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rBHCAnrfKEULOCC

HEM.TH ICmcS

THE HEALTH SERIES

PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE

HEALTH HABITS

THE HEALTH SERIES

PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE

HEALTH HABITS
HEALTH AND CLEANLINESS

THE BODY IN HEALTH
MAKING THE MOST OF LIFE

THE HEALTH SERIES

PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE

HEALTH HABITS

M.V V^ O'SHEA

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
AUTHOR OF "DYNAMIC FACTORS IN EDUCATION," ETC.

AND

J. H. KELLOGG

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BATTLE CREEK SANITARIUM
AUTHOR OF "MAN, THE MASTERPIECE," ETC.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1921

^ All rights retervtd

•

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 19x5.

9l|» Sakf sf&t IbfSB

ft. ft. DONNELLEY & SONS COKPANY
CHICAGO

INTRODUCTION

It is the aim in " The Health Series of Physiology and
Hygiene " to present in an attractive form for pupils in the
elementary school the latest and most accurate knowledge
relating to physiology, and especially to the hygiene of
daily life. The constant effort of the authors has been to
make scientific knowledge so simple, so concrete, and so
captivating that pupils can hardly fail to take an interest
in the problems of preserving health for the purpose of
making the most of life.

Throughout the series, the aim has been kept in view
of awakening in the young a normal desire to live in
such a manner as to develop strength and preserve health,
because in this way the individual will have the greatest
success in securing the things which he desires, and in
avoiding the disabilities and pains which otherwise are
likely to occupy a considerable part of his life. Compara-
tively little attention is given to anatomy, and only suffi-
cient physiology is presented to constitute a basis for the
facts of health which are discussed.

Very extensive use is made of photographs and diagrams
illustrating every-day life in the city and in the country.
There is at least one interesting and practical original
exercise suggested for every principle of health presented

vi INTRODUCTION

in any lesson, and it is the plan that each pupil should
work out each exercise and report upon it during the reci-
tation period. In order further to assist the teacher and
the pupil, a list of questions, fully covering the text, has
been given at the end of each chapter.

PREFACE

This first book of the " Health Series of Physiology
and Hygiene " will not be found too difficult for children in
the lower^-interniediate grades of the elementary school.
The purpose of the book is to lead young pupils to see
that their habits of living determine whether they shall be
sick or well much of the time and whether or not they will
have strength to do the various things which they want to
accomplish.

In the preparation of the book, the authors have studied
the typical child from nine to twelve years of age in his
daily life. They have noted his tendencies in matters in-
volving health, and they have studied particularly his prob-
lems in adapting himself to present-day conditions in the
country and in the city. These observations have suggested
the subjects pertaining to health which will interest a child
and which will be of practical value for him in every-day
life. These are the subjects which are discussed in this book.

The authors have further studied children in respect to
their attitude toward different methods of presenting facts
of health, with a view to determining the child's habits. They
have found that the typical child is not much influenced by
exhortations simply to live in a healthful way ; but he is
deeply influenced by everything which promises to increase
his energy for his games and plays and which will help him

viii PREFACE

to avoid the pains and sickness. These, he knows, deprive
him of the opportunities he craves to be in action all the time
and to succeed as well as his rivals in all his undertakings.
These traits of children have determined the manner in which
the facts and principles in this book have been treated.

The aim throughout has been (i) to use the simplest
and most concrete terms ; (2) to develop the meaning for
any new term before it is given ; (3) to illustrate every prin-
ciple of health by familiar examples and by photographs
and drawings ; and (4) to have the young become self-
helpful in solving practical problems relating to health
habits. In order to assist the pupil to keep the points
being discussed in mind, marginal headings have been
freely used. Lists of questions have been appended to each
chapter for the use both of the pupil and the teacher.
Hard words are pronounced at the end of the book, and an
index has been added so that any one may quickly find any
topic in which he may be interested.

CONTENTS

Work

CBAPTER

I. What Good Health Means

II. Health Habits .

III. Good Posture in Standing

IV. Good Posture in Sitting .
V. Good Posture in Exercise and

VI. Health and Exercise

VII. Health and Play

VIII. Sound Hearts and Good Blood

IX. Outdoor Life

X. Fresh Air Indoors

XI. Health Habits in Breathing

XII. Health Habits in Sleeping

XIII. Health Habits in Eating .

XIV. Health Habits in Drinking
XV. The Choice and Preparation of Food

XVI. The Care of the Mouth .

XVII. The Care of the Skin

XVIII. Clothing the Body .

XIX. Protecting the Body's Health

PAGB
I

93
106

117

130

141

162
181
192

HEALTH HABITS

CHAPTER I

What Good Health Means

When a person is in good health, his whole body is
in fine working order. He feels no pains, it pays to
aches, lameness, or laziness. He feels full of iiave good
life and vigor. A boy I know said recently ^®^*^-
that he felt "fine and good all over, and ready for
anything that came along.''

When one does not have good health, the trouble
is generally due to lack of proper care of the body,
either on the person's own part, or on the part of some
one else.

The rose gardener, who every week in the warm
weather loosens the soil about his plants, waters them,
weeds them, and keeps them free from insects, will
have larger and more beautiful blossoms than if he
simply left the roses to do the best they could without
any care. His bushes will become so strong and
hardy that they can endure the frost and the cold
when the winter season comes round. But if they
were neglected, they would die rapidly.

Any one who takes pains to give his body the right

2 HEALTH HABITS

kind of care every day can be strong and hardy, just
as with the gardener's rose bushes. H aving good health,
one's body may become so full of life and force that
it can resist disease, as the strong rose plant can resist
the frost.

It pays to have good health. The person who has

it will build up a body able to avoid sickness. He
will not have to suffer with headache, toothache,
earache, bolls, coughs, colds, and other ills. When a
boy has something the matter with him every now and
again, he will miss many pleasures and will fall behind
in his work. Think of two people you know, one of

WHAT GOOD HEALTH MEANS 3

whom has poor health (that is, he has pains or aches
of some kind, or he cannot eat or sleep well) while the
other has good health. Surely you will find that the
latter gets more fun out of life than the former. He can
accomplish more zoiih his mind and body. He can do his
work with greater ease. He can earn more money.
He will probably live longer. He will be more cheerful

, Mary
aJcK

Which Makv would you rather be i

and happy. He can therefore give more pleasure to the'
people around him, and he will be more popular with them.
How many of the people you know have perfect
health f I once asked eight hundred young q^^^
women, students in a college, "How many of he«ithto
you feel well all the time ?" Only a few were »<»«">'"■
found who did not have some kind of ache or pain.

^^H

4 HEALTH HABITS

What do you think about the health habits of these

girls ?

Some people have good health much of the time.

Many of us have only a fair average. Ought not

every one aim for a loo %

mark in health, as well as in
other things ? It is quite
possible to live so as to keep
our health good. When Mr.
Roosevelt was President, he
asked Professorlrving Fisher,
a teacher in Yale University,

to find out how many people
in the United States were sick
from diseases that might have
been prevented. Investiga-
tion showed that there were
three million people in the
United States sick ail of the

Good health and good feel.nc

time : and that one half of

00 TOGETHER. ^[^|g nyfjiber {i,500,ooo) need

not have become ill if they, or some one else, had not

carelessly broken the laws of health.

Henry's father made him a present of a fine new

bicycle. Its wheels spun round like a top. It did not

The vaiu- tattle OF crcak. So long as Henry took good

able gift, care of his bicycle, it looked new and fine,

and was always ready to give him a good time when

he rode it. By and by, he began to neglect his

WHAT GOOD HEALTH MEANS s

bicycle. He forgot to clean and oil it. It became
rusty and dirty. It rattled as it ran. Its wheels
turned with such difficulty that it was no longer any
fun for Henry to ride it.

Our bodies are in some ways like bicycles. With
good care they serve us well, and are so full of vigor
that it is not hard to do our best in whatever we
undertake.

If some one gave you a valuable gift, would you treat
it carelessly and spoil it, as Henry did his bicycle ?
Or would you take good care of it, and keep it nice as
long as possible ? Do you not think every one ought
to take such care of his body that it will always be in
good working condition ?

Remember : It is not the weak and the sickly people
who win the race, or who have the best time, or who
do the most things that are worth while.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Think over what you did during the last summer vacation.
Count up the number of days on which no pain or ache interfered
with your work or pleasure.

2. Can you tell why you were in good health on those days ?

3. Looking forward to next summer, would you like to have
some "off" days mixed in with the others ? Why ? Give all
the reasons you can.

4. Look at the pictures of strong and of sickly children. Which
would you rather be ? Why ?

5. Do you hear people you know say sometimes that they have
a headache or toothache or earache or something of the kind ?
Could these aches be avoided, do you think ?

6 HEALTH HABITS

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How does good health make the body feel ?

2. What will good care do for the body ?

3. Will it pay any one to keep good health ? In what ways
will it pay ?

4. What loss does bad health cause ?

5. Do most people seem to have good health ?

6. Why are so many people sick much of the time ?

CHAPTER II
Health Habits

Of course you have often watched the building of
houses. Have you noticed that the foundations are
usually made of many separate blocks of j^^ f^^^^,
cement or stone, well fitted together ? Have dations of
you ever thought that if some of these blocks ^®^**^-
were left out in places, here and there, or were carelessly
laid in, the foundation would be so weakened that the
house would be in constant danger of falling down ?

One's habits of living are the foundation of good
or poor health. Like the well-placed stones in the wall,
right habits strengthen and harden the body, while
wrong habits weaken it and break it down. Even a
single bad habit may keep one in poor health much
of the time.

Ten-year-old Bertha loved to read stories. Nearly
every night she took papers and books to bed with her,
and read for a long time, often for hours after every one
else in the house was asleep. Her mother, who knew
nothing of this bad habit, awoke her at five o'clock each
morning. Thus Bertha, who needed nine hours' sleep
each night to keep her in good health, often slept no

8 HEALTH HABITS

more than five hours. After a time Bertha began to
grow thin, to lose her appetite, to have a pain in the
back of her head, and to feel irritable and unhappy.
Instead of being a help she now became a care to her
mother, and an extra expense to her father. Besides,
the people around her grew to dislike her, because she
was peevish and disagreeable.

Health habits have to do with just such everyday
things as sleeping, breathing, eating, thinking, and so
on. They have to do also with the way we sit, stand,
and move about ; with our clothing, and our exercise,
and the way we treat the skin, the hands, the teeth,
the eyes, and other organs.

We form a habit by doing a thing over and over
until it can be done without our having to think about
Making it. What has been done once is done more
habits. easily the second time. If one starts right,
it is quite as easy to form a habit which will count on
the side of health, as one which will count against it.

To form a habit, one must stick to an action until
he can do it without thinking about it. Doing the
right thing one day, and omitting to do it the next
day, is about as bad a way to live as can be thought of.
If a boy every now and then drops a ball of string he is
winding, so much string unwinds that he may never
get it wound up. So it is with acquiring habits that
will make the body strong and hardy and well. We
must not forget them until we have so fixed them that
they will work whether we think of them or not.

HEALTH HABITS 9

It is important, too, that we start to form good
health habits while young. The earlier we begin,
the stronger and more powerful the habits will become
as we grow in years. If you start a cannon ball rolling
down a hill, it will be harder and harder to stop the
farther it gets from the starting point. So it is with a

good habit. Is it any different, do you think, with a
bad habit ? Mention a habit you have observed which
ought to be broken, but which the person who has it
keeps making stronger ?

Roland and Ruth lived with their parents in a beauti-
ful country home, around which grew many fine trees.
The children loved to play in the shade of these ti€.«.^

lo HEALTH HABITS

during the summer time. In the winter, when the
leafless branches were covered with icicles or tufts
of snow, they thought no fairyland was ever quite so
lovely.

Being observant children, they had noticed with
regret that while most of the trees were straight and
Correctiiig] graceful, there were two, a rather large one
a habit. ^nd a Smaller one, that were so bent they were
ugly. The children were delighted one morning when
they saw some men preparing to straighten the trees.
The men drove strong stakes on one side of the smaller
tree in such a way that they could use the stakes to
pull it up straight. After much hard work they were
able to bring the tree up nearly straight, and then
they braced it so that it could not fall back into its
old habits. They tried the same plan with the larger
tree, but although they worked over it with all their
might in every way they knew how, the tree would
not yield.

The mother of the children, wno was also watching
the work on the trees, at last said to the children, "The
tree has grown crooked for so long that it cannot be
changed now. It is much like a person who has formed
a good or a bad habit. When he has got into the habit
of doing anything either right or wrong, it is about as
hard for him to change as it is for the tree to be
straightened. At first those crooked trees were as
straight as any of the others, but something bent them
just a little, and every time the wind blew, it bent them

HEALTH HABITS n

a little more, until they became very crooked. If

when they were young an attempt had been made to

straighten them, it could then have been done easily.

"You should notice too that the strong, straight

oaks or maples cannot be bent when they are grown.
I They have always kept themselves straight, and their

habit of straightness is so firmly fixed that they will
[always remain so."

12 HEALTH HABITS

Remember: When a boy or a girl gets any habit
fixed, whether it be a good or a bad one, it is very
hard ever to change it. It is easy to change the course
of a small stream^ hut it is not easy when the stream has
become a great river.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Describe five acts you can perform without thinking about
them while performing them. Why are you able to do them so
easily ?

2. Describe a habit of your dog or kitten that counts for its
health. One that counts against its health.

3. Describe three habits in any person you know (but you
need not give the person's name) that count for health. Also
three habits that count against health.

4. Do you know of any one who sometimes does something
he would rather not do ? Why does he do it ?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What are the foundations of good health ?

2. Mention some things which health habits have to do with.

3. How does one form a habit ?

4. How can one keep from forming any habit ?

5. When should one begin to form health habits ?

6. Is it hard to break a bad habit ? Why }

7. Is it as hard to change good habits as bad ones ?

8. Do one's habits depend somewhat on the kind of com-
panions he chooses ? Why ?

CHAPTER III

Good Posture in Standing

What do you think it is that makes such a difference
in the appearance of these two boys ? Is it their
posture, the way they stand ? Notice that standing
John stands squarely on both feet. He seems ^^bits.
to keep his body erect without trying. He holds his
head up, and his chest out. Both his shoulders are on
the same level.
At times, he
enjoys expand-
ing his chest as
far as he can
with long, deep
breaths. His
strong, fine car-
riage makes him
look full of vigor,
and ready for
any game or any
task. When I
look at him, I
feel sure that he is the kind of young man who will do
with his might and with pleasure whatever he has

14 HEALTH HABITS

to do. Notice how easily and naturally he holds him-
self in this good position. How is he able to keep it
without an effort ?

Alfred stoops as he stands. His head droops for-
ward. His back curves outward, and his chest
curves inward. One would almost think his chest
was behind instead of in front of him. He walks
with a careless, shambling gait. Although he is an
active lad, he lacks the "ready-for-business'' air which
John has.

If the two boys were seeking a job, which would
stand the better chance .? Do you think John's bearing
makes him appear more manly than Alfred ? Do you
think he could play a better game, or work harder
without getting tired ? Why ? If they should have a
contest of good looks, who would get the prize ? The
way we hold our body has much to do with our appear-
ance and health. Why ?

At a factory where watches are made, one may see
timepieces in great variety. The case of each watch
Cramping ^^ made exactly the right size and shape to
the ma- hold its working parts, or machinery. To
^^^^^' each part is allowed just enough space for
its own movement. All the parts working together
move the hands around the dial. If by some accident
the case of a watch should become indented or bent,
it might so decrease the working space of some of the
wheels that they could not turn easily, or could run
only part way around. As a result, the whole ma-

GOOD POSTURE IN STANDING

chinery would be put out of order, and the watch would
no longer keep good time, and probably it would stop
for good.

The body in some ways resembles a watch. Within
its frame are many delicate working parts with which
we breathe, digest our food, and
perform other acts which keep
us alive and well, and enable us
to play, to work, and to enjoy
living. Whether the body be
that of a baby or of a grown
man, Nature has provided it
with just enough room for each
of these vital parts to do its
work properly when the body
maintains the correct position.
Then if we get into a bad posi-
tion, with stooping shoulders
and a flat chest (our frame
pressing in as dents in a watch-
case), then these vital parts may become so crowded
that it will be impossible for them to work well, and
the whole body will suffer as a result.

When you take hold of your arm, it feels soft. But if
you press upon it, you then feel something hard inside.
The soft portion we call flesh; the hard The body's
substance within is bone. The framework, or frfunework.
skeleton, as it is called, by which the whole body is
supported is made up of bones, together with twQ csis.«.

HEALTH HABITS

GOOD POSTURE IN STANDING

r kinds of materials — cartilages and ligaments. Cartilage
is another name for gristle, a tough substance which
you have probably seen in meat. You can feel the
difference between bone and cartilage in the upper
and the lower part of your nose. Ligaments are living
cords or bands which hold the separate bones to-
gether. These, too, you may have found in meat.
The skeleton is composed of not one, but a great many
bones, — in all, just two hundred and six. The points

iat which the bones join are called joints.
The skeleton has four divisions, the skull (the bones of
the head), the trunk, the arms, and the legs. The trunk
forms a bony case to contain and protect some of
the most important parts
of the body. These parts
are called organs, as is each
Other part of the body
which does a special work.
The bones are the hard-
estpartsof thebody. When
a person is full grown, the
bones are very firm and
stiff, but in the young child
they consist mostly of car-
tilage. Cartilage is very
yielding, and makes it pos-
sible for young bones to
bend easily,

People often do a baby

1
I

1 8 HEALTH HABITS

great injury by trying to make it sit alone, or stand,
before its bones have become firm enough to support the
weight of its body. Bow legs are often caused by letting
a child walk while the bones in the legs are still soft.

From year to year, as the child grows, the cartilage
hardens to bone, until when growth is complete, the
The frame- ^^eleton is mostly firm bone. If bad positions
work become a habit with growing boys and girls,

shaping ^^g bones as they harden will become mis-
shapen and deformed. Such bones may have
to go through life crooked. .Do you know any crooked
men or women, people with stooped shoulders, or one
shoulder higher than the other, bow legs, and so on ?

There is in the skeleton a long bony column upon
which the head is carried. This is called the spinal col-
umn or backbone. It is not a single bone, but is made
up of a row of separate, oddly shaped bones arranged
one above the other, with cushions of cartilage between.
These bones are so nicely connected that the spinal
column can be made to bend with ease in any direc-
tion, as the movements of the body make necessary.

Because it can be bent so easily, the spinal column
is often made to bend when it should not, or to bend in
a wrong way so often, that it becomes crooked. Stand-
ing on one leg, standing with the body bent forward
when at work or play, sleeping with the head raised
high upon thick pillows, are ways through which
children often grow out of shape. Girls who take
care of a baby often cause their backbones to become

GOOD POSTURE IN STANDING

curved, because they carry the child on one arm oftener
than on the other. Do you carry with one arm a
heavy load of books to and from school every day ?
If you do, what may be the result of this on your own
spinal column ? Doing so a few times will result in no
injury. But when the strain from wrong
positions becomes an everyday thing,
lasting hours at a time, or when it is
often repeated for even a short time
each day, then the soft young bones may
yield, and deformity may result.

The boy or girl who wants to take the
right standing poise may try To stand
this plan : Stand against a wall correctly,
where there is no baseboard, the heels,
hips, fingers, and back of the head
touching the wall. Now roll the head
backward so that you can look directly
up at the ceiling, but keep the fingers,
hips, and heels hard against the wall.
Draw the chin downward and inward
till looking directly forward, moving the
head without changing the position of the shoulders.
You are now nicely balanced on the balls of the feet,
and you have the poise which, with slight modifica-
tions, one should keep when standing or walking.

Note how you feel when you are standing in a correct
position. Observe that the chest is held well up,
while the abdomen is drawn in.

20 HEALTH HABITS

If a person must stand for a long time in ofie place^
he should support the body with one leg while the other
is relaxed and thrust forward as in walking, or sidewise,
as shown in the pictures. At the same time he should
keep the correct poise, instead of allowing the body to
settle down into a bad
position. He should
make frequent changes,
letting one leg rest the
other. Ifhehastocarry
heavy things, he should
make each arm do its
share of the work.

The weight of the
body should rest on
the balls of the feet
and not on the heels.
When a person looks
at his reflection in a
mirror, he should see

Notice how the soldcer stands. Does himself Standing with-

Z'v Jrong7 Why f ""* '"'""' "'"''^ °^^ ^^°" squafcly on
both feet, with heels
well in line, and toes turned slightly outward. The
arms should be hanging easily at the sides, and the
body should be held up straight to its full height.
The shoulders should be held easily on the same level
and just a little backward. The chest should be high,
and the chin drawn inward.

GOOD POSTURE IN STANDING

rNo matter what you may have to do, try to keep in
the upright attitude. If you stand on the street talking
to a friend, or if you stand for recitation in the school-
room, try to have the feeling of being erect. You will
soon get yourself so used to sitting and standing erect
that you will estab-
lish this health habit,
and then constant
attention will be un-
necessary.

In a military
school where all of
■the boys „ ,.

I ■' Be the

•:mUSt ac- watchman

'! quire good "iy^^

' ^ . habits.

carnage,
the new student is
watched all day
long. He is not al-
lowed to stand, sit,
or walk in a bad

position. With such attention he soon forms the habit
of an erect attitude at all times, and so thoroughly
is he trained that the habit stays by him all his life.
If you will watch yourself as closely as a military
student is watched, you, too, may soon become
straight and well poised.

Children in some lands are often more erect than
children in this country, because almost from babyhood

22 HEALTH HABITS

they carry bundles and baskets on their heads. Carry-
ing a book balanced on the head is a good way for a
child to learn to stand str:iit:iu, and to walk erect.

Remember : That if any one wishes to have a straight j
strong body, he must, while he is young, get the habit of |
carrying himself easily erect.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

I. Pick out some one of about your own age who has a vcryl
good position when stajiding. Describe just how this person!
appears to you. Speak of the way shoulders, head, chest, etc^ I
are carried.

GOOD POSTURE IN STANDING 23

2. Try to see for how many seconds you can continue drawing
in your breath when you are standing erect. Try this again
when your chest is contracted as is shown in the picture of Alfred
on page 13.

3. See how many bones you can count by feeling the various
parts of your body.

4. How many joints can you count ?

5. Find a ligament somewhere in your body by feeling.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is meant by fleshy bone, skeleton, cartilage, ligament,
joint?

2. What are the four divisions of the skeleton ?

3. What happens to the parts inside the body when one keeps
in a bad position ?

4. What will happen to a grown person if he gets into the habit
of keeping a crooked position ?

5. What is the backbone or spinal column?

6. How do people get crooked backbones ?

7. How should the weight of the body be supported on the legs ?

CHAPTER IV

Good Posture in Sitting

If you were to make a visit to the home of some of the
Fiji Island children, you would find no chairs, for the
savage boy or girl when
tired rests by lying full
length upon a mat or
upon the ground. The
Arab boy crosses his legs
in front of him, and sits
upon the ground, holding
his body as straight as
a pine tree. It is the
same way with the boys
and girls in Japan, India,
and many other Eastern
lands. Only people of
civilized countries use
raised seats or chairs.

When civilized people
began to make furniture
to sit on, they first used stools for seats. But it did not
take them long to find out that their bodies became tired
when their feet hung down unless they had something

GOOD POSTURE IN SITTING 25

to lean against. So they put a back to the stool, and
it became a cfeair.

The custom of sitting on raised seats is really not
so easy and natural as sitting or reclining on the ground
or on the floor. Often one sits so carelessly ■what*
that his back curves backward, his head ciudriMy
droops forward, his chest becomes flattened, *'
and so cramped that he cannot breathe deep and full.
Consequently, he does
not breathe enough air
to make him feel well,
and to give him liveli-
ness and vigor in all he
attempts. Besides, his
stomach and other vital
organs are forced out of
place, and are hindered
in their work.

It is quite as necessary
to hold the body in an
erect position when sit-
ting as when standing,
for, as we have already

seen, the organs within the trunk of the body have
just the right amount of room in which to do their
work well when the body is held erect. When a
person spends much of his time in any bent-over,
doubled-up position, these organs are likely to get
crowded out of place ; they must then do their work

26 HEALTH HABITS

in such cramped-up quarters that it cannot be well
done, and their owner feels tired and all out of sorts.
Bending the body does no harm, and often does good ;
but if the bent position becomes a habit, the parts which
hold the organs in place within the trunk become so

SOONER OH

Stretched and weakened, that the body may be injured
for a!! time, and serious disease may result. The
bones, too, are in danger of becoming misshapen from
the bad posture.

Many persons have ugly curves in their backbones,
caused by sitting at high desks with one elbow on the
desk. This raises one shoulder so high that the spine
becomes crooked.

!8 HEALTH HABITS ^^^^B

If a young person sits much of the time with the bodyi^H

3ent forward, he will after a while become roun(L*^^|

houldered and flat-chested. Why ? ^H

When one is reaH-^H

ing or sewing ol-
doing any other
work of this sort, he
is likely to sit bent
forward. Is it espe-
cially hard to keep a
proper attitude in
a rocking chair ? ^^
WhyP ^
Be careful not tO-^H
slide down in you.r
chair if the spine rests
against the back of

Pupils tn school often have e*d posctions, the chair. The far-

What trouble is this girl likely to therthe hips are from

the more out of shape
he body becomes. "When sitting, never lie down,"
s advice we all should heed.

A correct sitting position requires a seat of such a
leight that the feet can rest easily upon the floor, and
rhe right of ^^^^ ^ width that both hips may touch the
dnd of back of the chair. A seat that is too low will
■*^' cramp the legs. With a seat that is too high,
he feet cannot reach the floor, and so cannot assist in

^P su

^^ en

GOOD POSTURE IN SITTING

supporting the body. Besides, the pressure on the
soft flesh of the under part of the legs causes them to
become numb ("to go to sleep," as we sometimes say).
Moreover, the body will slip down in the seat. We have
said that this is a bad
position. Look at the
picture, and you will see
it for yourself. Why,
then, should all chairs
and seats be made to fit
the height of the persons
who are to use them ?

