Alvin Davison

“ A Lesson from War.—The mention of war makes those who know its terrors shudder. Disease has caused more than ten times as much suffering and death as war with its harvest of mangled bodies, shattered limbs, and blinded eyes. In our four months' war with Spain in 1898 only 268 soldiers were killed in battle, while nearly 4000 brave men died from disease. We lost more than ten men by disease to every one killed by bullets.
In the late war between Japan and Russia the Japanese soldiers cared for their health so carefully that only one fourth as many died from disease as perished in battle. ”

“ CHAPTER VI MILK MAY BE A FOOD OR A POISON
Of what Milk is Made.—Milk is the most perfect food known. It contains everything needed to build and strengthen the body. In one gallon of milk there is about one teacupful of pure fat, nearly the same amount of sugar, one teacupful of body-building food needed to make muscle and blood. There is also some lime and other mineral matter to make the bones of the young grow strong. ”

“ If a lawyer is much excited about a case he is trying, or a business man is in trouble about his losses, the thinking causes the blood to flow to the head when it is needed in the stomach to give out digestive juices.
The taste of the tobacco smoke may cause some gastric juice to run out into the stomach, but at the same time it is likely to hurt the nerves of taste so that food cannot give so much enjoyment as when the nerves are unharmed. Although smoking may at the time help digestion a little, the poison in the tobacco may afterward injure the body. ”

“ When parents waste their money on drink, they cannot buy the food and clothes needed to keep their families strong and well. In this way strong drink causes much sickness and suffering and sometimes even death.
Alcohol injures the Body.—Some persons drink very little beer or wine, so they seem to have but little effect on the health. Others use strong drink every day and for a few years they may remain quite well. Later ill health often comes on, and they then find that some of the organs have been so much hurt that they will never be quite well again. ”

“ Fisher, Metchnikoff, Sedgwick, and others have shown that the health of a people influences the prosperity and happiness of a nation more than any other one thing. The highest patriotism is therefore the conservation of health. The seven hundred thousand lives annually destroyed by infectious diseases and the million other serious cases of sickness from contagious maladies, with all their attendant suffering, are largely sacrifices on the altar of ignorance. ”

“ Spitting is not only an unclean habit but a deadly curse. Spit often contains the seeds of death. Women's skirts and the soles of our shoes carry it into the houses. It becomes dry, but the germs live and float about in the dust, then enter the mouth to make us sick. Carelessness with spit is said to cause more than a hundred deaths every day in our land. ”

“ Body-building Foods.—A person with all the sugar, molasses, starch, butter, and lard he could eat would starve to death in a few weeks because none of these foods would help to build up the dying parts of the body. A large amount of body builder is found in lean meat, eggs, milk, peas, beans, corn meal, and bread. Bread and milk is a good food to make the body grow. If the body takes in more building food than it needs for repairs, it may store it up in the form of fat or burn it to help the body do its work. ”

“ One half of the sickness in our land is catching sickness. That is, it is sickness which passes from one person to another and is caused by tiny germs or microbes. A catching sickness is called a contagious disease. Some of the common catching diseases are sore throat, colds, diphtheria, pneumonia, typhoid fever, measles, grippe, and whooping cough.
How we get a Catching Sickness.—We get a catching sickness by taking into our bodies the germs from some other person. The germs of the sick do not pass off in the breath, but in the spit or anything else which comes from their bodies. ”

“ No boy can begin the use of tobacco without the danger of becoming a slave to it.
The use of tobacco either by chewing or smoking [Pg 82] gradually causes in any one the growth of an appetite which makes him feel miserable and unhappy unless it is kept satisfied. It can be satisfied only by the use of more and more tobacco.
Many men would like to quit the use of tobacco if they could do so without suffering. ”

“ Changing the air in a room is called ventilation. To get plenty of fresh air in a room there must be one or more places for it to enter and one or more places for it to pass out. Where there is no furnace or fan, windows on one side of the room may be opened at the bottom to let in the air and the same windows opened at the top to let the impure air escape. Do not sit in a draft, but use a board or curtain to throw the air upward as it enters the window. A room should not be kept too warm. Sitting in a very warm room weakens the body and prepares it to take cold. ”

