 
 able man to become a dishonorable one; that it may make 
 a noble nature become one with the most depraved of tastes ; 
 when its use has over and over again been { the cause of dis- 
 appointment, of intense suffering, and of crime, it would 
 seem that vastly stronger reasons existed against its use than 
 the mere fact that some slight changes in the tissues occur 
 which might possibly be demonstrated. It is to avoid these 
 serious results that the use of alcohol is to be shunned, and 
 not simply to avoid a differently shaped liver." Dr. Jenkins. 
 
 Alcohol affects the eyes in lessening the quickness and 
 acuteness of vision. Scougal and other authorities affirm 
 that the quickness of hearing is impaired by the use of alco- 
 holic drinks. 
 
 The harmful effect of tobacco upon the immature organ- 
 ism of the growing boy is always in evidence. 
 
 " The use of cigarettes affects the nervous system, weak- 
 ens the will-power, and destroys the ability of the boy to 
 resist temptation. Because of this he easily falls a victim 
 to those 'habits which not only destroy the body, mind, and 
 soul, but irresistibly lead him into a violation of the laws 
 of his State." Hon. George Torrence, Superintendent Illi- 
 nois Reformatory. 
 
 " My observation of eye diseases extending through a 
 period of more than twenty-five years has convinced me that, 
 besides the pernicious effects of tobacco in other respects, 
 greatly impaired vision, and not unfrequently blindness, has 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 223 
 
 been occasioned by the use of this agent." William Dickin- 
 son, M. D. 
 
 " I believe that no one who smokes tobacco before the 
 bodily powers are developed ever makes a strong, vigorous 
 man." Dr. Fergus Fergusson. 
 
 ******* 
 
 No one drunkard ever suffered from all of these diseases 
 and many of them may occur in persons who never use 
 alcohol, but some one or more of them is quite certain to 
 develop in the body of the habitual drinker. Any of these 
 diseased conditions is more often due to alcohol than to any 
 other single cause. 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Tobacco often does a good deal of harm to the health 
 to the eyes especially, to the nervous system generally, pro- 
 ducing headache, palpitation, and trembling. 
 
 ******* 
 
 What shall I say for the personal habits you must form 
 if you wish for success ? Temperance is first upon the 
 
 list, 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 Vices which burrow into people's souls, as the Guinea 
 worm burrows into the naked feet of West Indian slaves, 
 would be more mischievous when seen than out of sight. 
 For the true way to deal with those obstinate animals, which 
 are a dozen feet long, some of them, and no bigger than a 
 
224 GKADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 horse hair, is to get a piece of silk around their heads, and 
 pull them out very cautiously. If you only break them off, 
 they grow worse than ever, ajnd sometimes kill the person 
 who has the misfortune to harbor one of them. Whence it 
 is plain that the first thing to do is to find out where the 
 head lies. Just so of all the vices, and particularly of this 
 vice of intemperance. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 There should be no need of dwelling on the ruinous 
 effects of over-indulgence in strong drink. The habitual use 
 of alcoholic fluids in form of wine does not always prevent 
 men and women from living long, active, useful, healthy, 
 and virtuous lives. Four of those whom I most honored in 
 the last generation drank wine daily all the years I knew 
 them. Their age reached an average of between eighty-seven 
 and eighty-eight years, and yet not one of them was of robust 
 habit, or promised to attain any remarkable longevity. 
 
 This argument, from experience, is good as far as it goes, 
 but may easily be perverted by those who are neglecting all 
 the rules of moderation which these four persons strictly 
 observed. A common mistake is to confound the tolerance 
 of a disturbing agent, which habit easily establishes, with 
 the indifference of the constitution to it. One may take a 
 drachm or two of laudanum in a day, after practice enough, 
 without minding it much, but not without its contributing 
 its fraction to the bodily and mental ruin which the drug 
 brings about in due time. So one may form the habit of 
 taking considerable quantities of alcoholic drink every day 
 with apparent impunity, yet every observing eye will detect 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 225 
 
 in the complexion the variable states of the mind and tem- 
 per, and by and by in the slight unsteadiness which marks 
 the slow change going on in the nervous centers, that the 
 system has all along been suffering, though its complaints 
 may have been too slight to attract much attention. 
 
 We cannot disguise the fact, however, that men drink 
 because they like it, much more than because of any good 
 which it does them, beyond such pleasure as it may afford; 
 and this is precisely the point that all arguments fail to 
 reach. Pleasure is a bird in the hand which foolish persons 
 will always choose before the two birds in the bush which 
 are to be the rewards of virtue. Intoxication offers to the 
 weak or ill-managed brain a strange, pleasing confusion, a 
 kind of Brahma's heaven where " naught is everything and 
 everything is naught," and where all perplexities at last re- 
 solve themselves into the generous formula, " it's of no conse- 
 quence." 
 
 * -x- ***** 
 
 Tobacco encourages revery the contemplation of the 
 possible, which is a charming but unwholesome substitute 
 for the performance of the duty next at hand. If we divide 
 our friends into the if things were so and the as things are so 
 sections, the nicotizers will probably be found most numerous 
 among the former. But it must be remembered that all 
 habits of this kind, like insanity, are more apt to fasten 
 themselves on natures originally defective and ill-balanced 
 than on those in which the poise of the faculties is well 
 adjusted, and the self-determining power too vigorous to be- 
 come enslaved. If one comes to the conclusion that he will 
 15 
 
226 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 be the better for leaving off the use of tobacco, he must 
 expect to find that it costs him a hard struggle. It is a 
 second weaning almost as trying as the first, but a few days 
 put an end to the conflict. 
 
 ******* 
 
 The conveniences for the use of the bath constitute one 
 great advantage that city life offers over that of common 
 country houses. Habit makes it one of the essentials of a 
 comfortable existence. A morning shower-bath is a cordial 
 better than any bitters. A plunge into the salt sea brings 
 back youth in a way to shame Mrs. Allen's hair-restorer. 
 But remember Alexander at the Cydnus, going in too hot! 
 Remember Leon Javelli, the great performer on the tight 
 rope, who stayed in too long! One of the finest organisms 
 ever shown, in the flower of physical perfection, was doubled 
 up in spasms, arid straightened out and laid in the earth 
 almost before the cord has ceased quivering under his elastic 
 bounds. It is a word and a blow with Nature when her laws 
 
 are insulted or trifled with. 
 
 ******* 
 
 I am disposed to be as charitable to human infirmity in 
 the matter of sleep as I am in that of exercise. I would no 
 more accept Sir Edward Coke's limit of six hours than I 
 would endorse his other arrangements. Eight hours seem 
 to me a fairer average, but many can do with less and some 
 may want more. General Pichegru is said to have found 
 four enough. Some, like Napoleon, can help themselves to 
 sleep whenever they will. One great general can catch a 
 nap on the field while a battle is going on. It is much more 
 
SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE. 227 
 
 common to find a difficulty in going to sleep after getting 
 to bed. Those who are wakeful can do a great deal by form- 
 ing the habit of dismissing all the toils and cares of the day, 
 so far as possible, during the hour preceding their bedtime. 
 There is good management, as well as piety, in closing the 
 day with an act of devotion. " Happy is the patient camel, 
 happy is the humble saint,' 7 says the late Professor Harris; 
 " they kneel when the day is done, and their burden is lifted 
 
 from them." 
 
 ******# 
 
 Intoxication suspends the influence of the will, and turns 
 the subject of it into an automaton not properly responsible 
 for his actions excepting when he drinks to fit himself for 
 the execution of a criminal purpose. M. Despine gives a 
 lamentable picture of the habits of many of his countrymen. 
 The use of alcohol is a scourge growing worse all the time. 
 In the army, according to General Trochu's report, the old 
 soldiers have by no means the value generally attributed to 
 them, on account of the great prevalence of drinking habits 
 among them. 
 

 CHAPTER XVI. t 
 PHYSICAL EXEECISE. 
 
 The study of the human body, whether such study is brief or 
 extended, soon convinces one that neglect is one of the greatest 
 foes to health. One form of neglect that frequently causes 
 serious and widespread injury is the failure to take exercise. 
 To be healthy we must exercise regularly and judiciously. By 
 exercising judiciously, we mean that the right amount and 
 proper form of exercise must be taken. Want of strength, in- 
 complete growth, lack of development, loss of symmetry all 
 these may result from disregarding our duty to take daily exer- 
 cise of the right kind. 
 
 Exercise Necessary to Health We have learned that con- 
 stant use of a muscle makes it larger, harder, and stronger. 
 But exercise should be for the entire body, and not for a single 
 group of muscles. We cannot afford to develop one particular 
 part of the body and neglect some other portion. Perfect 
 lungs and a healthy heart are of much greater value to a person 
 than a few extra bunches of muscles. Judicious exercise pro- 
 motes health because it accomplishes, among other results, the 
 following : 
 
 1. It stimulates growth. 
 
 2. It makes growth symmetrical. 
 
 228 
 
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 229 
 
 3. It develops skill, quickness, accuracy, strength, and 
 endurance. 
 
 4. It incites the organs to do their best work. 
 
 5. It develops poise of body. 
 
 6. It acts as an incentive to the best mental work. 
 Exercise According to Development. The five-year-old 
 
 child should not attempt the same forms of exercise as the boy 
 or girl of twelve, any more than he would try to wear the same 
 clothes. Such forms of exercise are not adapted to his stage 
 of development. The same exercises that are beneficial at cer- 
 tain periods of growth prove of no value at others, while at some 
 stages of development they are positively harmful. There are 
 four periods of development of which we will speak with a view 
 of presenting the forms of exercise best suited to each period. 
 