To get a good sitting
position, try this plan:
Seat yourself ^good

with the hips sittingposi-

touching the """-

back of the chair. Place

the hands upon the hips

with the thumbs on the

back as far as possible.
' Look toward the ceiling,

carrying the head back

until you are looking straight up. Press the thumbs as

hard as you can upon the back, and draw down the chin.

You will then have a good position. It will be worth
[your while to practice this occasionally. Perhaps if
I you ask your teacher, she will have all the pupils do
\ this once in a while for relief and exercise.

3°

HEALTH HABITS

To keep the right sitting poise, the chest must be
held high. If the hips and shoulders touch the back of
the chair as they ought, the spine will of necessity curve
inward, as is the case with the boy in the picture.
When one sits in a chair with a straight back, he will

find it tiresome to keep the correct posture without
using a pad or cushion fastened to the chair to support
the back. Yet it is better that the chair be made to
fit the back when in proper poise.

When one must work for several hours at a task
requiring him to sit, it is important that he change his
position frequently. Occasionally he should stand,
move about for a few minutes, and relax his muscles.

GOOD POSTURE IN SITTING 31

Remember : It will pay in good health, comfort,
and efficiency to get the habit of sitting up straight
and holding the chest high.

youth

In middle &ge

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Measure the height of your seat in the schoolroom. Is
it just the right height for you ?

2. Try this : While sitting, bend forvjatd as ^m ■»& '3«*- '^'*=»-

32 HEALTH HABITS

conveniently, and see how deeply you can breathe. Then sit
erect, and see if you can breathe more deeply. Explain.

3. Do the pupils in your room keep their feet squarely on the
floor when they are seated ? If not, why not ?

4. Are there children of different heights in your home ? If so,
do they use chairs of different sizes ?

5. Notice the positions of your classmates at their seats. Do
they sit erect, or do they bend over their desks ?

6. Describe the position, mentioning his shoulders, his head,
his chest, and so on, of a person sitting badly in a rocking chair.

7. Study the pictures in this chapter which show different
positions in sitting, and be ready to tell what you think of each
one, and why.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What bad positions are we liable to get into when sitting,
reading, or sewing ?

2. Is it as necessary to have good poise in sitting as in stand-
ing ? Why ?

3. How is one likely to feel when he has a bad poise in sitting ?

4. What is a good sitting position ? What exercise will help
in getting it ?

CHAPTER V
Good Posture in Exercise and Work

As you watch an automobile roll along the street,
you know it is the machinery inside that makes it go.
Have you ever wondered at what it is that moves the
body along when we are walking or running ?

If the skin were removed from your arm so that you
could see the flesh underneath, some of it would look
yellowish white, and some of it red. The Muscle,
yellow flesh is fat, while the red flesh is muscle, the moving
The muscle of all animals looks alike. The p®^^-
"lean meat" of beefsteak is muscle, so most of you
know what dead muscle is like. Living muscle is the
machinery which moves all the parts of the body.
Without our muscles, we could not move. It is by
their action that we walk, run, jump, climb, throw a
ball, and perform all other movements of which any
one of us is capable.

Each of us has in his body about five hundred
muscles of various forms and sizes. They are arranged
over the bones in such a way as to cover them and
make the body plump and shapely. Most of the mus-
cles are in pairs ; that is, there are two alike, one on
each arm, for instance.

D 33

HEALTH HABITS

Names 0' Muscles

Minor

\ - foetus Abdominalh

yBrceps

k- Triceps

X-Gluteal Muscle

m-Recfus Femon's

n-Sar/orius

o- Abductor Muscles

p- Biceps femorls

q- yas/i/s Externus

r- Tibialis Anticus

8- Cxiensors ofthe Toes

r THE SKELETON IS COVERED \
JU CAN TELL WHAT MOVEMENT IS t<
E TRUNK, AND THE LEGS.

I GOOD POSTURE IN EXERCISE AND WORK 35

■ Usually, the muscles are made fast to bones. Be-
tween the two bones to which a muscle is tied, there is
a joint. One end of the muscle is attached to one bone
the other end to the other bone. Why this arrange-

L ment, do you think ? But sometimes one end of a

B muscle is made fast to a bone, and the other end to the

" skin or to another muscle.

Many of the muscles are not

joined to the bones directly, but

^ are made fast to them by means

H of firm cords, called tendons. If

■ you will place the fingers of one
hand on the wrist of the other,
at the same time working the
fingers of the latter, you can feel
these tendons moving under-
neath the skin.

H All muscles have the power

1 to become shorter, to contract.

H With your left hand grasp your

1 right arm just in front of the

B elbow. Close the right hand

tightly, then open it several

times. You will feel something

moving. It is the working of

the muscles which shorten and

harden when they act, thereby

■ ment which you feel.

^■^ Each muscle is a sort of living

causing the move
machine. And one

HEALTH HABITS

a muscle
healthy.

curious thing about the machine is that generally
u» iiMi» ^^^ more it works the stronger it grows.
It needs rest, of course. But if we would
keep a muscle healthy, we must put it to use.
Brisk walking makes a great many of the muscles of
the body work. Walking is a splendid health habit,
when one walks correctly. But one must keep an
erect poise. Let the arms swing
easily by the side. Walk with-
out bending the knees. In step-
ping forward, the heel should go
down first and the toes point
straight ahead like those shown
in the illustration. If you will
walk on snow or on sand, you
can easily make a test of your
own way of walking. Many
persons walk with their knees
bent, but this is neither natural
nor graceful. When walking,
the strides should not be too
long. Each step should have
spring in it, as though one felt
a joy in every movement. One
ought to be as light on his feet
as the lamb, the fawn, or the kitten.

One day Harold, a boy I knew, who was very careless
in his walking, was slouching along with his shoulders
thrown forward and his head drooping. His cousin.

(who owned a kodak, took a snap-
shot of him. Later the cousin sent
this to Harold. Harold could hardly
believe it was himself. He made up
his mind that he would correct his
bad posture, but this he found was
by no means an easy thing to do.
At first he tried wearing a stiff collar
of pasteboard an inch high in the
back, and three inches high in front,
to make him keep his chin up. The

»plan he liked better, though, was to
walk a mile every day carrying a
tray or a basket balanced upon his
head.

Running, leaping, and skipping are

(other modes of using the limbs in
moving from one place to another.
Running differs from walking in that
both feet may be off the ground at
the same time, but one is in advance
of the other. In leaping, the two

I feet are off the ground at the same
time.
Sometimes, when boys saw wood or
shovel snow, they make their backs
bend too much. This cramps the
Lorgans within the trunk so that they
Bcannot do their work well. Then

GOOD POSTURE IN EXERCISE AND WORK 37

Steps in ruvkvkg.

38 HEALTH HABITS

the worker gets tired much quicker than if he kepd

the body in good poise and bent only at the hips.

Body glance at the pictures will remind you
various ways in which boys and girls,
well as men and women, frequently assume
wrong postures. Can you call to mind other

ways ? If you will test the matter, you will always

posture

work or
exercise.

find it is easier for the body to do whatever you nea
to have it do when you keep it in a correct posture.

Remember: You can walk, run, jump, climb, or (
any kind of work easiest and best if you cultivate thtf

GOOD POSTURE IN EXERCISE AND WORK 39

habit of holding the body so that all its organs can do
their work without being cramped.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

I. Count the number of muscles you can make out by feeling
the different parts of your body. What must one do to find
some of the smaller muscles that move the fingers, toes, jaws, and
Eo on ?

z. Show where the muscles are that are used when you throw
a ball. When you pull a rope in a tug of war. When you run.
When you jump. When you chew your food. When you rise
from your bed in the morning.

3. How many different tendons can you count on your body ?

4. What would happen to the muscle in your right arm if you
1 should tie up the arm for one month ? Why ?

HEALTH HABITS

REVIEW CUESTIONS

1. What is it that moves the body when one is walking ot
running ?

2. How many different muscles are there in the body ?

3. How are the muscles arranged in the body f

4. What is the arrangement by which the muscles move the
bones ?

Why?

5. What is meant by tendons?

6. What is meant when it is said that a muscle has the power
to contract ?

7. What is necessary in order to make a muscle stronger ?

8. What is the best position in carrying a pail of water f In
climbing a hill or stairs ?

CHAPTER VI
Health and Exercise

A MAN once made a wager that he could stay still in
bed a month, and no harm would come to his health.
At the end of the month he found that he had -^^y g^^.
hardly strength enough to stand on his feet, else is
He had thought that lying in bed would rest ^^^^^^ary.
him, but he found instead that it made him weak.
What would happen to one's body if he were to lie in
bed all the time ?

What will happen to any part of the body that is
not used ? If a boy should carry one of his hands in
his pocket all the time and never use it, it would be-
come much smaller and weaker than the hand used for
all kinds of work. A man I know had to carry his arm
in a sling for three months. The skin became shriveled,
and the flesh flabby. The bone of the arm, too, be-
came stiff.

A mother who had a baby just old enough to walk
lived in a house which was very cold in winter. To keep
the baby warm, she wrapped up the child's feet and legs
tightly with a blanket, put a warm jacket on her, and
kept her much of the time in her carriage. The hah^

42 HEALTH HABITS

could use her arms and hands, but not her legs and
feet. When warmer weather came, it was found that
the baby's feet and legs had not grown so much as the
rest of her body. It was a long time before the baby
could walk without difficulty.

To keep the muscles strong so that they can do us
good service we must use them. In other words, we
must exercise. If you will look at the picture of the
muscles, on page 34, you will notice that every part of
the body is covered by them. Every part of the body,
then, must have exercise that it may be kept strong.

If we exercise but one part of the body, only that
part becomes strong. Most persons can lift more with
their right arm than with the left one. How do you
explain this ? Has a blacksmith a strong right arm ?
Why 'i People who do not take enough exercise are
pale and puny.
^ ,. Besides those muscles which make the

The self-
acting mus- fleshy part of the body, and which we are

desand ^ble to use at will, there is another kind of

oxorcise* 1 1*1* 7/*

muscle which is self-acting.

Sneezing and hiccoughing are caused by this kind
of muscle, and that is the reason we cannot stop them,
however hard we try. The self-acting muscles act
when it is necessary that they should, and not when
we wish them to.

All the movements of the body are made by means of
muscles. The food we eat is moved along from one
part of the body to another by means of muscles, and

HEALTH AND EXERCISE 43

the blood into which it is finally made is carried to all
parts of the body by means of muscles. This occurs
when we are asleep, as well as when we are awake,
because the muscles which do the work keep right on,
even when we do not think about them. The work of
the self-acting muscles is wonderful indeed. We shall
learn more about them later on.

Exercise benefits both kinds of muscles. It makes
the whole body feel fresh, and every part of it tingle
with new vigor and power. It gives one a good appetite.
It gives him refreshing sleep. He can study better,
and he will feel better natured, when he has enough
of the right kind of exercise.

One may exercise alike in work and in play. Active
play and almost all kinds of work which children have
to do, such as chores about the house and How to
garden, are good forms of exercise. Brisk exercise,
walking, jumping, skipping, mountain climbing, are
good ways in which to take exercise. Swimming is
splendid exercise. Bicycle riding, when one keeps
good body poise, and does not overdo it, is healthful
exercise. The joy of moving rapidly over the ground
on a wheel often tempts the bicyclist to ride too fast
or too long. He may thus be injured instead of
helped.

Exercise must be taken daily. We need it just as
we need food and drink, every day. Long walks
once or twice a week are good, but are not so good as
regular exercise daily. Why ? Suppose you should

HEALTH HABITS

try to eat in one day all of the food needed for a week.
What would the result be ?

We may say there are three kinds of exercise : gentle,
moderate, and violent.

Gentle exercise does not make one very tired or out

of breath. It is best for weak, sickly, or very old
people. Carriage riding and slow walking are gentle
exercises.

Moderate exercise, if kept up long, makes one tired
but not out of breath. Walking at the rate of three
or four miles an hour, light gymnastics, and nearly all
kinds of ordinary work in the house, on the farm, in
the factory, are examples of moderate exercise.

Violent exercise puts one out of breath and greatly
tires him. This kind of exercise should not be over-
done. Moderate exercise is best as a rule. Hard

HEALTH AND EXERCISE

H running, hard rowing, fast bicycle riding, hill climbing,

most competitive games and athletic exercises are

generally violent and should not be indulged in to the

point of utter weariness or exhaustion.

If one begins at first with something easy, and

every day does a little

more, he may after a

time be able to stand a

great test.

There is an old story

of a Roman who one day

found a little calf. He

took it upon his shoulder

and carried it around the

ring of a great amphi-
theater. The next day

he carried it again, and
I so on every day for
t months. The calf grew

in size, but his strength

also grew each day. At

last he was able to

shoulder the full-grown

ox, and carry it as easily

as he did the little calf. This he could not have done
j without the daily practice. How does the point here

apply to your own work and play ?

To make the muscles grow, we must give them a

chance at times to work as hard as they can.. TtAtv

46 HEALTH HABITS

they will grow stronger and be able to do things yet
harder. People who use their muscles vigorously in
work out of doors or in playing out-of-door games
grow faster and become larger and stronger than those
who sit or loaf about indoors most of the time.

Violent exercises, such as running, climbing, jump-
ing the rope, and rapid bicycle riding, do no harm if
not continued so long as to make one very much
out of breath. Such exercises should be very brief,
and should never be continued more than a few minutes
at a time without an interval of rest. Moderate
exercises, such as walking, simple games, swimming,
and out-of-door work, are the best means of developing
a strong and vigorous body.

Certain drinks affect the muscles injuriously. When
a man takes a drink of beer or whisky, he fancies he is
Poisoning Stronger than he was before. But when his
the mus- Strength is tested, it is found that he cannot
cies. jj£^ g^^j^ heavy weights, and cannot do as hard

work as he could before drinking the liquor. He cannot
play any accurate game, such as golf or tennis, as well.
When a man is drunk, his muscles will not work at all,
and he seems almost like a dead man, unable often to
speak or to move. Why .? Because these drinks con-
tain alcohol, which poisons the muscles.
\ Smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco also do
harm, sooner or later, to the muscles. When a man is
training for an athletic team, he is not allowed to
smoke or drink beer, wine, or whisky. A boy found

HEALTH AND EXERCISE 47

smoking upon the streets in Switzerland is arrested,
just as though he had been caught stealing.

Remember : The body grows best by daily exercise
in which all the muscles are tested vigorously but not
so hard or so long as to injure them. With right
practice, harder exercise may be taken each succeed-
ing day.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Find out as many things as you can that are done by your
body or within your body which you do not or cannot control by
trying to do so. Explain how these acts are possible, though you
do not knowingly perform them.

2. Mention ten good ways in which boys and girls from nine
or ten to fifteen or sixteen years of age might take exercise in your
neighborhood.

3. Make a record of your work during the day. Show when
you take exercise.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why is exercise necessary ?

2. Do all parts of the body need to be exercised ? Why ?

3. What would happen to a baby's arms or legs if they were
tied up so they could not be used ?

4. What is meant by the self-acting muscles ?

5. Do any of the muscles act while we are asleep ? Mention
some acts they perform.

6. What are some good forms of exercise ?

7. How frequently should exercise be taken ?

8. What kinds of exercise should be avoided ?

9. How can one increase his strength so that he can do more
work every day .?

10. What things injure the muscles ?

CHAPTER VII
Health and Play

It is natural and right for people to play. The
young of creatures all along the line from birds, fishes,
Play is a ^^^ animals to mankind play together. With
health aiAimals, play is the means by which they pre-
^^^^' pare for life. It is nature's school for them.

Watch a kitten at play. See it lie in wait, then spring
to catch the spool rolling along the floor in just the
manner that the full-grown cat leaps upon its prey.
Of course you have seen squirrels chase one another
'round and 'round a tree, playing a game that looks
like hide and seek.

If games and sports are not played to excess, they
are good for every one. Even grown-up people will
be helped if they spend some time daily in play.

Active play sets the living machinery, the muscles
and all the organs, to work. It helps make the body
healthy and strong. Everybody should play, not all
of the time, of course, but some every day. He should
play just for the fun of it.

One should be reasonable in his play. Do you think
one should go to excess in his games just for the sake

HEALTH AND PLAY 49

of winning ? The benefit of play comes not so much
in winning a contest, as in playing the game for the
pleasure of playing it.

With training, the human body can be made to do
remarkable feats. But it is unwise to attempt great
"stunts'' without special training from some injtmous
one who understands all about the body, and P^y-
knows just how much yours can safely do. Great
injury is often done by overdoing in sports.

Boys not infrequently injure themselves by too
violent exertion when they play. Violent running, if
long continued, may permanently injure the heart.
The writer knew a boy who became so sick as a result of
running until he was completely out of breath, that he
was confined to bed for several months, and was quite
ill for nearly two years. Race horses and even wild
animals, when pressed by hunters to violent running,
sometimes fall exhausted, and die in a few minutes.
It does no harm to exercise hard enough to make the
lungs work vigorously; but when one gets so out of
breath that he feels through the chest a sense of tight-
ness and pressure which does not quickly pass, the
heart and lungs are overtaxed, and injury may be done.

Some of the games so popular among school children
do harm when played too hard, because in the excite-
ment of the sport the players overdo. We said in the
chapter before this that hard bicycle riding and racing
are likely to be injurious, as are long and hard running,
rowing, relay races, and similar sports.

s°

HEALTH HABITS

The nile is, play healthfully. When tired, stop.
If you are perspiring at the close of a game, take care
Rules for not to take cold. A good thing to do is to
i^- put on another coat, a cloak, or to wrap a

blanket about you to prevent the air from chilling the
body. If no extra wrap of any
sort is to be had, it is best to
keep moving, walking at a mod-
erate pace until the sweating
ceases. Washing the hands and
— face in cold water will help you

to cool off. The very best thing
is an all-over bath with cool, not
cold, water. A brisk rub with a
wet towel, a spray, a shower, or
a plunge, followed by a thorough
drying of the skin with a coarse
towel, will usually keep you in
good health.

Remember that you must use
„ care not to get chilled before

Sailing boats is fine stort, ... , * i . . .

beginnmg the cool bath, and
always while drying rub the skin until it looks red.

Such active sports as can be enjoyed in the open air ■
are best. The outdoor air is better to breathe than
Outdoor the air indoors. In winter, skating, snow-
sports, balling, tobogganing, afford boys and girls
fine sport in the open air. During the warmer season
hoop rolling, kite flying, and a great variety of games

HEALTH AND PLAY 51

with the ball, when not played to excess, furnish good
sport. One of the best sports is swimming. Every
person should learn to swim. It is not only fine sport
and a good way to make the body strong and to help
keep it in health, but knowing how to swim may some-
time be of great service to a person in saving his own
life or the lives of others. Learning to swim, like learn-
ing to walk, may be a little hard at first, but if we perse-
vere, we shall soon find that our bodies will glide in the
water with almost as great ease as we can run on land.

When running, or otherwise exercising vigorously,
one easily becomes overheated, especially in hot
weather; but in swimming the body is cooled by the
water, and so very vigorous exercise may be continued
for a considerable time without injury.

One can swim in various positions, upon the front,
the back, or the side of the body, and can use a variety
of arm and leg movements in so doing. Some ways
are best for speed, others are better when one must
swim a long distance. Ought one to learn and prac-
tice as many of these as possible ? Why ?

There are various forms of swimming. One of the
best is the so-called breast stroke j in which the swimmer
lies flat upon his breast in the water. The hands are
placed together in front and spread out at the side with
a backward and downward movement. At the same
time the knees are drawn up and then thrown down-
ward while the hands are being brought forward in
position for the next stroke as in the picture. It k

HEALTH HABITS

easy to learn to swim by the aid of an inflated rubber
belt or a cork belt which supports the weight of the
body, thus keeping the head out of the water while the
proper movements are being learned.

The first thing, of course, is to learn how to keep
afloat. You cannot swim without keeping afloat,
but you can float without swimming. There are
ways and ways of learning to keep afloat, but the chief
thing to do is to breathe deep, to have no fear of the

Movements in swimming.

water, and to believe that it will hold you up. One
should never hold the breath when learning to swim.
It is the air we take in which keeps us afloat. It is
best to begin in water not more than waist deep. One
should not venture much beyond his depth until he
has had considerable practice, and even then it is wise
to have a good boat at hand in case of need. But do
not be afraid of the water, and with a teacher you will
learn to swim readily enough.

After one has the art of swimming well learned, he

may turn somersaults in the water, spin around like

a top, dive, swim under water, march on the water,

•undress in the water, and do many other things to

add zest to the sport.

^*^^ HEALTH AND PLAY f.

1 There are numerous playground games and sports
I more than a hundred in all, many of which all boys
1 and girls should learn and practice, not merely for
r pleasure, but also for the benefit which the body derives
from these forms of exercise.

■ ■

M-.

wfli

1 ♦
1 '*

^^u

■ iNTtRts-ns., CVMNASIUM rxi.Rci.i;s .

W There are also various gymnasium exercises per-
Bformed with swinging rings, bars, and other apparatus,
Bwhich may be learned through practice with cynma-
■advantage as a means of developing the mus- aium exer-
wdes and training them to obey the command "^*'
fcf the will.
^K Many hundred years ago the boys of G'le.^.t^ -asv^

HEALTH HABITS

ikM

] 'hBDb >

.t^PI:

^^^
' ^4*'

f - g".*,_ .V-'

/;: ii

KRome playi

HEALTH AND PLAY 55

tRome played at games in contest. Running, jumping,
wrestling, boxing, and throwing the discus
were their common sports. To gain a prize cie is built
meant much practice, much trying the same ^s s^ai
thing over and over. No doubt they often
tired of it, but even though they might not win the
prize, they gained in health and vigor of body — really a

gain of greater worth. To make their arms strong
enough to box they had to practice digging in the soil.
Their training was particularly strict in regard to food.
At one time nothing was allowed but bread, fresh
cheese, and figs. These simple foods had in them
excellent material for body building, and quite enough
of it. On such fare those boys became so sttoft'j, ■asA

HEALTH HABITS

able that the things they could do, the height to which
they could vault, the time in which they could make a
hundred-yard dash quite surpassed what boys can do
to-day. You see that what the body is made of makes
a difference in what it can do.
When one is growing, it is especially important to
take nothing into
the body but what
is useful to it. To
eat or drink or
breathe in what is
in any way harm-
ful, is plainly un-
wise.

Alcoholic drinks,
opium, tea, coffee,
and tobacco in
every form are
things of this sort.
There are others
too. Can you
iiJMi think of any?
They are poisons
and their use checks
development, hinders growth, and harms the body in
many ways. How many such ways can you think of ?
Probably what does the most harm, because it is most
commonly used, is the cigarette. The boys of ancient
Greece and Rome did not use cigarettes ; if they had.

HEALTH AND PLAY 57

they could not have performed the feats they did in
their famous games. One cannot do his best at any-
thing while smoking cigarettes. A boy who smokes is
like a swimmer who has a stone tied to his neck.

Nature has planned just the right amount of work
each organ needs to do to keep the body in health. If
in addition to its proper task, an organ is obliged to
work to get rid of useless matter like the poison of
tobacco smoke or of beer or wine, it is much like making
a single engine pull two heavy trains.

A young man who had been a champion tennis
player began to smoke tobacco. In a short time he
found that persons whom he once excelled with ease
could beat him. Tobacco affects the accuracy of the
eye and hand, and harms the breathing power, so
that one gets ** winded'' more quickly. It is a poison,
a most useless and harmful drug.

This is why the training rules for those on college
teams always forbid the use of tobacco for a certain
time before the contest.

You can see that by letting tobacco alone one has a
good deal to gain and nothing to lose. There is really
no good thing that can be said for it.

Remember : Plays, games, and sports* are good for
the mind and the body, but when they are carried to
excess so that they overtax the muscles, heart, and
other organs, they are bad for both the mind and the
body.

S8 HEALTH HABITS

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. What games do you like best ? Why ?

2. Have you ever known any one to play too hard ? If so,
at what game ? Why did he play to excess ? How could you
tell that he played too hard ?

3. When you play hard and for a long time, what do you do
when you stop ?

4. Do you ever feel chilly, or have pain a half hour after you
have been playing hard ? If so, what is the trouble ? How
could you avoid your discomfort ?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Is it natural for the young to play ? Why ?

2. What good may come from a fair amount of pl?y every day ?

3. What dangers should be avoided in games and sports ?

4. What may happen from too hard running ?

5. When should one stop in a game or sport ?

6. What should be done if one is heated after a game ?

7. What are good games for winter ? For summer ?

8. Why is swimming good exercise ?

9. What dangers should be avoided in learning to swim ?

CHAPTER VIII

Sound Hearts and Good Blood

After you have been walking fast or running, if you
place your hand on the left side of your chest you
will feel something beating inside. No doubt The heart's
you know this is your heart. It beats all the ""^^
time, although you may not always be able to feel it.
During your whole lifetime, your heart never stops
beating. If it should cease its
work even for a minute, you
would die. It does not always '
beat at the same rate. When
you run or jump, the heart
beats much harder and faster
than when you are sitting down
or standing still. It beats most
slowly when you are lying down.

Place your hand over your
heart, and count its beats for
exactly one minute. Quitelikely
you will find that it beats from
seventy-five to eighty times. A
baby's heart works very fast, perhaps beating one
hundred and forty times a minute. As a person grows

6o HEALTH HABITS

older, the heart beats more slowly ; and in adults the
average is about seventy-two beats a minute. Excite-
ment makes the heart beat faster ; so does fright or
anger. What other things will make it beat faster
than usual ?

Why does one's heart beat on and on so steadily,
every minute, so long as he lives ?

