Frank Overton

“ The most of the poisoning of alcohol is due to these new poisons.
When alcohol takes air from the cells of the body, they do not get enough air. Then they are like a short-winded boy, and do not do their work well. In this way alcohol makes the body weak.
Alcohol does not cease to be harmful because it is burned up in the body. It is harmful just because it burns so quickly. Using alcohol in the body is like trying to burn kerosene in a coal stove. The body is not made to burn alcohol any more than a coal stove is made to burn kerosene. ”

“ Now we know that we catch cold by taking disease germs into the body. The germs will not be able to grow unless the body is weakened in some way, as by cold and dampness. Yet if we are wet and cold, we shall not catch cold unless we take disease germs into the body. We do not get the germs from the outdoor air, for very few germs are there. We get them from the foul air of our houses when we come in to warm and dry ourselves. If the air of our houses were always as clean and pure as the outdoor air, we should hardly ever have colds. ”

“ Shouting strains the voice and spoils its tone for singing. Reading until the throat is tired makes the voice weak. Singing or shouting in a cold or damp air is also bad for the voice. Breathing through the mouth is the worst of all for the voice. ”

“ Sickness and Dirt.—Disease germs leave the body of a sick person in three ways: first, through the skin, second, through the kidneys and intestines, and [Pg 126] third, through the nose and throat. In these same ways our body gives off its waste matters. If we did not take anything from another person's body into our own body we should not catch fevers.
Whatever a feverish person soils may contain disease germs. When a person has only a slight fever he often keeps at work, and then he may scatter disease germs wherever he goes. ”

“ How the body is warmed.—The body is warmed by the slow burning in the cells. This [Pg 63] burning keeps the body always at the same warmth. On a hot summer's day you feel warmer than on a cold snowy morning. But your body is no warmer. Only your skin is warmer.
If the skin is warm, the whole body feels warm, but if the skin is cold, the whole body feels cold. On a hot summer's day the heat is kept in the skin, and we feel warm. On a cold winter's day a great deal of heat passes off from the skin, and we feel cold. Yet our bodies have the same warmth in winter as in summer. ”

“ Thinking is work, just as truly as running is work. At school, no one can learn to think without working. Looking at things and hearing some one talk about them will not make you a strong-minded man, but thinking about these things will. ”

“ How alcohol affects the heart.—Alcohol at first makes the heart beat more strongly and quickly, but it tires it out and makes it weaker. Then the heart pumps too little blood to the rest of the body, and a man is weaker all over.
If a drinker tries to run or work hard, his heart may not pump enough food to the working cells of his arms and legs. Strong drink takes away a man's strength and makes him less able to endure a long strain. ”

“ Intemperance.—Eating for the sake of a false appetite is intemperance. Drinking strong drink for the sake of its taste is a common form of intemperance. But eating too much preserves, pie, and candy is intemperance too, and can do a great deal of harm. A little pie, or pudding, or candy, is good, because we can eat our sugar as well that way as in bread. ”

“ How muscles act.—A nerve runs from the brain, and touches every cell of the muscle. When we wish to move, the brain sends an order down the nerve. Then each muscle cell makes itself thicker and shorter. This pulls its ends together, and bends the joint. We can make muscle cells move when we wish to, but we cannot make any other kind of cell move. We make all our movements by means of our muscles. ”

“ We can tell how much food to eat by our hunger or appetite. We can always feel when we have enough. Then is the time to stop.
Sometimes we eat plain bread and meat until we have enough, and then sweet cake or pie is brought in. Then we have a false appetite for sweet things. If the sweet things had not made a false hunger, we should have had enough to eat. But the false appetite makes us want more, and so we eat too much, and sometimes get sick from it. ”

“ How the sweat keeps us cool.—When your hands or feet are wet, they are cold. On a hot summer's day, your body becomes wet with sweat. This cools the body as if water were poured over it. So sweating keeps you from getting too warm, and from being sunstruck. ”

“ If the body is hurt or weakened, the white blood cells may also be weakened so that they cannot kill the germs. We should take good care of the body so that every part of it may do its work well. We need not be able to run fast, or to lift heavy weights, but the best sign that every part of the body is in good order is to feel bright and wide-awake. Then our white blood cells will also be in good order and able to fight disease germs. ”

“ It makes food taste better. Most food is unfit for use until it is cooked. Poor cooking often makes food still worse for use. Food should always be soft and taste good after cooking. Softening food by cooking saves the mouth and stomach a great deal of work. The good taste of the food makes it pleasant for them to digest it. We must cut our food into small pieces before we eat it. If we eat only a [Pg 14] small piece at a time we shall not eat too fast. If we cut our food fine we can find any bones and other hard things, and can keep them from getting inside the body. ”

“ Drinking and taking cold.—A strong, healthy man can stand a great deal of cold and wet. If he breathes deeply in his work, all the cells of his body get plenty of air, and if he eats good food, the cells get plenty to eat. Then it will take a great deal to harm them. But alcohol hinders the digestion of their food, and also takes away their air. So the cells are both starved and smothered, and are easily hurt. ”

“ From the blood it gets food and air [Pg 9] and takes them in through any part of its body. It also grows and moves. But the cells are not free to do as they wish, for they are all tied together in armies by very fine strings. We call these strings connective tissue. One army of cells makes the skin, and other armies make the bones and flesh. Some armies make the fingers, and some the legs. Every part of our body is made up of armies of separate cells.
4. The mind.—The body is a home for the mind. The cells obey the mind. The mind pays the cells by feeding them and taking good care of them. ”

