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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
arV10520 
 
 How to keep well 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 
 3 1924 031 300 530 
 olln,anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Jbrary 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031300530 
 
HOW TO KEEP WELL 
 
 By 
 
 Dr ANDREW WILSON. F.R.S.E. 
 
 Health Lecturer to the George Combe Trust, &c. 
 
 LONDON : 38 Soto Square, W. 
 
 W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED 
 
 EDINBURGH : 339 High Street 
 
OOI^TEK"TS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Need fok Fresh Air 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Cleanliness and Health 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Dirt and its Dangers 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 More about Air and Ventilation 50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The House and its Surroundings 72 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Cleanliness of our Bodies 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Eating and Drinking 100 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, and Alcohol 114 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 What to do in Accidents and Illness .... 124 
 
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HOW TO KEEP WELL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE NEED FOR FRESH AIR. 
 
 Good health is one of the greatest blessings 
 we can enjoy. When we are in perfect health, 
 we can discharge the duties of life much more 
 easily and effectively than when we are not. 
 Without good health, we cannot have that 
 vigour of body and of mind necessary for the 
 putting forth of our best efforts. 
 
 It should be our aim, therefore, to be as 
 healthy as possible, but to attain this end it 
 is necessary that we should observe certain 
 rules founded upon a knowledge of the 
 constitution of our bodies. For example, if 
 we know that to breathe impure air is 
 a cause of disease, we must avoid a bad 
 atmosphere. If it is shown that the drinking 
 of impure water causes illness, we must take 
 care that all the water we drink is wholesome. 
 Similarly, if we know that certain foods are 
 not healthy, or do not agree with ,us, we must 
 take care to avoid them. We should equally 
 
b THE NEED FOR FRESH AIR. 
 
 avoid a house which is not healthy, which 
 has not sufficient light and air around it, and 
 from which dirt and refuse of all kinds are 
 not speedily and regularly removed. 
 
 If we wish to obtain a good example of the 
 necessity for observing the laws of health in 
 order that we may be well, we may find 
 it in the need for fresh air. When we are 
 at rest we breathe about sixteen or seventeen 
 times every minute. We can see our chests 
 rising and falling — rising in the act of ex- 
 panding to take air into our lungs, which are 
 contained in the chest, and falling in order 
 that air may be sent out from the lungs. This 
 action takes place so long as life lasts, and 
 any interference with the act of breathing, 
 if it were maintained for even a few minutes, 
 would cause death. We see such a result 
 in the case of a man who, unable to swim, 
 falls into deep water. Unless he is pulled 
 out within a very few minutes, he dies from 
 suffocation. 
 
 Precisely the same thing might happen 
 in the case of a man going down a well 
 in order to clean it. In deep wells, and 
 also in mines, we find a gas called carbon 
 dioxide, or, in popular language, carbonic acid 
 gas. The presence of this gas in more than a 
 certain proportion is absolutely fatal to life. 
 In order to test the state of the air in the 
 
THE NEED FOR FRESH AIR. 7 
 
 well, the man who has to go down ties a 
 candle to the end of a long piece of string. 
 He lowers this candle beneath him and watches 
 its flame. If the air of the well is fit to 
 breathe, the candle will continue to burn, 
 because, as we shall see later on, the oxygen 
 gas of the atmosphere, which is required to 
 make anything burn, and to support life, is 
 present in the air of the well. On the other 
 hand, if the man sees the flame of the candle 
 snuffed out as by some unseen hand, he knows 
 that carbonic acid gas is present, and that 
 where the candle will not burn it is not safe 
 for a human being to go. Oxygen gas, the 
 more important of the two elements, oxygen 
 and nitrogen, of which the air is composed, is 
 as necessary for the maintenance of life as for 
 the maintenance of burning ; while carbonic 
 acid gas will support neither the one nor the 
 other. 
 
 We have all felt the effects of bad air 
 under various circumstances. If we sit with a 
 number of others in a room with the windows 
 closed, the door shut, and the gas-lights burn- 
 ing, we soon begin to feel dull, heavy, and 
 sleepy. But if this room be ventilated — that 
 is, if fresh air be admitted to it — or if we pass 
 from it into the open air, or into another room 
 which has not been occupied, these dull feelings 
 soon leave us. The reason of all this is, that 
 
8 THE NEED FOR FKESH AIR. 
 
 instead of breathing pure air, we have been 
 taking into our lungs a quantity of injurious 
 substances, amongst them carbonic acid gas. 
 This gas has come largely from our own lungs. 
 It is, in fact, part of the waste matter of our 
 bodies. 
 
 If we inquire why the human body should 
 give out any waste at all, we find the answer 
 to this question in what the man of science 
 tells us — namely, that our bodies are machines 
 that are always working. All work, whether 
 it is in a steam-engine or in a human body, 
 is attended with waste. If there is much 
 work done, there will be much waste. If 
 there is little work, the waste will, on the 
 other hand, be small. Carbonic acid gas, then, 
 represents part of the waste matter given off 
 from our bodies. In one sense it might be 
 compared to the ashes of a fire going on 
 within the body, for all throughout life there 
 is a process of burning, whereby the bodily 
 heat is maintained. 
 