We have already learned that the body is all the time
needing building material either for growth or for
repairs. To provide this material we eat and drink,
and breathe in air.

But our eating and drinking and breathing would do
us very little good if it were not for the wonderful
The blood living Stream, the blood, which gathers and
and its distributes to the body the material which
^^^^' builds it up, just when and where the material

is needed. This vital stream, besides carrying around
the new building materials, also washes away the old
and worn-out particles wherever they are found.
Could any creature exist without blood ? Why ?

But* this wonderful living stream does not flow on
just like a brook or a river. It flows 'round and 'round,
or circulates^ in the body. It is kept moving like the
water in the fire hose, — by the action of a force pump.
The beating heart is this wonderful force pump. At
each stroke or beat it forces twelve ounces of blood
into the channels nature has provided for carrying the
blood through the body. In one day the heart pumps
blood equal to one hundred and fifty barrels. Of course,

SOUND HEARTS AND GOOD BLOOD

no one has that much blood in his body. Only about
one thirteenth of a person's whole weight is blood.
How much, then, does your blood weigh ?

In its round of service the blood always starts from
the heart. The circuit is completed by its return to
the heart. The circulation is so rapid that a quantity
of blood equal to all there is in the body passes through
the heart every half minute.

62 HEALTH HABITS

The heart Is a hollow muscle shaped like a cone.
Each person's heart is about the size of his fist; The
What the heart of a little babe, then, is quite tiny. A
heart is. j^gj^ with a big fist usually has a large heart,
because his body is a large one, and it needs a good deal
of blood service to keep it in working trim. The heart
of a whale is as large as a washtub, while that of some
small creatures can be seen only through a microscope.
The heart is double ; or rather there are two halves,
separate, yet bound together, each beating at the same
time, like two boys walking and
keeping step. Each part of the
heart has an upper and a lower
reservoir. Into the two upper
reservoirs the blood is all the
time pouring on its return to the
heart. From the two lower ones
it is as constantly being sent forth
on its course through the body.

The blood travels about in
three different kinds of tubes or
blood vessels. The set that take
the blood from the heart are called arteries. Those
The drcu- which bring it back to the heart are the
tation of veins. These two sets of tubes run side by side
the blood, through all parts of the body. At the ends
farthest from the heart they are connected by many
tiny tubes called capillaries. So numerous and so close
together are these capillaries that one cannot stick a pin

SOUND HEARTS AND GCWD BLOOD

The cikculation

HEAVY BLACK LIKES

THE AKTERIBl.

64 HEALTH HABITS'

through the skin anywhere without tearing many of
them, and letting out blood.

My little neighbor, talking to a schoolmate just
outside my open window, said, "I used to think blood
was red fluid, just as ink is a hlack fluids "Well,
isn't it ?** asked the other. "It surely looks red."

"Oh, that's because we can't see it plainly with our
eyes,'' she replied. "The other day I looked at a drop
of blood through the microscope, and the liquid had no
more color than water, but there were many little
round, flat things floating in it. They made me think
of reddish colored fish, only they looked more like tiny
red plates, or discs, thinner in the middle than at the
edge. Part of the time they formed themselves into
rows with their sides together, and then they looked
like a roll of pennies floating along. They moved
around so much I though they were alive."

The little girl was right. What she saw were red hlood
cells and they were alive. Each one of them leads as
The red Separate a life as do the fishes that swim in the
ceUs in tbc water or the birds that fly in the air. There
^1^^^- are more than a million of them in a single
drop of blood. It is their business to take up oxygeUj
which they find in the lungs, and to carry it around the
body. Each cell can carry a load of oxygen much
larger than itself. These red cells give the blood its
color. Yet, it is only when they are laden with oxygen
that they are really red. When they have given up
their oxygen and are returning through the veins to the

SOUND HEARTS AND GOOD BWOD 65

heart, they have a dark purplish color. Why this
change in color ?

If my little neighbor's eyes had been keen enough,
she would have seen a few larger white cells, perhaps
somewhat differ- Thowar-
ent in shape, rior white
They are not so •*"=■
easily seen and not nearly
so numerous as the red
cells, — only about one
white to every seven
hundred red ones.

The white cells have _ , „ , , -, « .

5, red cells seen from the side; D, red
SOmethmg to do with keep- ceils seen on edge ; F, C, white blood

ing up repairs in the body, "^^^i'^-

As they speed along with the blood they are on the
watch, and stop just where they are needed to do any
kind of repair work. And there is another thing the
white cells do. When, by any chance, disease germs
get into the blood, the little white cells capture and
destroy them. If the white cells are healthy, and if
there are enough of them, they are always victorious
in their struggles with germs. Sometimes these brave
little body defenders have to battle with such a host
that they are overwhelmed, and then the germs may
make a person very ill. Whenever the white cells are
so weakened they cannot overcome the germs, the body
must fall an easy prey to these dangerous foes of life.
The health habits about which we are learning

66 HEALTH HABITS

greatly aid in keeping these watchful little body guards,
the white cells, in condition to protect us from disease.

The fluid portion of the blood, in which the white
cells and the red cells move, is made up of the water
we drink and the food we digest. These are the things
which nourish the body. The blood has in it, too,
some special substances which when one is in health
destroy disease germs. These substances so weaken
the disease germs that the white cells can quickly over-
power them.

When the body is injured, as when the flesh is cut or
crushed, the blood must repair the injury. An injured
part is red because it is filled with the blood which has
come to repair it.

With all there is for the blood to do we can under-
stand why it serves us best when it is made out of
wholesome food, pure water, fresh air, and
impor- life-giving materials. Poor food makes poor
good blood, blood, which in turn does poor work for the
body. Not enough of food brings about the
same result. If the blood is loaded with useless
materials, with poisons or unhealthful things, good
work is out of the question.

If we should take a drop of blood from the finger of a
person who was getting too little sleep, we should find
the red blood cells far too few in number. This is one
reason why loss of sleep makes a person look pale.

Not very long ago some very interesting experiments
were made by a physician upon four young men. From

SOUND HEARTS AND GOOD BLOOD 67

H the finger of each a drop of blood was drawn and care-
fully examined. All were found to have good, healthy
blood. These young men commonly drank only pure
water ; but on this day they were each given two ounces

of port wine. Two hours later another blood test was
made. The result showed that the blood had lost
nearly half its power to defend the body against the
I germs of disease. Another experiment, using two
r ounces of a patent medicine containing alcohol, with a
I test four hours after taking it, showed that the blood
[ was injured to a still greater extent.

HEALTH HABITS

It has long been observed that persons in the habit of
using drinks containing alcohol are usually the first
to take such dread diseases as cholera and yellow fever.
Another thing has been noticed, that such persons do
not recover from accidents and surgical operations so
readily as do persons who drink only water.

If a drop of alcohol be added to a drop of blood, it
will almost instantly destroy the blood cells. While
ordinary alcoholic drinks, such as beer and wine, do not
destroy the blood cells so quickly, these drinks injure
the cells, and make
impossible the
proper work of the
blood. The body
of a person who is
in the habit of
using strong drink
or other narcotics
is like a city whose
policemen are all
asleep on duty.
The enemy is
likely to come in
without resistance. Tobacco, too, unfits the blood for
Take care doing its Very best work,
of the The heart is an especially strong muscle,

hearti j^ j^^^ ^^^^ ^^ j^^ Strong, for though it is small,
it must do a great amount of work. In twenty-four
hours it does as much work as would be done by a man

i''^^r^

SOUND HEARTS AND GOOD BLOOD 69

in lifting five hundred stones weighing fifty pounds each.
Think of it ! and it works at that rate for a lifetime.
Never for a moment can its work be laid aside. The
small pause between beats gives it some rest. It rests
most when we are asleep. Why .?

Exercise makes the heart send the blood surging to
every part of the body, nourishing it and washing
away its waste. This of course is good for the body.
But care must be taken to avoid injury to the heart
by too violent exercise. We have read that violent
exercise, as running so hard or riding a wheel so fast as
to get very much out of breath, may injure the heart
by overworking it.

It is unwise to overtax the heart in any way. Things
other than exercise may strain it. Doctor Parkes, a
very learned English physician, took the pains to ob-
serve well the eff^ects of alcohol upon the heart of a
soldier. He made tests on days when the soldier used
no liquor, and again after he had been drinking gin and
other strong drinks. He found that when the soldier
took a pint of gin a day his heart had to do one fourth
more work than it ought to do.

Careful experiments have shown that even a small
amount of alcohol may make the heart beat four or
five times more a minute than it otherwise would;
that is, 6000 or 7000 extra beats in twenty-four hours.
This is as much work as would be required to raise a
fifty-pound weight one foot, two hundred and eight
times. Besides, the heart has to beat so much more

70 HEALTH HABITS

rapidly to do this extra work that its rest pauses are
shorter. Thus it has to do more work even while it has
less time for rest.

Is it any wonder that when the use of alcohol gets to
be a habit with a person, his heart soon begins to
weaken and wear out ? Alcohol is a heart poison.
It does not strengthen the heart, as was once sup-
posed. It weakens it.

Pulse beat of healthy person.

Pulse beat of tobacco user.

Pulse beat of drunkard.

Notice how weak and irregular is the heart beat of the tobacco

user and the drunkard.

You can feel the beat of the heart by placing your
finger over the large blood vessel on the thumb side of
your wrist. We call this beating the pulse. If you could
feel the pulse of a boy who smokes tobacco for the first
time, you would find his heart beating very weakly.
This is because he is poisoned. The tobacco plant is
one of a family of very poisonous plants. One tenth of
a grain of the poison (nicotine) is enough to kill a kitten.
Just a small drop under the skin of a rabbit will
cause death.

SOUND HEARTS AND GOOD BLOOD 71

When a person has the habit of smoking any form
of tobacco in excess, his heart is weakened, and beats
a good many more times a minute than the proper
number. It may beat even so rapidly as 112 times a
minute. Think what a lot of extra work such a heart
must do. The extra beats are labor lost, and tend to
wear out the heart. After a while it gets so tired
that it cannot force all the blood needed to every
portion of the body. Then the whole body rapidly
becomes diseased.

You would think it rather funny to see a rabbit
smoking. A learned Russian man fixed up an ap-
paratus by means of which he compelled rabbits to
breathe the smoke of cigarettes for six or eight hours
every day. Some of them died within a month, while
others seemed to get used to it, just as human beings
do, and did not die at once. But at the end of five
months it was found that their blood vessels, which in
health are soft and elastic, had become hard as pipe
stems. When the arteries harden they become
shriveled, and many of the small ones are thus closed.
This is what occurs in very old age. A boy of seventeen
who died from cigarette smoking had arteries as hard
as those of a man a hundred years old. Tobacco causes
the body to become old while it is still young in years.

Other poisons, among which are opium, morphine,
caff^ein, and cocaine, do similar damage to the heart,
blood vessels, and blood. Do you think it wise to
avoid the use of all such things ?

72 HEALTH HABITS

A sound heart is necessary to a healthy and a long
life. A person without a strong, vigorous heart is as
The main- poo^ly fitted for the voyage of life as a ship
spring of would be to cross the Atlantic with a disabled
the body, engine. Any one who knowingly weakens his
heart is like a captain who purposely disables his
engines when he knows he has to make a long ocean
voyage.

Remember : The heart is to the body as the main-
spring is to a watch. Every organ depends upon its
healthy action. Do not overtax it or weaken it by
alcohol or tobacco.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Does your heart beat while you are asleep .? How can you
tell ?

2. Can you tell whether the stream of blood goes up into your
head, out into your hands, and down into your feet .? How .?

3. Put your finger on an artery and then on a vein in your
wrist. What is the difference, in the way both feel to you, between
a vein and an artery ?

4. Why do the blood cells carry oxygen .? Where do they
get it ?

5. Have you noticed that when you hurt any part of the body,
or when any part of it is sore, there is usually a swelling about
the place i Explain this.

6. Why does the heart beat more rapidly after a man takes
a stimulant than it did before ?

7. Why does it beat so rapidly when one has a fever ?

8. Why does the doctor always feel your pulse when he is
called to visit you because you are sick ?

SOUND HEARTS AND GOOD BLOOD 73

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. On what side of the body can you feel the heart beat ?

2. How can you make the heart beat hard and fast ?

3. When does the heart beat slowest ?

4. How are the materials needed for building and repairing
the body carried around to different parts ?

5. How are the worn-out materials removed from the body ?

6. How much blood does the heart pump in one day ?

7. What part by weight of one's body is his blood ?

8. How is the heart constructed ?

9. Describe the reservoirs in the heart.

10. What is the use of the capillaries ? the veins ? the arteries ?

11. What gives the red color to the blood ?

12. What do the red blood cells do for the body? the white
cells ?

13. How does the blood get the fluid in which the cells are
carried about ?

14. How can one best keep his blood good, so that it can do its
work ?

15. How does too little sleep affect the blood cells ?

16. How does alcohol affect the blood cells ? tobacco ?

CHAPTER IX
Outdoor Life

Most people like to be outdoors. This is natural,
for we were made to live out-of-doors. Man's first
home was a garden, and his first occupation
was outdoor work. Out-of-doors the air is
fresh, it is cleaner and there is plenty of it. Indoors
there is only as much air as the house, with all the
other things it contains, can hold, and so the air is not
usually fresh nor very clean.

There is always some dust in the air, but indoor air
contains several times as much dust as does that out-
of-doors. The leaves and grass and plants, because
they are moist, catch and hold much dust so that it
cannot fly about. The snow and the rain wash the
dust to the earth, and so clean the air. The winds,
too, often help to make the air cleaner. Indoors we
lack these aids in cleaning the air. And our carpets,
rugs, curtains, and other household furnishings are so
dry and fuzzy that dust clings to them. Then, when
people move about the rooms, some dust is shaken off,
and goes swirling into the air for us to breathe.

Not all dust is harmful, but much of it is. And since
we cannot tell beforehand whether or not it is harmful,

OUTDOOR LIFE

it is important that we try to breathe the air which we
know has the least dust in it. Men of science who have
made a study of this matter have found that house dust
is especially dangerous to health. It often helps to

bring on those dreaded diseases, pneumonia and tuber-
culosis, so often, indeed, that these diseases are called
house diseases. It has been found that the very best
way to cure them is to live out-of-doors, — to breathe

* outdoor air all the time.

If breathing fresh air will often cure such diseases

[ as pneumonia and tuberculosis, do you not think that

best wayS'^^H

IP warmer ^^^

76 HEALTH HABITS

breathing this air would be one of the very best '
to keep from getting these diseases ? In the warmer '
seasons, one can play, work, and study out-of-doors.
He can spend a good deal of time on the porch, or on the
roof, or on the lawn. If we live in a village or in thcj
country, this will be easy to do. But in a city it majT

be more difficult. This is one reason why the count;
is usually better for health and good spirits than
city.

Even in winter we should each day spend an
or two out-of-doors. Brisk and vigorous exercise will
keep us from minding the cold. The cold, fresh air of
winter is even better for good health than the warm air
of summer. Why should this be so ?

air ^H

OUTDOOR LIFE

Of course one cannot neglect things indoors which

must be done, but when one makes plans for it, he can

take much that is commonly done indoors out into the

open air.

I In some places there are open-air schools. In the

I cold season the pupils are kept comfortable by warm

L over-garments, caps, and gloves, with their feet and

Megs in what is called a "sitting-out bag." In other

l«chools, suits like those worn in the cold North by the

Kskimo children are used. The children think It great

"un to have school out-of-doors, and they seem often

78 HEALTH HABITS

to learn faster and easier than when they study indoors.
Why, do you think ?

If we cannot well go to such a school, there is at least
a way for us to get a good supply of clean outdoor air,

Sleeping — ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^ sleep in the open air at night,
in the To breathe fresh air while we are asleep is
outdoor air. ^^^ ^f ^j^^ greatest aids to keeping good health.

Sleeping out-of-doors is a splendid health habit, and
many people are now doing it in the city as well as in
the country. These people always say they feel better
when they sleep out-of-doors than when they have to
sleep in bedrooms. Can you explain this ?

Many people have sleeping porches on their houses,
while others sleep in screened tents in the yard, or on
the roof. Many who cannot do this use a window
tent or a fresh-air tube. One can at least sleep with
windows open, and thus get a good deal of fresh air.
Any one who has tried it knows it is a joy to sleep in the
open air in summer.

It is great fun in winter, too, if one goes about it
right. For winter the night garments must be light
in weight, but very warm, and must fit somewhat snug,
so the cold air cannot get near the body to chill it.
The cold air is for the lungs only ; the rest of the body
should be warm while we sleep. We cannot depend for
warmth upon bedclothes laid on in the usual way. It
would take so many to keep the body warm that their
weight would tire the sleeper. .

The best way to do is to have a sleeping outfit to put

■ on each t

^ mitrpns. w

OUTDOOR LIFE

night, just as we have overcoats, caps, and
mittens, when we go skating. This may cover the body
ail over, except the nose, if desired. The nose needs to
be left out, of course, so that one can breathe the cold

- Jp

...

air. Most people enjoy leaving the whole face un-
covered to the cold air.

First, the bed should be warm. It can be made so by

placing a jug of hot water upright, so that the covers

form a sort of tent over it, and leaving it there for an

hour before bedtime.

^B There are electric blankets by which a bed may be

^Bmade warm and kept warm for the outdoor sleeper, or

HEALTH HABITS

the bed clothing may be warmed indoors, and the bed
made up when needed.

Creep into a warm nest, prepared to sleep warniy and
after a night spent thus in the cold air you will feel as

.-r^'

The sick and the well, the young and the old should be out-of-doors

as much as possible.

fresh in the morning as you do when you have been out
coasting, skating, or sleighriding.

Remember : If we want to live long and keep our
health good, we must spend much time out-of-doors
while young, and when older choose for our life work if
possible one that will keep us much in the open air.

OUTDOOR LIFE 8i

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Is there very much dust floating in the air in your school-
room ? Mention some way to find out whether there is much
dust in the air of a room.

2. Tell how dust can be kept out of the schoolroom, and out
of rooms in your home.

3. If you live in the city, tell how you would keep the streets
from being dusty. If you live in the country, say whether the
roads are very dusty, and if so, how the dust could be reduced.

4. Do you know any one who sleeps in a room with the win-
dows all closed ? If so, does he have good health all the time i
Does he have colds and coughs ?

5. Ask some one you know who sleeps out-of-doors to tell you
what he thinks of it, and give a report to the class.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Is it natural for people to like to be out-of-doors ? Why ?

2. Is the air better out-of-doors than indoors ? Why ?

3. Why is there likely to be more dust in the air indoors than
outdoors ?

4. Is dust liable to harm good health ? Why ?

5. What are the house diseases ? What may cause them ?

6. How much time ought one to spend out-of-doors ?

7. What could one gain by sleeping out in the open air ?

8. If one sleeps out-of-doors in winter, how may he keep his
body warm in the coldest weather ?

CHAPTER X
Fresh Air Indoors

A PERSON may go without eating for a month, or
without drinking for several days, and still live ; but if
a strong man were deprived of air, he would die in a few
minutes. We have seen that the best air is outdoor
air. What time we must be indoors we should try
in some way to get enough pure out-of-door air to
breathe.

There are several ways in which air is made impure.
We have seen that dust makes air unhealthful.
How air Anything that rots or decays soon gives forth
becomes a bad odor. Some people have rotting pota-
unpure. ^^^^ ^^^ Other vegetables in their cellars, and

swill barrels and garbage heaps at their back doors.
All these spoil the air. Bad odors in the air from
decaying stuffs are signs of danger, and we should see
to it that rotting things, whatever they may be, are
taken away from the house or yard as soon as possible.
The chief reason why both dust and bad odors
are harmful is that they generally carry with them little
living things called microbes or germs. These are so
small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye. It

^^^ FRESH AIR INDOORS 8.

Cakes a strong microscope to make them out. There an
a good many kinds of them, and some of them are sc
lowerful to do us harm that if we receive them into ou
)odies they are likely to make us ill, and they are ofter
he cause of death.

Another way in which the inside air is made impure
s through a change which comes to it from the breath

■

K The candle burhs It is dying down. It is cone. Why?

ing of people and animals, and the burning of lamps and
fires in the house.

We can easily prove this fact by a simple experiment.

^L For this we shall need a fruit jar, a candle, and a piece

H of wire about a foot long. The candle is fastened to the

™ end of the wire and let down into the bottom of the jar.

Now we will place the cover on the jar and see what

happens. You notice that the candle soon begins to

burn dimly, and before long it goes out altogether.

Why will the candle not burn in the cloatd \-as.l

84 HEALTH HABITS

Try the experiment again, and when the candle light
begins to get dim, bring it out at once into the air.
What do you find ? Explain the facts which your
experiment shows you.

What is the result when the stove draught is shut
tight ? The fire soon burns low ; and if the draught is
left closed, the fire will go out. The wood or coal in
the stove needs air to keep it burning, just as the candle
needs air. Why will fire not burn without air ? Why
do animals need air to keep them alive ?

If instead of a candle we should shut up a mouse in the
fruit jar, it would live only a little while. Its life would
go out, just as the light of the candle went out, for lack
of air. A child shut up in an air-tight box or small
space would soon die from the same cause.

Something besides heat comes from the burning of
wood or coal. The smoke escapes through the chimney,
and the ashes remain in the stove ; these are the waste
parts of the fuel.

A kind of burning or combustion, as it is called, is
all the time going on in our bodies. This burning pro-
duces something quite like the smoke and ashes made
by the fire in the stove. What is like the smoke is a
gas called carbon dioxide^ which escapes from our body
into the air about us every time we breathe. In this
gas is a kind of poison that spoils the air of the room,
and makes it smell musty.

We cannot see this gas, but we can make an experi-
ment which will show us that it really does pass out of

FRESH AIR INDOORS

the body. Get a drinking glass, and a glass tube or a
good stout straw. Into the glass put Hmewater, such
as you use for your teeth. Breathe two or three times
through the tube or the straw into the Hmewater.
You will notice that it begins to look milky. Soon it is

I almost as white as milk. This is because the Hmewater
catches and holds the carbon dioxide which we breathe
[ into it.

Every time we draw in a breath of pure fresh air,
I the body keeps and uses some of the oxygen, and in its
I stead breathes out carbon dioxide. So each time we

86 HEALTH HABITS

breathe out we make the air around us impure by the
breath we expel. If we are out-of-doors, fresh air is so
plentiful that the foul air from the lungs is carried
away. But if we have only a room full of air on hand,
we shall soon be breathing poisoned air unless we have
some means of getting a supply of fresh air all the time.

We spoil at least half a barrelful of air at each breath.
Count how many times you breathe in a minute, and then
reckon up how many barrelfuls of air you need. You
breathe twenty times in a minute, and so you
ten barrel- spoil ten barrelfuls of air each minute. Now
fills of air a ggg j^qw many barrelfuls this would make in
one hour. We need pure air to take the place
of the spoiled air, ten barrels of fresh air every minute,
or six hundred barrels every hour. To get the fresh air
we need, the air about us must be in motion all the time.

If one were in a closed room into which no fresh air
could get, and the air were dead^ as we say, it would
become so impure that the person in the room would be
poisoned to death. Many years ago when the British
people were having war with India, one hundred and
forty-six English soldiers were taken prisoners. Their
captors thrust them into a room twenty feet square.
It Had two very small windows, but the amount of air
that could trickle in through these did not begin to be
enough for so many soldiers. In a very short time the
oxygen had been used from the air, and the soldiers
began to suffer great torture. By morning only
twenty-three of the whole number were alive. This

FRESH AIR INDOORS 87

room in which so many died for want of air is known
in history as " the black hole of Calcutta/*

You might think that with so many people and ani-
mals breathing out this poisonous gas into the air, the
supply of air would all be used up after a time. Nature
has provided a wonderful arrangement to prevent this.
By means of the trees and plants, the carbon dioxide is
taken out of the air so that it is purified, and is made
ready for us to breathe again. The gas which is harm-
ful to us is a most necessary food for the plants. They
take it through their leaves, much as we do through
our lungs. They keep the carbon dioxide that we
breathe out, and send the oxygen back into the air for
our use.

The only way to obtain the fresh air needed when we
live indoors, is to have some means provided by which
the outdoor air may be brought in to us, and changing
the air which has been used and has become the stale
impure within may be carried out. Changing ^ ^^<^^»
the air in this way is called ventilation. Every house,
schoolhouse, church, store, or other building where
people work or play or live ought to be well ventilated.
Many people ventilate their houses by leaving the doors
and .windows open. This serves well in warm weather.
In cold weather it is not a very good way, as it causes
drafts and makes the floor so cold that it is hard to
keep the feet warm. It is much better to have the air
brought fresh from the outdoors, then warmed by a
heater before it enters the rooms.

HEALTH HABITS

re must ^^M

anH nut ^^^

Air does not move of its own accord. There
be a wind, or something like a wind to force it in and out
of rooms. To ventilate a room there must be both an
inlet, a way for fresh air to get in, and an outlet, a route
for the foul air to get out.

Try this experiment : Take a tall glass jar. Attach
a small piece of candle to the end of a long wire, as
shown in the picture. Light the candle, and lower
it into the jar. At first
it burns brightly. By
and by it grows dim and
finally goes out, leaving
just smoke. This hap-
pens, as we have learned,
because the carbon diox-
ide which is made by the
burningof the candle, and
which is heavier than the
air, settles in the bottom
of the jar, and puts out
the flame. Let us put in
the jar a piece of paste-
board, notched at the
bottom, thus dividitxg it
into halves. Light the
candle and try again. Now the flame keeps bright and
the candle continues to burn, because we have provided
an inlet for fresh air and an outlet for foul air on the
other side.

FRESH AIR INDOORS 89

Don't you see that people shut up in a room without
ventilation will be poisoned in time just as you saw the
candle was ? Their lives do not go out so quickly, but
by degrees they will get sick and die, if they continue
to live in unventilated rooms.