 First Period From Six to Nine Years of Age Exercise 
 
 during this period should be such as will incite growth by 
 animating the organic activities, such as breathing and the cir- 
 culation of the blood. The forms of exercise must also be of 
 a kind that will cause the formation of more blood. This is 
 checked by the compulsory sitting posture of the schoolroom. 
 The exercises of this period, to do the most good, should be in 
 the open air, and should be recreative games and plays, because 
 these animate the nerves and increase joy. Cheer, you remem- 
 ber, is necessary to the best growth. That exercise will, as a 
 rule, do the most good which we most enjoy. 
 
 The best exercises during this period are the easy games of 
 motion, such as " Ring Around a Rosy," " London Bridge is 
 Falling Down," " King, King Calico," and some of the simpler 
 games of "Tag." 
 
230 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The exercises tnat should be forbidden during this period 
 are any and all of those that tend to strain even a small number 
 of muscles/ for they are likely to consume matter needed 
 for growth and development. Rope jumping is generally 
 injurious during this period, because of the condition of the 
 heart, especially between the ages of eight and nine years. 
 Later it is a good exercise if indulged in moderation. 
 
 Second Period From Nine to Fourteen. The exercises 
 during this period of rapid growth must continue to assist in 
 the formation of blood, as during the first period. In addition 
 we must have exercises that tend to create an easy carriage of 
 the body and a graceful walk. Either dancing the easier waltz 
 steps, marching, or military drill, will accomplish much in this 
 direction at this important stage of development. Exercises 
 during the latter part of this period should also develop skill. 
 The forms of exercise especially suited to this period are tactics 
 and calisthenics in the gymnasium, and in the open air the 
 more lively games calling for more vigor thari those suggested 
 for the first period. Good games for this period are "Race- 
 Tag " and " Prisoner's Base," which are played as follows : 
 
 Race-Tag. The leader of the game stands on an elevation 
 of the playground, or in front and in sight of the players who 
 have formed parties at a distance of from two to six paces from 
 one another. The leader swings a disc, painted white on the 
 one side and black on the other. The parties have chosen their 
 colors. The disc is suddenly held in such a way that either 
 side, white or black, becomes visible, when the team, whose color 
 is seen, must run, the other team giving chase and trying to 
 secure as many prisoners as possible by holding or tagging 
 
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 231 
 
 them, before they can reach the boundaries of the playground. 
 Prisoners are barred from further participation, and form in the 
 rear of the disc-holder. The game can also be played in such a 
 manner that the side whose color is shown shall quickly drop 
 prone on the ground, those who are tagged before dropping, or 
 the last to drop to the ground, being barred out. In this last 
 form the players may intermingle. 
 
 Prisoner's Base. The players are divided into two equal 
 parties, each having a goal and a prison, a square base at the 
 right end of the goal and immediately in front of it. The 
 goals may be from 30 to 75 feet apart, and from 20 to 30 
 feet wide. One of the party now steps forward and challenges 
 the opposing party to catch him if it can. If he should be 
 caught or tapped by any one of the opposing party before he 
 can reach his own goal again, he is made prisoner and brought 
 to the base or prison of the enemy, where he remains until 
 rescued by some one of his own party. This can be done by a 
 swift and courageous runner only, who must tap the prisoner 
 or join hands with him before he can be caught, when he may 
 proceed to his own goal again unmolested. Both parties con- 
 tinue these sallies until the party which is successful in cap- 
 turing the most of the opposing party, so that it is forced to 
 surrender, wins the game. After each sally, or challenge, the 
 player must return to his base, before attempting another sally. 
 
 Simple ball games, such as "One Old Cat," should be 
 played when the boy is from nine to eleven years old, but 
 when he becomes twelve he should begin to play such games 
 as shinny, polo, hockey, and the more intricate game of baseball, 
 which will develop his skill, courage and judgment. There 
 
232 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 should be exercise in the gymnasium during the latter part of 
 this period to cultivate skill on apparatus. 
 
 Exercises, especially during this period, should never be 
 continued to exhaustion, but should stop when fatigue begins to 
 manifest itself. 
 
 Third Period From Fourteen to Twenty This is essen- 
 tially the period of greatest development, and is therefore the 
 one in which the greatest care must be used in selecting judi- 
 cious exercises. These must be, first of all, those exercises that 
 incite the heart and lungs to strong activity. These organs 
 practically complete their development during this period. The 
 girl or boy who has weak lungs at the age of eighteen or twenty, 
 will probably be similarly affected through life. The games 
 must be such as to develop skill, daring, and courage. There 
 should be baseball games, and any other games that develop 
 alertness. It is during this period that we should develop 
 the "hair-trigger," race-horse kind of muscle, rather than draft- 
 horse muscle. Quality rather than quantity is desired. Quick- 
 ness rather than bulk should be the object. Short races, 
 running, jumping, swimming, and rowing are excellent at this 
 age. There should, howe.ver, be no heavy exercises of endur- 
 ance at this period. One great mistake made by boys at this 
 age at their school " athletic meets," is to imitate the colleges in 
 the events contested. No one should attempt to run a mile 
 before he is twenty, nor should he take part in tug-of-war con- 
 tests. Such events call for too great endurance for this age. 
 The football games of high-school boys should embrace two 
 halves of not more than twenty minutes each fifteen would 
 be even better. 
 
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 233 
 
 Fourth Period From Twenty to Thirty It is during 
 
 this period that the individual is capable of his highest achieve- 
 ments in skill and quickness. Easy calisthenics are of no prac- 
 tical benefit during this period. There should be exercise call- 
 ing for endurance and general exercise of strength. Quickness 
 and skill in the use of one's muscles can rarely if ever be de- 
 veloped after the age of thirty. The same is true with respect 
 to gracefulness of bodily movement. 
 
 Gymnastics and Games Compared. Gymnastics are an ex- 
 cellent innovation in our modern schools. They correct pos- 
 ture, they are a change from mental work, but often there is 
 such a sameness about such exercises that one does not obtain 
 the same enjoyment as from play. Gymnastics, like work, soon 
 become monotonous. The boy on the farm gets plenty of exer- 
 cise out of doors. He gets up early, does the chores, and walks 
 a long way to school. He is laying the foundation of a healthy 
 body in after life. But his exercise comes in the form of work, 
 and " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Games 
 accomplish something for the growing boy and girl that work 
 alone cannot supply. Games train the mind as well as the 
 body. They develop judgment, quickness, determination, in an 
 easy manner, and without any special effort in this direction, 
 because of the enjoyment experienced. In baseball the boy 
 develops judgment, skill, daring, and courage. One cannot learri 
 to distinguish between balls and strikes without exercising 
 judgment. He must use skill in batting. It takes daring to 
 try to steal a base when pitcher and catcher are alert, and 
 courage is certainly needed when one is called upon to '"slide 
 for the home plate." Learning to swim or skate requires de- 
 
234 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 termination and self-reliance. And so there are a number of 
 manly qualities that are furthered and fostered by health-giv- 
 ing sports. Gymnastics, under^the direction of a teacher, are 
 excellent for the purpose of correcting special defects of pos- 
 ture in sitting, standing, and walking. But no system of gym- 
 nastics can take the place of rollicking, romping play out of 
 doors. The best gymnastics are those which approach play as 
 nearly as possible. 
 
 Lack of exercise during school work is much more common 
 than excessive exercise, especially in girls. The general health 
 of girls often becomes impaired, digestion is enfeebled, the cir- 
 culation is not good, and nervousness is manifest. Tendency 
 to lung diseases, such as consumption, is greatly increased. The 
 effect on bodily figure shows itself in flabby muscles, droop- 
 ing shoulders, flat chest, stooping walk, and curvature of the 
 spine. Girls should play and romp with the same freedom 
 that boys do. Health is as necessary to a girl as it is to a boy. 
 But perfect health is impossible without good and sufficient 
 exercise. 
 
 Walking is one of the most natural methods of exercise. 
 It is convenient and pleasurable, but should be taken with a 
 zest, and not from a sense of compulsion. It is suitable to all 
 persons and all ages. If properly taken, it is a mode of activity 
 that calls into action all the muscles except those of the arms. 
 It deepens breathing, assists digestion, and improves circulation. 
 Walk erect with the shoulders thrown back, chin out, and look 
 the world in the face. 
 
 Running and jumping are modifications of walking and are 
 likewise beneficial to those for whom they are not too violent. 
 