 Let us go back for a moment to the hot 
 and stuffy room which has already been de- 
 scribed. In addition to the air being rendered 
 impure through the carbonic acid gas and 
 other waste matters given off from the lungs, 
 we have also to take into account the effect 
 of the lights burning in the room. Now, 
 whether these lights consist of gas-jets, lamps. 
 
THE NEED FOR FRESH AIR. 9 
 
 or candles, they also are giving forth carbonic 
 acid gas and other waste matters. An ordinary 
 gas-jet gives off at least as much carbonic 
 acid gas and heat as come from the lungs 
 of two human beings ; thus not only helping 
 to make the air impure, but also hotter than 
 it should be. 
 
 The headache and the dull feelings which 
 we get from breathing impure air are ex- 
 plained in a very simple way. We must re- 
 member that the air we breathe into our 
 lungs passes into the blood, just as the carbonic 
 acid gas and other waste matters, which are 
 given off from the lungs, have really come 
 from the blood. In order to be healthy, our 
 blood must be supplied with oxygen gas ob- 
 tained from the air. Where the air is impure, 
 we cannot get the proper amount of oxygen 
 necessary to keep us in health. If, therefore, 
 we rebreathe our own breaths, and thus inhale 
 the carbonic acid gas and other waste products 
 given out from our own bodies and from the 
 lights in the room, these things, passing into 
 the blood, are carried to the brain. 
 
 Now, the important parts of our brain con- 
 sist of wonderful microscopic objects called 
 brain-cells. These are really living things, and 
 form the active population of the brain. They 
 are the 'brain workmen,' who perform all the 
 duties which the brain has to do. If they do 
 
10 THE NEED FOR FRESH AIR. 
 
 not receive their proper quantity of oxygen, but 
 are supplied instead with carbonic acid gas, 
 they are really being poisoned, and are rendered 
 unfit for the discharge of their duties. We 
 can now understand why it is that when we 
 leave the hot, stuffy room in which our brain- 
 cells have been poisoned with carbonic acid 
 gas, rendering them dull and stupid, and 
 unable to perform their work properly, and 
 pass into a pure atmosphere, our brain-cells 
 recover themselves. They are supplied with 
 oxygen, and once more are able to discharge 
 their duties perfectly. 
 
 A large part of our life is spent in sleep. 
 We may, in fact, say that one-third of our 
 existence is devoted to rest and repose, so as 
 to fit us for resuming our daily work. It is 
 very important, therefore, that our bedrooms, 
 of all rooms in the house, should be well 
 ventilated. When we go to sleep we are 
 at the mercy of whatever air our sleeping 
 apartment contains. When we are awake, 
 if we feel the atmosphere to be hot and 
 stuffy, we can put up the windows, or remove 
 from one room to another, in order to secure 
 a supply of fresh air. It is very different 
 when we go to bed. It is then impossible 
 for us in our sleeping state to move out 
 of the atmosphere in which we are resting. 
 We have all experienced the feeling of rising 
 
THE NEED FOR FRESH AIR. 11 
 
 in the morning somewhat tired, although we 
 have apparently slept soundly during the 
 whole night. This tired feeling is another 
 result of our breathing impure air during the 
 hours of sleep. Owing to the want of pure 
 air in our bedrooms, our sleep does not do 
 us the good it ought in furnishing us with 
 the vigour needed for the duties of another 
 day. 
 
 In India, in the year IT'S 6, one hundred and 
 forty-six British subjects were imprisoned by 
 order of an Indian ruler in a room measuring 
 about 18 feet square, and lighted only by two 
 small windows. The door of the prison was, 
 of course, closed, and the windows formed the 
 only openings by which fresh air could be 
 admitted. These unfortunate people were con- 
 fined in this place, since known as 'The Black 
 Hole of Calcutta,' for the space of a night. 
 Very terrible accounts were written of their 
 sufferings, due in the first place to the fact 
 that they were compelled to rebreathe their 
 own breath and that of their neighbours, while 
 their bodies were hungering and crying out for 
 fresh air. As a resiilt, when the door was 
 opened, one hundred and twenty-three out of 
 the one hundred and forty-six persons were 
 found to be dead. There were thus twenty- 
 three alive, but of these, several perished after- 
 wards as a result of the terrible experiences 
 
12 THE NEED FOR FRESH AIR. 
 
 they had undergone. These people died from 
 poisoning by bad air, and therefore perished 
 from that form of death which we term 
 ' suffocation.' 
 
 Another case similar to the 'Black Hole 
 of Calcutta' was that of the steamship 
 Londonderry, sailing from Ireland to Glasgow. 
 On the night of the 1st of December 
 1848, the deck passengers were ordered to 
 go below on account of a very severe storm 
 which arose. They were crowded into a 
 cabin far too small to accommodate them. 
 In order to prevent their return to the deck, 
 the hatches were closed down. Out of one 
 hundred and thirty persons confined in this 
 small space, seventy were suffocated before 
 the morning dawned. 
 