If there is no way of ventilating a room except by
windows, two openings of some sort must be provided.
The upper sash may be
lowered two inches for the
spoiled air to get out, then
the space between the upper
and lower sashes where they
overlap gives a chance for
the fresh air to come In ; or
we may have two windows
on opposite sides of the
room, each open a little way,
one for the fresh air to come
in, the other for the foul air
to get out.

How far they should be
open must depend upon how
many people there are in the
room ; also how many pet
animals there are, whether
there are gas jets or lamps

burning, how large the room is, and how much furniture
it has in it. When a strong wind is blowing, and in very
cold weather, small openings may be sufficient, while

90 HEALTH HABITS

large ones are needed when the air is quiet. Each gas
jet or lamp spoils as much air as a person.

There are several ways by which houses are venti-
lated, but the plan is the same for all, viz., an inlet for

fresh air, and an outlet for foul air, with something to
make a draft so the air will move. If the air enters
directly from out-of-doors, the outlet must be near the
top of the room, because the warm air rises, and the air
already in the room is warm air that has become foul.

FRESH AIR INDOORS 91

If the air is warmed by a furnace, or some similar
means, before it enters the rooms, the outlet should be
placed at the floor, because when the pure air enters the
room warm, it first rises to the upper part of the room,
and then as it cools, and at the same time becomes im-
pure, it settles to the floor, where it should be taken
out.

Air that has become foul through use has a musty-
odor, and when we first come in from outdoors we can
smell it. After one has been in a badly ventilated
room for a time, the nose gets used to the odor, and so
he does not notice the bad air. It is a good thing to
"follow our noses** when we detect the close, musty
smell. If we mind this danger smell, and seek some way
to change the air, we save ourselves much ill feeling and
harm. When the air in a room gets musty, the people
in it are likely to feel stupid or sick, or to get headaches.

Remember : You cannot work or study well in bad
air, and you cannot keep your good health unless you
have a supply of fresh, unspoiled air all the time.
Air that is not in motion — dead air — is especially
harmful.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. If you live in the city, do you have a garbage man remove
your garbage frequently ? Does the city require the removal
of the garbage ? Why ?

2. What is usually done with the garbage in a small village ?

3. What arrangements should be made for garbage removal ?

4. What decaying things about country homes spoil the air ?
How can this evil be remedied ?

92 HEALTH HABITS

5. Name some disease that is caused by the microbes or germs
carried about in dust or bad odors.

6. What places in cities have many bad odors ? Are they
places in which people have good health ?

7. Why do you think we are so made that we dislike dust and
bad smells ?

8. How is your schoolroom ventilated ? How much air comes
in every minute ? How can you find this out ?

9. How is the used air taken out of your schoolroom ?

10. How much fresh air is needed in your schoolroom every
minute ?

11. How are the living room and the dining room in your
home ventilated ?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. If we must stay indoors a good deal, what should we try to
do about the air we breathe ?

2. In what ways may air be spoiled for our use ?

3. What is the chief reason why dust and bad odors are harm-
ful to health ?

4. What happens to the air which is breathed in by people
around us ?

5. What is meant by the combustion that goes on in our bodies
all the time ?

6. What is meant by carbon dioxide thrown out from the lungs
in breathing ?

7. How could you show that carbon dioxide is in the air we
breathe out ?

8. How can we keep a supply of fresh air if we live much
indoors ?

9. What is meant by ventilating z. house ?

10. What is the proper way to have good ventilation in a
house ?

1 1 . Can you tell spoiled air by the sense of smell ?

CHAPTER XI
Health Habits in Breathing

Everything that lives must breathe. Plants breathe
by means of their leaves, fishes by means of their gills,
while earthworms breathe through their skins. But
man has special organs designed solely for breathing.
Why must every living thing breathe ?

One day last spring Bertha was walking with her
father along a stream, where she could hear the croak-
ing of the frogs. "Watch,'' said her father. Means of
as a big one came to the top of the water, " and breathing,
see how he drinks air. He swallows in a mouthful at
a time, just as you drink water. That is the frog's
way of breathing. If we could see the inside of his
body, we should find there a queer-shaped bag with a
tube running up to his throat. This is the frog's air
bag, and when he comes to the surface he swallows
enough air to fill it. Then he can dive down into the
water or mud again, and stay under until his qut air
supply of air is used up." bags, the

Every person has two air bags in his body. ^^^^^'
They are called lungs. Our lungs need to be emptied
so often, however, that we could not live very long
under water.

94 HEALTH HABITS

If you look on page 97, you will see that the ribs
and backbone together form a case about a space
within the body. This case is for the protection of the
delicate organs which belong inside. The space within
is divided into two parts or cavities by a very strong
muscle, called the diaphragm. The upper cavity is the
chest, the lower is the
abdomen. The lungs lie
within the chest cavity.
They appear somewhat
like a sponge, being mas-
ses of tiny sacs filled
with air.

Air enters the body
through the nostrils
(openings of the nose)
and passes to the lungs
through a tube called
the windpipe, which begins at the back part or root of
the tongue. The windpipe divides like a tree into two
main branches, then into a great many smaller ones,
some not larger than a sewing needle, each of which
conveys a portion of the air to one of the little sacs that
make up the lungs.

One can receive air into the body through the
The right mouth, but it is not the right way nor the
way to safe way. When air is breathed through the
breathe. ^ose, it has to pass down behind the mouth
through a moist, narrow canal. Here it becomes both

HEALTH HABITS IN BREATHING 95

damp and warm before passing on to the lungs. In
the openings of the nose grow some stiff hairs that strain
out much of the dust in the air we breathe. Finer dust
and germs are caught and held by the moisture in the
nose, as you VVll

blowing the i^B ' ^°^'*^>™

e Air tubes and air cells.

trom a warm

room into cold air, should one be careful to breathe

through the nose ? Why ?

The reason why some children breathe through the
mouth is because of growths which occur in the nose,
which either close up the passages for air, or make them
so narrow that sufficient air cannot pass ttvtciw^.

96 HEALTH HABITS

This trouble is a very common one. Unless an exami-
nation is made by a physician, one may go on for a long
time before it is discovered. Quite recently it was
found that in four hundred and fifteen New York State
towns, one eighth of the children were " mouth breath-
ers/* The number in other places is no doubt as great*

Some people who know it is harmful to make a prac-
tice of breathing through the mouth keep the jaws
clpsed and breathe through the nose during the day-
time, but at night when asleep they drop the jaw open
and unconsciously breathe through the mouth. In
the morning when they awaken, the mouth is dry, the
breath has a bad odor, and the voice is often hoarse.
Such persons are likely to suffer from headache aiid a
"duir* feeling in the head.

If one keeps on breathing this way, the shape of his
mouth and nose will be changed, and the expression of
his face may be spoiled.

If you have constant difficulty in breathing through
your nose, you should ask your parents to take you to
a physician to find the cause, and to have your trouble
remedied.

We require so much air all the time, and we need to
have it changed so often in the lungs, that nature has
made our breathing apparatus so that it works a good
deal like a pair of bellows. But there is this difference :
in the bellows the air enters by one opening and goes
out through another, while the air enters and leaves the
lungs by the same route.

■ the

HEALTH HABITS IN BREATHING

The bellows action of the lungs is made possible by
the ribs and diaphragm. The ribs are elastic, and the

Mpace between each two is filled with muscle. One kind
muscle draws the ribs apart, and another dta--^^

98 HEALTH HABITS

them together again. The diaphragm, which is fas-
tened along the lower border of the ribs, is shaped like
The lungs ^ dome rising into the chest cavity. When
work like a we Start to take a deep breath, the muscles
^^®^* pull the ribs apart and at the same time the
diaphragm flattens itself down. This causes the cavity
of the chest to enlarge, and then air rushes in through
the nose or mouth to fill up the space. When the
muscles cease pulling, the ribs and diaphragm return to
their former position, thus making the cavity of the
chest small again, and forcing the air out through the
nose or mouth.

This process is repeated every time one breathes.
In health we breathe eighteen or twenty times a minute.
Children breathe faster than adults. Why, do you
think ? We breathe faster when we run than when we
walk. Whyf

If very tight clothing is worn about the chest, the
ribs cannot stretch apart as far as they should in
breathing. The action of the diaphragm is also inter-
fered with. And so not as much air can be taken into
the lungs as should be. Cutting off the air supply in
this way may result in harm to the body. So you see
one should always wear his clothing loose enough to
expand the chest fully with each breath. Why ?

People who wear tight corsets or bands about their
waists often deprive themselves in this manner of much
of the air which they need. They are likely to get out
of breath very quickly.

HEALTH HABITS IN BREATHING 9"

About two thirds of

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

a pint of air is taken

■*^iVH

in by a grown person.

and the same quan-

H "^^ m

tity forced out, each

B j7 M

time he breathes.

The lungs are large

^^J^^^l

enough, however, to

hold almost a gallon

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

and a half of air.

Nature has provided ^^^^^^^^^ ^^M

us with much more ^^HS^^ >^H

lung room than we or-

BTM -'S

dinarily use in breath-

w^^ m

_ ing, so that when we

V^B m

^ need to breathe much

^^M m

^ faster and fuller, as

^^M m

when we are climbing ^^^^^H ^^^

hills, ^^^^H ^M

playing ball, or other- ^^^^^| ^H

wise exercising hard, ^^^^| ^^

we may have in stock

^^m m

enough air for the oc-

^^^H ■

casion.

^^■^H

If any one wants to

^HK^H m

have strong lungs, he

^^^^~2

must exercise them.

^ [The best way to do

^^BI^^^^^HHi

Kthis is to take full,

^H BkEATHING EV6V,(H^t

HEALTH HABITS IN BREATHING loi

deep breaths all the time when at work or at play. We
should get into the habit of keeping in a good poise,
because a bent and cramped position will prevent
proper breathing. It is a good plan now and then
to stop what we may be doing, and take the following
exercise : Place the hands on the hips as the boy on
page 99 is doing. Then bend the head back- Exercise
warcj, lift the chest as high as possible, and makes
take in long, deep breaths of air, then force ^^^^
the air out slowly while bringing the head up ^^^ '
again. If you feel cold at any time, several deep
breaths in this way will help to warm you.

Sometimes, when people are long under water, or are
struck by lightning, they may temporarily cease to
breathe. If they are still alive, they may some-
times be made.to breathe again by means of artificial
respiration. This is one way it may be done : j^^^^ ^^
Turn the person face downward , upon the artificial
ground or floor. Place a. hard roll of some- ^^®^*^°«-
thing — a large folded coat will dor — under his chest as
shown in the picture. Then standing astride of him
with your face toward his head, place your hands one
on either side over his lowest ribs. Bend your body
slowly forward, then backward, pressing upon his ribs,
and slightly lift him as you do so. Make the move-
ment a dozen times a minute. This should be con-
tinued until he breathes, which may sometimes require
a half hour's work.

Here is a simple method of employing artificial te^^v-

I02 HEALTH HABITS

ration, which should be practiced until well understood :
Have a person lie down upon a bench or a raised plat-
form, with the face upward, and the he^d hanglns over

one end. The operator, standing above the person's
head, should take hold of both arms below the elbows,
and draw them steadily upward above the head, retain,-*-

HEALTH HABITS IN BREATHING

103

ing them in position two or three seconds ; then allow
them to go back to position, and press the elbows
firmly against the sides of the chest. Drawing the
arms upward will cause the air to rush into the lungs,
and returning them to position and pressing against
the chest forces the air out of the lungs. By repeating
this simple opera-
tion twelve to
sixteen times a
minute, actual
breathing may be
very perfectly im-
itated.

Another very
simple method of

artificial respira- The fulmotor.

tion is this : Place

the unconscious person upon the back. Kneeling be-
side him, place one hand beneath the shoulder on the
same side, the other hand just under the back lower
down. Roll the patient over toward the opposite side
until he is turned a little more than half way upon the
face. Press upon the shoulder and side of the chest in
such a way as to compress it. Then roll the body back
to the first position. It is a good plan to place a sup-
port of some sort between the shoulders. The patient's
coat may be rolled up for this purpose.

Best of ail is a pulmotor or lung motor by which the
lungs may be filled and emptied with regularity as in

l'"-

104 HEALTH HABITS

life. Many lives have been saved by the prompt use
of these means.

Remember : Any one who wishes to have good health
must get in the habit of breathing through the nose
always ; he must wear his clothing so loose that he can
fill his lungs full of air at every breath, and he must get
into the habit of breathing deep and full, no matter
what he is doing.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Show the class how it is that the lungs work somewhat like a
sponge.

2. Describe the movements of the ribs and chest when one
breathes.

3. Do you know any people who have the habit of breathing
through the mouth ? Why do they do so ?

4. How can any one form the habit of breathing through the
nose, during sleep as well as during waking hours ?

5. Try this experiment : Tie a scarf or rope tightly about
the chest. Then see if you can run as fast or as far as you can
ordinarily. Explain.

6. Walking at ordinary speed, count the number of steps you
take, while you draw as deep a breath as possible. Compare
what you can do with what other members of the class can do.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. By means of what organs do human beings breathe ?

2. Where is the chest?

3. How is the chest cavity formed ?

4. Why are the lungs said to be like a sponge in their action ?

5. How does air enter the body I

HEALTH HABITS IN BREATHING 105

6. Why should one avoid the habit of breathing through the
mouth ?

7. What will happen to the shape of the mouth and chest
if one breathes all the time through the mouth ?

8. Why are the lungs said to work like a pair of bellows ?

9. Why should one not wear tight clothing about the chest
or over the diaphragm ?

10. How much air is taken in at every breath ? How much
can the lungs hold when they are taxed to their limit ?

11. What is the best way to exercise the lungs ?

CHAPTER XII
Health Habits in Sleeping

You know that sleep is necessary for good health.
Children and grown people who fail to get enough sound
sleep soon feel ill-humored and sick.

While awake, we are active most of the time. All
parts of the body are busy at work. Of course, this
In sleep, results in much wear and loss which has to be
the body is made up somehow. Whether we are awake
repaired. ^^ asleep, the body is all the time repairing
itself ; but while we are active, so much body material
is worn out that the mending gets far behind. So
there must be regular times when the body is quiet and
in repose with all its machinery running at very low speed,
if it is to catch up with its work of repair.

In the springtime when the sweet peas are beginning
to grow in the flower garden, if you will measure a plant
early in the morning, and again at dusk, and then again
the next morning, you will find that the plant grew a
good deal more during the nighttime than it did during
the daylight. This is true of other plants. During
the daytime the plant is busy storing up food from
various sources. During the night it uses this material
to increase its growth.

106

HEALTH HABITS IN SLEEPING 107

This is so with animals. Children grow during
sleep more than they do when awake. Sleep is thus
the best time for both growth and repair of the body.

Healthy sleep is sound and dreamless. After a
night of such sleep, one awakes feeling fresh, rested, and
brim full of good spirits. He is ready then to take
hold of any task. Even the things that looked hard
the night before seem easier after a good night's rest.
Give instances in your own life to illustrate this.

The best time for sleep is during the darkness of the
night. You have heard it said, perhaps, that sleep
gained in the early hours before midnight refreshes one
more than sleep after midnight. Why should this be
so ?

The old maxim "early to bed and early to rise'*
indicates an important health habit. Going to bed
late and getting up late is by no means so g^,^ n^gij
good a habit. Every one must have a certain sleep do we
amount of sleep. The sleep we need depends ^® ^®®
upon our age and health. The younger one is, the
more sleep he requires. Persons in ill health need more
sleep than those who are well. The following program
for people of different ages is a good one : —

From four to seven years of age, twelve hours of

sleep at night.
From seven to nine years, eleven hours of sleep.
From nine to twelve years, ten hours.
From twelve to sixteen years, at least nine hours.

io8 HEALTH HABITS

Most grown people require from seven to eight hours
of sleep.

To go to bed at a regular time each night is a most
important health habit. If one gets into the custom

Regular ^^ SP^^S ^^ ^^^ ^^^ night at one hour and
habits in another night at another hour, he will soon
sleep. gj^j j^ difficult to drop off to sleep at once.

If one keeps up such an irregular plan, he is likely to
lose much needed sleep, and illness may result. One
cannot keep in health without his full requirement of
sleep. What is the number of hours which you need
to sleep to feel and keep well } At what hour ought
you to go to bed to get your full sleep and arise in
season to be ready on time for school ^

In the morning, when sleep is ended, we should arise
promptly. To lie in bed and doze, half asleep, is a bad
habit in which we ought not to indulge.

Most people sleep soundly when they are somewhat
tired. Why is this ? A very wise man once said :
"The sleep of the laboring man is sweet." Have you
observed that those who are active during the day sleep
better at night than those who lounge about, and spend
the daytime in idleness ? Why should work and
exercise lead to sound sleep ? It is not best, however,
to play very hard or to engage in exciting games just
at bedtime, as this is likely to arouse one so that it
will not be easy to get to sleep. The same is true of
reading or listening to exciting tales near bedtime.

Perhaps you have noticed that people who eat hearty

HEALTH HABITS IN SLEEPING

109

suppers late at night are likely to sleep poorly, and
to have bad dreams. Those who use tea, coffee, or
cocoa at supper are liable to wakefulness at night, for
these drinks arouse one, or make him sleepless. Many
people are wakeful if they drink coffee, tea, or cocoa
any time during the day.

If you cannot sleep in

One sleeps best when breathing pure, fresh air.
To sleep in the open air is most restful. If one cannot
sleep out-of-doors, he at least should get plenty of out-
door air into his sleeping room at all seasons. -^ l-j.
About one third of our whole life is spent in
sleep. Not to have good air to breathe during so much
of life may shorten it considerably. Besides, for the
body to do its work of repair during sleep in a perfect
manner, it needs the help of pure air. If atve ^.Wt-^^'^Nss-

no HEALTH HABITS

a close, warm room, the body will be unable to obtain
this help, and so its work cannot be well done, and one
may awake in the morning feeling dull, tired, and
cross, and perhaps with a headache. You will remem-
ber that in a previous chapter
we saw how one can get an
abundance of fresh air at
night. You should try this
plan if it is possible.

To secure ease during sleep,
it is the practice in this
country to He upon a bed of
some kind. Many people
Types of think a soft bed is
beds. best, while others say
a hard bed makes one sleep
better. The custom in many
lands is to sleep upon a rug
placed on the ground or on
the floor.

The bed of the little Chinese
boy or girl is often made of
two narrow benches, across
which are placed about seven
boards covered with a piece of matting. That is all.
Two hard queer-looking things, which you might think
were stools but would never guess were pillows, lie on
the bed.

Many children in Mexico sleep in quite a similar

bed. They use a blanket to cover the boards. A little
Mexican girl who was staying at the home of an
American lady was so used to a hard bed that when
the lady put her on a soft couch for the night she could
not sleep at all ; she was able to do so only by getting
off the bed, and lying on the hard tile floor.

Many people think a pillow is not needed. If one
be used, it should be firm and not large; just high
enough to bring the head on a level with the ji,^ q^ea-
body. It should never be high enough to tionofflie
elevate the shoulders. The real use of a p"^""-
pillow is to support the head. The Japanese maiden
who sleeps on a notched block of wood wvt-K -s^ v\ss?i

cushion placed under the neck has a better support than ^

the big, fluffy cushions we use for pillows. The use of

pillows while sleeping is a common cause of round

shoulders. You will remember that while young the

bones easily become crooked. To lie every night with

the head too high cramps the chest, and after a little
changes the shape of the shoulders. I

The most restful and healthful way to lie for sleep'
For health- IS with the body stretched out at full length,
ful Bleep. sQ (-j^g spine is straight.

The body must always be comfortably warm while
asleep. One cannot sleep well if cold. Even if the
feet on going to bed are cold, this will keep one awake.

HEALTH HABITS IN SLEEPING

113

If at bedtime one's feet are cold, he should warm them
well. A good way is to put the feet in hot water for
five minutes, then dash a dipperful of cold water over
them, and wipe them dry by rubbing them hard with
a rough tcwel.

The best thing to cover oneself with while asleep is
soft, fleecy blankets, warm, but of light weight. All

bed clothing, like all body clothing, should be porous;
that is, it should allow air to pass through it.

While we sleep, as when we are awake, waste and per-
spiration are being thrown off by the skin. If the air
cannot get through to cleanse them, the bed clothing
will soon be filled with this waste. Under such cover-
ings, sleep is likely to be restless.

HEALTH HABITS

nake warnf^H

Comforts and quilts filled with cotton make "
coverings, but they are not so healthful as blankets.
Can you think why ?

Clean beds are necessary for health. My neighbor
Janie has been told this so often that she has formed
an excellent health habit. Every morning when she is

dressed she places two chairs at the foot of her, bed.
Then she takes off the covers one by one and throws
them loosely over the chairs. She begins with the top
one, and always takes pains that none of them rest on
the floor to get soiled. Then she places the pillows
on another chair. This done, she opens wide her
windows, shuts the door, and leaves the bedding for

HEALTH HABITS IN SLEEPING 115

the fresh air to cleanse while she goes to breakfast.
Each week, on the day when the bed linen is changed,
she carries her blankets out-of-doors and hangs them on
the clothes line in the bright sunlight for a few hours
to make them fresh and sweet. I need hardly tell you
that Janie sleeps more soundly because of the good care
she gives to her bed.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Measure exactly your height just before you go to bed any
night. Then measure it again in the morning just after arising.
Do you find the heights are the same ?

2. Why should one feel rested after a night of sound sleep ?
What has taken place in the body during sleep ?

3. Do you ever lie awake in your bed at night wishing you
could get to sleep ? If you do, think over what you did for several
hours before bedtime, and see if you can find the cause of your
sleeplessness. Did you drink tea, coffee, or cocoa ?

4. Why do people who live in the city like to go out in the
country, and sleep in a tent or under the open sky ?

5. Can one sleep as soundly when lying on the back as when
lying on the right side ?

6. Can one sleep soundly with knees drawn up toward the
chest, and with one hand under the head ?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why is sound sleep necessary for good health ?

2. When does the repair of the body go on most actively ?

3. When is the best time for sleep ?

4. How much sleep should people have at various ages ?

5. Does a person need more sleep when he is ill than when he
is well ? Why ?

ii6 HEALTH HABITS

6. Should one go to bed at regular hours every night ? Why •

7. What habits may make one sleepless ?

8. Should one have fresh air while sleeping ? Why ?

9. How should one lie while sleeping ?

10. How should one's bed be arranged for the most healthful
sleep ?

11. How should the bed be cared for in the morning ?

CHAPTER XIII
Health Habits in Eating

Wood, glass, steel, and other materials are needed
to build a house or a ship. So certain materials are
needed with which to build our bodies. This Building
building material we obtain chiefly from our material,
food. Our bodies are made up of what we eat. If one
eats poor food, he will not grow properly, and he may
become ill, or feel half sick all the time. Wrong habits
of eating are the cause of more sickness than any other
one thing. To keep well, and to accomplish the most,
we must choose good foods and eat them properly.

Our bodies are in some respects like machines,
for one thing, they are always wearing out, and needing
to be repaired. So material is required for The body
repairs in the body, as well as for building, resembles
How does a locomotive obtain the energy ^®^*sine.
which enables it to pull a train ^ How does the body
get the energy which it needs for work and play ?
If you put your hand into cold water it will soon
become cold, but when it is removed it quickly becomes
warm again. This is because the food we eat is some-
how burned in the body, and in this way the body is
kept warm.

117

ii8 HEALTH HABITS

Food supplies three essential body needs : —

1. Building material.

2. Energy or power j or play or work.

3. Heat to warm the body.

All good foods supply each of these three things.
Very few foods contain just the right amount of each

The types ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ material. Some foods, such as
of food eggs and meat, contain more building material
matenai. xh^i^^ the body needs, while others, as butter
and sugar, are compose d wholly of energy and heat-
making material. So we need to eat a variety of
articles, such as bread, butter, milk, eggs, vegetables,
and fruits, in order that the body workers may be
able to get hold of plenty of each kind of material
needed. Some articles of food, as whole-wheat bread,
will by themselves supply the body's needs for a
time.

Children need more food in proportion to their
size than do grown people, because they are building
their bodies. They need material for making bones
and muscles, and all the other growing organs. But
children very often overeat.

In manufacturing food into muscles, bone, and so on,
we ourselves can do but little. We can put it into our
mouths, grind it with our teeth, and swallow it. The
body must do all the rest. But we can help or hinder
the work in many ways.

One way in which people often hinder the body's
work is by eating too fast. Food as it is put into the

HEALTH HABITS IN EATING

119
It

mouth is not in condition to be used by the body,
has all to be dissolved, and made into a liquid xhe work
form before it can be used in the body. The of diges-
process by which this is done is called digestion. ^'"^

The organ in which
this work is carried on
is a long tube, or canal
as it is called, beginning
with the mouth. If laid
out straight and meas-
ured, this canal would
be about thirty feet
long. In some parts it
is narrow, while in other
places it is much wider.
One portion of it, the
stomach, is large enough
to serve as a sort of
storehouse for the food
eaten, until it can be
worked over by the
body. Some parts of
the tube are straight,
Other parts are coiled.
At different points along
the canal are workers
that do some special
thing to the food till all
material that is good for

I20

HEALTH HABITS

the body's use has been culled out, and sent into the
blood. There is such unity between these workers
that when one begins to act all the others are called
into action. The taste of food in the mouth is a signal
to the workers of the stom-
ach to be ready. In turn
the word is passed along to
every working station until
all the workers are in read-
iness for service. Even so
small a thing as a wafer
starts the entire force work-
ing.

When a person eats very

fast, the food is swallowed

before it can be crushed into

fine pieces, and then the

workers along the food canal have a hard time dissolv-"

ing it.

Try this experiment. Take two glasses of water.

Put a few hard lumps of sugar in one, and a spoonful

of fine sugar in the other. Which dissolves

first ? What you find true of the sugar is

true of our food. The finer the particles

into which it is divided before it is swallowed,

the more readily it is digested.