“ When we wish to catch a ball, the brain sends an order along the nerve threads down the spinal cord and out through the nerves of the arm to the fingers to get ready to seize a ball. The fingers are spread to grasp the ball, but they do not close until a message goes from the skin of the finger tips to the spinal cord, telling it that the ball is in the hand.
The Work of the Brain.—The brain is not only the chief manager of the body, but the home of the mind. The mind acts through the brain. ”

“ There is some water in the food we eat, but not enough to supply the wants of the body.
Some persons think that the body needs beer or wine to keep it in good order. These liquids, as well as whisky, brandy, and rum, are called alcoholic drinks. The latest experiments and studies show that the body never needs alcoholic drinks to keep it in the best of health. These drinks sometimes make the body sick, and if much alcohol is taken at one time, the person becomes dizzy, staggers, and may fall down and go to sleep. ”

“ Until the year 1900, people fled from a city when yellow fever was announced, but now any one can sleep with a fever patient and not catch the disease, because we have learned how to prevent it. Nurses and doctors no longer hesitate to sit for hours in the rooms of those sick with smallpox because they know how to treat the body to keep away this disease. By studying this book, boys and girls may learn not only how to keep free from these diseases, but how to manage their bodies to make them strong enough to escape other diseases. ”

“ The Nose.—The nose has a skinlike lining, but it is always kept moist by little glands which give out a watery fluid. The endings of the nerve of smell are in the lining in the upper part of the nose. Two nerves lead from the nose to the brain.
When we catch cold, much blood rushes to the lining of the nose and it becomes swollen. It then gives out a thick white mucus. This covers the nerve endings, so that we cannot smell.
Smell is of great use in telling us whether our food is good, by helping us to enjoy food with a pleasant odor, and by warning us against bad air. ”

“ Brain of the Young easily overcome by Alcohol.—No one expects to become a drunkard or a criminal when he first begins to drink. The continued use of alcohol, however, soon numbs the brain and weakens the mind, so that the person's will power is lost. He is then not able to quit drinking even though he wants to stop. He has become a slave to alcohol.
The brain of a young person is injured much more quickly by alcohol than that of an older person and he is much more likely to become a slave than one who begins the use of drink late in life. ”

“ The brain and nerves are so formed that when they get used to obeying the same order of the mind again and again, they will carry out these orders when the mind no longer gives them. Sometimes they will continue to obey the old orders even when new ones are given.
Many persons would like to break off the habit of drinking beer or whisky, of chewing tobacco, and using bad language, but they find it very hard to make the mind rule the body because they have let the nerves have their own way so long. ”

“ It is likely, however, to do more harm than good because the alcohol in it makes the muscles which mix the food in the stomach act more slowly. Some of the food may sour before it gets wet with the juice. Much wine used at a meal is always harmful.
Natural Appetite.—If one is in health, he should feel a desire for his food at every meal. This desire for a reasonable amount of food is a natural appetite. Fresh air and exercise will do much to give one the right kind of an appetite. The eating of much sweets and the breathing of bad air are likely to spoil the appetite. ”

“ Veal and pork also contain much body-building matter, but the stomach must work hard to prepare them for use.
Fish is an excellent food, but it has only little more than one half as much flesh-building matter as good beef. Poultry is a healthful food, especially for the weak and sick, but it is more expensive than the other meats. Oysters are largely made of water and do not contain much to strengthen the body.
In all meat there is some waste matter. This may harm the body if we eat too much meat. It is no longer thought healthful for most persons to eat meat more than once a day. ”

“ The sense of taste, after being accustomed to the sharpness of strong drink, may be less easily pleased with the taste of common food and drink.
The use of large amounts of alcohol blunts all the senses. In a drunken man the senses of the skin are so numbed that he does not know when anything touches him, and he may be badly burned before he feels the pain. ”

“ The grocer and milkman may sell to you bad food, the town may furnish impure water, churches and schools may injure your health by failing to supply fresh air in their buildings. More than a hundred thousand people were made very sick last year through the use of water poisoned by waste matter which other persons carelessly let reach the streams and wells. Many of the sick died of the fever caused by this water. [Pg 11] Although it cannot be said that we are engaged in real war, yet we are surely killing one another by our thoughtless habits in scattering disease. ”