 Air is thus seen to be an absolute necessity, 
 not merely for the maintenance of health, but 
 in order that life itself may continue. In the 
 course of a subsequent lesson we shall deal 
 with the means to be adopted for getting 
 rid of foul air, and for introducing a supply 
 of fresh air into our rooms. Meanwhile we 
 should keep in mind what we have just 
 learned — namely, that pure air is one of 
 the necessities of life. We require, to keep 
 us healthy, fresh air, wholesome food, pure 
 water, and clean dwellings ; and of these our 
 most constant need is pure air, seeing that 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 13 
 
 if our air-supply is withdrawn from us, even 
 
 for a very short space of time, death must 
 result. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 There is an old saying that 'cleanliness is 
 next to godliness.' This proverb came originally 
 from the Koran, which is the Bible of the 
 Mohammedan faith. John Wesley, the founder 
 of Methodism, also used it, and it is therefore 
 often attributed to him. There can be no 
 doubt that the proverb is very true. We do 
 not look upon a dirty person as a human being 
 who lives properly, nor do we think of a dirty 
 house as ' Home, Sweet Home ' from a health 
 point of view. 
 
 It is an undoubted fact that health is largely 
 a matter of cleanliness. Let us think of this 
 point for a few moments. We have seen that 
 cleanliness of the air we breathe is a necessity 
 for healthy life. In order to live healthily, 
 we also require to eat clean foods and to 
 drink pure water. The house must also 
 be clean. It must not have any collection 
 of dirt or filth left around it, and the drains 
 must be flushed so as to be clean, and to 
 
14 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 carry right away the waste matters which 
 pass into thera. 
 
 Again, most diseases are caused by what we 
 may term ' dirt.' Under this head we include 
 not merely dirt itself, but also the germs 
 which are the cause of many of the diseases, 
 such as fevers, that are responsible for so 
 many deaths every year. A great secret of 
 healthy living, therefore, is the getting rid 
 of 'dirt,' which a great man once described 
 as ' matter in the wrong place.' It has 
 been proved that ordinary dust contains a large 
 number of germs capable of giving rise to 
 disease, and even where no disease is produced 
 by such microscopic living things, which are 
 really low forms of plant-life, they may have 
 the effect of spoiling our foods, and in some 
 cases of rendering them dangerous to eat. 
 
 It is a matter of great importance to keep 
 the skin clean. For this purpose we should 
 wash ourselves regularly, and take a hot bath 
 at least once a week, using soap for the pur- 
 pose of cleansing away the dirt particles which 
 adhere to our bodies. When we fail to keep 
 ourselves clean, we are not merely liable to 
 the attack of certain diseases, but we ourselves 
 become aware of our uncleanliness from the 
 disagreeable odour given off from our clothes 
 and from our bodies. We know when the 
 air itself is not clean by the stuffy odour it 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 15 
 
 gives off. This smell disappears when the 
 windows are opened and fresh air comes into 
 the room. 
 
 A man of science once described the air as 
 consisting of a 'stirabout' of minute particles. 
 He threw a beam of electric light across the 
 air of a room. Where the air was pure, the 
 course of the beam was uninterrupted ; but 
 wherever any floating matter or dust was pre- 
 sent the beam of light became blackened. We 
 do not, however, require an electric light to 
 show us that the air, which in ordinary day- 
 light we think so clear from all dust, is really 
 full of floating particles. You have all walked 
 into a dark room, the windows of which were 
 closed, and noted a beam of sunlight passing 
 in through a chink in the shutter. The beam 
 of light reveals countless motes and atoms 
 dancing in its track. If now we open the 
 shutters, our eyes cannot perceive these motes 
 in the air. They are nevertheless present in 
 the air everywhere, with perhaps the exception 
 of the air over the open sea and that high up 
 on the mountains. This is the reason why sea 
 air and mountain air are the most healthy to 
 breathe, because they are most free from dust 
 particles, and are therefore the -purest. 
 
 The purity of the air on the mountains may 
 be proved in the following way. If we 
 open a jar containing meat or soup, and allow 
 
16 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH, 
 
 it to remain exposed for some days in the 
 house, the contents of the jar will decay and 
 putrefy ; but if the same jar were opened high 
 up on a mountain, the meat or soup would 
 not decay, but would remain sweet for many 
 days. This is because there are few or no 
 germs in the mountain air, while in that of 
 owe houses there are many germs, and these 
 falling into the jar set agoing the work of 
 decay. 
 
 The floating dust of the air may in one 
 way be described as 'dirt,' and it would be a 
 very admirable thing if we could escape from 
 its influence ; but in towns and cities, and 
 wherever we have human beings collected 
 together, it seems to be impossible to avoid 
 its presence. Much of the dust of the air 
 consists of particles of mineral matter and of 
 shreds and fragments of clothing. We can 
 also detect in the air-dust fragments of our 
 bodies in the shape of the little worn-out 
 particles or 'cells' which are perpetually given 
 off from our skin. But a certain proportion of 
 the air-dust consists of the microscopic living 
 things we call 'germs' or 'microbes.' Some 
 of these germs, when we take them into our 
 bodies, are capable of producing disease. 
 Others are harmless to us, but show them- 
 selves in the shape of the growths they pro- 
 duce on foods and other substances. 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 17 
 
 Suppose, for example, that a piece of cheese 
 has been put away in a cupboard in a fairly 
 warm room, and has been covered over for 
 some days in a cheese-dish. When it is looked 
 at it will be found to be covered more or less 
 completely with a bluish-white growth which 
 we call ' mould.' In olden days, people believed 
 that the mould grew out of the cheese itself, 
 by reason of the badness or decay of the 
 cheese. We know now that cheese has no 
 power whatever to produce a mould-plant, and 
 we have been able to trace where moulds come 
 from, growing as they do, not upon cheese 
 only, but also upon the surface of apples, jam, 
 and even upon damp boots which have been 
 put away in a cupboard or other place. 
 