One way, then, in which we can help the body in its

work is to eat slowly, and chew every morsel of food

until it is fine like cream before it is swallowed.

rales in
Mting.

HEALTH HABITS IN EATING ' 121

Some experiments which have been made have proven
that two thirds of a pound of food well chewed supplies
the body with just as good material to use as does a
whole pound of the same food when chewed too rapidly.

Did you ever look at your tongue in a mirror ? If
so, you must have noticed that its surface is covered
over with little points, some of them larger than others.
These points are sometimes called "taste buds** be-
cause it is by means of them that we are able to taste
the different flavors in food and in other tilings we put
into our mouths. One curious thing about these taste
buds is that the points which give the best taste for
sweet things are on the tip of the tongue. We taste
some things best on the side of the tongue, while we
taste bitter things on the back of the tongue. If our
tongues are coated and furred, the taste buds do not
work well, and our food seems to have no taste, so that
we do not care about eating. These taste buds were
meant to give us enjoyment while we eat. But if we
hurry through our meals, swallowing our food almost
as soon as we get it in our mouths, we miss most of
the taste, and spoil Nature's plan for our pleasure,
beside doing ourselves an injury.

When people eat fast they are very likely to eat
too much. The workers in the long food canal are
able to do only a certain amount of work. When too
much food is eaten, not any of it can be as well digested
as it ought to be. If food is not well digested, then,
of course, it does not make good material for buildux^

122 HEALTH HABITS

or warming the body, or keeping it fit tor play or

work.

Do you think one should ever eat until he feels

stuffed? How much one ought to eat depends upon
his size, his age, the
work he does, the
weather, whether
he lives indoors or
outdoors, whether
he is active or idle,
and so on.

Three meals
each day are quite
i. Eat enough fqr

reguUriy. boys and

girls who are in
health. These
meals ought to be
eaten regularly;
that is, at the same
hour every day. If
we eat our break-
fast every morning at seven o'clock, and our dinner
each day at one o'clock, the body is on the lookout for
the food at those hours, and has everything all ready
in the stomach to receive it and make use of it. If,
however, one gets so interested in his play that he comes
to dinner an hour or two later than usual, then when
he swallows his food the stomach is taken by surprise.

HEALTH HABITS IN EATING 123

If one is careless and eats his meals at different hours
each day, he will be likely to upset Nature's orderly
plan, and illness may follow.

When children wait to take extra naps after they
are called in the morning, it often happens that they
have time only to eat hastily a few mouthfuls before
going to school. This, too, interferes with Nature's
plan. It is very likely that not enough food is eaten
or that it is swallowed without being well tasted, and
so the body has not enough material for all its needs.

After you have eaten a meal, it takes the workers
four or five hours to take care of the food you have
swallowed. It has to be sorted over, churned 'round
and 'round in the stomach, and a great deal of hard
work must be done to it before it is disposed of. You
know your food is used to make blood, and has to be
taken to pieces and made over a great deal before it
is ready for use. Now, as I said before, it takes four
or five hours to make over your breakfast, and some-
times even longer, according to the things you have
eaten, for it is a good deal harder work to digest some
foods than it is others.

If we eat anything an hour or two after breakfast,
when the work of making over the food is well under
way, the workers, instead of being able to ^ Give the
keep right on and finish their work, have digestive
to begin again at the very beginning of the ®'«"^srest.
process of digesting the new food that has been eaten.
So it may happen that the breakfast material is kept

124

HEALTH HABITS

much longer in the stomach than it should be, and too
much acid is developed, causing sour stomach. The
food workers, too, are obliged to work a great deal

What Mary ate betiveen
meals

So SHE HAS NO APPETITE, AND "DOES NOT FEEL VERY WELL.

more and a great deal longer than they ought to, and
if we keep on eating between meals, they will get no
rest, and by and by they will get so tired that they
will not do good work at all, and the boy or girl who has
kept them so busy will become sick.

HEALTH HABITS IN EATING 125

If you have eaten too little food at a meal, and feel
hungry before the next meal, you may eat an apple
or orange or some other simple fruit ; but cookies,
candy, bread and butter, and similar foods should be
avoided. Fruits, if ripe and if well chewed, give the
stomach very little work to do, as they are already
cooked and digested in the sun, and contain food-
stuffs ready for the body to use ; so they do not tax
the digestive organs heavily.

When the stomach is abused, it becomes unable to
digest, and then we lose our appetite. Pain in the
stomach, vomiting, and sick headache are some of
the ways in which the stomach complains when it
has been abused. We never feel the working of a
healthy stomach.

The food workers, besides needing rest after their
work on each meal has been done, need also to sleep
at night with the rest of the body. Hence 4. Also
we should avoid eating food late at night. ^®®p-
If one goes to bed with a stomach full of food, the
workers will be very slow at their job, just as people
work very slowly when they are sleepy. Getting the
food out of the way at such a time makes so much
extra trouble for the workers that our sleep is likely
to be much disturbed, and we may awake in the morn-
ing without feeling refreshed by it. Moreover, we
may have bad dreams.

Again, the food workers cannot serve well when
the body is very tired. When we have been eKetckvKS5^

126 HEALTH HABITS

very hard at work or play, we should rest for a little

5. Rest be- while before eating. Why is this a good
fore eat- health habit ?

"^' It is best to avoid eating too many differ-

ent kinds of food at one meal. The workers can take

6. Avoid care of five or six different foods easier than
™^^^*^®s- they can a dozen kinds. We need to eat
a wide variety of foods, but it is better to have this
variety from day to day than to have it all at one meal.

A wise man once said, "We should eat to live, not
live to eat." Do you think that every one should

7. Eat learn to choose foods that nourish the body,
nourishing rather than such as merely please the taste ?
food. Why ? Sometimes children do themselves
much harm by eating only the pie or pudding, pickles,
and other relishes on the table, leaving the bread and
butter, potato, and other important foods untouched.

Some parts of the food we eat cannot be used by
the body. These portions are indigestible. After
the workers have sorted out and taken care of all that
is usable, the waste that remains must be expelled
from the body. If this is not promptly done, it acts
like a poison to the body, and may be the cause of
serious illness. The "call of Nature'' to relieve the
bowels should always receive prompt attention at a
regular hour each day. This is a health habit of the
utmost importance.

Remember: Any one who wants to get the most
out of life must eat slowly and chew his food thoroughly,

HEALTH HABITS IN EATING

127

so that he will get all the taste out of it, and prepare it
as well as possible for the workers in the food canal.
He must give the food workers time to rest. He

must not eat between meals, not even candy. He
must be regular at meals. He must not make a meal
of cake or pie alone, just because he likes it. He must
not eat until he feels stuffed. He must not eax ^Vss.w.

128 HEALTH HABITS

he is tired. He must not wash his food down with
drink. He must at a regular hour every day expel
the useless material from the body.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. How do you know that the food you eat is made into bones,
muscles, hair, skin, lungs, and so on ? Be ready to tell the class
some way to prove this.

2. How can you tell that the food you eat warms your body ?
See if you can find some good way to show this.

3. How can you tell that the food you eat gives you energy
for your play and your work ?

4. How long does it take you to eat your breakfast ? Your
luncheon ? Your dinner ? Is this long enough to get all your
food into the finest condition before it is swallowed ?

5. Who enjoys his food the more while he is eating it, the
person who swallows it unchewed, or the one who chews it
thoroughly ? Why ?

6. Why does nothing taste good when one has a coated
tongue ? What do you think Nature intended that one should do
when he has a coated tongue ?

7. You may know some one who sometimes makes a meal of
cake or pie or cookies. Do you know how this person feels a
few hours after such a meal ?

8. Why shouldn't one eat just after he has been running
hard .?

9. After a meal at bedtime, have you ever had bad dreams ?
Why, do you think ?

10. Will it be better for one's body if he talks about pleasant
things at the table, than if he talks about disagreeable things, or
if he gets angry ? Why ?

HEALTH HABITS IN EATING 129

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. From what do we obtain the materials with which to build
and repair the body ?

2. From what do we get the energy we need in play and in
work ?

3. From what do we get the heat with which the body is
warmed ?

4. Why do we need to eat a variety of foods ?

5. What is meant by the term digestion?

6. Where is the stomach? What is its work ?

7. What are the food workers in the body ?

8. Why is it necessary to chew food thoroughly ?

9. What are the taste buds? Where are they located ?

10. How often should one eat during the day ?

11. Why should one not eat candy, cake, and such things be-
tween meals ?

12. Why do the food workers need to have rest ?

13. Is it well to eat heartily immediately after hard work or
play? Why?

CHAPTER XIV

Health Habits in Drinking

If you wet your handkerchief in water and lay it
aside in the open air,
you will find that after a
time it has become dry.
Why?

When you sit for a
time in a close, hot
room, your Hps become
parched, and your skin
feels dry. I'he heat has
made the air thirsty, and
the air is trying to get
moisture from your body.
Although the body is
more than half water, it
is all the time losing moisture so rapidly that one
needs to drink often to make good its losses. The
The body's body needs water also to supply the fluids
need for which dissolve and change, or digest, the food
™*"' we eat. Some of the fluids of the body help
to carry the digested food where it is needed. Another
need for water is to break up and wash out of the body

HEALTH HABITS IN DRINKING 131

through the sweat and in other ways the waste products
that are continually forming. These waste matters
are poisonous ; if they are not expelled from the body
promptly, illness will result.

The body shows its need for drink by the "dry" or
thirsty feeling, just as it shows when it needs food by
the feeling of hunger.

The best drink is pure water. Water is, in fact,
the only substance which will quench thirst. That
other drinks afford relief for thirst is due to the water
they contain.

Fruit juices, orangeade, and lemonade are flavored
water. These are wholesome drinks. Tea, coff^ee,
wine, cider, and beer are also largely composed of
water; but these drinks contain harmful substances,
and it is better not to use them.

Water is needed by all living things. People can
live much longer without food than without water.
To meet such a need, nature provides a bountiful
supply of pure, fresh water in springs, and in rain and
snow. Often, but not always, pure water is found in
lakes, rivers, and brooks. In addition, there are under-
ground streams which may be reached by digging or bor-
ing wells, from which we may draw as much as we wish.
Pure water in this country is abundant and easily ob-
tainable. In some countries, as in Mexico and Egypt,
pure water is scarce, and is delivered from door to door
on curious-looking wheel barrows, or in cans or skin
bottles carried on the back of a man.

132 HEALTH HABITS

Most people do not drink enough water. It is rare
that one drinks too much water. Many people drink
Pure water ^ good deal of such drinks as tea and coffee,
the neces- but not enough of pure water. Tea and
sary drink. (.Qffgg botH contain in small quantities a
substance known as an alkaloid which when used in
pure form is so strong that it takes but a very small
amount to kill a rabbit.

DODDDDCDOC

The person who has the habit of drinking strong
tea or coffee is often greatly harmed by these. So the
regular use of tea or coffee is a habit we should avoid
if we wish to have good health.

A grown person needs from four to five pints (8 to
ID glassfuls) of water every day. A half-grown boy
or girl needs about the same amount. Just how much
of this he must drink depends upon the kind of food
he eats.

Much pure water is stored away in fruits and green

HEALTH HABITS IN DRINKING 133

foods; and those who. make free use of these get in
this way a large part of the water their bodies need.

People who eat a great deal of meat and almost no
fruit need to drink much more water. Why, do you
think ?

While we should drink freely of water, it is best to
form a habit of taking small quantities often, q^^^
rather than a large quantity at one time, habits in
Usually a person should not drink more than <^'*^^^^-
one glassful at a time.

If the water is very cold, it should be taken in
small sips. Hold each sip in the mouth until it is
warmed before swallowing. This should be done with
any very cold drink or food. Why .?

When water is taken during a meal, it should be
only after the food in the mouth has been swallowed.
If food is half chewed and washed down with drinks
of any sort, it will not have so good a chance of being
digested as when it is thoroughly chewed and mois-
tened by the juices in the mouth.

We should drink only pure water. Because water
is cool, clear, and sparkling is not a sure sign that it
is pure. We must know its source in order to deter-
mine whether it is safe to drink. A pleasant taste
and appearance are not sufficient. Why can we not
always detect impure water by its taste or its ap-
pearance ?

Water which comes from near the top of the ground
is generally impure, because it contains impure sub-

134 HEALTH HABITS

stances that soak into it from the soil. Filth is often
emptied upon the ground, or buried just below the
surface. When the rains come, they wash much of
this through the soil into the underground sources of
water. Dug wells usually furnish water of this sort.
Such water is likely to cause, in those who drink it,
typhoid fever or some other serious disease.

When we are not sure that the water is pure, we
may make it safe by boiling it for fifteen or twenty
minutes. Boiling will give the water a "flat'* taste,
but its original flavor may be restored by pouring it
many times from one vessel into another, so as to ex-
pose it to the air. It is always wise when there is
any doubt about the purity of water to boil it, and
then to store it in corked bottles or fruit jars in the
ice chest.

Deep artesian wells usually furnish pure water.
Rain water as it falls from the clouds is pure. If we
could have a clean tank above the ground in which to
catch the rain as it falls, we could keep it pure. But
if it falls first upon a dirty roof, or through the dusty
leaves of trees, it may be soiled by soot and dust which
it collects from the air.

Ice which is cut from lakes or rivers is generally
not safe. Unless ice is known to be from a pure
source it should never be put into water or other
drinks to cool them. If we need to make water cold,
it can be done best by placing the pitcher containing
it on ice, and by packing ice around it.

HEALTH HABITS IN DRINKING 135

If we think a water supply is not good, we should
have it tested by an expert. But we can first try the
following test : Fill a two-ounce bottle nearly full of
the water. Add a small lump of pure white sugar.
Cork the bottle and leave it in a warm place. If the
contents become clouded within a few days, it is of
very doubtful quality. Why, do you think ?

The danger from the use of impure water is some-
times made an excuse for using wine, beer, and similar
drinks. While these are part water, yet such drinks
cannot take the place of pure water for the body.
These drinks all contain alcohol, a substance which
robs the body of water. Their use does not quench
the body's thirst. Instead, they are liable to create
thirst.

Wine is made from the juice of grapes. When the
juices of most fruits are fresh, they make good drinks.
While the juice remains in the fruit it keeps Fermented
fresh for a long time, because the skin protects ^^^nks.
it. When the skin is broken, and the juice is pressed
out and left open to the air, it soon begins to change.
This is the work of tiny plants, called yeast plants.
These drop into the juice from the air, in which they
are always floating, seeking for a soil to grow in. There
is fruit sugar in the juice, and these tiny plants are
quite fond of sugar. It makes them grow very fast.

Wherever the yeast plants are feeding and growing,
two kinds of wastes are thrown off^. One is a gas, the
same gas we ourselves breathe out, carbon dioxide.

136 HEALTH HABITS

This forms in froth or bubbles on the top of the fruit
juice, and finally passes off into the air. The other
waste is alcohol. This remains in the liquid, giving
it a peculiar taste. The change which the yeast plants
bring about is c^W^d fermentation.

Pure alcohol is a deadly poison to everything which
has life. If you should pour alcohol upon a plant, it
would soon die. Put any living creature in alcohol, and
it will die almost instantly. A man who did not think
alcohol was harmful once gave some to his pet dog with
its food; very soon after, the dog died.

If one should take pure alcohol into his mouth,
it would raise a blister. Any drink which contains
alcohol is hurtful to the body, and we should avoid
its use. People seldom take enough alcohol to kill
them outright; but whatever amount they take is
likely to hurt them little by little. Hard cider,
beer, ale, porter, wine, whisky, brandy, and rum all
are alcoholic drinks. Many patent medicines and
all "bitters" contain alcohol, and ought to be
avoided.

Sometimes people steep herbs, barks, and roots in
water, add sugar and yeast, and brew a "home-made
beer." This too, when it is fermented, contains alcohol.
Some fermented drinks contain much more alcohol
than do others. Whisky, brandy, and rum are
"stronger" drinks than beer, wine, and cider. Why?

Alcohol in whatever drink or whatever quantity

HEALTH HABITS IN DRINKING

137

it is found is liable to create thirst, so that any one who
drinks any alcoholic beverage is likely to keep wanting
more to drink. After a short time he may actually
crave a drink with alcohol in it. Alcohol is likely
to make him feel that he must have it, and that he
cannot stop using it. And all the while the drink is
injuring his health and doing harm to his body. Per-
sons who use fermented
drinks are much more
liable to suffer from dis-
eases than those who do
not use them, and as a
rule they do not live so
long. It has been noticed
by physicians, too, that
when such a person meets
with an accident or be-
comes sick he does not People who eat much fresh fruit

get well so fast as the one °° ""^ """ ^° """" *' ""^«

^ . WATER AS PEOPLE WHO EAT BUT LIT-

who drinks only pure tle fruit. You see that over
water. It has-been esti- three fourths of an apple is water.

mated that in our country every year over 60,000
persons were killed by alcohol ; that is, by the use
of drink containing it. This number of people is
enough to make a good-sized city.

Most boys and girls love to visit a soda fountain
Sodafoun- for a cooling drink on a hot day. A glass
tain drinks, of pure water charged with gas, and flavored
with pure sirups or fruit juices is most pleasant. But

138 HEALTH HABITS

SWEETS

Constant indulgence in sweets

(especially between meals)

impairs the appetite

Ruins the digestion

Decays the teeth

Lays the foundation for sickness in later life

Tommy hadlalumniy.whichhestufTed with lollipops
Chocolate and soda, taffy and gum-drops.
Tommy has i^spepsia now, Brights Disease and gout
"And the Gobble-uns 'II gil You.ef fou don't watdi ouU'

Said dapper Mr Date to dried but sweet Miss Fi|.
"Wh^ is it Master Sammy is so healthy and so big?"
Said she'Upon cheapgoodies.he never spends his money,-
He lows misins.fi^s and dates. maple suj^ar and pure hone);'

HEALTH HABITS IN DRINKING 139

there are many soda fountain drinks which are highly
injurious, especially those which contain kola, a harm-
ful drug. Then, many of the drinks at soda fountains
are made harmful by the use of artificial sweets and
poisonous coloring matter and flavors. Often the water
used in making these drinks comes from an unsafe
source.

Remember : Pure water is the safest of all drinks.
We may add to it various fruit juices if we choose,
making many healthful beverages with which to quench
our thirst. We shall enjoy life most if we early form
the habit of —

(i) Drinking an abundance of pure water,

(2) Drinking it often in small quantities at a time,

(3) If the water is very cold, taking it in sips,

(4) Never drinking for the purpose of washing down
food,

(5) Avoiding tea, coff^ee, and all fermented drinks,

(6) Eating an abundance of ripe fruits.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Some people think they cannot swallow any food without
taking water or milk or some other drink with it. Could you
tell such a person what to do in order to be able to swallow food
without washing it down with drink ?

2. Show by an experiment of some sort that the following
articles contain water: apples, peaches, cherries, bananas, cab-
bage, lettuce, potatoes.

3. How much water do you drink in a day ? When do you
drink it ?

I40 HEALTH HABITS

4. Find out where the water that you drink comes from.

5. How do you cool the water you drink in summer ?

6. When typhoid fever breaks out in a city or town, the officials
at once have the drinking water examined. Why ?

7. Examine a can of fruit which has been fermented, and de-
scribe what you find. Take a little fresh fruit juice of any kind,
and let it stand in the room uncovered for a few days. Describe
the change which takes place in it.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What proportion of the body is water ?

2. Why does the body need water ?

3. How does the body show that it needs water ?

4. How much water does one need during a day .?

5. How should one drink very cold water ? Why ?

6. From what sources is one likely to get the purest water ?

7. What can we do with impure water to make it pure ?

8. When is ice likely to be impure ?

9. What is the best way to cool water ?

10. What is the meaning of fermentation?

11. What are some common fermented drinks ?

12. Does the use of alcoholic drinks promote good health }
Why?

13. Do all drinks to be found at soda fountains promote good
health? Why?

14. Does the regular use of tea and coffee promote good health ?

CHAPTER XV
The Choice and Preparation of Food

"Papa/* exclaimed Mary and Henry in concert
as their father was going with a basket toward the
garden, ''may we go with you?" "Yes, j^e food
indeed," said their father; "come right along, plants in
and I will tell you about the things that grow ^® s^^^-
in the garden, while you help me gather some lettuce.
And since it is a holiday, you may help me plant some
of the new seeds I brought home with me last night."
As they went to the garden together, their father said :
"You know that food for all animals grows out of the
earth. The sunshine makes it grow. There are many
kinds of foods, to supply our various tastes and our
many needs.

"All of the fresh garden things are excellent for
health. The peas are rich in building material for
muscles and bones. They are especially good for
growing boys and girls. The lettuce is rich in iron,
which makes the blood red. An ox can live on green
leaves alone, but we need other foods, although it is
important that we should eat some fresh uncooked food,
such as lettuce, celery, or fresh fruit, at least once a
day, and at every meal, if possible.

141

142 HEALTH HABITS

"The asparagus, beets, and other vegetables which
grow in the garden are useful both as body-building
and heat-making foods. And they give a certain
bulk to the food, which is necessary that the bowels
may act often and promptly. When the bowels do
not move often and promptly, the food remnants
ferment and decay, and the poisons thus produced,
when absorbed, cause headache, a coated tongue, a
bad breath, a muddy complexion, colds, catarrh, and
many other serious troubles. All fresh garden vege-
tables are good to keep digestion active and the bowels
regular. The potato is one of the best of foods. Its
free use helps to keep the tissues free from poisons. '*

The father told also of grain foods, such as wheat,
of which bread is made, and oats, corn, and rice. One
-. thing about wheat is important to remember :

me gr&ins. ^ , , , *

The millers, in making fine white flour, take
out so much of the best of the wheat that graham
bread, which is made of the whole-wheat flour, contains
four times as much bone-building material as does fine
white flour bread. Boys and girls who want to grow
up sturdy and strong should eat a great deal of graham
rather than fine flour bread. Graham bread also helps
to keep the bowels active and regular.
The father explained that garden soil is the home

Clean fruit ^^ ^ ^^^^ multitude of small forms of life. For
and vege- the most part, these are harmless. But some-
**^^®^' times there are among them certain kinds of
germs or bacteria that cause disease. Sometimes,

THE CHOICE AND PREPARATION OF FOOD 143

too, the top-dressing used to enrich the soil contains
eggs of minute creatures that do injury to any one who
swallows them. These get on the leaves and fruit
which grow near the ground. So it is wise always to
give such foods as lettuce, celery, cress, and straw-
berries a most thorough washing before using them.
This is just as necessary if such foods are brought from
the market. Cases of typhoid fever have been traced
to lettuce eaten without cleansing. It is believed
that other grave diseases come from the same lack of
care.

"Even those fruits that grow on bushes and trees,'*
the father continued, "need washing, for they get
covered with the dust that flies about in the air, and
dust generally carries germs or bacteria along with it.

" If we gather cherries and such fruit when the sun-
shine has dried them off just after a good shower, we
shall find them clean. But fruit which comes from
the market must always be well washed before it is

eaten.'*

Dealers often keep stands of fruit for sale outside
their door. There, the dust from the street gets to
the fruit. Some people in the Institute of Hygiene
in Strassburg, Germany, made a careful examination
of small fruits purchased in such an open market,
and found in the water, after washing strawberries,
2,000,000 living germs ; from the same amount of
raspberries, 4,000,000; grapes, 8,000,000; currants,
1 1 ,000,000 ; and cherries, 1 2,000,000. Quite ^tcAy^VsJc^

144

HEALTH HABITS

some of these were disease germs. At any rate, it is
better to wash off the germs before eating the fruit.

The other day while waiting at the bank, I saw a
group of boys around a huckster's cart buying apples.
As soon as each had received his purchase he began to
take large bites, eating both skin and pulp. The boys
seemed to enjoy the fruit so much, I thought I would
bring some home. Those apples were
so dirty that they had to be covered
with water and soaked for five minutes,
then rinsed, and rubbed with a drying
cloth before they were fit for any one
to eat. The boys must have gotten
more than their money's worth of
dirt, but let us hope they got nothing
worse.

The common practice of picking up
fallen fruit from the ground and eat-
ing it out of hand, is also a habit
ON A DUSTY fraught with danger. One can hardly
be too careful always to eat clean food.
Here is a good way to wash berries and small fruits.
Put them in a colander, just a few at a time so they
won't mash, and dip the colander lightly
down and up several times in a basin of clean
water. A lady I know always washes strawberries
with their hulls on, and when it is cherries or grapes
she wants to wash, or any firm fruit, she holds the
colander under the faucet, and lets the water run over

To wash
berries, e

THE CHOICE AND PREPARATION OF FOOD 145

the fruit for quite a while. She washes lettuce in
running water. Celery she cleans by scrubbing each
stalk Separately with a small whisk brush. She says
she always feels that she must wash huckleberries and
cranberries especially clean, for one never knows
whether the hands that picked them were clean or
greasy and grimy with dirt.

Late in the season when the corn
has grown and is bearing ears, every
one ought to gather some of preparing
the tender, juicy ears to eat foods for
fresh each day. May one eat ** ""*
corn raw ? Yes, it is delicious that way
if gathered fresh from the stalk when
each kernel is plump with the sweet
juice. It is also very nice and whole-
some when cooked in various ways.
One excellent way is to pick nice fresh Fruit
ears of as nearly equal size as possible.
Open the husks and remove all the silk
from the corn, then replace and tie the husks about
the ears with a cord. Put the corn in a hot oven
and bake for half an hour, or until it is tender and
no longer Has a raw, taste. When boys go camping,
they can cook corn in this way by burying it in hot
ashes under iive coals.