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 235 
 
 A brisk walk, however, is better than a slow walk. If a man 
 could move his legs proportionately as fast as an ant, he would 
 travel at the rate of about 800 miles an hour. Bicycling is a 
 popular form of exercise. Its advantage is that it is in the 
 open air and exhilarating. It is adapted to all persons and all 
 ages. There is, however, grave danger of over-taxing the heart 
 if one yields to the temptation of long runs or excessive bursts 
 of speed. As in any other, this exercise should not be con- 
 tinued to the point of fatigue. The handle-bars should be high 
 enough to allow a fairly upright position. A poor saddle will 
 do great injury. Tennis is a fine game, suitable for girls as well 
 as boys. It will develop every muscle of the body. It is not 
 a violent exercise, does not make the muscles sore, and there is 
 no danger of injury. It develops quickness, skill, keenness, and 
 judgment. Football is a game of brains as well as brawn. It 
 develops will, courage, obedience to orders, and has good disci- 
 plinary effect. It tends to make active, fearless, cool-headed 
 men. The objections to this game arise because of the injuries 
 that occasionally result. These are comparatively few, and 
 would be slight if the rules of the game were enforced. No 
 vigorous exercise exists in which there is absolutely no risk. 
 There is no more danger in the game of football for a well- 
 developed boy than there is in climbing trees by his younger 
 brother, and surely no boy should be permitted to grow up 
 without climbing trees. The Duke of Wellington said the 
 battle of Waterloo was won on the football field at Rugby. 
 One cannot play football without the consciousness that he has 
 a place to fill, and that he must fill it. The team work, or con- 
 certed action, in football is one of the reasons of its great value. 
 
236 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 General Suggestions. Exercise should be taken regularly. 
 Violent exercise should not be indulged in within a half -hour 
 before eating nor within two hpurs after a hearty meal. In 
 preparing for athletic contests, the increase in exercise should 
 come gradually, so that the heart and lungs will not suffer from 
 over-exertion. Clothing worn while exercising should be com- 
 paratively light in weight and should be loose-fitting so as to 
 admit of the freest possible activity of the muscles. Great 
 care should be taken to avoid taking cold. When warm from 
 exercise there is a temptation to sit on the ground or in a 
 cool place. A cold may be thus contracted which may lead 
 to fatal lung disease. 
 
 Next to the destroying effects of strong drink, in any of 
 its forms, upon nerve, brain, and mental action is the harm 
 wrought by alcohol upon the muscles and the activity. The 
 man who is employed at hard labor, using his muscles to their 
 fullest capacity of strength and endurance, naturally in- 
 quires if there is not some artificial agency a tonic or 
 stimulant that will give his muscles greater strength and 
 endurance, and thereby render them less likely to be fatigued. 
 Some do not begin their day's work until they have taken 
 an alcoholic stimulant in some form, and thus whipped their 
 bodies into activity. They say they take this alcoholic poison 
 to tone up their muscles. Are they deceived ? Does alcohol 
 increase strength as wholesome food increases strength? 
 Does it make their muscles more accurate in carrying on 
 the tasks of the day in obeying the behests of will ? 
 
 Occasionally we hear men say that the glass of liquor 
 makes them feel stronger. Experiments show conclusively 
 
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 237 
 
 that such feelings of increased strength are deceptive. They 
 are not a true guide. A large number of experiments made 
 with scientific care show quite conclusively that alcohol, in 
 both small and large doses, reduces both the power, accuracy, 
 and endurance of the muscles. The man who makes use of 
 such a stimulus applies the alcoholic whip to his body 
 is deceived, for instead of increasing strength it robs his 
 body of muscle power. The man who feels stronger after 
 partaking of some alcoholic beverage does so because strong 
 drink in any of its forms acts as a narcotic and benumbs 
 and deadens his sensibility to fatigue. He feels stronger 
 because he is less able to feel tired. But it is only the 
 feeling of fatigue that is gone. The harm wrought by ex- 
 cessive fatigue becomes more and more serious, no matter 
 to what extent the feeling of weariness is gone. When the 
 effect of the alcoholic drink that has deadened his sensibility 
 to fatigue that has made him light-hearted and unable to 
 feel tired when this effect has passed off, the individual 
 always feels even more exhausted. 
 
 Strong drink in any of its forms always diminishes the 
 power and endurance of the muscles as well as their ability 
 to make precise movements. Men addicted to drink are not 
 allowed to work at the trades where quickness and precision 
 of movement are essential. All are aware of the fact that 
 soldiers and athletes are not allowed to use liquor during 
 periods of prolonged exertion or when undergoing special 
 training that is to render them " fit as a fiddle." 
 
 Again, to grow fleshy is not to grow strong. Alcohol 
 not only tends to serious and lasting injury of the power and 
 
238 GEADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 endurance of the muscles, but injures the very structure of 
 the muscles themselves. It makes them weak, pale, and 
 flabby. It prevents the will, ^ from having perfect control 
 of the muscles, and thereby impairs their precision of action. 
 
 " Fatty degeneration " is the name given to the change 
 in muscle structure caused by alcohol. Thia.change in tissue 
 is caused by particles of fat being deposited around the mus- 
 cle structure and between the finest muscle fibers. In course 
 of time so much fat may be deposited as to really take the 
 place of the strands of muscle. The muscle tissue dies. The 
 fat remains. People who become fleshy as the result of alco- 
 holic beverages are, as a rule, neither so strong nor so healthy 
 as those who have more sinewy, hard muscle and less fat. 
 Beer makes some persons fleshy. This is nothing in its 
 favor. It never increases muscle strength. 
 
 " If we examine with a microscope a fine section of 
 muscle taken from a person in good health, we find it firm, 
 elastic, and of good bright red color, made up of parallel 
 fibers with beautiful crossings; but if we similarly examine 
 the muscle tissue of a man who leads an idle, sedentary 
 life, and indulges in alcoholic drinks, we detect at once a 
 pale, flabby, inelastic, oily appearance." Dr. Henry Monroe. 
 
 In the habitual drinker, who is apparently so robust, 
 there is instead of elastic muscles strong as cords of steel 
 a lot of inert fat utterly devoid of strength. It is the 
 part of wisdom to avoid all alcoholic liquors, for they in- 
 terfere not only with the growth and development of the 
 muscles, but also diminish their power, endurance, and 
 precision. 
 
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 239 
 
 " The usefulness, if not the harmfulness, of even mod- 
 erate doses of alcohol rests on better evidence than scientific 
 deduction and experiments. In connection with the sanita- 
 tion of armies, thousands of experiments upon large bodies 
 of men have been made, and have led to the result that in 
 peace and war, in every climate, in heat, cold, and rain, sol- 
 diers are better able to endure the fatigues of the most ex- 
 hausting marches when they are not allowed any alcohol. A 
 similar result is observed in the case of the navies and on 
 thousands of commercial vessels belonging to England and 
 America, which put to sea without a drop of alcohol. Most 
 whalers are manned by total abstainers." Bunge. 
 
 " To-day it is a great feather in the headgear of the 
 advocates of military total abstinence that Lord Kitchener's 
 recent victory was won for him by an army of teetotalers, 
 who made phenomenal forced marches through the desert, 
 under a burning sun, and in a climate famed for its power 
 to kill or prematurely age the unacclimated. Indeed, it is 
 said that never has there been a British campaign occasion- 
 ing so little sickness and profiting by so much endurance." 
 Washington Star. 
 
 " The influence of alcohol upon muscular work has been 
 established permanently. It has been demonstrated that man 
 works better when he does not use these pretended stimu- 
 lants. The physiological experiments of Destree have estab- 
 lished that alcohol is a paralyzer of muscular work. It ex- 
 cites at first, but this excitation is altogether transient, and 
 is followed immediately by depression." Dr. DeVaucleroy, 
 Professor Hygiene, Belgium Military Institute. 
 
240 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 " In a number of experiments carried out with the idea of 
 ascertaining the effect of alcohol upon muscular force, it was 
 found that in every ease where alcohol was taken, muscular 
 force was diminished, even when so small an amount as 
 one-half dram (one-half a teaspoonful) of alcohol was used. 
 In these experiments it was found that non-abstainers were 
 affected as well as abstainers. The deceptive nature of alco- 
 hol was manifested in every case, each individual feeling 
 sure that he could accomplish more than he could before 
 taking the alcohol." Dr. Charles Stewart. 
 
 Tobacco also destroys muscular tone and precision. For 
 this reason its use is always prohibited among athletes in 
 training for contests on the track, gridiron, diamond, and all 
 aquatic sports where power and endurance of muscle are so 
 vital. In these contests it is the team or crew made up of 
 individuals possessing the strongest muscles, with greatest 
 endurance and most perfect control that is most certain to 
 win. Training-tables are established that the athletes may 
 eat only the most wholesome foods, and to increase the mus- 
 cular efficiency of the men as well as to avoid direct harm 
 the use of tobacco is absolutely prohibited. Rich foods make 
 fat and unmake muscle. The individual cannot attain the 
 highest degree of efficiency in athletic training and partake 
 of such foods. Likewise tobacco is a bar to the attainment 
 of athletic perfection, and for this reason the prohibition 
 of its use by candidates for the various teams is rigidly en- 
 forced. 
 
 A noted marksman, the most celebrated wing-shot of his 
 day, lost his wonderful skill through the use of tobacco. It 
 
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 241 
 
 interfered with the steadiness of his muscles, made them 
 untrustworthy, and he lost the championship, according to 
 his own account, because of his giving himself into the power 
 of the tobacco habit. 
 
 Those who desire to excel in pursuits that require deli- 
 cacy of touch, precision of movement and perfect control 
 cannot afford to use tobacco in any form, for it is certain 
 to unfit them for the satisfactory performance of their work. 
 
 QUOTATIONS. 
 