 Mould is a living plant of a low kind. If 
 we look at it under a magnifying-gktss, we 
 find that it consists of a number of fine 
 threads which resemble roots, and of little 
 stalks rising from these roots. At the top of 
 the stalks are very fine rounded specks, which 
 are the 'spores' or seeds of the mould. These 
 spores, on the slightest disturbance of the 
 plant, are given oif to the air. When they 
 settle down upon another piece of cheese they 
 produce another mould ; so that we see clearly 
 where our first mould came from. The cheese 
 formed a kind of soil, the spores of the mould 
 being the seeds, and so we are taught that 
 
 p. K. w. B 
 
18 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 every living thing must have sprung from a 
 living parent. 
 
 We also learn the lesson that the air is a 
 great sea in which these seeds float, ready when 
 the chance is offered to them of springing up 
 into the various forms of life they represent. 
 Naturally more dust is found in the air of 
 towns and cities than in the air of the country. 
 The sea air or that of the mountain, as we 
 have already seen, is almost entirely free from 
 germs. It is of great importance, therefore, 
 that in towns and cities large open spaces 
 should be provided so as to give a free cir- 
 culation of the air, and to limit in this way 
 the amount of dust it contains. 
 
 When the air is still, its dust settles in 
 every part of a room or apartment. It is 
 necessary, therefore, as part of our duty in 
 keeping our house clean, to remove this dust. 
 There is no part of a room in which dust will 
 not settle. We can see it collecting on articles 
 of furniture and other objects, from which it 
 can be removed by dusting. But we must 
 remember, also, that dust accumulates on the 
 floor, on the walls, and on the roof. Where 
 cornices exist, these always hold a large 
 number of dust particles. It would be better 
 if in our houses, as in many hospitals to-day, 
 we had no corners — that is, as corners are 
 ordinarily made. The best way of avoiding 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 19 
 
 the collection of dust, and of effecting its easy 
 removal, is to make all tlie comers rounded, 
 so that they can be cleaned easily. 
 
 In sweeping a room, and more especially in 
 cleaning a carpet, it is customary to use damp 
 tea-leaves or water in order to prevent the 
 dust from rising into the air. This is no 
 doubt a useful enough plan. In dry sweep- 
 ing, the dust is simply swept into a pan, in 
 which case it should be burned directly, so 
 as to get rid of it easily and to prevent its 
 getting into the air again. 
 
 Fortunately for us, the winds, causing move- 
 ment of the air, not merely mix its gases 
 thoroughly, and thus keep the proper amount of 
 oxygen gas present, but they also sweep away 
 a large amount of air-dust. The rain also 
 carries away many of the dust particles of the 
 atmosphere. After a shower of rain, not merely 
 is the air purer, but even the earth itself is 
 refreshed ; and if we look at a gutter after a 
 rain shower we can form some notion of the 
 large quantity of dirt which is removed from 
 the earth's surface and carried down into the 
 sewers, and from them sent, perhaps, into the sea. 
 Notwithstanding these natural ways and means 
 of removing dust and dirt from our neighbour- 
 hood, we require to keep an ever-watchful eye 
 upon our homes. It is obvious that what 
 happens outside in the way of purifying the 
 
20 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 air and the earth by means of wind and rain 
 cannot operate in our dwellings. There is 
 great need for the exercise of personal atten- 
 tion to our dwellings, and for our being ever 
 on the watch to exercise care regarding their 
 cleanliness. 
 
 In our houses, the process of cleaning and 
 the getting rid of dust and dirt should be 
 regularly carried out. Daily dusting is re- 
 quired to keep the home healthy. At various 
 other periods, however, there takes place a 
 general turn-up of the house, such as a ' spring 
 cleaning.' This process is intended to be of a 
 more thorough character than the daily cleans- 
 ing, and has for its aim chiefly the rubbing 
 down of the walls and the cleaning of the 
 carpets. It is very desirable that this cleaning 
 should be carried out more than once a year, 
 seeing that the accumulation of dust in a year's 
 time must be very large. 
 
 It would be well in all our houses if we 
 adopted the plan, seen in many dwellings, of 
 having the carpet placed in the middle of 
 the room only. The sides of the room may 
 be covered by linoleum or waxcloth, or they 
 may simply be stained. The advantage of this 
 plan is that it does away with the need for 
 lifting heavy furniture so as to allow the carpet 
 to be drawn from beneath, and the room is 
 therefore not merely cleaned more quickly, but 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 21 
 
 also more effectually. Carpets themselves are 
 great harbourers of dust, and attention must 
 be paid to their thorough cleaning, either by 
 beating them well or by cleaning processes 
 carried out by steam or other means. 
 
 With regard to the ordinary cleaning of a 
 room, which should be done, say, once a week, 
 the whole of the furniture should be taken out 
 and well dusted. If there is any paint-work in 
 the room, this should also be well dusted, and 
 at the cleaning season should be thoroughly 
 washed down. The best soaps for this purpose 
 are those which, like carbolic soap, contain a 
 disinfectant — that is, a germ-destroying sub- 
 stance. The floor should also be treated in 
 the same way, in order that it may form a 
 clean foundation on which the purified carpet 
 may be laid. 
 