It is most important that all foods should be fresh,
whether milk, eggs, meat, vegetables, grains, or fruit.
Any stale food is Hkely to be harmful. Nature has

146

HEALTH HABITS

provided some foods, as celery, cabbage, and apples,
which may with care be kept fresh and good for use
during the winter season. Many roots and tubers
which ripen in the fall, such as potatoes, beets, and
parsnips, provide us during the winter with variety,
and supply bulk for our food.
I saw Ann canning some strawberries yesterday,
and this is the way she did it. First,
she cleaned a quart jar, then she filled
it half full of water, fitted on the rub-
ber and the top, and stood it bottom
upwards on the table for a time to see
if the water would leak out, because if
it did, she would know the jar was not
air-tight.

Next, she made a sirup by heating
together one cup of sugar and one and
a half cups of water. Next, she filled
the jar with perfect strawberries that
had been well washed and stemmed.
Over these she poured enough hot sirup to fill the jar
to the neck. She placed the lid, but not the rubber,
on the jar without screwing it down. Then putting
the filled jar in a shallow pan in which was a little
water, she set them in a cool oven. The heat was
turned on very gradually so as not to crack the jar ;
at no time did she let it get so hot that the fruit juice
boiled over the top of the jar. After the juice be-
gan to bubble well in the jar, the fruit was cooked

THE CHOICE AND PREPARATION OF FOOD 147

for twenty minutes. The jar was then removed from
the oven, with care not to expose it to a draft, the
lid was lifted quickly, and a clean rubber band,
which had been dipped in hot water, was slipped over
the jar. Ann filled it again to overflowing with boil-
ing sirup and screwed the lid down (not quite tight),
wiped it clean, and left it to cool for an hour. Then
she screwed the lid as tight as she could.

One time Ann canned some string
beans. After she had washed the beans
and had taken off the strings, she cooked
them till just tender. Then she put
them in a jar, just as she did the
berries, filled it with the boiling water
in which they were cooked, and finished
them as she did the strawberries, ex-
cept that, as they were already cooked,
she left them in the oven only long
enough for them to boil in the jar.

This is such an easy way to can foods that any one
who tries can do it successfully.

E^/^ery home ought to have a garden. A garden
not only gives an excellent chance for exercise of a
most healthful sort, but it provides many fresh foods
which furnish to the body material that is not provided
by other foods. They encourage appetite and aid
digestion. It is very necessary that food should be
relished. When one has a keen appetite and a good
relish for the food he eats, he is almost always able to

Do NOT EAT FRUITS
WITHOUT WASHING
OR PARING THEM.

148 HEALTH HABITS

digest it and so he is benefited by it. Whereas, when
one eats without an appetite, his food is not Hkely to
be well digested, and it will not nourish him well.

Professor Pawiow, the great Russian scientist, has
made a number of wonderful discoveries by means of
The "ap- l^^ge and very intelligent dogs which he
petite trained to assist him in the study of digestion,

juice. gy experiments upon these dogs, Professor

Pawiow learned, among other interesting things, that
the stomach prepares a digestive juice to act upon the
food while it is still in the mouth, and before any
portion of it has been swallowed. The simple taste
of food causes an abundant outflow of this juice. The
juice thus formed Pawiow calls appetite juice. In
order that the proper amount of "appetite juice'* should
be produced, it is necessary that the food should be
very thoroughly chewed. When food is swallowed
hastily, it reaches the stomach before the latter is
prepared to receive it and finds no juice ready to digest
it. Professor Pawiow made many other wonderful
discoveries about digestion, of which we shall learn in
future lessons.

Remember : All fresh garden vegetables are excellent
for health, furnishing body-building and heat-making
foods, and assisting the body to get rid of useless
remnants of food. Fruits and grains also make ex-
cellent foods. The fruits and vegetables should always
be cleaned before eating ; and the whole of the grain,
except the hull, is better for food than the white part

THE CHOICE AND PREPARATION OF FOOD 149

merely. A keen appetite and a good relish for food is
always necessary.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Many of the vegetables that grow in the garden may be
eaten raw. Are they better when cooked ? Why ?

2. Many of the common vegetables must always be cooked.
Why?

3. Many of the common fruits you like better cooked than un-
cooked. Why ?

4. Are there any fruits that may be eaten when green f Why
not.?

5. How may oats be used for food ? Corn f

6. In canning fruit, why must one be so careful to boil the
fruit and the sirup, and seal the can air-tight while the contents
are hot i

7. What is the best way to get a good appetite i Do you
have a good appetite when you lie around the house all day I
Why?

8. What foods do you always have a keen relish for ? Would it
be right for you to eat only those foods ? Tell why.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What should be done to garden vegetables before eating
them ?

2. What grains are good for food ?

3. Why is graham bread better for growing boys and girls
than white bread ?

4. Why should fruits always be washed before they are eaten ?

5. What is a good way to wash berries ? Celery ?

6. Why does lemon juice sometimes purify water ?

ISO HEALTH HABITS

7. Is com on the cob good for food ? How should it be
cooked ?

8. Is a potato good for food ? How should it be cooked ?

9. Tell how fruits and vegetables may be kept in good con-
dition for use during the winter.

10. Why is a keen appetite necessary for good digestion ?

CHAPTER XVI
The Care of the Mouth

School had closed for Easter vacation, and George
was going to his uncle to spend a week in the country.
He put his clothing and all the things he thought he
should need in his satchel. With cap in hand, he stood
waiting for his uncle to come for him. He could not
help thinking how fine it was going to be to pick wild
flowers in the woods, and play as much as he wanted
to in the fresh out-of-doors, with no lessons to learn
and no tasks for a whole week.

His mother, coming in with Uncle Tom, to see if
George was ready, asked him: *^Sure you have
everything ? Have you your toothbrush V "Why,
no, mamma,*' said George; "I thought I was going
on a vacation.'* "Certainly,** replied his mother,
**but whatever you do there is never a day when you
can leave your toothbrush behind you.** Was the
mother right ? Why ?

Teeth have a most important share m keeping the
body in health. It is only through their aid
that we can bite and crush all the solid foods f^^^^^
we take into our mouths. In fact, their chief
business is crushing and grinding food. If this is not

152 HEALTH HABITS

done well, then the very first work in getting the good
out of food is left unfinished, and through all the rest
of the process there will be trouble, because the food is
not started oflf right at the beginning.

Of course, one cannot chew his food properly unless
he has good tools to do it with. Even if there be but
one bad tooth, or a single one missing, the chewing of
food is likely to be imperfect. To do the work in the
best manner requires a full set of healthy teeth.

Nature provides a young child with a set of twenty
teeth, all that his little jaws are able to hold. These
„ are for use only during the early years, and

•the teeth. „ , ^ ^ , k ^^

are called temporary teeth. As growth pro-
ceeds, and the size of the jaws increases, these first
teeth drop out from time to time, and a larger set of
thirty-two teeth finally
takes their place. These
last are called the fer-
manent teeth. They are
longer and stronger than
the first set, and are in-
tended for use during the
remainder of one's life.
If any of these are lost,
others will not come to
replace them.

When the teeth first appear in the mouth, they are
sound, white, and beautiful, and with good care from
the beginning they may be kept so till old age. Clean,

THE CARE OF THE MOUTH 153

sound teeth, standing like soldiers all in a row, add
much to a person's appearance. This is another
reason why the teeth should receive the best care.
When we see a person in whose mouth is a set of
dirty, ill-kept teeth, we get much the same impression
of him that we do of a person whose hands and face
are dirty, or whose clothing is torn and soiled ; or of
a farmer whose fences are tumbling down, and whose
garden is full of weeds.

The chewing surface of a tooth is called its crown.
This is protected all over with enamel^ the very hardest
material in the body. The por- MimM^f /

tion of the tooth within the gums CroivnWmU ^^

is called its neck. To hold it in ^^^^^^Z^De/rtm
position, it is firmly fastened by / V^

a jang or root to the jaw bone. W ^-Cement

There are different shaped teeth

£ \»rt i_ What is likely to happen

tor ditterent uses, — some sharp ^^en the enamel decays
for cutting the food, while others or is broken so that the
have broader surface for crushing ^=^^= ^' =^^?^"^ ^
and grinding. We have no teeth for tearing food, such
as are found in the mouth of the dog, as we have no use
for such teeth. See if you can locate these different
shaped teeth in the mouth.

All are made good and strong on purpose, so that
they can readily crush hard foods like crackers -jh^ t^^^j
and toast. One's teeth need exercise to keep need exer-
them strong quite as much as do other parts "®®*
of the body, so at every meal we should eat some hard

154 HEALTH HABITS

foods which need much chewing. But the teeth are not
so strong that they can be used to crack such things as
hickory nuts. The enamel which covers the teeth is
brittle, Hke china, and if the teeth
are used to bite hard objects, such
as steel or stone, it may be very
easily cracked or chipped off. So
long as the enamel remains sound,
the tooth is well protected.

You have already been told of
the tiny colorless plants so small
that six hundred millions (600,000,-
000) of them could be packed in the
space occupied by a grain of sugar.
Men of science call these minute plants bacteria or germs.
They abound in the air. They get into the water we
drink and the food we eat. Some of them are harmless,
but others do us much damage. Their chief business is
to carry on the process of decay. They multiply very
fast if they have a warm place and moist food. They
■OaxAtaU cannot live in strong sunlight. When they
in the get into our mouths, as they are always doing
mouflL from the air or by means of our food and
drink, they find just what they like best, — warmth
and moisture. And if there be ever so tiny a crack
or break in the enamel of a tooth, they seek a lodging
there, and begin to grow, and to make trouble for us.
Anything likely to injure the enamel, like biting wire,
pulling out nails, or opening a knife blade with the

THE CARE OF THE MOUTH 155

teeth, or picking them with pins, should be avoided.
Why ? Have you ever broken the enamel on one of
your own teeth ? If so, how did you do it ?

The teeth grow very close together, so each one can
help the others in chewing. Still there is a space
between them large enough for particles of the food
we eat to collect in. If our teeth are not well cleaned
after meals, these particles of food make a tempting
banquet for germs. They are not slow in taking
advantage of their chance ; and if there be some food
left there every day for them to feed and live on, they
may in time make holes for themselves in the enamel
of the near-by teeth. When once they get inside, the
work of decay will go on rapidly. If we are careless
and neglect to keep the mouth and teeth clean, we
need not be surprised to find some day that these
little bacteria have begun to spoil some or all of our
teeth. It has been found that nine out of ten of all
the school children in the United States, England, and
Germany have bad teeth. Why, do you think ?

A decaying tooth is literally swarming with bacteria,
and not a morsel of food can be chewed in the mouth
but that some of them get mixed in with it, and pass
into the stomach to do further harm to the body.

You know that to be sound a horse must have good
teeth. This is just as true of a man as of a horse.
A man who does not have good teeth is not a sound
man. .

Some people think it is not necessary to care for the

156

HEALTH HABITS

first set of teeth, since they will be shed after a time.
But this is a mistake. A ''baby'' tooth that decays
is very apt to harm the new tooth that comes in its
place. One that is not pulled in time causes the
second to be crowded and irregular.

lyji i/ii

Even the baby's teeth need to be kept clean. A
swab of cotton on a toothpick is best for this, because
the baby's gums are too tender to bear the
use of a toothbrush. For older boys and
girls a small, stiff brush is best, — one that
will reach into every crevice. It should be
used on every part of every tooth, outside,
behind, on top, and between, brushing up on the
lower teeth and down on the upper ones. Where the

Keeping
the mouth
clean and
the teeth
sound.

THE CARE OF THE MOUTH 157

teeth are very close, soft silk thread or dental floss
should be drawn around and between the teeth to
clean out small bits of food.

All persons, young and old, should make it a regular
practice to finish every meal with a thorough cleaning
of mouth and teeth. When the school bell rings before
dinner is over, and one^s toothbrush is in the bath-
room up stairs, one should at least rinse his mouth well
with a glassful of water, and not forget to clean his
teeth at night thoroughly. In some countries the meal
service is concluded by the passing of glasses and bowls
for mouth washing, as well as finger bowls for finger
washing.

-If it is one's misfortune to have a decayed tooth, he
should at once visit a good dentist, who may be able
to clean it out, and fill it with some lasting substance,
which will prevent any further damage, and make the
tooth still of service in chewing. One should not delay
in attending to this, or the tooth may be wholly de-
stroyed. And it is a serious thing to lose even one
tooth.

We cannot always ourselves see where the germs
have started their work. The teeth, by aching most
painfully, often make known to us that the bacteria
are at work. But by this time much harm has already
been done. It is wiser to make regular visits to some
good dentist twice a year at least, and have him ex-
amine the teeth and clean them. The high polish
which he will give them makes it harder for the food

iS8 HEALTH HABITS

and germs to cling to them ; and if there be any places
where the enamel is broken or decay begun, he can
repair the tooth before great harm has been done.

There are various routes, beside those already men-
tioned, by which these bacteria reach the mouth. A
Bad habit ^^^ unusual Way lies through the habit, so
andbac- common among children, of holding in the
tena. mouth pins, pennies, pencils, marbles, and

other articles liable to carry bacteria. The practice
of swapping bites of candy, exchanging chewing gijm,
whistles, or anything that has been put in the mouth,
wetting a lead pencil with the lips, tasting with another
child's spoon, and drinking from a common cup are
other ways of getting these dangerous germs into one's
mouth.

One very common harmful habit is that of putting
the fingers in the mouth. The fingers more than any
other part of the body are all the time coming in con-
tact with things that are more or less unclean. Things
handled by many people, as books, door knobs, the
stair railing, the baseball or bat, may each or all have
on them harmful bacteria which have come from some
one's hands. These may get on your own hands.
If you should then put your fingers in your mouth,
what would probably happen ?

Of two things we cannot be too careful :

1. To wash the hands very often,

2. To keep the fingers out of the mouth and also out
of the nose and eyes.

THE CARE OF THE MOUTH

By some experiments made with a drinking cup in a
city school, it was found that in a space no larger than
the head of a pin on the brim of a cup which Avoid the
had been in use for nine days, there were pubUc
over one thousand bacteria. It was esti- ^i^inkinK
mated that the edge of the cup hkely to be
touched by the Ups in drinking bore not less than five
million germs. In one school twenty-four persons
who drank from a cup that had been used by a pupil

i6o

HEALTH HABITS

having diphtheria all took the disease. In another
school the teacher and every pupil who used a cup
from which a child with the measles had drunk became

ill with measles.
It will do us little
good to drink pure
water, if in doing
so we offer to in-
jurious germs a
lodging place in
the mouth.

The public or
common drinking
cup is a deadly
thing, and no one
should use it.
Every person
should carry a
pocket cup of his own. If one needs a drink when no
cup is at hand, he may make one by folding a piece of
paper, or he may use an envelope. A bubble fountain
is an excellent and safe device for providing the public
with drinking water.

Remember: Sound teeth are necessary for good
health. The teeth should be cleansed thorougly after
each meal ; and they should be examined regularly by
a good dentist. The mouth is a door to the body.
Keep it closed against germs.

THE CARE OF THE MOUTH i6i

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. If you can do so, look at the teeth of a three-year-old child
and describe their appearance and their condition.

2. Where in the mouth are the teeth used for cutting food ?
Where are those used for crushing food ?

3. What may happen to one's teeth if he uses them for biting
wire or nails ?

4. How many of the people you know have perfectly sound
teeth ? How have they kept them in good condition ?

5. Suppose one should always gulp down his food without
grinding it, or should eat only mushes, what would happen to his
teeth ? Why ?

6. Try to figure out which will take more time : to rinse or
brush one's teeth after each meal, or to have one or two decaying
teeth filled by a dentist each year. Which is more trouble and
expense ?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What part do the teeth play in keeping the body in health ?

2. What are the "baby" or temporary teeth .? the permanent
teeth ?

3. What may cause teeth to decay ?

4. What is the crown of a tooth ?

5. What is the enamel ? What is its use ?

6. What will happen to the teeth if the enamel is broken ?

7. How may the teeth be exercised ?

8. What is meant by bacteria or germs in the mouth }

9. What will help the growth of germs in the mouth ?

10. How often should one clean the teeth ?

1 1 . How should the cleaning be done }

12. How often should one visit the dentist } Why ?

CHAPTER XVII
The Care of the Skin

Any one who has ever had the mishap to tear a piece
of skin from a finger, toe, or other part of the body
knows how the tender flesh underneath smarts and
stings until it is protected from the air by a bandage
or plaster. One who has had the bad luck to get dust
or dirt in such a raw place has probably had to endure a
painful sore.

It is plain that without a covering for the delicate
flesh, the body would be in constant danger of injury
The body's ^om hurt and from germs. The skin, which
perfect gar- clothes the whole body, protects the sensi-
^^^' tive flesh. The skin is soft and smooth. It

stretches enough for us to bend easily an arm or leg,
and it is never too small, no matter how much we grow.
It is so strong that it does not break easily when we
come in contact with hard objects, and it never wears
out. It fits so perfectly that it has the exact shape of
the body. At the lips and nose it becomes finer and
softer and is called the mucous membrane. This
membrane lines the nose, mouth, throat, and all the
inner portion of the body.

i6l

THE CARE OF THE SKIN

163

B Some people like to strip the spicy bark from a birch
tree and chew it. If you have ever done this, or have
peeled the bark from some other young tree, you have
doubtless observed that on the outside there was first a
very thin layer resembling paper, and under this a much
thicker bark next to the wood. It would not do the
tree much harm if you should re-
move this outer bark. Indeed, the
bark of white birch trees peels itself
off little by little. The bark of the
tree does not stretch enough to make
room for the increase in size as the

L tree grows ; so the outer layer tears,

■ is shed as the wood beneath it needs
more room, and then the new bark
grows to take its place.

If you tear off the inner bark, it
will injure the tree. It will make it
"bleed" ; that is, it will cause the

»sap to flow freely. The sap, we
may say, is the blood of the tree.
If the torn place is not too large,
it may heal over, but an ugly scar
will remain in its place.

The skin covering our bodies, like
I the bark covering the tree, is made up of two layers.
I The outer layer is called the scarf skin or The scarf-
\ epidermis. It is thin, like the skin that lines ^^"^
Ian eggshell. There is no blood in this outer skin;

164

HEALTH HABITS

neither is it very sensitive. Using a very fine needle
and thread, you can take a stitch in it without making
it bleed or without causing pain. If you should ex-
amine a bit of the scarfskin under a microscope, it
would look like this picture. There are several thin

layers of small scales, joined at their edges. Those in
the outside layer are no longer of use, and are all the
time being shed or rubbed ofF. Every time the hands
are washed with soap and water or rubbed with a towel
some of these scales are rubbed off. It is a curious fact
that new ones are all the time crowding the old scales
upward to the top.

On most of the body the outer skin is very thin. It is
thickest usually on the palms of the hand and the soles

THE CARE OF THE SKIN 165

of the feet, because these parts more often come in
contact with hard objects, and hence need better pro-
tection. Can you locate the tough parts on your hands
and feet ? Is there some such thick skin on any other
part of the body ?

The underside of the first skin is colored, being spread
over with tiny grains of coloring matter called pigment.
In colored people this pigment is sometimes brown,
and sometimes nearly black. White persons have very
little of it. The heat of the sun increases the pigment,
and this is why the skin tans when much exposed to the
sunshine. If the coloring increases in spots, the skin
appears freckled.

The inner or second layer of skin on the body, like
the inner bark of the tree, is much thicker than the
outer layer; it is also more important, and Thetrae
so is called the true skin, or dermis. ^^'

If we scratch or cut this skin, it bleeds and smarts.
If we should meet with a mishap which destroyed a
portion of it, there would be a scar when it healed, —
a sort of patch by which Nature tries to remedy the
defect. Have you a scar of this sort ? How did you
get it ?

Besides protecting the body from injury, the skin
serves it in several other ways. We can tell by means
of it whether objects are rough or smooth, whether
hard or soft, and whether cold or hot.

If we look through a magnifying glass at the palm of
the hand, we shall find it covered with very fine ridges

166

HEALTH HABITS

and furrows. Along the top of the ridges appear many

little dark spots. These are very tiny holes called pores.

Each pore is the

Onrpor«s. . ^ -

Opening tor a very
small tube which runs
down through both layers
of the skin. At the lower
end it is rolled up in a coil,
as you see in the picture.
These coils are perspiratory
glands, so called because
they separate out from
the blood the fluid we
call sweat or perspiration.
There are more than three
millions of them in the

skin, but they are most numerous on the palms of the

hands and the soles of

the feet. These glands

are always busy at work

sending out perspira- ,

tion through the pores,

although we usually do "te^"

not notice it except

when it flows so fast

that it forms in drops.
We can make sure

that the skin secretes

moisture by trying a simple experiment. Press the

THE CARE OF IHE SKIN 167

finger tips or the whole hand for a moment on the dry
surface of a mirror or some brightly polished metal.
The place which the hand covers will look moist and
dim. This is because perspiration oozed out of the
pores of the hand while it was on the glass, though we
could not see it by merely looking at the hand.

When one is working or playing hard, or when he gets
very warm, the perspiration flows so freely that it
collects on the surface of the skin in big drops. But at
other times it flows slowly and we do not see it. Yet
during each twenty-four hours almost enough to fill
a quart measure passes from the body of an adult.
If one is working hard, the amount given out may be
very much greater than this.

As soon as the perspiration reaches the surface, it
evaporates, and in so doing makes the body cool. This
is another useful thing the skin does for us.
It helps to keep us cool in hot weather ; or, ^^^ ^^^^
in other words, it regulates the heat of the latest!. e
body. When the perspiration pours out fast, ^^^^
we should take care not to sit in a wind or a
draught, as we might be chilled by the rapid evapora-
tion of the moisture.

You can see how this happens by moistening the
finger nail, and blowing upon it. Although the breath
is warm, the nail will ^eel cool because of the rapid
evaporation of moisture.

The perspiration is mostly water, so the more we
perspire the more water we need to drink in order to

i68

HEALTH HABITS

keep the proper supply of moisture in the body. It
also contains a considerable amount of waste matter
formed in the body. Thus the skin serves another
purpose — it rids the body of waste.

There are other glands in the skin besides the per-
spiratory glands. These make oil, and pour it out
upon the surface to keep the skin soft
and smooth. Show in some way that
the surface of the skin is oily.

There are curious little pockets, too,
from each of which grows a hair. Oil
glands provide the hair with oil to keep
it soft and glossy. Show in some manner
that these oil glands supply oil for the
hair.

The nails of the fingers and toes grow
out of other little pockets in the skin.
Both hair and nails are only portions of
the outer skin, which is curiously changed
and hardened. The nails were intended
to protect the ends of the fingers and
toes, and to give them firmness.

The appearance of the skin more than
any other feature makes the face ugly or beautiful.
A hwdthy I" order to keep the skin in health it must be
sWa must kept clean. The waste matter which forms a
b« dowi. pgj.^ ^f j.j^g perspiration does not evaporate
along with the water, but dries upon the skin, making
a sort of film all over the surface. If this is not re-

THE CARE OF THE SKIN 169

moved, the 1:1m begins to decompose, giving rise to a
very unpleasant odor. But the offensive smell is not
the worst thing. The poisons formed are absorbed into
the body and produce various painful and disgusting
diseases of the skin.

Sometimes people try to hide a dingy skin on the face
by covering it with paint, or powder. This is a sham.
It does not help the real trouble at all. The skin can-
not be made soft and white by such means. Besides,
these paints and powders sometimes contain poison.

The really beautiful skin is the healthy skin. And
as we saw above, to keep the skin healthy, it must be
kept clean so that its perspiratory glands will be active,
and its pores kept open. Indeed, the whole body must
be kept clean, — clean on the outside and clean on the
inside, — that the skin may be kept in health. A clean,
moist, healthy skin is the sign Nature hangs on the
outside to indicate that the whole body is in good health.

Most children wash the face and hands every morn-
ing upon rising. The rest of the body needs this care
just as much or even more than do the hands
and face. The air and sunshine bathe the
face and keep its skin much freer from the body's waste
than are the parts of the body which are covered with
clothing. Why ? The entire skin should have a daily
cleansing. A morning bath is an important health
habit. For a person in health, a cool or cold bath is
best, because it not only serves to cleanse the skin, but
it makes one feel fresh and full of energy. Cold water.

170

HEALTH HABITS

too, hardens and trains the skin and makes one less
liable to colds. The person who makes it a habit to
take a cool or cold rub regularly every
motning will soon have his skin so
trained that he will be protected
against "colds.".

The temperature for what is called
a cool bath ranges from 70° to 80°,
the cold bath from 60° to 70°. One
should test the water with a bath
thermometer.

If one is not used to cold-water
bathing, he should always begin with
Ruiasfor moderately cool water, and
the cold gradually make it colder,
bath. jij ^j^jg ^2y one can, after a

time, take a cold bath with no harm
to himself. There are some points,
though, which one should always
bear in mind when taking a cold morning bath :

1. The room in which the bath is to be taken must be warm
(70" to 80°).

2. Always bathe the face and neck first with cold water before
bathing the rest of the body.

3. The cold bath should be taken at once upon rising, while
the whole body is still warm. It is not safe to run about barefooted
and in night garments after getting out of bed before taking a
cold bath. A cold bath to a cold body is a dangerous thing.

4. If on getting up in the morning the hands or feet are cold,
or one feels at all shivery, a short (2 to 4 minutes) hot bath should

. THE CARE OF THE SKIN 171

first be taken to warm the body, and after that the cold bath
may be taken. If there is no hot water, warm the body first by
rubbing it with a towel ; or by some brisk exercise, such as jump-
ing up and down for a moment or two.

5. Cool or cold baths should be of short duration. One minute
is long enough. The colder the water the shorter should be the
bath.

6. After a cool or cold bath, every part of the body should be
briskly rubbed over with a coarse towel until it looks red and feels
warm.

7. The drying should always be quickly and thoroughly done.

Cool and cold baths may best be taken by a plunge
in a tub full of water of the proper temperature, or by a
shower or spray of water over the entire body, while
standing with the feet in warm water.

If one has no spray apparatus, a small tin watering
can, such as the gardener uses to water flowers, filled
with cool water will serve as well.