“ Keeping colds from spreading.—You should keep away from other persons while you have a cold, or other catching disease, so as to keep from spreading the sickness. You ought not to go visiting, or go to school, or to church, or to other meeting places. When you cough or sneeze, you should hold a handkerchief to your mouth, so as to keep from blowing disease germs from your throat and nose. You ought to sleep in a bed by yourself, so that no one may take the disease germs from your bedclothes. ”

“ Almost the only cause for a fever is disease germs growing in the body. We can make a person have any kind of fever by planting a few of the germs of the fever in the right part of his body.
We are made sick by the germs of fevers more often than by all other causes put together. Here is a list of common diseases caused by fever germs:—colds and sore throats, most stomach aches, blood poisoning in wounds, boils and pimples, tuberculosis, whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, smallpox, and malaria. ”

“ Thinking.—The brain also thinks. Thinking is different from feeling and from moving, but we can think about our feelings and about our movements. The brain just back of the forehead does all our thinking. A dog has only a little forehead, and cannot think much. But the rest of its brain is large, for it can see and hear and run as well as a man. ”

“ Taste.—We taste with the tongue. Dry food has no taste, but it must first dissolve in the mouth. Spoiled food tastes bad. Bad-tasting food is not fit to eat. Taste tells us whether food is good or bad.
We can learn to like the taste of harmful things. At first no one likes tobacco or strong drink, but the liking is formed the more one uses these. We ought to be careful not to begin to use such things.
[Pg 107] Alcohol and tobacco burn the mouth and harm the taste. Food does not taste so good and we may eat spoiled food and not know it.
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED ”

“ Some men drink only when they are tired. Then a cup of strong and hot tea or coffee will make them feel much better than a glass of strong drink, and will not harm them so much.
When strong drink is swallowed, its alcohol takes water from the mouth. When your mouth is dry, you feel thirsty. Strong drink makes the mouth dry, and so a drink makes a man more thirsty. The alcohol also makes the mouth smart. Men need another drink to cool the mouth after the first one. So one drink leads to another. All the while a person drinks water with the alcohol until he has too much water. ”

“ Kinds of colds.—A person takes most of the germs of colds through his nose and mouth. If they grow only in his nose, we say that he has a cold in his head. If they grow in his throat, he has a sore throat, or tonsillitis. If they reach as far as the upper part of his windpipe, he is hoarse, or has a cough, or the croup. If the germs are planted in his lungs, he may have bronchitis or pneumonia. All these kinds of sickness often spread from one person to another. If one person in a family has a cold, others in the family often catch cold from him. ”

“ By digestion the starch becomes sugar. Grain is a good food because it has starch or sugar. Animal foods have no sugar, so we eat grain food with them. The two together make the most nourishing food. Potatoes have a great deal of starch and only a little albumin. They also are good food with meat.
A healthy man needs as much food as this every day.
A person cannot live well upon plant food alone, for it has too much starch and sugar, and too little albumin and fat. We need nearly equal parts of albumin, fat, and sugar. A mixture of bread, meat, eggs, vegetables, and milk makes the best food. ”

“ CHAPTER XVI DISEASE GERMS
197. Catching diseases.—Our body may get out of order like a machine. Some parts of it may be cut, or broken, or worn out, or hurt in other ways. Then we are sick until it is made whole again. Sickness always means that a part of the body is out of order.
Some kinds of sickness are like a fire. A small bit of something from a sick person may start a sickness in us, just as a spark may set a house on fire. Then we may give the sickness to others, just as a fire may spread to other houses. If a person has measles, we may catch the measles if we go near him ”

“ Because alcohol poisons the whole body and often produces kidney diseases, the drinker is apt to catch other diseases. Drinkers are the first to catch such diseases as smallpox and yellow fever. Where there are great numbers of cases, the drinkers are the first and often the only persons to die. This is because their skin and kidneys [Pg 82] have been harmed by the alcohol and cannot throw off the poisons of the disease. Any kind of sickness will be worse in a drinker. Surgeons do not like to operate on drinkers, for their wounds do not heal so quickly as in other people. ”

“ Another reason for bathing is to wash disease germs from the body. Most dirt has disease germs in it. Disease germs also float in the dust of the air and stick to our skin when we go into a dusty room. If our skin is dirty, some of the germs may be carried into our flesh when our skin is pricked, or scratched, or cut. We sometimes catch boils, or erysipelas, or lockjaw, from very little wounds in a dirty skin. Cleanliness of our skin helps to keep us from catching diseases. ”

“ Disease germs from the nose and throat.—If a person is sick with a fever, many of the germs are likely to be found in his nose and throat. Thousands of them are driven out with every drop of saliva and phlegm when he blows his nose, or spits, coughs, or sneezes, or talks. If he puts anything into his mouth, it will be covered with germs. More diseases are spread from the nose and mouth than in any other way, for we are always doing something to spread bits of saliva and phlegm. ”

“ The kidneys.—The kidneys are close to the backbone, below the heart. They are made of tiny tubes much like the sweat tubes in the skin. The tubes take ashes and other waste matters from the blood, also a great deal of water. They also take away poisons and disease germs when we are sick. The kidneys take away about as much water as the skin, but they get rid of very much more poisons and waste matters than the skin does. If our kidneys should stop their work, we should soon die. ”