 Another source of dirt in the house is the 
 smoke arising from ordinary lights. We all 
 know how, when a gas-jet has burned for some 
 time, the ceiling becomes blackened. It is very 
 much the same with lamps, because a certain 
 amount of unburnt substance is given off in 
 the form of black particles formed of carbon, 
 and constituting what we call 'smoke.' When 
 such particles accumulate in a chimney we 
 term them 'soot,' and we see here the reason 
 for having the chimneys swept in order 
 that the fire below may draw properly, and 
 
22 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 that we may run no risk of the soot in the 
 chimney being set on fire. Unless soot repre- 
 sented unconsumed coal, it would not, of course, 
 be capable of burning. 
 
 We have seen that large quantities of the 
 dust of our houses are apt to remain in cor- 
 nices near the ceiling. These parts should be 
 specially attended to in cleaning, as should also 
 the walls themselves. Experiments have shown 
 us that in the case of people suflFering from 
 certain diseases, the germs of these diseases, 
 passing from the body, are apt to mingle 
 with the dust of the house, and to stick to the 
 walls, and especially to cornices. The whole 
 work of house-cleaning, we thus see, is one 
 of great importance, and has a great influence 
 on the health of the inmates. From the roof 
 to the floor, each room may be said to repre- 
 sent a house in itself If, therefore, cleanliness 
 of every room be ensured, we can understand 
 how the house will become a 'sweet home' in 
 the health sense of that saying. 
 
 Every one knows that houses, as they are 
 ordinarily built, have leading from them cer- 
 tain pipes, which are known by the name of 
 'drains.' As a rule, drains are buried in the 
 ground, and are used to carry away all waste 
 matters. The kitchen sink may afibrd a very 
 good example of what we mean by a drainage 
 system. The sink receives the waste water 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 23 
 
 which has been used in washing dishes and 
 other things. The water runs away from the 
 sink into a pipe which is known as the 
 'waste-pipe.' This pipe disappears into the 
 ground, and if we dug up the earth and 
 followed the pipe we should soon find it 
 joining a larger pipe, into which drains from 
 other parts of the house empty themselves. 
 These other drains bring the waste water 
 from baths and other places. Suppose, now, 
 that we traced this larger drain as it passes 
 away from the house, we should discover that 
 it ended in and joined a much larger pipe 
 laid in the street. This big pipe we call 
 a 'sewer,' and if we had the power of 
 following the sewer we should find that in 
 its turn it would unite with large drains 
 from other streets, and would finally end in 
 some place or other where the whole waste 
 matters of a town (or, as we call them, 
 'sewage') are deposited. This is a simple 
 sketch of what is called a sewage system. 
 As the larger part of the waste matter con- 
 sists of water which has been used, we call 
 such a system a 'water-carriage system.' 
 
 The sewage of towns is got rid of in 
 various ways. Sometimes it is run into the 
 sea. In other cases it may pass into a river. 
 We can all understand that if the water of 
 this river is used for drinking purposes, it 
 
24 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 is apt to carry disease to those who drink it, 
 for it has been rendered impure and poisonous 
 by the sewage poured into it. In many towns, 
 therefore, the sewage is discharged into special 
 pits or tanks in which, by the action of certain 
 germs falling into it from the air, it is con- 
 verted into what is practically pure water, and 
 this water can then be discharged into a river 
 or lake without fear of causing disease. 
 
 The cleanliness of our house depends on 
 the perfect removal from it by drains of what 
 we may call 'dirt' of another kind than dust. 
 No house can be healthy if the waste matter 
 is not properly carried away. Sometimes in 
 country places there are no drains to be found 
 in connection with houses ; but other means 
 exist for disposing of the waste, and one of 
 the most common plans is that of running 
 the waste matters into a large pit called a 
 'cesspool.' It is necessary that this cesspool 
 should be frequently cleaned out, in order 
 that it may not overflow and cause illness in 
 the neighbourhood. 
 
 We might ask ourselves what is likely to 
 happen to us if we live in houses where the 
 drains have not been properly made. The 
 answer to this question is that we run the 
 risk of being made ill from the attack of 
 various diseases. This is simply another 
 example of the danger we run when 'dirt' of 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 25 
 
 any kind is allowed to accumulate in or near 
 our houses. 
 
 The only safe house to live in is one in 
 which the drains of the dwelling are separated 
 in a particular way from the sewer. Let us go 
 back for a moment to the kitchen sink. Sup- 
 
 Trapv 
 
 Ft-OOR. 
 
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 Ground 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
 Waste-Pipe from Kitchen Sink. 
 
 pose that the waste-pipe which carries away 
 the water of the sink ran straight down into 
 the drain. The gases of the sewer would pass 
 up the waste-pipe, and come in this way into 
 the kitchen. Now, these, gases are injurious 
 to health, and if we breathe them we are 
 running great risk of being made ill. The 
 
26 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 waste-pipe of the sink, instead of going straight 
 down to join the drain, should be made to let 
 the waste water escape into what is called a 
 'trap.' A trap is simply a U-shaped bend 
 in the pipe, which, from its form, always 
 remains full of water. This water absorbs the 
 foul gases rising from the sewer, thus 'trap- 
 ping' them, and preventing them from passing 
 up the waste-pipe into the kitchen. Just at 
 the place where the waste-pipe enters the drain, 
 there should be another trap as an additional 
 security. Between this trap and the house, too, 
 there should be an opening for the admission 
 of fresh air, so that when waste water is not 
 passing down the pipe, fresh air is passing 
 up it. 
 