 " We have not to train a soul alone, nor only a body, but 
 a man; and we cannot divide him." Montaigne. 
 
 " A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full de- 
 scription of a happy state in this world; he that has these 
 two has but little more to wish for, and he that lacks either 
 of them will be but little better for anything else he may 
 possess." John Locke. 
 
 " The truth is that happiness is the most powerful of 
 tonics. By accelerating the circulation of the blood, it facili- 
 tates the performance of every function, and so tends alike to 
 increase health when it exists, and to restore it when it has 
 been lost. The extreme interest felt by children in their 
 games, and the riotous glee with which they carry on their 
 rougher frolics, are of as much importance as the accompany- 
 ing exertion." Herbert Spencer. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER XVII. K 
 FIEST AID TO THE INJUBED. 
 
 Very often a little knowledge of what is best to be done in 
 case of accident may save life. Accidents will happen in 
 the best regulated schools, and it is important for us all to know 
 what is the wisest course to pursue until the doctor comes. 
 The following accidents are most common : 
 
 Fainting. When this occurs it is usually because the room 
 is overheated or poorly ventilated. Place the patient on his 
 back with his head low, no pillows of any kind being used. 
 Loosen all the clothing about the neck. Place the patient in a 
 current of air, or quickly carry him outside if possible. Keep 
 the crowd back by all means. Sprinkle a little cold water on 
 the face. Never pour anything down the throat of an uncon- 
 scious patient, for it may cause him to choke to death. 
 
 Suffocation. Sometimes a peachstone, tin whistle, marble, 
 or similar object, is thoughtlessly held in the mouth. It may 
 then slip back into the larynx, obstructing breathing. Call a 
 doctor immediately, for such an accident is always serious. In 
 the mean time try to reach, the foreign object by placing your 
 finger in the back of the patient's throat. Even if the object 
 cannot be reached, vomiting is thus caused, and this may 
 dislodge it. 
 
 242 
 
FIRST AID TO THE INJURED. 
 
 243 
 
 Bleeding from the Nose. This is quite a common occur- 
 rence among children, and, as a rule, is not alarming. Place 
 the patient erect in a chair, or have him stand, and induce him 
 to stretch both arms high above the head. Press the tip of 
 the nose between the finger and thumb, or press the upper lip. 
 Put a piece of ice or a cold cloth at 
 the back of the neck. This cold 
 shock will cause the blood vessels 
 to shrink. Loosen the collar so as 
 to allow free circulation. Also 
 apply cold water to the nose and 
 forehead. If these measures do 
 not stop the hemorrhage, inject cold 
 water containing a little salt or soda 
 into the nose. During an attack, do 
 not blow the nose, as this will start 
 further bleeding. 
 
 Bleeding from an Artery If 
 the blood comes in jets or spurts, it 
 is an artery that is bleeding. This 
 may prove serious. Fortunately, at Bleeding. 
 
 most parts of the body the arteries are deeply buried in the 
 flesh. A severed artery calls for prompt action. Put firm 
 pressure upon the bleeding part between the wound and the 
 heart. The pressure is best applied, in case the wound is in 
 the arm or leg, by taking a folded handkerchief, tying a 
 knot in its center, and placing this knot over the artery. Tie 
 it loosely around the limb, but with a good knot. Place a stick 
 
 FIGURE 71. Bandage in Arterial 
 
244 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 under the bandage and twist it round and round until tight 
 
 enough to stop the hemorrhage. (Fig. 71.) 
 
 Bleeding from the Veins. .^The patient should lie quiet. 
 
 Raise the bleeding member, and wash the wound with cold or hot, 
 
 but clean, water. Dirty water may introduce bacteria into the 
 wound. Then tie a pad of soft clean linen 
 so as to press firmly upon the injury. 
 
 Foreign Bodies in the Ear or Nostril. 
 A thoughtless child will sometimes push an 
 object into the nostril or ear until it is be- 
 yond reach. If it is a pea, bean, or grain 
 of corn, the heat and moisture will cause it 
 
 FIGUKE 72. -Removing a to swell. It is best] to go to the physician 
 
 fhTle PartiCle fr m at once and have the ob J ect removed. If the 
 obstruction is in one of the nostrils, hold 
 the other nostril shut and blow in the patient's mouth. The 
 air will force out the object. 
 
 Foreign Bodies in the Eye. Cinders and dust particles 
 get into the eye in spite of its excellent protection. This 
 causes severe pain. Rubbing the eye will make matters worse. 
 Open the eye, and perhaps tears will wash out the offending 
 particle. Or draw the upper lid down over the under one; 
 the lashes of the under lid may remove the cause of irrita- 
 tion. A still better method is to place a match or wooden 
 toothpick on top of the eyelid, then catch hold of the lashes 
 and turn the lid back. (Fig. 72.) The particle will in all 
 probability be seen clinging to the under surface of the lid 
 and can be easily removed with the corner of a handker- 
 chief. 
 
FIRST AID TO THE INJURED. 245 
 
 Burns. The best application for a burn is a solution of 
 common cooking soda, using about a tablespoonful of soda to a 
 glass of water. Afterwards apply vaseline. A mixture of equal 
 parts of linseed oil and lime water is excellent for dressing burns. 
 Apply loosely with cotton. 
 
 Bee Stings. The stings of bees, wasps, hornets, and yellow- 
 jackets are relieved by first bathing in hot water and squeezing 
 out the poison. Then apply the solution of soda mentioned in 
 the preceding paragraph. This same treatment will also relieve 
 in the case of nettle stings. Ammonia is also excellent in these 
 injuries, and in mosquito bites. Boys also know that binding 
 mud over a sting gives relief. Be careful to always extract 
 the "stinger" before treatment is applied. 
 
 Burning Clothing. Quick work is necessary when a per- 
 son's clothes catch fire, for in a very few minutes he will be 
 enveloped in flames and so severely burnt that recovery will be 
 impossible. Place such a person flat on the ground immediately; 
 smother the flames with a coat, shawl, blanket, piece of carpet, 
 or anything at hand. If on fire yourself, do not run for help, 
 but He down flat, and roll over and over on the ground or floor 
 to smother out the flames. 
 
 Sunstroke. When overcome by the heat, or suffering from 
 a sunstroke, lie down in a cool, shady place. The face and hands 
 should be sponged with cold water. As soon as possible the 
 patient should be removed to a cool room, and placed on a 
 couch with his head elevated. Apply cold cloths, or better 
 still, the ice-bag, to the head, back of the neck, and spine, and 
 warmth to the legs and feet. A drink of hot coffee or tea, or 
 beef extract, will stimulate the weakened heart. 
 
24:6 GEADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 Broken Bones. There is no urgent need for treating a 
 broken limb before the surgeon arrives. If it is necessary to 
 move the patient, he should b carried on a board, door, or an 
 equally solid improvised stretcher, rather than loosely in the 
 arms, so as to prevent the broken limb from being moved before 
 the doctor comes. 
 
 Frost Bite Immediately rub the frozen parts with snow, 
 or apply very cold water. When they begin to sting and 
 burn, cease the rubbing. Ordinary coal oil is also an excellent 
 application for frost bite. Treatment should always take place 
 in a cold room before the frozen parts have become warm. The 
 patient should then become warm gradually. 
 
 Learn to Swim Every child should be taught to swim 
 and to float. Besides being an excellent exercise in and of 
 itself, swimming is an accomplishment that may be of service 
 in saving the lives of others. A cool-headed, expert swimmer 
 may save a boat-load of people. 
 
 Treatment of the Drowned [As given in Bulletin 14, 
 Michigan Board of Health.] Three things to be done : Eestore 
 breathing; restore animal heat; restore the circulation of the 
 blood. 
 
 EULE 1. Remove all obstructions to 'breathing. INSTANTLY 
 loosen or cut apart all neck or waist bands; turn the patient 
 on his face, with the head down hill ; stand astride the hips 
 with your face towards his head, and locking your fingers 
 together under his body, raise it as high as you can without 
 lifting the forehead off the ground (Fig. 73), and give the body 
 a quick jerk to remove mucus from the throat and water from 
 the windpipe; hold the body suspended long enough to slowly 
 
FIRST AID TO THE INJURED. 
 
 247 
 
 count ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, repeating the jerk more 
 gently two or three times. Then act by Rule 2. 
 
 RULE 2. Keep the patient face downward, and maintaining 
 all the while your position astride the body, grasp the points 
 of the shoulders by the clothing, or, if the body is naked, 
 thrust your fingers into the armpits, clasping your thumbs over 
 
 FIGURE 73. Resuscitation from Drowning. (Position 1.) 
 
 the points of the shoulders, and raise the chest as high as you 
 can (Fig. 74) without lifting the head quite off the ground, and 
 hold it long enough to slowly count ONE, TWO, THREE. Replace 
 him on the ground, with his forehead on his flexed arm, the 
 neck straightened out, and the mouth and nose free. Place 
 your elbows against your knees, and your hands upon the sides 
 of his chest (Fig. 75) over the lower ribs, and press downward 
 and inward with increasing force long enough to slowly count 
 ONE, TWO. Suddenly let go, grasp the shoulders as before, and 
 raise the chest (Fig. 74); then press upon the ribs (Fig, 75). 
 