A boy who wanted a shower bath each morning fixed
one for himself by suspending from the ceiling just over
a wash tub a large tin pan, the bottom of which he had
punched full of holes. Above this he hung a tin can
to be filled with water. A hole in the bottom of the
can was stoppered with a large cork. To this cork he
tied a long string. so that when he stepped into the tub
he could pull the string, thus draw out the cork, and
let the water out into the pan to fall on him in a shower.

One can take a cold rub with just a wash bowl full of
water, and two coarse towels. Bathe first the face and
neck, then the arms and chest, abdomen, back, limbs.

172 HEALTH HABITS

and feet in this order. Dash the water over the skin
with the hands and rub fast and hard. Dry each part
well before wetting another. For the back, wet one of
the towels, fold it lengthwise and wring nearly dry.
Then with one end over the left shoulder and the other
under the right arm rub crosswise. Then change to
the other shoulder. Dry in the same manner.

When one has no conveniences for a cold-water bath,
he may take a cold-air bath. A good way to do this is to
A cold-air sleep with one's windows open to the outer air.
bath. Jn the morning jump out of bed, disrobe

quickly, and with a coarse towel, or better still, coarse
mittens made of toweling worn upon the hands, rub
every part of the body hard and fast while exposing it
to the air for a half minute in winter time, and for three
or four minutes or longer in warmer weather.

One should always feel warm and in a glow at the end
of a cold bath. If after any cold bath you feel shivery
or cold when well dried, then something is wrong.
Probably the bath was too long. Anyway, the thing
to do is to exercise hard until you are warm. Next
time make the bath shorter.

If you feel giddy or faint in a warm bath, leave it at
once, dash cold water over the body, lie down, sip cold
water, and put cold water on the face and head.

Besides the daily morning bath to exercise the skin,
one needs a warm cleansing soap-and-water bath at
least twice a week. In warm weather, cleansing baths
are needed more often.

THE CARE OF THE SKIN 173

The best time for warm (9S°-98°) baths is at night
just before going to bed. It should always be the rule
to end the warm bath with an all-over dash of cooler
water.

Hot baths (above 100°) need rarely to be taken ex-
cept in illness. Most people like a tub bath pretty
warm. Some children take hot baths so The hot
often or remain in such a bath so long that it ^*^-
gives them a weak and languid feeling, and makes the
skin so sensitive that they take cold very easily.

A hot bath, when one is in health, should be very
brief ; and always at its close the body should be cooled
off in some quick or sudden manner, with a spray or
shower, or with a dipperful of cold water dashed over
the entire body.

Should one bathe just before or soon after eating ?
Why ? Should one exercise vigorously after a cold
bath .? Why ? Should one rest after a warm bath ?
Should one ever take a cold bath when very tired, or
when pergpiring ? Why ?

There are some races of people who, while living in a
climate quite like ours, have such well-trained skins
that they do not at all mind the cold, although xheweU-
they wear very little clothing. A gentleman trained
who was traveling in the West recently met ®^^*
an American Indian working without either shirt or
coat. It was a cold, chilly day, and the gentleman in
surprise asked the Indian, "Are you not cold ?'' The
Indian replied by asking, "Is your face cold V "Why,

174 HEALTH HABITS

no/' replied the man. "Well/' said the red man, "the
Indian all face/' The skin of his body had become so
used to the air it did not feel the cold any more than
our faces do.

Some parts of our body require more frequent cleans-
ing than others. Our hands, which come in contact so
Hygienic often with dust and dirt, need to be washed
working. several times a day. Should one always wash
them before eating ? Why ? If possible to do so, it is
best to wash them with soap in a running stream of
water, as under a faucet. Water in a basin soon
becomes foul. If we must wash in a basin, we should
use a second or even a third basinful to rinse the hands.
The hands ought always to be made very clean before
using them in washing the face. In bathing the face,
rub the eyelids from without inward toward the nose.

Wash cloths and nail brushes must be clean and not
too coarse. A sour-smelling or musty wash cloth must
be washed with soap and water before it can be safely
used.

Pure soap is also important. Most children prefer a
scented soap, but they should know it to be pure. Very
poor soap often has a pleasant smell. Mottled castile
soap is safe and pure. Soap used on the skin should
always be thoroughly rinsed off with clean water, and
then the skin should be well dried with a clean towel.
Lack of care in this respect often causes the skin to chap.

Never dry hands or face on public towels which some
other person has used. If your school is not provided

THE CARE OF THE SKIN 175

with individual towels, you should bring your own
from home just as you do your drinking cup. Even
in one's home, each person should have a separate
towel. Some most loathsome diseases may be con-

veyed from one person to another through the use of
towels. It is best always for each person to have his
own toilet articles.

The hair and scalp (that portion of the head upon
which the hair grows) need to be kept clean. A
thorough brushing of the hair for five minutes every

HEALTH HABITS

day aids in keeping it clean, and makes it grow,
you know why ?

There are no set rules as to how often to wash thd
Washing hair. It should be cleaned whenever It is i
the hair. dirty. When one lives much amid dust and
dirt, the hair as well as the body will need washing often.
As we have seen, nature provides the hair with oil
from little glands in the skin. If the hair be kept clean
and healthy, no other
oil will be needed. Hair
oils used on the scalp are
likely to become rancid
or foul in the hair, and
they gather dust; they
should therefore be
avoided. Rubbing the
scalp briskly with the
fingers, which have been J
dipped in cold water, for *
two or three minutes
every day will help to
keep it healthy.

To wash the hair,
bowl, a pitcher of tepli
water, one of cold water, some pure soap, and plenty ol
fluffy towels will be needed. Begin by brushing the hair
upwards towards the top of the head (it is easier to
handle from the front) and make sure that it is straight.
If the hair is tangled when it goes into the water, it will

THE CARE OF THE SKIN 177

come out tangled. When well brushed out, oil the free
ends. Make a good lather with the soap. Rub this
well through the hair and over the scalp with the ends
of the fingers. Afterwards, the soap must be wholly
rinsed off. A warm spray is best for this, but the
hair may be dipped in and out of a bowl of water,
changing the water two or three times. Finish with a
gentle dash of cold water to prevent taking cold. Dry
by rubbing the hair between soft towels, gently shaking
it in the outdoor air and sunshine in warm weather.
In cold weather the heated air rising from the furnace
will help to dry the hair. Always brush the hair out
while damp, as it is then easier to straighten.

Hair needs sunshine and fresh air, so that the less it
is covered the better. Hats and caps should be worn
only out of doors. Combs and brushes for use on the
hair should be kept clean. A lady I know makes her
brushes clean in this way : she puts a dessert spoonful of
ammonia into a quart of water, then dips the brushes up
and down in it, taking care not to wet the backs. In
two or three minutes the dirt comes out. Then in the
same way she dips them in clean water to rinse them,
shakes the water out, and dries them on a rack.

Finger nails need special attention, not only be-
cause dirty nails appear untidy, but because the dirt
which collects underneath them often has caring for
mixed with it some of the worst kind of *^® ^^^s.
disease germs. The nails may be kept clean very
easily. When washing the hands, scrub the finger

178

HEALTH HABITS

nails with a brush, and clean with an orange-wood
stick.

It is not wise to clean the nails while dry with a knife
or other sharp metal instrument which will scrape the
nail. Such treatment will make the nail rough, and

harder to clean the next time. The nails should never
be bitten or torn off. Trim them carefully and evenly
with sharp nail scissors.

When a person walks much in dust and dirt, his
feet should have a daily bath at bedtime, whether he
takes a full bath or not. If one goes barefoot or if
the feet sweat much, nothing will answer except a
tepid water-and-soap bath, with careful rinsing after-
ward in cold water. When the feet are thoroughly

THE CARE OF THE SKIN 179

dried with a soft towel, it is a good time to attend to the
toe nails, which like those of the fingers should be kept
clean and well trimmed. Cut them straight across,
never round or pointed, as this is liable to make them
grow into the flesh.

Remember : Every machine needs to be made clean
before it can do good work. The person who takes care
to keep all parts of the body clean can work better,
study better, and will feel better than one who is care-
less in this respect.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Compare the inside of the lips with the skin covering the
hands as to fineness and delicacy. Explain the difFerence.

2. Why should the scarf skin or epidermis not be very sensitive ?
What would happen to us if it were very sensitive ?

3. Have you ever had callous places on your hands or feet ?
What are they ? Do they hurt when you pinch them ? Why ?

4. Rub your hands or fingers over a piece of writing paper
a number of times, and then see whether you can make a clear
mark on it with pencil or pen. Explain.

5. What would happen if one should smear his skin all over
with a paint which would stop every pore ? Why ?

6. Which would use up more time, do you think, to take a
cold rub every morning, or to be laid up with a "cold" for two
or three weeks every winter ?

7. Should a person use on his hair a brush or comb which has
been used by other persons .? Why ?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is scarf skin or epidermis? What is its use }

2. What is the true skin, or dermis? What is its use ?

^8o HEALTH HABITS

3. What is the pigment and where is it located ?

4. What is the meaning of " getting tanned ? " What causes
freckles ?

5. What is sweat or perspiration?

6. Is perspiration good for the body ? Why ?

7. Why should not one sit in a cold draught just after per-
spiring freely ?

8. How must the skin be cared for in order to keep it smooth
and beautiful ?

9. How does the skin get the oil needed to keep it soft and
elastic ?

10. How often should one bathe the entire body ? What is
the best time for this bath ?

11. What should be the temperature of the bath at night?
In the morning ?

12. How should one take his morning rub ?

13. What dangers should be avoided in taking a cold or a
warm bath ?

14. How should one finish a hot bath ?

15. How should one care for the hair ? for the nails ?

16. How can one avoid **hang nails" ?

CHAPTER XVIII
Clothing the Body

Do you know that all machinery when at work makes
heat ? The working of the living machinery within
the body creates heat. The harder it works the more
heat it produces. If all the heat remained in the body,
we should feel much too warm, as one does when he has
a fever. So Nature has arranged for the skin to carry
off some of it through the perspiration, and in other
ways of which we shall learn later. It happens then
that almost all the surplus heat of the body escapes
from the skin. ^

One of the chief reasons for wearing clothes is to
prevent the too rapid loss of this heat. Clothes in
themselves furnish us no heat. They keep clothes
us warm, but they do so by helping to retain prevent
the heat of the body. The kinds of cloth lo^sofheat.
which do this best make what we call the warmest
clothing. For this reason we choose woolens for cold-
weather wear. Linen, cotton, and silk, which permit
the heat to pass away from the body much faster than
wool, make cooler garments for summer use. Too
much clothing makes the skin very sensitive, and in this
way one becomes subject to colds.

i82 HEALTH HABITS

Some years ago I visited a school for Indian children
in New Mexico. The boys and girls who attended it
had, while living with their parents, worn no clothing.
They were used to plunging into water and swimming
like ducks, even in the coldest weather found in New
Mexico. So active had their skin become that they
did not at all mind weather changes. When they
came to school, they adopted the fashion of wearing
clothes like other children. In a short time they began
to suffer with the colds, coughs, and sore throats from
which they had before been free.

Just how much clothing one ought to wear depends
upon several things :

1. How the skin has been trained. A skin that is
The proper k^pt healthy by cleanliness, and the use of
amount of the daily cold bath requires less clothing

^ ^* than a neglected skin.

2. Age and health. Old people, babies, arid persons
in ill health, being less able to resist cold than others,
require more protection by clothing.

3. One's habits of living. Those who live in warm
rooms during cold weather need little if any more
clothing while indoors than they wear in summer.
Upon going out-of-doors, even if it be but for a few
minutes stay, additional garments should be put on.
We require while exercising less clothing than when
inactive. Why ?

4. The weather. We must vary our clothing to
suit the weather. We ought not to make a rule that

CLOTHING THE BODY 183

because it is summer we will wear thin clothing all the
time, or that since it is April, we will leave off our winter
underclothing. Cold days occur in summer and warm
one& in winter. Even the warmest day of summer
may be changed to a cool one in a few hours by a
thunder shower. One ought to adapt his
clothing to the weather regardless of the
season.

When going out-of-doors in cold or wet
weather, one should wear extra garments
on the feet and limbs as well as cioaing
the upper part of the body. These for cold
should at once be removed on ^^'*»"'-
coming into the house. Outdoor wraps
should not be so heavy as to tire one in
wearing them, nor so warm as to cause per-
spiration. Several thin layers of cloth keep
us warmer than one thick one of equal
weight, because between each two gar-
ments is a layer of air which helps to hold
the warmth.

All kinds of clothing should be porous, that is, should
permit the air to pass through. Chamois jackets and
rubber raincoats which we sometimes need to protect
us from wet and cold are air-proof, and not suited for
constant use. With no air to evaporate it, the per-
spiration from the skin clings to the body and the
clothing. After taking off a raincoat which has been
worn for some time, the clothing is oftea so ^«.

COLD?

i84 HEALTH HABITS

that the air will soon chill one. Unless one changes
his clothing quickly or exercises until his clothing
becomes dry, he may get a severe cold. Rubbers
make the shoes and stockings damp in the same
way. They should not be worn indoors. It is a
good plan on taking them off to change to dry shoes
and stockings. Rubbers after being worn should be
dried before wearing them again.

If on the way to school you should be caught in a
shower and get your clothing wet, ask your teacher to
Wet allow you to go home and make a change,

clothing. or to permit you to keep exercising until your
clothes are dry. Even when sitting or standing, one
may exercise vigorously by contracting the muscles so
as to make them tense and hard.

If the feet get wet, the shoes and stockings should be
changed as soon as possible. But first, if the feet have
been wet for some time and are cold, put them in a bath
of hot water for a few minutes, until warm and well
reddened. Lift the feet from the hot water, and dash
a dipperful of cold water over them ; then rub them dry
with a coarse towel. Cold feet may also be warmed by
first rubbing with cold water then with a dry towel.
Woodsmen sometimes warm their freezing feet by
rubbing them with snow.

Quite likely you have never thought that the color
The color of a garment makes any difference in its
important, warmth, but it does. If you have ever seen a
polar bear you know that its coat is white ; and white is

CLOTHING THE BODY 185

the color of the fur of many other animals in the cold
North. This is no doubt for a purpose, as white gar-
ments are warmer in cold weather, except in the bright
sunshine, than those of darker color. White and light-
colored clothing is also cooler in summer. People
living in hot countries have learned this and most
commonly wear white. Light-colored clothing is
warmer in winter and cooler in summer than dark
clothing for the reason that white or light colors reflect
or turn away the heat of the sun and so protect us
from overheating in summer, and also protect us from
cold in the winter by preventing the escape of the
body heat.

We should be able to move as freely with our clothes
on as without them. Clothing which is too tight to
permit the body to bend with ease in all ways Tight doth-
is too tight to be worn. When children grow inghannfui.
fast, it often happens that their clothing, which of
course does not grow with them as does the skin, gets
so tight and small that it binds and squeezes the body
most uncomfortably. Tight belts, tight collars, tight
bands, tight waists, tight corsets, tight garters, all do
great harm. If one wants his body to serve him well,
he must provide it ample room in which to work.

The strong bones of the shoulders can bear the weight
of one's clothing better than any other part of ij^^ weight
the body. To have one's clothing hang from the of the
shoulders is the best plan. To fasten it about ^®*^®^-
the waist merely is hard on the body, for its weight thus

i86 HEALTH HABITS

becomes a constant drag upon the delicate organs
within the body in the vicinity of the waist. Sooner
or later they will get so pushed out of place that harm
will result.

In order to keep the body clean one must, of course,
wear clean clothing. Garments worn next to the skin
Clean are very soon soiled by the perspiration. On

clothing. this account there should be frequent changes
of underclothing, even when it looks clean. Garments
that can stand boiling can easily be made clean. For
this reason cotton and linen underclothes are to be pre-
ferred. In cold weather, a thin cotton or linen suit
with a light one of wool worn over it makes a good
combination. Heavy, closely woven fabrics afford less
warmth than light porous underwear, besides being less
healthful and comfortable.

Daytime clothing should be taken off at night and
hung open to the air, so that the moisture received from
the body may dry out. Would it be best to hang it in
a room other than the one used to sleep in ? Would
it be proper to hang it in a closed wardrobe or closet
where air cannot reach it ?

Garments worn at night should be aired every
day, and so also should the bed coverings, which are
really a part of our night clothing. What do you
think of the practice of rolling up the clothing worn
at night, and tucking it under the pillow during the
day?

Underclothing absorbs more or less of the waste

CLOTHING THE BODY 187

matter thrown off from the body; and even though
aired daily, it becomes in a few days too soiled to be
used again until made clean. When we lay such gar-
ments aside to await wash day, we should not leave
them in heaps on the floor of the bedroom or clothes
closet. Soiled clothing spoils the air of a room. It
should be spread out or hung in some well-aired vacant
room. Dresses and coats of cloth that hold dust should
first be brushed and shaken out-of-doors before being
hung in the clothes closet. Clean the shoes and rubbers
out-of-doors before putting them away.

One depends so much upon his feet to support his
body, when he walks, runs, jumps, skips, skates, and
climbs that he cannot afford to cripple their usefulness.
So he must be careful how he clothes them. Many
children prefer to go barefoot in summer. Would
they go barefoot in winter, too, were it not for the cold ?
There are many people in warm countries who go bare-
foot all the time. They can walk very fast, and the
soles of their feet become so hardened that they do
not mind the rough roads. In Porto Rico, Mexico, and
Egypt I have seen many old persons who had never
worn a shoe ; but these are warm countries.

The feet feel most comfortable when unshod. It is
well to go barefoot indoors so long as our feet are not
cold. But it is not always safe to go out-of-
doors without some kind of foot covering.
In certain parts of the country the soil is unclean, and
full of the tiny hookworms that enter the body through

i88 HEALTH HABITS

the skin of the feet, and cause a serious disease. In
many places where children love to go, there is danger
to bare feet from germs, and from rusty nails and
pieces of glass, so that it often seems wisest to pro-
tect the soles with sandals, which is next best to going
barefoot.

The proper shoe to wear is one that has the shape of
the natural foot. People often wear shoes that are
too narrow or too short. Do you think it is sensible to
do this ? With high and narrow heels one cannot walk
or stand gracefully, and the muscles are strained and
injured. Shoes with very thin soles ought not to be
worn in cold or wet weather. Why ? Tight shoes
cause cold feet. They also make corns ^ and other-
wise harm the feet.

The shoe should fit the foot. A too common way is
to try to make the foot fit the shoe. You have perhaps
heard how it used to be the fashion in China for the jich
ladies to have small feet, and that to make them so they
began when a girl was small, and her bones soft, to bend
the toes under the foot. At the same time the foot was
wrapped in so tight a bandage that it could not grow.
The process was a very painful one, and it took a long
time. In the end the foot was too deformed for use,
and the unfortunate lady could only hobble ; she could
never move about freely as you do.

It is a good plan to use two pairs of shoes, wearing
one pair one day and the other the next day. It costs
no more to do this than to have but one pair. Shoes,

CLOTHING THE BODY 189

like other clothing, get foul with body waste ; and they
should be given a chance to air and dry, so that they
may be kept clean for wear. The stockings should be
changed often, and always dried and aired at night.

Young Theodore, a friend of mine, had a hard experi-
ence with shoes. When he was ten years old, he
coaxed his father to let him buy his own shoes for a
year. After making him an allowance to spend for
shoes for one year, his father told him he might buy
them for himself. Now, Theodore had for some days
envied a playmate who had a new pair of tan oxfords,
and he wanted to get for himself a pair just like them.
This he did as soon as he could. The tan shoes had
pointed toes and somewhat higher heels than he had
worn before. The high heels made him look taller,
but they made his foot slide into the point of the shoe,
which was narrow, and his toes were so cramped and
pressed he found it almost impossible to walk, and his
feet hurt hinl so he did not care to play. But they were
pretty shoes, and they gave his feet so much style that
he was quite proud of them. At times he was tempted
to take theni off because they pinched his feet so badly,
but he was afraid his sister would laugh at him. So
he wore them until night, although he suffered from
them. When he took them off, his toes looked red and
bruised. There was a sore spot on one foot and a
blister on the other.

You might suppose that after one day's trial he
would not again try wearing those shoes ; but he did.

I90 HEALTH HABITS

Some one told him that new shoes always hurt the
feet, and that they had to be worn a few days to get
them "broken in/' So he kept wearing the shoes and
suffering. By and by he got his feet squeezed into the
shape of his shoes — you see it was his feet that had
to be "broken in"' — and after a time he got some
corns on his feet and an ingrowing toe nail that were
painful.

Remember : Health and comfort demand that one
should wear clean, dry, porous, and loose-fitting gar-
ments. Very tight-fitting shoes, collars, and the like
should be avoided.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Take a thermometer which registers about 32** outdoors.
Put it next to the. body, inside the clothing, and notice- how
quickly it rises. Where does the heat come from ? Why does
one get so warm when he works hard or runs fast ?

2. Put a piece of woolen and of cotton cloth against the face
or any part of the body. Which feels the warmer ? Why ?

3. Do you think people who wear heavy mufflers about the
throat in winter avoid having sore throat ? Why ?

4. Is it well to wear heavy ear mufflers in moderately cold
weather i Why J

5. Why do people use storm windows in winter — to keep
out the cold or to keep in the heat ?

6. Why do people use hollow tile in the walls of their houses
when they build them ?

7. On a very hot day, people often put water on the face,
hands, and neck, and let it dry in the air. Why ?

8. Why do we so often speak of zvet days as cold days ?

CLOTHING THE BODY 191

9. Feel a thick, hard-woven suit of underwear and a loosely
woven, fluffy one ; which feels the warmer ? Explain.

10. Which is warmer, a heavy, hard quilt, or a light, fluffy one ?
Why?

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Where does the heat which makes the body warm come
from ? Is it all kept in the body ?

2. What is the chief reason for wearing clothes ?

3. What kinds of material best keep the heat of the body
from escaping ? What kinds permit the heat to escape readily ?

4. Can the skin be trained to endure a good deal of cold ?
How ?

5. Why do many people take "cold" easily in winter ?

6. How should one dress when going out in cold or wet
weather ?

7. What is the objection to wearing raincoats, rubbers, and
very thick, heavy clothing all the time ?

8. Does the color of clothing make any difference in regard
to its warmth or coolness ?

9. What is the objection to wearing tight belts or collars or
bands ?

10. What is the best cold-weather combination in under-
clothing ?

11. What should be done with daytime clothing at night ?

12. Why should one be careful to clothe the feet properly ?

CHAPTER XIX
Protecting the Body's Health

We have seen that people become sick from many
causes. One person may become ill from eating too
The causes much, OF from wearing clothes too tight, or
of sickness, from abusing his body in some other way.
Another becomes sick from not keeping his body clean
or from not keeping it in good poise ; still others may
become sick from bacteria or germs that get into the
body and live there.

Nearly all these bacteria come from the bodies of the

sick. They get into the air, and into the water and

food in various ways. If one then breathes

Oerms.

this air, or drinks the water or eats the food
that contains bacteria, he too may become sick with the
kind of disease they cause. Diphtheria, typhoid fever,
smallpox, measles, whooping cough, infantile paralysis,
pneumonia, tuberculosis, cholera, and grippe are the
names of some of these diseases. They are all catch-
ing. Each is produced by a special sort of bacteria.
The kind that causes one disease will not make a person
sick with any other disease.

All these diseases are dangerous, and they should
be avoided as one would avoid a lion or any other

192

PROTECTING THE BODY'S HEALTH 193

ferocious animal. When any one is sick with a catch-
ing disease, all persons who are not needed to give
him proper care should keep away from him.

Most towns and cities have one or more persons,
called health officers, whose business it is to try to pre-
vent these catching diseases. When any one is ill with
a dangerous disease like diphtheria, measles, scarlet
fever, typhoid fever, or smallpox, the health officer puts
a sign on the house. When people see that sign, they
know it to be a warning, and they should keep away.

A lady whose little daughter had scarlet fever did
not want a sign put on her house, so she told no one

194 HEALTH HABITS

what ailed the child. Other children came to the house.
The little girl, not being very ill, was permitted to play
with them. A few days afterward several of these
children became very sick with scarlet fever. It cost
their parents much money to provide the care their
illness required. They missed school and all the good
times their playmates were having. One child lost his
hearing as a result of his illness, and each one suffered
to a greater or less degree. All for the lack of a card
which would warn people that there was a dangerous
disease in the house !

It is our duty to do all we can to protect others as
well as ourselves from disease. When a case of catching
disease occurs in a home or school, it should be promptly
reported to the health officer. In many places there
are laws which make it a crime not to do this. Is this
the case in your town ?

Scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, mumps, and
chicken pox are often called " children's diseases.'*
When once a child has recovered from one of these
diseases, he rarely has it a second time.

Scarlet fever is the most dangerous disease of child-
hood. It is very apt so to weaken the body that other
serious diseases follow it either at once or later in life.
Injuries which result from it often last the person all
his lifetime. The eyes or ears are often so seriously
injured that partial or complete blindness or deafness
is produced. Even mild cases are dangerous. One who
has it must be given the best of care. This is not always

PROTECTING THE BODY'S HEALTH 195

possible at the child's own home. In many places
special hospitals are provided for the care of those ill
with catching diseases. This is a boon to the sick one,
and likewise a means of protection for well people.

Scarlet fever is spread by discharges from the throat
and nose and by scales which fall from the skin. Gen-
erally it takes six weeks for the person to get so well
that there is no danger of giving the disease to
others. Even though the patient feels quite well, it
may not be safe to allow him to mingle with his play-
mates because he may still carry with him some living
scarlet fever germs which might give rise to the disease
in others. So a person who has had scarlet fever must
wait until he is released by the health officer.

Scarlet fever germs may be carried from the sick to
the well on clothing, books, papers, and things worn or
handled ; they may lodge too in the room where the
sick one has been. To prevent other cases these germs
must be completely destroyed.