 This is the manner in which all drains require 
 to be treated in order that the house they 
 belong to may be safe and healthy to dwell 
 in. If any drain is not constructed with a trap 
 at the end, so as to prevent the back-flow of 
 gases, then the kitchen or other place from 
 which such a drain passes may very well be 
 regarded as really a part of the sewer itself. 
 
 We have seen that pure water is one of the 
 things necessary to keep us in good health. 
 Most of us do not think of water as a food, 
 and a still greater number of persons do not 
 think of the air they breathe as being part 
 of the food they require. Later on, you will 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 27 
 
 be taught th.e reason why air may be regarded 
 as a highly important part of our diet. Water 
 may be said to rank next in importance to air, 
 for the reason that whilst life ends in a very 
 few minutes if we are deprived of air, it is 
 also impossible to sustain life for any long 
 time without water. If a man were to be 
 deprived of all solid food and water, he would 
 probably die in about a week. If, however, 
 we allowed him to have water alone, his life 
 would be prolonged for twenty, thirty, or even 
 forty days. Of course, it will be understood 
 we are allowing him at the same time to 
 breathe air. 
 
 Now, why is it that life can be supported 
 on water for such a long time ? We must 
 not think, of course, that if a man lived for 
 thirty days on water alone, his body would be 
 well nourished at the end of that time. On 
 the contrary, not having had any solid food, 
 he would appear very thin and miserable, and 
 he might die very shortly if solid food were to 
 be longer withheld from him. The answer to 
 the question, however, why water alone can 
 keep the body going for a long time, is found 
 in a very interesting fact. If we gave a human 
 body to a chemist and asked him to analyse 
 it, he would tell us that two-thirds of its 
 weight consisted of water. Suppose the body 
 of a man to weigh 165 pounds, we should find 
 
28 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 that 110 pounds of his weight would be water, 
 the remaining 55 pounds representing the sohd 
 parts of his frame. 
 
 The first thing we have, therefore, found out 
 about water in its relation to the body, is 
 that it is one of the most important sub- 
 stances of which the body is built. But there 
 are other reasons why water is of great 
 importance. It is required in every action 
 the body performs ; for example, it is needed 
 to dissolve food in the act of digestion. More- 
 over, the water-supply of the body is always 
 being used up in the performance of our bodily 
 actions, and water is also continually leaving 
 the body in the shape of waste given off by 
 the lungs and the skin, whilst the kidneys 
 are also organs that filter out so much water 
 from our blood. So we come to the conclu- 
 sions, first, that water is part and parcel of 
 our body, and is found in the composition of 
 every organ from bone to brain ; and, second, 
 that a full supply of water is necessary in 
 order to replace that which the body is per- 
 petually parting with. 
 
 We can now understand why thirst is so much 
 more difficult to bear than hunger. If you 
 have read accounts of the great pangs suffered 
 by shipwrecked sailors who for days have had 
 to live on a very small supply of water, or 
 to remain \vithout water at all, you will be 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 29 
 
 able to form some idea of the great need we 
 have of a constant water-supply. Miners who 
 have been entombed in mines, from the fall of 
 some portion of the roof, have been rescued 
 alive after many days because they had a 
 supply of water in the mine. Failing this 
 supply, they would of course have died in 
 a short time. It has sometimes been sup- 
 posed that water could be taken in by the 
 skin. Shipwrecked sailors are accustomed to 
 soothe the pangs of thirst by dipping their 
 clothes in the sea and wrapping them round 
 their bodies. This plan, however, does not 
 ease their thirst by the skin absorbing water, 
 but because it prevents the skin giving off 
 much water by its sweat-glands, and thus 
 limits the output of water from the body 
 itself 
 
 The water we drink comes to us from 
 various sources. In some towns the life-giving 
 liquid is brought long distances from lakes. 
 Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Glas- 
 gow are towns which derive their supply 
 from great lakes, either natural or artificial. 
 Sometimes rivers supply towns with Avater, 
 and we have seen how important it is that a 
 river should not receive any waste matter or 
 sewage from houses, otherwise the people who 
 drink its waters will be liable to suffer from 
 disease. 
 
30 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 In country districts water is often obtained 
 from wells or springs. So long as such water 
 is pure there is no objection to its use ; but the 
 danger in the case of water taken from springs, 
 rivers, and wells is that it is very liable to 
 receive impurities from the surrounding earth, 
 or, in the case of rivers, from sewage matters 
 passing into it. If the water is taken from 
 wells, we should be very careful to see that 
 nothing passes into it from the earth or soil 
 around. A very excellent rule to follow where 
 we think the water we drink is not pure is 
 always to boil it. It should be boiled and then 
 allowed to cool. By boiling the water, we 
 destroy any germs of disease it may contain. 
 Sometimes people use 'filters' to remove from 
 the water any injurious substances ; but many 
 of the filters in common use are not to be 
 depended on, because they cannot keep back 
 from the water the germs and other things 
 that are capable of causing illness. 
 