248 
 
 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 These alternate movements should be repeated ten to fifteen 
 times a minute for an hour at least, unless breathing is restored 
 sooner. Use the same regularity as in natural breathing. 
 
 Do NOT GIVE UP TOO SOON. You are working for life. Any 
 
 FIGURE 74. Resuscitation from Drowning. (Position 2.) 
 
 time within two hours you may be on the very threshold of 
 success without there being any sign of it. 
 
 RULE 3. After breathing has commenced, KESTORE THE 
 ANIMAL HEAT. Wrap him in warm blankets, apply bottles of 
 hot water, hot bricks, or anything to restore heat. Warm the 
 head nearly as fast as the body, lest convulsions come on. Rub- 
 bing the body with warm cloths or the hand, and slapping the 
 fleshy parts may assist to restore warmth, the circulation of the 
 blood, and the breathing also. The rubbing of the limbs should 
 always be from the extremities toward the body. If the patient 
 
FIRST AID TO THE INJURED. 
 
 249 
 
 can SURELY swallow, give hot coffee, tea, or milk. Place the 
 patient in a warm bed, and give him plenty of fresh air; keep 
 him quiet. 
 
 Beware! Avoid Delay A MOMENT may turn the scale 
 for life and death. Dry ground, shelter, warmth, or stimu- 
 lants, at this moment are nothing ARTIFICIAL BREATHING is 
 EVERYTHING is the ONE REMEDY all others are secondary. 
 
 FIGURE 75. Resuscitation from Drowning. (Position 3.) 
 
 Do not stop to remove wet clothing. Precious time is wasted 
 and the patient may be fatally chilled by exposure of the naked 
 body, even in summer. Give all your attention and effort to 
 restore breathing by forcing air into and out of the lungs. If 
 the breathing has just ceased, a smart slap on the face, or a 
 vigorous twist of the hair will sometimes start it again, and 
 may be tried incidentally, as may also pressing the finger upon 
 the root of the tongue. 
 
 Before natural breathing is fully restored, do not let the 
 patient lie on his back unless some person holds the tongue 
 forward. The tongue by falling back may close the windpipe, 
 and cause fatal choking. 
 
250 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 If several persons are present, one may hold the head 
 steady, keeping the neck nearly straight ; others may remove 
 wet clothing, substituting at oiice clothing which is dry and 
 warm; they may also chafe the limbs, rubbing toward the 
 body, and thus promote the circulation. 
 
 Prevent persons from crowding around' the patient and 
 excluding fresh air; also from trying to give stimulants before 
 the patient can swallow. The first causes suffocation; the 
 second, fatal choking. 
 
 Poisons. A few of the common drugs kept about the 
 house are more or less poisonous. The proper antidote for 
 each poison kept in the house should be known. It is a good 
 rule to procure, at the time any poison is purchased, the best 
 antidote for that poison. When a person has taken poison^ 
 three things are to be accomplished; (1) to get rid of the 
 poison; (2) to neutralize what remains in the system; (3) to 
 remedy the effect already produced. 
 
 Whenever it is suspected that a poison has been swallowed, 
 an emetic should be given. The most common emetic is mus- 
 tard; mix a tablespoonful with a cup of warm water; give half 
 of this mixture, and in a few moments give the remainder. 
 Compel the patient to drink large quantities of warm water. 
 Provoke vomiting by putting the finger or a teaspoon at the 
 back of the throat. If mustard is not at hand, use a strong 
 solution* of common salt or alum. After the vomiting it is 
 well to give a glass of milk, in which are the well-beaten whites 
 of two eggs. It must be remembered that these suggestions 
 are given as directions until the doctor arrives. A physician 
 should always be summoned because of the necessary after- 
 treatment. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SELECTED READINGS FOE REVIEW STUDY. 
 
 The study of literature in the school grades is a distinctive feature 
 marking the advance and improvement of the last ten years. One 
 result of this reading and study of good literature is that every school 
 child knows Oliver Wendell Holmes as a famous American poet, es- 
 sayist, and novelist. But because of his literary glory his achievements 
 in physiology and medicine are quite generally forgotten. For thirty- 
 five years he was actively engaged as a teacher of anatomy and physi- 
 ology in the Medical School of Harvard University. The following 
 selections were made for you to read and study, not merely for their 
 literary excellence, but more particularly for the aid they will give you 
 in reviewing the general subjects of physiology and hygiene. You 
 should carefully read each of these selections as a whole, and then 
 study each paragraph with special reference to its teachings of anatomy, 
 physiology and hygiene. The stanzas at the close are taken from his 
 poem " The Living Temple," sometimes referred to by the author as 
 " The Anatomist's Hymn." 
 
 The body may be studied as the geographer studies the 
 earth, or as the geologist studies it. A surgeon who is to 
 operate upon any part must make a very careful study of its 
 geography. A very slight deviation of his knife may be the 
 death of his patient. 
 
 But the geology of the body, the list of anatomical elements into 
 which the microscope easily resolves it, is quite another matter. 
 
 A slight prick of the finger with a cambric needle supplies 
 a point, not a drop, of blood, which we spread on a slip of glass, 
 
 251 
 
252 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 cover with another much thinner piece of glass, and look at in 
 the microscope. You see a vast number of flattened disks 
 rolling around in a clear fluid, o,r piled in columns like rouleaux 
 of coin. Each of these is about one-fiftieth of the diameter of 
 the dot over this i, or the period at the end of this sentence, as 
 it will be seen in fine print. You have many millions of them 
 circulating in your body, I am almost afraid to say how many 
 by calculation. Here and there is a pearly looking globule, a 
 little larger than one of the disks. These are the red and the 
 white blood corpuscles, which are carried along by the pale 
 fluid to which the red ones give its color, as the grains of sand 
 are whirled along with a rapid torrent. The blood, then, you 
 see, is not like red ink, but more like water with red and 
 white currants, one of the latter to some hundreds of the for- 
 mer, floating in it, not dissolved in it. 
 
 The solids of the body are made up chiefly of cells or par- 
 ticles originally rounded, often more or less altered in form, or 
 of fibers. Here is a minute scrap of fat, half as large as the 
 head of a pin, perhaps. You see in the microscope that it con- 
 sists of a group of little vescicles, or cells, looking like minia- 
 ture soap-bubbles. That part of the brain with which we 
 think is made up of cells of a different aspect. They are 
 granular instead of being clear like the fat cells. Each of 
 them has a little spot upon it called the nucleus, and that has 
 a smaller spot called the nucleolus. 
 
 Now let us examine some fibers. These fine, wavy threads 
 are the material employed by nature for a larger variety of 
 purposes than any other anatomical element. They look like 
 silk floss as you see them here. But they take many aspects. 
 
SELECTED READINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY. 253 
 
 Made into bands and cords they tie the joints as ligaments, 
 and form the attachments of muscles as tendons. Woven into 
 dense membranes they wrap the limbs in firm envelopes, 
 sheathing each separate muscle, and binding the whole muscles 
 of a part in a common covering. Shaped into stout bags they 
 furnish protections for the brain, the heart, the eye, and other 
 organs. In looser masses they form the packing of all the 
 delicate machinery of life, separating the parts from each other, 
 and yet uniting them as a whole, much as the cement at once 
 separates and unites the stones or bricks of a wall, or more 
 nearly as the cotton-wool packs the fragile articles it is used to 
 protect. 
 
 The muscles are the servants of the brain. To each bundle 
 of them runs a nervous telegraphic cord, which compels it to 
 every act good or bad which it does, to every word right or 
 wrong which it utters. Your muscles will murder as readily as 
 they will embrace a fellow-creature. They will curse as will- 
 ingly as they will bless, if your brain telegraphs them to do it. 
 Your red flesh has no more conscience or compassion than a 
 tiger's or a hyena's. 
 
 We look at a bit of nerve in the microscope. It seems at 
 first as if it were simply fibrous, but examining it we see that 
 each fiber is a tube, with thick walls and a kind of pith in its 
 center looking something like a thermometer-tube with trans- 
 parent contents. Through these canals flows in the knowledge 
 of all that is outside ourselves, nay, of our own bodies, to our 
 consciousness, which has its seat in those granular spotted cells 
 of the brain before mentioned. Through these stream forth 
 also from the brain-cells the mandates of the will. 
 
254 GEADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 The bones are more than half mineral substance, h'me being 
 their basis. Our earthly house of this tabernacle is built upon 
 a rock. The teeth are still more largely mineral in their com- 
 position, yet both bones and teeth are penetrated by canals 
 which carry nourishment through their substance. 
 
 We cannot use our bodies in any manner, without wearing 
 away some portions of them, or so far deteriorating those por- 
 tions that they become unfit for their duties. These must 
 therefore be got rid of and their place supplied with fresh mate- 
 rials. It is obvious, then, that we change our bodies as we 
 change our clothes. A strong man leading an active life takes 
 between two and three pounds of dry food daily, and five or six 
 of liquids. He receives into his lungs between four and five 
 thousand gallons of air every twenty-four hours, of which he 
 absorbs between two and three pounds. In a year, therefore, 
 such a man takes into his system about three thousand pounds 
 of foreign material, or twenty times his own weight. That is, 
 if he weighs one hundred and fifty pounds, he has been made 
 over twenty times in the course of a year, or as often as once 
 every two or three weeks. 
 