Measles is another dangerous disease against which
the same precautions as with scarlet fever are necessary.
It is communicated in a similar manner. It may leave
behind it also a whole train of dread diseases.

It is most important that children avoid all catching
diseases. A sore throat is apt to be the first bad feeling
in the case of scarlet fever and some other serious dis-
eases. It is wise to beware of any person with a sore
throat.

The mouth is the gateway through which many

196 HEALTH HABITS

germs get into the body. Many germs leave the bodies

Gennsen- ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ through this same gateway. Do
ter through you think it a wise thing for people to kiss
® ^^^ ' one another on the mouth ? Do you think it
right to allow all sorts of people to kiss a baby ?

A sick man drinks from a public drinking cup. He
may leave disease germs from his mouth on the rim of
the cup. Then a little girl comes for a drink, and the
germs get a fine chance to slip into her mouth while
she is drinking.

If you are thirsty when at play, go to one of the
bubble fountains that you can drink from without a
cup. If you must use a public drinking cup, put both
lips into it, and be careful not to touch the rim. Should
you always take your own drinking cup to school with
you ? Why ?

Suppose that when you get to school you find that
you have forgotten your pencil. Should you borrow one
from a classmate ? Suppose you borrow one from a
pupil who has a habit of putting his pencil in his mouth,
and suppose you have the same habit. What may be
the result ? Diphtheria and other germs have been
found on pencils. They are often carried from one
child to another in this manner.

Think over this case : You go into the Public Library,
and sit down to read in the Children's Room. The
first book you pick up has dirty thumb marks on the
pages. There is a boy near you, wetting his thumb in
his mouth every time he turns the pages. You say :

PROTECTING THE BODY'S HEALTH 197

"This is not a nice habit. It makes the book dirty/'
But is this the worst thing about the boy's dirty habit ?
Five thousand bacteria were found sticking to the leaf
of a book, from one thumb that had been wet with
saliva. Might they pass from the book to your hands
as you turn the leaves ? What should one do in a case
like this ?

From door knobs, car rails, and straps, and other
things that everybody touches, you may gather disease
•germs on your hands. If you are in too much of a
hurry to wash your hands before dinner, you may give
the germs a good opportunity to pass into your mouth .
with your food. Is it well to keep the hands away
from the face and not rub them over the face ? Why ?
Sore eyes and pimples on the face may come from hands
that have bacteria on them.

A man with disease germs in his mouth spits in the
street. A little boy comes along and gathers up some
of the germs along with the dirt which clings to his
boots. When he goes home he does not stop to wipe
his boots on the doormat. He goes into the sitting-
room, and some of the dirt on his boots is wiped off on
the rug. His little sister is playing on the floor.
The germs get on her hands ; she puts her finger in
her mouth and the germs go with it. What may be
the result of this ?

When people have certain diseases, they distribute
disease germs wherever they go, unless they are very
careful. A great many germs are scattered about by

blic places.^H
; and cities I

198 HEALTH HABITS

people's spitting on the sidewalk or in public
This is so dangerous that in some towns and cities
there are laws against spitting, and people who arc
caught expectorating on the walk are fined or put ir
prison. Is this just, do you think ? In cars and public
buildings you may often see the sign: "Don't spit."

Is this a rule every one should obey even if there are no
laws forbidding it ?

A little sick girl was shut in the house away from all
her playmates. It was not safe for them to visit heiM
One of her friends sent in her pussy to amuse and
comfort the sick child. When the child was bettefij]
the kitten was sent home. After a few days h«

PROTECTING THE BODY'S HEALTH 199

mistress noticed that kitty was not well. She petted
and fondled the kitten. Soon the child herself was
taken ill with the same disease that her little friend
had. She herself had not been near the sick child.
How did she catch the disease ? We often hear cats
sneezing, and see their eyes running just as ours do
when we have a cold. Even when they are not sick
themselves, they often carry disease germs in their fur.
Is it a good thing to nurse and fondle cats ? Do you
always know where your pussy goes visiting when she
is out of your house ? Is it best not to run any risks ?

Formerly no one knew that colds and influenza were
catching, but now it is known that in sneezing and
coughing a person with a cold sends out into the air
around him little droplets of moisture full of germs
which those near him may breathe in and get the same
disease. The same is the case when one has influenza.
Quite often children have these diseases and although
they do not feel as well as usual continue to go to
school. What do you think might likely happen ?

This is what did happen in a school I know about.
It was at a time when influenza was very prevalent.
There were over a thousand pupils who attended the
school. On one floor this plan was carried out : As
soon as a child in any room showed symptoms of influ-
enza he was sent home and at night that room was
cleansed in a way that left no germs behind. As a
result less than two dozen of the pupils on that floor
took the disease. On the other floor no such care was

200 HEALTH HABITS

taken and about two thirds of the children suffered
with inflaenza.

From one single case of a catching disease, if it is not
well guarded, ther^ may follow hundreds. Two boys
Guarding ^ knew had whooping cough. They did not
against feel SO Very sick. It seemed too bad for them
contagion. ^^ ^^j^g their lessons, and get behind in their

classes, so their parents allowed them to go to school.
Very soon nearly all the children in that school who
had not already had it were having that disease.
Should those boys have been kept at home ? Why ?
Whooping cough kills 10,000 children in the United
States every year. Those who do not die from it are
likely to have their bodies so weakened by it that they
will be unable to resist pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Do you think any one having such a serious disease
should be willing to be the cause of other people get-
ting it ?

Stand on the dock when a steamer is leaving, and
you are sure to see a lot of waving handkerchiefs.
People often signal to each other in this manner. If
the handkerchiefs have been used, they will be likely
to contain germs from the nose and mouth. Each
wave of the handkerchief may send out into the air a
little shower of disease germs. It is important to
change one's handkerchiefs often, even when one is
well. Why ? Should one ever flourish a soiled hand-
kerchief in the air ? Sick people should use paper
handkerchiefs that can be burned. Why ? The Jap-

PROTECTING THE BODY'S HEALTH 201

anese, who are very clean in their habits, ^nd a very
healthy people, always use paper handkerchiefs. The
discharge from the nose when one has a cold very
quickly makes a cloth handkerchief so moist that it is
of no further use. A girl I once knew used to dry her
handkerchiefs on the steam coils so she could use them
a second time. Do you think this a safe way to do ?
Is it wise to wipe the eyes with a handkerchief that has
been used for the nose ? Those who care for babies
frequently use their own handkerchief for the little
ones. Do you think this a safe plan ?

Probably the disease that kills more people than
any other is consumption, or tuberculosis. One tenth
of all deaths is due to it. It is so common _ - ,

Tuberculo-

that in this country one person dies from it sis, the
every three minutes. Tuberculosis most often df^diy
affects the lungs, although it occurs in other
organs of the body. When the lungs are diseased, the
sick one coughs, and sometimes raises much foul
matter. This swarms with the germs that are the cause
of the disease. If this falls upon the floor, carpet, or
bedding, the germs get into the air of the house, and
whoever breathes it may also get tuberculosis.

If the sputum (foul matter from the lungs) is dis-
charged upon the ground or sidewalk, it is likely to be
trodden under foot, and thus carried about, distributing
germs in new places, or it may become dry and mingle
with the dust which may be borne by the wind, scatter-
ing germs wherever the dust flies. A scientist found

202 HEALl'H HABITS

large numbers of tuberculosis germs on grapes that
grew in a vineyard near a dusty highway. Tuber-
culosis germs are scattered too by the tiny droplets
which are sprayed out into the air every time a sick
person coughs or sneezes.

Whatever a person suffering from tuberculosis eats
with or in any way uses about his mouth is sure to
carry germs, unless it is thoroughly cleansed. As
likely as not, too, when a sick person spits upon the
floor or sidewalk, flies walking over the foul matter
get it on their wings and feet, and so carry some of its
germs along. to the next person or thing upon which
they alight.

With all these ways of distributing the germs of
tuberculosis, see how easy it is for one person to get
them from another, if the sick person is not most careful.

A wise program for the sick is : (i) To hold a cloth
before the mouth when coughing. The cloth should
be burned thereafter ; (2) To spit into squares of soft
cloth or paper napkins, using each but once and after-
ward burning it ; (3) To use a pocket cuspidor or some
vessel filled with a disinfectant ; (4) To use the same
dishes at each meal, and to wash them separately from
those used by other people ; (5) To wash the hands
often ; (6) To avoid kissing.

Care in promptly destroying all germs that come
from consumptive people would save thousands of
people every year from getting this disease. Careless
people who are ill with tuberculosis are to be feared.

r PROTECTING THE BODY'S HEALTH 203

Sometimes it happens that neither sick people nor their
friends understand about the precautions needed to
protect well people. So you see it is most im- preventmg
portant for every one to know about this dis- tubercuio-
ease, and how to prevent its spread. When ^*'
tuberculosis germs are breathed into the lungs of a per-
fectly healthy person, they are likely soon to be killed by

1
I

the brave little white blood cells of which we learned in
Chapter VIII. It is the one who is out of health or
run down from one or another cause, such as lack of
proper food, or of sleep, or of fresh air, that most often
gets tuberculosis. The use of alcohol and tobacco, be-

204

HEALTH HABITS

cause they weaken the body, make one very liable to
get tuberculosis if he breathes in the germs. The surest
course to pursue in order to avoid getting tuberculosis
is to practice health habits, and to keep the body so
well and strong that it can resist disease. Mention
the health habits that will protect the body from this
disease.

The tuberculosis germ has a good chance to gain a
hold in the body when a person is having a cold. It is

/>--n.

BUST, AND THE UKE ALWAYS BEIHC D

wise therefore never to neglect a cold. Taken at the
beginning, tuberculosis can be cured. Rest, good food,
and outdoor air and sunshine are the four best ways to
bring about a cure. Physicians say the best thing to
do is to live out of doors in the open air and sunshine
twenty-four hours of each day. Why should this be
good for a person sick with tuberculosis ?

One who has a cough for a long time ought to have an
examination made. The health department in most

PROTECTING THE BODY'S HEALTH 205

cities will make an examination free. It is very impor-
tant for one who has tuberculosis germs to find it out as
soon as possible so that he may take steps to be cured.
He should find it out, too, so that he may protect
those among whom he dwells, and may make himself
a safe person to associate with.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

1. Place a piece of glass about four inches away from your
mouth when you cough or talk loud, and notice whether any-
thing appears on it. Explain.

2. Suppose your classmate has a "cold in his head," and
sneezes a good deal very near you. Are you in any danger f
Explain.

3. Sometimes a person gets in the habit of "clearing his throat"
with his mouth open when others are near by. Should he do this .?
Why.?

4. If one must cough when others are near by, is there any
way he can prevent the spray from his throat and lungs being
sent out into the atmosphere ? Explain.

5. Tell five ways in which harmful bacteria or disease germs
may get into the body.

6. Find out what the Board of Health or the physicians or
the people in the place you live are doing to get rid of some catch-
ing disease.

7. Has your school ever been closed on account of some "epi-
demic" ? If so, what was it i Why was the school closed f

8. Suppose you knew of a family in which there was a case of
scarlet fever, but the family would not tell physicians about it so
that they would be " quarantined " .? What would you do ? Why .?

9. Should every well person help the health officers as much
as he can to prevent people from spitting on street cars, side-
walks, in public buildings, etc. ? Why ?

2o6 HEALTH HABITS

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Name several causes of sickness.

2. What is the meaning of bacteria?

3. Where do the bacteria that make one sick come from first ?

4. How are they carried from one body to another ?

5. What are some of the diseases caused by bacteria ?

6. What may happen to well children playing at the house
of a child who has such a disease as scarlet fever ?

7. What is the gateway through which many germs enter
the body ?

8. Is there danger in using a public drinking cup ?

9. Is there any danger from different children using the same
lead pencil ?

10. Is there any danger from eating food without first washing
the hands ?

11. Is there any danger from rubbing the eyes with the hands ?

12. Is there any danger from people spitting on the street or
in other public places ?

13. Is there any danger from children fondling kittens ?

14. Is there any danger to pupils in school from a child who has
a hard cough ?

15. Is there any danger from people waving handkerchiefs
about in the air ?

16. What is the disease known as tuberculosis ?

17. How is tuberculosis spread among the people ?

1 8. What care should one who is suffering with tuberculosis take ?

19. What do the white blood cells do to save one from tuber-
culosis and other diseases P

20. How should one live in order to keep his white blood cells
in good condition ?

21. What kind of living may weaken one so he cannot fight
tuberculosis and other diseases ?

22. How can one find out whether he has tuberculosis ?

GLOSSARY

KEY TO PRONUNCIATION

fi, as in file; ft, as in sen^ftte; ft, as in cftre; ft, as in ftm; ft, as in ftrm; ft, as
in ftsk; a, as in ^'nal; e, as in eve; ^, as in S-vent'; S, as in find; e, as in tern;
ef as in re'cmt; i, as in ice; i, as in i-de'a; I, as in HI; o^ as in old; 6, as in
6-bey'; 6, as in Orb; 6, as in ddd; n, as in use; VL, as in Il-nite'; ft, as in lip;
a, as in ilrn; ft as in pit'j^; <5b, as in f(5bd; d6, as in fdbt; ou, as in out; oi, as
in oil.

abdomen (ab-do'men). The middle part of the body, between the thorax
and the pelvis. The cavity which contains the stomach, bowels, and
other organs.

adult (a-dultO. A person who is fully grown.

alcohol (al'korhol). The intoxicating element of fermented or distilled
liquors.

alkaloid (aFka-loid). Bitter substances found in nicotine, quinine,
morphine, etc., that affect the nervous system strongly.

apparatus (ap'pa-ra'tus). A collection or set of implements or organs
for a given duty, as the vocal apparatus for making and regulating
the voice.

artery (ar'ter-y). One of the vessels or tubes which carry either venous
or arterial blood from the heart. They have thicker and more mus-
cular walls than veins and are connected with them by capillaries.

artificial (ar'ti-fish'^l). Not natural; made by human skill and labor.

backbone (bak-bon')* The column of bones in the back which sustains

and gives firmness to the body, sometimes called the spine, or spinal

column,
bacteria (bak-te'ri-a) (pi. of bacterium). Living bodies too small to be

seen by the naked eye. Certain kinds are harmful to the body;

other kinds are protections.

207

2o8 GLOSSARY

bellows (bel'lus). An instrument which by the opening and closing
of its sides draws in the air through a valve and expels it through a
tube, for blowing Hres, ventilating mines, or filling pipes.

beverage (bev'er-aj). Anything used as a drink, usually applied to drink
artificially prepared, and of agreeable flavor, as coffee.

blood vessel (blud' ves'sel). Any vessel or canal in which blood circulates,
as an artery or vein.

brisk (brisk). Lively; spirited; quick.

canal (ka-naK). A tube or duct for conveying food or liquid, as the

alimentary canal,
capillary (kap'il-la-ry or ka-pil'la-ry). A tiny thin-walled tube that

connects a vein and an artery,
carbon dioxide (kar'bon di-oks'id or Id). A gas formed in the lungs

when one breathes,
cartilage (kar'ti-laj). Elastic tissue or gristle connecting muscles and

bones,
cavity (kav'i-ty). A hollow place, as the abdominal cavity,
cell (sel). One of the minute parts of which most of the various tissues

and organs of animals and plants are composed,
chamois (sham'my). A soft leather made from the skin of the animal,

the chamois,
channel (chan'nel). A tube through which water or any liquid passes,
chest (chest). The part of the body inclosed by the ribs and breast bone ;

also called the thorax,
chicken pox (poks). A contagious disease attended by itching and

peeling skin in the last stages. Unless care is taken to prevent, the

patient is left with small scars or pits on his body,
cholera (kol'er-a). A dangerous disease, very contagious, originating in

filth,
circulate (ser'ku-lat). To move in a circle,
colander (kuF^n-der). A dish with little holes for straining liquids,

mashing vegetables, etc.
combustion (kom-bus'chun). Burning up, as when wood or coal burns

to ashes in a grate,
competitive (kom-pet'i-tiv). An adjective applied to a contest between

two or more persons, as in a race or a spelling match, and so on.
contract (kon-trakt')* To draw together; to shorten, as the muscles of

the arm contract when the arm is bent.

GLOSSARY - 209

cramp (kramp). To squeeze, to prevent an organ from having free
action^

decay (de-ka'). To waste away; to rot; to perish.

decompose (de'kom-poz'). To rot; to decay.

deformity (de-form'i-ty). Any unnatural shape or form; distortion;

irregularity of shape or features ; ugliness,
dermis (der'mis). The deep sensitive layer of the skin beneath the

scarfskin, or epidermis,
diaphragm (di^a-fram). The muscular partition separating the cavity

of the chest from that of the abdomen,
digest (di-jest'). To separate the food in its passage through the ali-
mentary canal into its nutritive and non-nutritive elements,
digestion (di-jes'chun). The process of preparing the food to nourish

the blood,
diphtheria (dif-the'ri-a). A very dangerous contagious disease in which

the air passages, especially the throat, become coated with a false

membrane.
disc (disk). A flat round plate,
discus (dis'kus). A circular plate of some heavy material intended to

be pitched or hurled as a test of strength and skill,
disease (diz-ez'). Any change in the state of the body or of an organ,

causing pain and weakness ; illness ; sickness,
distillation (dis'til-la'shun). The separation of the parts that have the •

power of evaporating from the more fixed parts of a substance ;

vaporization ; condensation.

efficiency (ef-fish'^n-sy). The power of doing the greatest amount of

work with the least waste in a given time,
enamel (en-am'el). The very hard tissue entering into the composition

of the teeth,
epidermis (ep'i-dSr'mis). The outer layer of the skin; cuticle; scarfskin.
erect (e-rekt'). Upright; not leaning or bent,
evaporate (e-vap'6-rat). To change from liquid into vapor, as when

water evaporates in the sun.
experiment (eks-per'i-m^nt). An act or operation undertaken in order

to discover some unknown principle or effect or to test, establish,

or illustrate some suggested or known truths ; practical test ; proof.

2IO GLOSSARY

fermentation (fiSr'men-ta'shun). The change that takes place in fruit

juice and the like when alcohol is formed,
flabby (flab'by). Hanging loose by its own weight; not firm or strong,
fluid (flu'id). A body whose particles move easily among themselves

and do not tend to remain in any one form. Not solid, as water,

milk, etc.
foundation (foun-da'shun). That upon which a thing is supported or

built, as the foundation of a house,
framework (fram'wurk). The skeleton upon which the body is hung.

germ (jerm). That which is to develop an individual; the earliest form

under which an or&;anism appears,
grippe (grip). The influenza or severe " cold in the head.'
gymnastics (jim-nas'tiks). Exercises taken regularly.

habit (hab'it). A fixed way of acting or carrying one's body,
hookworm (hook'wurm). A tiny animal that gets into the blood through
the skin, makes its way to the bowels, and multiplies.

infantile paralysis (in'f^n-til pa-ral'i-sis). A disease in an infant which
results in loss of power of locomotion.

influenza (in'flu-en'za). A disease characterized by acute nasal catarrh,
or by inflammation of the throat or the bronchi, and usually accom-
panied by fever.

J
joint (joint). The place at which the bones unite or connect.

ligament (lig'a-ment). A tough band which unites bones or forms joints,
loathsome (loth'sum). Exciting disgust, especially because of filthy
nature; sickening.

measles (me'z'lz). A contagious disease marked by the appearance on
the third day of a rash on the skin.

GLOSSARY 211

microbe (mi'krob). An animal body so small that it can not be seen by

the naked eye.
microscope (mi'krS-skop). An instrument for making an enlarged image

of an object which is too small to be seen by the naked eye.
mucous membrane (mu'kus mem'bran). The membrane lining passages

and cavities which communicate with the exterior,
mumps (mumps). A contagious disease which produces a swelling of

glands in the neck.

N •

nicotine (nik'6-tin). A substance which is found in tobacco. It is

poisonous,
nostrils (nos'trils). The openings of the nose through which the air we

breathe passes in and out of the lungs.

observant (6b-zerv'ant). Watchful; on the alert to notice objects and

happenings,
opium (o'pi-um). Poppy juice, used as a drug,
overtax (o'ver-taks) . To do more than is good for one.
oxygen (oks'i-jen). One of the elements of which air is composed, and

which is necessary for life.

particle (par'ti-k*l). A minute part of matter; an atom.

peevish (pe'vish). Habitually fault finding; easily vexed or fretted;

hard to please.
permanent teeth (per'ma-n<fnt teth). The teeth which remain after the

temporary teeth have decayed,
perspiration (pEr'spi-ra'shun). Sweat,
perspiratory glands (per-spir'd-to-ry glandz). The glands through which

the perspiration comes to the surface of the skin,
pneumonia (nu-mo'ni-a). A disease of the lungs.

pores (porz). Minute openings or passageways, especially in the skin,
porous (por'us). Full of pores,
posture (pos'tur). The position of the body,
precaution (pri-ka'shun). Looking ahead to ward oiF evil or to secure

good.

212 GLOSSARY

piilmotor (pul'mo'ter). An instrument by means of which the lungs
of a- dying person may be filled and emptied with regularity.

ptdse (puis). The beating of the heart or blood vessels, usually felt at
the wrist.

relax (re-laks'). To make lax or loose; as to let the muscles become

slack,
reservoir (rez'er-vwor'). A place where anything is kept in store; in

the heart, where blood is kept in store.
respiration (res'pi-ra'shun). Breathing.

sac (sak). A cavity or bag, usually containing fluid, and either closed or

opening into another cavity or to the exterior,
scarf skin (skarf'skin'). The outside layer of skin, or epidermis,
scarlet fever (skar'let fe'ver). A contagious disease in which the patient

has a rash of red on his body, that causes his skin to peel about the

seventh day after the rash appears.
secrete (se-kret'). To separate a fluid from the blood and elaborate by

the process of secretion ; to hide, to conceal,
shambling (sham'bling). Awkward, irregular walking or running.
shrivel (shrivel). To draw, or be drawn, into wrinkles.
sickly (sik'ly). Somewhat sick; disposed to illness.
skeleton (skel'e-tun). The firm or hardened framework on which the

body is hung,
skull (skill). The skeleton of the head, including the brain case, or

cranium, and the bones and cartilages of the face and mouth,
smallpox (smal'poks'). A contagious disease, which causes the skin to

peel and leaves deep pits, or scars.
sneezing (snez'ing). The act of violently forcing air through the nasal

passages while the cavity of the mouth is shut off from the pharynx

by the approximation of the soft palate and the base of the tongue.
spinal column (spi'nal kol'um). The backbone,
spine (spin). The backbone, or spinal column,
sputum (spu'tum). Saliva; that which is expectorated; as when one

has a cough,
symptom (simp'tum). Any affection which accompanies disease.
temporary teeth (tem'p6-ra-ry teth). Teeth that grow first, and come out

to make place for the permanent teeth.

GLOSSARY 213

tendon (ten'dun). A tough cord, bundle, or band uniting a muscle with
some other part ; sometimes called sinew.

trunk (trunk). The part of the body not included in the head and limbs.

tuberculosis (tu-bSr'ku-lo'sis). A disease especially of the lungs, some-
times called consumption.

typhoid fever (ti'foid fe'vSr). Of or pertaining to typhus, which is a
contagious fever lasting from two to three weeks.

vein (van) . One of the vessels which carry blood, either venous or arterial,

to the heart,
ventilation (ven'ti-la'shun). Replacing foul air by that which is pure,

in any closed place, as a house, a church,
vigor (vig'Sr). Force; energy; active strength,
vigorous (vig'8r-us). Strong; full of active force ; robust,
vital (yVtal). Necessary to life.

whooping cough (hoop'ing kaf). A violent cough, returning frequently,
windpipe (wind'pip). The passage for the breath from the larynx to
the lungs ; sometimes called the trachea.

yeast (yest). The name given to a plant whose chief characteristic is
the power to produce fermentation under certain conditions.

INDEX

Air, pure, 74-78; sleeping in out-
door, 78-80; keeping fresh in-
doors, 82-91 ; how made im-
pure, 82-86; ten barrels spoiled
a minute, 86; changing stale
air indoors, 87.

Alcohol a poison, 136-137.

Appetite juice, 148.

Arteries, 62.

Bathing, rules for, 169-172; cold-
air bath, 172; hot bath, 173.

Beds, types of, iia-115.

Blood and its work, 60 ; circulation
of, 62; red cells in, 64; white
cells in, 65.

Breathing, health habits of, 93-105 ;
means of, 93 ; right method of,
94; exercises, 99-102; artificial,
102-104.

Capillaries, 62.

Carbon dioxide, 84-85.

Cells, red, 64; white, 65.

Chair, effect of, in sitting, 25-27;
right kind of, 28-29.

Clothing, 181-191 ; to prevent loss
of heat, 1 81-182 ; proper amount
of, 182-184; wet, 184; im-
portance of color in, 184; harm
of tight clothing, 185; weight
of, 185; cleanliness in, 186;
clothing the feet, 187-190.

Diaphragm, 94, 97.

Digestion, work of, 119.-

Drinking, health habits in, 130-

139; fermented drinks, 135-139;

public drinking cup, 159-160.
Drinks, fermented, 135-139; soda

fountain, 138.

Eating, health habits in, 11 7- 129;
too fast, 118; health rules in»
120-129.

Epidermis, 163.

Exercise, good posture in, 33-39;
health and, 41-47; why neces-
sary, 41-42; and the self-acting
muscles, 42-43 ; how to exercise,
43; breathing, 99-102.

Food, and muscle, 55; as building
material for body, 117-118;
types of, 118; choice and prep-
aration of, 141-150; plants in
the garden, 141.

Framework, of the body, 15-16.

Germs, as cause of sickness, 192-
196; enter through the mouth,
196; how spread, 196-200;
guarding against contagion from,
200.

Habits, health, 7-1 1; making
habits, 8-10; correcting, 10-

215