 It may be said that we get all our water- 
 supply from the ' rain.' The sun evaporates 
 water from the earth to form clouds. When 
 the clouds break, rain descends, so that we 
 have a kind of circulation in this way from 
 the earth to the clouds, and from the clouds 
 back to the earth. Probably rain-water is the 
 purest of all water, except that which is pro- 
 duced by distilling. It is true the rain may 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 31 
 
 carry down with it in its passage through the 
 air certain dirt particles, and even if the 
 rain-water is pure, its taste is not very 
 pleasant. This is because it is not aerated — 
 that is to say, it has not had a certain quan- 
 tity of air mixed with it. 
 
 The rain which falls and passes into the 
 ground forms springs ; these springs give rise 
 to brooks, and from the joining of brooks we 
 get rivers. In its passage through the earth, 
 water comes in contact with rocks of various 
 kinds, and absorbs from them certain of the 
 minerals of which they are composed. Hence 
 we find in ordinary waters a certain quantity 
 of dissolved minerals, the chief mineral thus 
 found being 'lime.' Others contain iron, mag- 
 nesia, arsenic, and other things which they 
 have gathered from the rocks, and many such 
 waters are extremely useful to mankind in the 
 cure of disease, forming what we call ' medicinal 
 springs.' Sometimes water issues from the 
 ground in a heated state, because it has come 
 from some part of the crust of the earth 
 where the temperature is high. We know 
 that the inside of the earth is in a heated 
 state, and therefore it is not surprising to find 
 that in certain places, like Bath in England, 
 the water should issue in the form of hot 
 springs. 
 
 The kind of water we use is distinguished by 
 
32 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 the absence or presence of dissolved minerals. 
 Rain-water we call 'soft' water, because it 
 contains no minerals at all. 'Hard' waters, 
 on the other hand, are those which contain 
 minerals, and the more mineral matter, espe- 
 cially lime, that water contains, the harder 
 it is said to be. Water of this description 
 costs more money for soap than soft water, 
 because, according to its degree of hardness, it 
 is more or less difficult to form a lather 
 with soap. 
 
 It may be said that all the best drinking 
 waters are of the hard description. Very soft 
 water is more apt to be impure than hard 
 water, and it does not contain sufficient lime 
 as food for the bones of growing children. 
 Where the drinking water is very soft, it is 
 a good thing to give children a little lime- 
 water to drink, to prevent their bones being 
 soft, and their legs becoming bent. On the 
 other hand, drinking water must not be 
 too hard, but should contain a moderate 
 amount of limy matter. If the lime in 
 water exists in the form of chalk, which is 
 also called carbonate of lime, we can soften 
 the water by boiling it ; but if the lime exists 
 in another form, called sulphate of lime, 
 boiling will have little or no effect in lessening 
 the hardness. 
 
 If you live in a hard-water district, you will 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 33 
 
 know that the inside of kettles and boilers 
 becomes coated with a crust of lime, so that 
 the heat of the fire is largely wasted, because 
 it cannot penetrate this limy crust, and so 
 raise the temperature of the water quickly. 
 Such kettles and boilers have, therefore, fre- 
 quently to be cleaned in order to render them 
 efficient for their work. 
 
 Very hard water is not good for our health, 
 because, as doctors tell us, it produces derange- 
 ments and ailments of the stomach and other 
 organs. There is a very curious disease, known 
 as 'goitre' abroad, and in Britain as 'Derby- 
 shire Neck.' This shows itself by a swelling 
 of a certain gland situated in the front of the 
 throat, and sometimes this swelling is of a 
 very large size. It is found in people who 
 have been drinking water of a very hard 
 quality, although it seems to be produced by 
 other causes as well. 
 
 Water has a great deal to do with the 
 health of everybody. We have seen that 
 germs of diseases are apt to escape into it, 
 and those who drink such water are liable to 
 be infected and to suffer from the diseases in 
 question. Some of these diseases must be well 
 known to you by name. Cholera is one of 
 them, and typhoid fever, or enteric fever, as 
 it is also called, is another. Diphtheria may 
 also be named as a third disease which we can 
 
 H.K.W. c 
 
34 CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 
 
 get from drinking water into which its germs 
 have been allowed to pass. These facts teach 
 us the great importance of boiling water before 
 we drink it, if we think that it is not of a 
 thoroughly pure character. Sometimes large 
 numbers of people have been made ill with 
 typhoid fever through drinking water which 
 has been made impure by sewage, and more 
 than 6ne British town has suffered severely 
 from an epidemic of typhoid fever produced 
 in Such a way. 
 
 The water in cities is brought to our houses 
 in pipes, and whenever we desire a supply we 
 have only to turn a tap and receive the 
 amount we require. We need plenty of 
 water in our houses, because we require it not 
 merely for drinking and cooking purposes, but 
 also for baths, for the cleaning of the house, 
 a,nd for the flushing of the drains. A full and 
 free supply of water is one of the things 
 which' may be said to keep us healthy, because 
 it enables us to remove waste matters and 
 (^irtt frfeely and readily, not merely from our 
 p^r^pns, but also from our homes, 
 in Sometimes it happens that where water is 
 |6ai/ce it may be turned off for a certain time 
 igach day. Whether this be the case or not, in 
 many of our houses we find 'cisterns,' which 
 arejiUSUally boxes lined with lead, and in which 
 £1, store pf water can be kept. The cistern is 
 