 We are perishing and being born again at every instant. 
 "I die daily" is true of all that live. If we cease to die, parti- 
 cle by particle, and to be born anew in the same proportion, the 
 whole movement of life comes to an end; and swift, universal, 
 irreparable decay resolves our frames into the parent elements. 
 
 The products of the internal fire which consumes us over and 
 over again every year pass off mainly in smoke and steam from 
 the lungs and the skin. The smoke is invisible only because 
 the combustion is so perfect. The steam is plain enough in our 
 
SELECTED READINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY. 255 
 
 breaths on a frosty morning ; and an over-driven horse will show 
 us on a larger scale the cloud that is always arising from our 
 own bodies. 
 
 A plant must find in the soil any elements it requires, and 
 which the air does not furnish. We feed our cereals with 
 phosphate of lime, for instance, and we know that unless we 
 keep replenishing the soil it is soon exhausted of this and 
 other important constituents. So if a hen does not get lime 
 enough in her food, she lays soft or thin shelled eggs. And 
 just as certainly as a man does not get lime enough in his food 
 his bones will be liable to soften and bend under him. 
 
 These little striped fibers, which do the bidding of your 
 will, must be exercised or they will undergo a gradual change, 
 diminishing in size or in number, or perhaps being converted 
 into fat, a,nd thus substituting a burden for a force. 
 
 CONDITIONS OF HEALTH. 
 
 Methods of Heating. Open fire-places, wood or soft coal, 
 aided, if need be, by moderate furnace heat in the coldest 
 weather, are the first requisites for health, comfort, and cheer- 
 fulness. Even heating by steam or hot water is no substitute 
 for the blaze of the open fire-place and the brisk circulation of 
 air kept up by the breathing passage of a room its chimney. 
 
 Sunlight. Warmth, however, and an atmosphere contain- 
 ing a due amount of moisture, are not enough to secure health 
 without insuring the daily presence of a sufficient amount of 
 light. The dark side of a street is far more subject to disease 
 than the light side. Sir James Wylie found three times as 
 
256 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 many cases of disease on the shaded side of the barracks at St. 
 Petersburg as on the other side. 
 
 Ventilation. The air we breathe is the next point to be 
 touched upon. If we inspire and expire forty hogsheads of air 
 a day, rob it of some pounds of oxygen, and load it with other 
 pounds of carbonic acid gas, we must need a^very large supply 
 for our daily use. The ventilation of buildings, public and 
 private, is accomplished easily and safely enough if people will 
 take the pains and spend the money. Yet it is sadly neglected 
 by those who spare no trouble and expense for luxuries much 
 less important. 
 
 Air and Water are, of course, the principal substances on 
 which we feed. From these we get our supplies of oxygen 
 and hydrogen. Why not of nitrogen, as four-fifths of the air 
 consist of that gas ? Thirty hogsheads of nitrogen pass in and 
 out of our lungs daily, and yet it can hardly be shown that we 
 take toll of it to the amount of a cubic inch. We are all our 
 lives soaking in a great serial ocean made up chiefly of nitrogen, 
 and we shall die of nitrogen famine if we do not have a portion 
 of it supplied to us in our solid or our liquid food. 
 
 " Water, water everywhere, 
 And not a drop to drink." 
 
 Nitrogen from Foods We get our nitrogen from the cereals 
 that furnish our bread, from peas and beans, from milk, cheese, 
 and from animal food, except its fatty portions. We cannot 
 take carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, lime, chlorine, iron, potash, 
 soda, in their simple forms; but they are contained in the 
 plants and in the flesh that form our common diet, or in the 
 
SELECTED READINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY. 257 
 
 water we drink, or, as in the case of salt, supplied as condiments. 
 The body is a soil capable of being improved by adding the 
 elements in which it is deficient as much as farming or garden 
 land. The cook makes our bodies, the apothecary only cobbles 
 them. 
 
 Alcohol and Narcotics. All alcoholic drinks have certain 
 effects in common ; that is, all affect the brain more or less. A 
 single glass of lager beer changes the current of thought and 
 the tone of feeling in a person not in the habit of using stimu- 
 lants. But alcoholic drinks differ entirely from each other in 
 some of their effects. Champagne, beer, gin, brandy are all 
 well known to produce influences on particular functions, in 
 addition to their action on the brain, w^hich again is by no 
 means identical in all these liquors. The experience of those 
 who train for athletic sports has abundantly shown that alco- 
 holic drinks and narcotics form no part of a regimen meant to 
 insure the best physical condition. 
 
 Coffee, in excess, produces heat, headache, tremors, wake- 
 fulness, and a kind of half insane disconnection in the association 
 of ideas. 
 
 Tea, in excess, is liable to cause wakefulness and palpita- 
 tions. The heart tumbles about in a very alarming way 
 sometimes, under its influence. 
 
 Tobacco. A danger to which smokers are exposed is injury 
 to the temper, through the increased irritability which the 
 practice is apt to produce, and to the will which it is powerful 
 to subjugate. This habit introduces into the conduct of life 
 one of the most imperious forms of self-indulgence known to 
 
 experience. Our state prison convicts are said to pine for 
 17 
 
258 GEADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 their tobacco more than any other luxury of freedom. The 
 amount of duty unperformed, or postponed, or slighted, in 
 obedience to the craving for the, narcotic stimulant, must form 
 a large item in the list of the many things left undone which 
 ought to have been done. Carry the use of the strange herb a 
 little further, and the partial palsy of the wil} extends to other 
 functions. The sense of vision is one of the first points where 
 the further encroachment of the drug shows itself. Many 
 cases of loss of power in the nerve of the eye are traced to the 
 free use of tobacco. Some hard smokers are great workers as 
 we all know, but few who have watched the effects of nicoti- 
 zation on will land character would deny that it handicaps a 
 man, and often pretty heavily, in the race for distinction. 
 
 Clothing. We may learn a lesson in the matter of cloth- 
 ing from the trainers and jockeys. They blanket their horses 
 carefully after exercise. We come in heated and throw off our 
 outside clothing. Why should not a man be cared for as well 
 as Flora Temple or Dexter? 
 
 Exercise. It is by no means so easy to lay down precise 
 rules about exercise, as many at first thought suppose. When 
 one is told to walk two or four hours daily, it seems as if the 
 measure of time was the measure of work to be done. But 
 one person weighs a hundred pounds and a little over, a large 
 part of it muscle, which does not feel its own weight; and 
 another person weighs two hundred and fifty pounds, three- 
 quarters of it inert matter, nearly as hard to carry as if it were 
 packed in boxes and bundles. 
 
 Two points deserve special attention connected with exer- 
 cise the aeration of the blood and its distribution. Exercise 
 
SELECTED HEADINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY. 259 
 
 drives it more rapidly through the lungs and quickens the breath- 
 ing in proportion. You will see persons, not in love, so far as 
 known, who sigh heavily from time to time. It is simply to 
 make up arrears of their languid respiration, which leaves the 
 blood over-carbonated and under-oxygenated. A deep breath 
 sets it right for the moment, as the payment of a long bill 
 disposes of many petty charges that have been accumulating. 
 
 During exercise the muscles want blood, and suck it up 
 like so many sponges. But when the brain is working, that 
 wants blood, and when the stomach is digesting, that wants 
 blood, and so of other organs. 
 
 The effects of prolonged training on the after-conditions of 
 the subject have often been questioned. The recent death of 
 Chambers, the rowing champion of England, of consumption, 
 has called attention anew to the matter. Dr. Hope has pointed 
 out the danger of bringing on disease of the heart by over- 
 exertions in boat races and Alpine excursions. When a young 
 man strains himself in a rowing match until he grows black in 
 the face, he is putting his circulating and breathing organs to 
 the hazard of injuries that are liable to outlast the memory of 
 all his brief triumphs. "It is the pace that kills," is an axiom 
 as applicable to men as to horses. From essay on " Care and 
 Management of the Human Body." 
 
 Our brains are seventy-year clocks. The Angel of Life 
 winds them up once for all, then closes the case and gives the 
 key into the hand of the Angel of the Resurrection. 
 
 Tic-tac! tic-tac! go the wheels of thought; our will cannot 
 stop them; they cannot stop themselves; sleep cannot still 
 
260 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 them; madness only makes them go faster; death alone 
 can break into the case, and seizing the ever-swinging pendu- 
 lum which we call the heart, sjlence at last the clicking of 
 the terrible escapement we have carried so long beneath our 
 wrinkled foreheads. If we could only get at them, as we lie 
 on our pillows, and count the dead beats <j>f thought after 
 thought and image after image jarring through the overtired 
 organ ! 
 
 Unless the will maintain a certain control over these move- 
 ments which it cannot stop, but can to some extent regulate, 
 men are very apt to try to get at the machine by some indirect 
 system of leverage or other. They clap on the brakes by 
 means of opium ; they change the maddening monotony of the 
 rhythm by means of fermented liquors. It is because the brain 
 is locked up and we cannot touch its movement directly that 
 we thrust these coarse tools in through any crevice, by which 
 they may reach the interior, and so alter its rate of going for a 
 while, and at last spoil the machine. 
 