“ The germs of boils and fevers often get into the blood, but the white cells usually kill them before they have a chance to grow into large numbers and make the body sick.
How to stop Bleeding.—Most of the larger arteries are deep in the flesh and seldom get cut. There are many veins just under the skin. If the blood comes out in spurts, it is from an artery; but if it flows steadily, it is from a vein. If the blood does not run out in a stream, it will stop without any special care. As soon as the blood gets to the air it forms a jellylike mass called a clot. ”

“ Health in manhood and womanhood depends on how the health is cared for in childhood. The foundation for disease is often laid during school years. The making of strong bodies that will live joyous lives for long years must begin in boyhood and girlhood.
In youth is the time to begin right living. Bad habits formed in early life often cause much sorrow in later years. It is said that over one half the drunkards began drinking liquor before they were twenty years of age and most of the smokers began to use tobacco before they were twenty years old. ”

“ Keeping the Skin Clean.—The amount of dead matter carried out by the sweat on to the skin every day is equal to a mass as large as your thumb. Dust also works through the clothing and sticks fast to the moist skin. For this reason every one should wash the whole body once or twice each week. The feet should be washed oftener as they become more soiled.
Many persons take a bath every day. A cold bath taken just after rising in the morning wakes up the nerves, makes the heart work better, and gives health and strength to the whole body. ”

“ Pain Killers and Soothing Sirups.—All pain killers contain opium or morphine or other harmful drugs. They are therefore dangerous to use. Pain is useful in telling us that some organ is out of order and needs care. Killing the pain does not help the sick organ, and it may let the organ get so sick as to cause death.
One use of the nerves is to tell us when any part of the body is hurt or sick. Pain is nature's warning, and to numb the nerves which tell us about it is as foolish as to kill a person because he brings us bad news. ”

“ If a person takes a drink only once in a while, his face becomes red after each drink, and an hour or two later the effect of the alcohol passes off. The blood tubes have squeezed up to their natural size.
Alcohol and the Kidneys.—Taking several glasses daily of even such weak alcoholic drink as beer often causes the kidneys to become sick. Some of their working parts become changed to fat and some parts become hard. The cells which let the waste matter pass out of the blood get hurt by the poison of the alcohol so that they let some of the food also pass out of the blood. ”

“ The air which comes out of the lungs is not the same as that which goes in. Some of the oxygen has been used up and in its place is a heavier gas named carbon dioxide, which has been given out by the body. This carbon dioxide is part of the waste formed in every part of the body from the used-up food and dying parts of the body. We breathe therefore to get oxygen into the body and to take out some of the waste matter. ”

“ After the eleventh year of age, the first cause of death among school children is tuberculosis. The chief aim of the author has been to show the child the sure way of preventing this disease and others of like nature, and to establish an undying faith in the motto of Pasteur, "It is within the power of man to rid himself of every parasitic disease." ”

“ Seeing the good results of this law in Germany and the harm that tobacco was doing the boys in the United States, the Emperor of Japan on the 6th of March, 1900, proclaimed this law: "The smoking of tobacco by minors under the age of twenty is prohibited."
In our own country several states have passed laws against the use of cigarettes by boys. One country after another is learning that if they want strong men, to fight, to work, and to win, tobacco must not be allowed to weaken the bodies of the young. ”

“ The liver changes certain waste matter in the blood into such form that other organs can cast it out of the body. It also stores up certain parts of the food coming from the intestines and gives it out to the body little by little as it is needed.
When and How much to Eat.—When the food organs do not do their work rightly, the whole body becomes sick. Eating too much overworks the stomach. It becomes so full that the food cannot be moved about and well mixed with the juices. Germs then work on the food and make it sour. In fact the germs may change part of the food into a poison. ”

“ Four out of every five children suffering from diphtheria or other throat or ear troubles are found to have from one to ten bad teeth. You must keep good teeth if you wish to be well and strong.
The Value of Sound Teeth.—Sound teeth which will do good work in chewing food are worth more than a foot or an arm. If the foot or arm is lost, the body is likely to get well and be as healthy as ever. The health of the whole body depends upon the work done by the teeth. Unless they do their part the stomach cannot get the food ready for the blood. ”