 ******* 
 
 I think you will find it true that, before any vice can fasten 
 on a man, body, mind or moral nature must be debilitated. 
 The mosses and fungi gather on sickly trees, not thriving ones ; 
 and the odious parasites which fasten on the human frame 
 choose that which is already enfeebled. Mr. Walker, the 
 hygeian humorist, declared that he had such a healthy skin 
 it was impossible for any impurity to stick to it, and main- 
 tained that it was an absurdity to wash a face which was 
 of necessity always clean. I don't know how much fancy 
 there was in this ; but there is no fancy in saying that the 
 
SELECTED READINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY. 261 
 
 lassitude of tired-out operatives, and the languor of imaginative 
 natures in their periods of collapse, and the vacuity of minds 
 untrained to labor and discipline, fit the soul and body for the 
 germination of the seeds of intemperance. 
 
 Whenever the wandering demon of drunkenness finds a 
 ship adrift no steady wind in its sails, no thoughtful pilot 
 directing its course he steps on board, takes the helm, and 
 steers straight for the maelstrom. 
 
 ******* 
 
 I do not advise you, young man, to consecrate the flower of 
 your life to painting the bowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, 
 the stain of a reverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than 
 you think for. I have seen the green leaf of early promise 
 grow brown before its time under such nicotian regimen, and 
 thought the umbered meerschaum was dearly bought at the 
 cost of a brain enfeebled and a will enslaved. 
 
 ******* 
 
 The pleasure of exercise is due first to a purely physical 
 impression, and secondly to a sense of power in action. The 
 first source^of pleasure varies, of course, with our condition and 
 the state of the surrounding circumstances; the second with 
 the amount and kind of power, and the extent and kind of 
 action. In all forms of active exercise there are three powers 
 simultaneously in action the will, the muscles, and the 
 intellect. Each of these predominates in different kinds of 
 exercise. In walking the will and muscles are so accustomed 
 to work together and perform their task with so 4ittle expendi- 
 ture of force, that the intellect is left comparatively free. The 
 mental pleasure in walking, as such, is in the sense of power 
 
262 GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 over all our moving machinery. But in riding I have the 
 additional pleasure of governing another's will, and my muscles 
 extend to the tips of the animal's ears and to his four hoofs, 
 instead of stopping at my hands and feet. Now in this 
 extension of my volition and my physical frame into another 
 animal, my tyrannical instincts and my desire for heroic 
 strength are at once gratified. When the horse ceases to 
 have a will of his own, and his muscles require no special 
 attention on your part, then you may live on horseback as 
 Wesley did, and write sermons or take naps, as you like. But 
 you will observe that in riding on horseback you always have 
 a feeling that, after all, it is not you that do the work, but the 
 animal, and this prevents the satisfaction from being complete. 
 
 But if your blood wants rousing, turn round that stake in 
 the river which you see a mile from here, and when you come 
 in in sixteen minutes (if you do, for we are old boys and not 
 champion scullers you remember), then say if you begin to feel 
 a little warmed up or not ! You can row easily and gently all 
 day, and you can row yourself blind and black in the face in ten 
 minutes, just as you like. It has been long agreed, that there 
 is no way in which a man can accomplish so much labor with 
 his muscles as in rowing. 
 
 We have a few good boatmen no good horsemen that I 
 hear of I cannot speak for cricketing, but as for any great 
 athletic feat performed by a gentleman in these latitudes, 
 society would drop a man who should run around the Common 
 in five minutes. Some of our amateur fencers, single-stick 
 players, and boxers, we have no reason to be ashamed of. 
 Boxing is rough play, but not too rough for a hearty, young 
 
SELECTED READINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY. 263 
 
 fellow. Anything is better than this white-blooded degenera- 
 tion to which we all tend. From " The Autocrat of the 
 Breakfast Talk." 
 
 There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's 
 life : brain, blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light 
 goes out, followed by both the others. Stop the heart a 
 minute, and out go all three of the wicks. Choke the air out 
 of the lungs, and presently the fluid ceases to supply the other 
 centers of flame, and all is soon stagnation, cold, and darkness. 
 The "tripod" of life a French physiologist called these three 
 organs. From " The Professor at the Breakfast Table? 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 The smooth, soft air, with pulse-like waves, 
 Flows murmuring through its hidden caves, 
 Whose streams of brightening purple rush, 
 Fired with a new and livelier blush, 
 While all their burden of decay 
 The ebbing current steals away, 
 And red with Nature's flame they start 
 From the warm fountains of the heart. 
 
 No rest that throbbing slave may ask, 
 Forever quivering o'er his task, 
 While far and wide a crimson jet 
 Leaps forth to fill the woven net 
 Which in unnumbered crossing tides 
 The flood of burning life divides, 
 Then, kindling each decaying part, 
 Creeps back to find the throbbing heart. 
 
GRADED LESSONS IN HYGIENE. 
 
 But warmed with that unchanging flame 
 Behold the outward moving frame, 
 Its living marbles jointed strong 
 With glistening bancTand silvery thong, 
 And linked to reason's guiding reins 
 By myriad rings in trembling chains, 
 Each graven with the threaded zone . 
 Which claims it as the master's own. 
 
 See how yon beam of seeming white 
 Is braided out of seven-hued light, 
 Yet in those lucid globes no ray 
 By any chance shall break astray. 
 Hark how the rolling surge of sound 
 Arches and spirals circling round, 
 Wakes the hushed spirit through thine ear 
 With music it is heaven to hear. 
 
 Then mark the cloven sphere that holds 
 All thought in its mysterious folds, 
 That feels sensation's faintest thrill, 
 And flashes forth the sovereign will ; 
 Think on the stormy world that dwells 
 Locked in its dim and clustering cells ! 
 The lightning gleam of power it sheds 
 Along its hollow, glassy threads 1 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abdomen, 128. 
 Absorption of food, 20. 
 Adenoid growths, 137. 
 Adjustable seats, 91 
 Adulteration of food, 38-41, 53. 
 AID TO THE INJURED, Chapter XVII. 
 Air, 135. 
 cellar, 139. 
 
 composition of inhaled and exhaled, 136. 
 foul, 139. 
 
 in breathing, 135. 
 sacs, 127. 
 Alcohol. 
 
 and physical training, 60, 
 as a heat producer, 58. 
 as a stimulant, 59. 
 does it create energy, 59. 
 does it build tissue, 59. 
 effect on, blood, 216. 
 brain, 172-175. 
 character, 172. 
 eyes, 215. 
 hearing, 215. 
 heart, 124, 216. 
 kidneys, 214. 
 liver, 214. 
 lungs, 216. 
 mind, 210. 
 muscles, 106, 215. 
 nerves, 172-175, 215, 
 skin, 214. 
 stomach, 214,, 
 will, 213. 
 is it a food, 58. 
 physical effects, 60. 
 as a poison, 60. 
 Aneurism, 124. 
 Antitoxin in diphtheria 202, 
 Animal foods, 30-33. 
 Anvil, 188. 
 Aqueous humor, 178. 
 Arteries, 110. 
 Asphyxia, 140. 
 Asthma, 132. 
 Auricle, 114. 
 
 Bacteria, 196. 
 Baseball. 231-232. 
 
 Bathing, 73. 
 Bee stings, 245. 
 Bile, 17. 
 Bleeding. 
 
 from artery* 243. 
 
 from nose, 243. 
 
 from veins, 204, 244. 
 Blind spot, 180. 
 BLOOD, Chapter VIII. 
 
 artificial and venous compared, 113. 
 
 circulation, 109. 
 
 corpuscles, 108. 
 BONES, Chapter VI. 
 
 arms, 84. 
 
 broken, 92. 
 Bones, composition, 87. 
 
 framework, 80, 81. 
 
 legs, 84. 
 
 shape, 82. 
 
 skull, 83. 
 
 strength, 83. 
 
 trunk, 83. 
 BRAIN, Chapter X 
 
 a center, 159. 
 
 description 149. 
 
 divisions, 154. 
 
 education of the whole, 157-159. 
 
 gray matter, 149. 
 healt 
 
 lthy body and, 174. 
 
 location of functions, 155. 
 
 of Gauss, 152 
 
 rest, 166. 
 
 size, 152. 
 
 White matter, 149 
 BREATHING, Chapter IX. 
 
 restoring, 246-250. 
 Bronchial tubes, 127, 131. 
 Burning clothing, 245. 
 Burns, 245. 
 
 Capillaries, 111. 
 Carbohydrate foods, 44. 
 Cataract, 178. 
 Cartilage, 86. 
 Cerebellum, 154. 
 
 work, 159. 
 Cerebrum, 154. 
 
 work of, 155, 156. 
 
 265 
 
266 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Character, 172. 
 Chest, 84, 128. 
 
 sounds, 132. 
 Chloral, 211. 
 Choking, 242. 
 Choroid Coat, 175. 
 Cleanliness of school rooms, 144. 
 Clothing, 75. 
 Coal gas, 139. 
 Cocaine, 211. 
 Cochlea, 189. 
 Coffee, 52. 
 
 adulteration of, 53. 
 Colds, 69. 
 
 danger from, 79. 
 Colon, 16. 
 
 Convolutions and intelligence, 152, 153 
 Cooking, 37. 
 Cornea, 176. 
 Corpuscles, 108. 
 Croup, 131. 
 
 Defective hearing, 191. 
 Delirium Tremens, 211. 
 Dermis, G6. 
 Diaphragm, 128. 
 DIGESTION, Chapters I. and II. 
 
 cheer aids, 15. 
 
 in animals, 22. 
 
 intestinal, 15. 
 
 mouth, 13. 
 
 stomach, 14. 
 
 time required, 36. 
 Diphtheria, 131. 197, 202. 
 Dipsomania, 210. 
 DISEASE GERMS, Chapter XIV. 
 
 Asiatic cholera, 197. 
 
 conditions favoring, 198. 
 
 consumption, 197. 
 
 danger of, 197. 
 
 erysipelas, 197. 
 
 how to destroy, 201. 
 
 how transmitted, 199. 
 
 in water, 49. 
 
 pneumonia, 197. 
 
 time required, 199. 
 
 typhoid fever, 197. 
 Diseases due to alcohol and narcotics, 205- 
 
 212. 
 
 Disinfectants, 203. 
 Dreams, 170. 
 DRINKS, Chapter III. 
 
 tea and coffee, 52. 
 
 water, 52. 
 Dropsy, 122. 
 Drowning, 246-249. 
 Dullness, 191. 
 Dust, 140. 
 
 EAR, Chapter XIL 
 care, 189-191. 
 
 Ear, cochlea, 189. 
 
 drum, 187. 
 
 external, 186. 
 
 foreign bodies in, 244. 
 
 inner, 189. 
 
 middle, 187. 
 
 parts, 186. 
 
 semi-circular canals, 189. 
 
 vestibule, 189. 
 
 wax, 186. 
 Epidermis, 65. 
 Epiglottis, 133. 
 EYES, Chapter Xf . 
 
 adjustment, 176. 
 
 crossed, 178, 179. 
 
 description, 175, 176. 
 
 foreign bodies in, 244. 
 
 lens, 177. 
 
 movements, 178. 
 
 parts, 176, 177. 
 Esophagus, 14, 20. 
 Eustachian tube, 188. 
 EXERCISS, Chapter XVI. 
 
 according to development, 228. 
 
 for girls, 234. 
 Exercise, general suggestions, 236. 
 
 kinds. 234. 
 
 necessary for health, 102, 228. 
 
 physical, 230. 
 Exercises suitable, 
 
 six to nine, 229. 
 
 nine to fourteen, 230. 
 
 fourteen to 20, 232. 
 
 twenty to thirty, 233. 
 Expiration, 129. 
 
 Face Powder, 75. 
 Fainting, 120. 242.. 
 Fatigue poison, 165. 
 Far-sightedness, 179. 
 FOOD, Chapters I. and II. 
 adulteration, 38-41, 53. 
 amount, 10, 25, 27. 
 animal, 30-33. 
 
 butter, 31. 
 
 compared with vegetable s 33. 
 
 cheese, 31. 
 
 eggs, 32. 
 
 meats, 32. 
 
 milk, 30. 
 as fuel, 26. 
 cooking, 12, 37. 
 definition, 28. 
 diseased, 41. 
 elements, 43. 
 harmful, 42. 
 kinds, 23, 24. 
 mineral, 28-30. 
 of different countries, 24. 
 selection, 11. 
 uses, 10. 
 vegetables, 34-36. 
 
 bread, 34. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 267 
 
 Food, candy and preserves, 36. 
 
 fruits, 35. 
 
 green foods, 29, 34. 
 Football, 235. 
 
 Gall bladder, 17. 
 Gastric juice, 14. 
 Gymnastics and games, 233. 
 
 Habit, 170-172. 
 
 Hair. 70. 
 
 Hammer, 188. 
 
 Hand and foot compared, 85, 
 
 Hang-nails, 71. 
 
 Headaches. 
 
 school, 163. 
 
 from poor blood supply, 163. 
 
 from indigestion, 164. 
 
 from fatigue poison, I65o 
 
 from ear disease, 165. 
 
 from eye strain, 165. 
 Hearing center, 155, 156. 
 Heart, 114. 
 
 course of blood through, 115 
 
 effect of alcohol, 124. 
 
 effect of mental action, 119. 
 Heart position, 114. 
 
 beats, 116,119. 
 cause, 116. 
 in fever, 119. 
 rapidity, 118. 
 rests, 117, 118. 
 
 sounds, 120. 
 
 work and rest, 117. 
 Heat. 
 
 bodily, 25-27. 134. 
 
 lowering, 27. 
 Hurnerus, 84. 
 
 Improper positions, 89, 92. 
 Insect stings, 245. 
 Inspiration, 129, 
 Intemperance, 54-60. 
 Intestinal juice, 16. 
 Intestines. 
 
 large, 16. 
 
 movements, 19. 
 
 small, 16. 
 Iris, 176. 
 
 Joints, 86. 
 
 KIDNEYS, Chapter V. 
 healthy, 78. 
 structure, 77. 
 work, 77. 
 
 Larynx, 132. 
 
 Lead and zinc poisoning 51. 212. 
 
 Liver, 17. 
 
 Lungs, 125. 
 
 structure, 127. 
 Lymph, 122, 123. 
 Lymphatics, 121. 
 
 Malaria, 140. 
 Marrow, 82, 
 Massage, 124. 
 Medulla, 159. 
 Mineral foods, 28-30. 
 Mineral waters, 51. 
 Morphine, 212, 
 Motion, 99, 100. 
 Mouth-breathing, 136. 
 MUSCLES, Chapter VII. 
 
 effect of alcohol, 106. 
 
 effect of inactivity. 105. 
 
 fastenings, 98. 
 
 how they act, 97. 
 
 how to strengthen, 100. 
 
 involuntary, 106. 
 
 number and shape, 96. 
 
 structure of, 96, 97. 
 
 voluntary, 106. 
 
 Nails, 71. 
 
 Narcotics, 211, 213, Chapter IV. 
 
 Near-sightedness, 179. 
 
 Nerve fibers, 161. 
 
 Nerve messages, 148. 
 
 speed, 162. 
 NERVES, Chapter X. 
 
 description, 148. 
 
 motor, 149. 
 
 sensory, 149. 
 Nervous system, 146-148. 
 
 influence of alcohol, Chapter IV,, XV 
 172-174, 
 
 parts, 149. 
 Nostrils, 130. 
 
 foreign bodies in, 244. 
 
 One boy's debt, 138. 
 Oil glands, 69. 
 Opium, 212. 
 Oxygen, 134, 135. 
 
 Pancreas, 16. 
 Pancreatic juice, 16. 
 Partial starvation, 43-45. 
 Periosteum, 87. 
 Pharynx, 127. 
 Plasma, 108. 
 Pleura, 134. 
 Pneumonia, 132, 197. 
 Poisons, 250. 
 
 Poor print and eyes, 182> 
 Pores, 67. 
 
 Prisoner's base, 231. 
 Pulse, 119. 
 Pupil of eye, 176. 
 Pylorus, 14. 
 
 Race-tag, 230. 
 Retina, 176. 
 Rest, 103, 166-168. 
 Round shoulders, 104. 
 
268 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Saliva, 13. 
 
 Salt, 28, 29. 
 
 Sclerotic coat, 175. 
 
 Seats and desks, 90. 
 
 SELECTED READINGS FOR REVIEW STUDY, 
 
 Chapter XV11I. 
 Sewer gas, 140. 
 SIGHT, Chapter XI. 
 Skeleton, 81. 
 SKIN, Chapter V. 
 
 a fair, 74. 
 
 coloring matter, 66. 
 
 glands, 66. 
 
 layers, 64. 
 
 pores, 68. 
 
 uses, 72. 
 Sleep, 168, 169. 
 Soft Palate, 130. 
 SOME DISEASES OF MODERN LIFE, Chapter 
 
 XV. 
 
 Spectacles, 179. 
 Speech center, 156. 
 Spinal bulb, 159. 
 Spinal cord, 160. 
 Spleen, 123. 
 Sprains, 93. 
 Stings of insects, 245. 
 STOMACH, Chapter I. 
 Suffocation, 242. 
 Sunstroke, 245. 
 Sweat glands, 66. 
 
 Tartar, 195. 
 
 Tea, 52. 
 
 Tea, adulteration of, 53. 
 
 Tears, 179. 
 
 TEMPERANCE, Chapter IV 
 
 TEETH, Chapter X1IL 
 
 care. 194, 195. 
 
 kinds, 194. 
 
 structure, 193. 
 Tendons, 99. 
 Testing vision, 183* 185. 
 Trachea, 127, 130. 
 Type, 
 
 proper size, 182. 
 
 specimens, 183. 
 Typhoid fever, 200. 
 
 Valves, 
 
 of neart> 115. 
 
 of veins, 112. 
 Vaccination, 203. 
 Vegetable food, 33-36 
 Veins, 111. 
 Ventilation, 141-143, 
 Ventricle, 114. 
 Visual center, 155, 156, 
 Vitreous humor, 177. 
 Vocal cords, 133. 
 
 Waste Products, 
 
 expulsion, 20. 
 
 where found, 19. 
 Water. 
 
 as a beverage, 52. 
 
 disease germs in, 43. 
 
 impure, 47. 
 
 pure, 47. 
 
 to purify, 51. 
 
 uses, 46. 
 
 Wells, location of, 48. 
 Windpipe, 127, 130. 
 
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