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH. 35 
 
 placed at the top of the house. Water runs 
 into it, and when the cistern is full, more water 
 is stopped from entering by a particular arrange- 
 ment acting on the tap at the end of the pipe 
 admitting the water. If more water should 
 come into the cistern than it can hold, it runs 
 away through a waste-pipe, which sometimes 
 goes down into a drain, and thus prevents 
 the overflowing of the cistern water into the 
 house. But it is not right that this waste- 
 pipe should pass into a drain at all, because 
 sewage gases may come up the waste-pipe 
 and^ thus render the water impure. The ,waste= 
 pipe should always be carried outside the house, 
 so as to discharge in the open air., In this 
 way, if we see water riinning, through , the 
 waste-pipe, we kjiow thg cistern is overflowing; 
 Remember that if you have a cistern in 
 your house it should be cleaned regularly.- 
 Even water which is usually quite pure will 
 now_ and then bring mud with it, and this 
 mud settles down in the bottom of the cistern. 
 If, it is disturbed in any way it will , render 
 the water dirty, and, what is more to the 
 point, may cause illness in those who drink 
 the w^ter. A great deal of disease is caused 
 by drinkijig water coming from dirty cisterns. 
 The cistern should, also he well covered oyer, 
 S9 as to prey^ut.dust and dirt getting into it. 
 In some cases drowned rats and mice have 
 
36 DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 been found in uncovered cisterns, and it is not 
 a pleasant thing to think of people drinking 
 water in which the dead bodies of these 
 animals have remained ; besides, in such cases 
 the water becomes unfit to drink, and will 
 cause illness of various kinds. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 We have seen that 'dirt,' in the shape of 
 ordinary dust in our rooms and houses, or in 
 the shape of waste matters not carried away 
 from our dwellings, constitutes a source of ill- 
 health, and lays us open to the attack of 
 disease. But under the head of ' dirt ' we 
 have also to think of certain things which 
 are much more dangerous in respect of their 
 power to afflict us with illness. Think of 
 what was said regarding the floating matter 
 of the air. You will remember that part 
 of the floating dust of the air consists of 
 very minute living things to which we give 
 the names of microbes or germs. We must 
 now learn something regarding these germs, 
 and of the part they play in making us ill. 
 
 The 'germ' of anything means that it is 
 the first beginning out of which there is 
 
DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 37 
 
 developed the perfect thing. If we talk about 
 the 'germ' of a bird or a plant, we mean 
 the egg of the one and the seed of the 
 other, out of which its body is developed. 
 All germs are therefore living things, and we 
 must keep this fact clearly in our minds in 
 order that we may perfectly understand what 
 germs are capable of doing to us. The word 
 ' germ ' is applied to the living specks in the 
 air because of their low and simple nature. 
 Most of them represent the lowest forms of 
 plant-life, being much simpler in their structure 
 and nature than plants such as the mould 
 which we saw to grow on cheese, jam, and 
 other objects. The word 'microbe,' which is 
 also used to indicate the germs we are dealing 
 with, comes from two Greek words, one of 
 which means 'very small' and the other 'life.' 
 This word bears in its meaning a reference to 
 the extremely small size of the particles we 
 are considering. 
 
 Do not let us make the mistake of thinking 
 that all germs are capable of producing disease. 
 Many of them, indeed, are not merely of a 
 harmless nature, but may be of use to us. 
 Many germs may be looked upon as Nature's 
 scavengers. They settle down upon dead 
 matter everywhere, and break it up into simpler 
 and less offensive substances. For example, 
 the sewage of many towns and cities, as we 
 
38 DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 have already seen, is run into large tanks, and 
 in these the germs from the air, falling into 
 the sewage, split up its solid parts into harm- 
 less substances, leaving the watery part of the 
 sewage perfectly pure. This is an illustration 
 of germs being of use to man. Unfortunately, 
 however, there are many germs of which we 
 cannot speak in such a favourable way. 
 
 All germs being very minute living things, 
 we require the highest powers of our best 
 microscopes to see them ; and besides, we re- 
 quire to stain the germs by various fluids in 
 order that we may see them clearly. Many 
 of these germs are not longer than one five- 
 thousandth or one six-thousandth part of an 
 inch. Some are even smaller. When we are 
 measuring anything in fractions of an inch, 
 it is well that we should know what we 
 are describing. If we say that a gerin is the 
 one five-thousandth part of an inch long, we 
 mean that it would take five thousand such 
 g-erms placed in a line, one after the other, to 
 make up the length of an inch. Suppose an 
 inch divided into five thousand parts, then 
 such a germ would equal in length one of 
 these parts. We get in this way some notion 
 of the extreme minuteness of these living 
 things, which, despite their small size, are 
 capable of causing very serious results to our- 
 selves in the way of disease. 
 
DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 39 
 
 We have already seen that from the mould 
 germs or spores which float about in the 
 air we get the full-grown moulds developing 
 themselves on cheese and other articles of food. 
 In the same way, apples plucked from the tree, 
 and kept in a room in which a very consider- 
 able amount of dust is present, will tend to 
 become bad, or, as we say, 'rotten.' The 
 germs in the air which cause the apple to 
 decay are of a different kind frotn those which, 
 when they settle on cheese, produce the coating 
 of mould. Each kind of germ has its own 
 part to play in the great scheme of Nature. 
 Some produce diseases, and each germ of this 
 kind gives rise to its own kind of illness, and 
 to no other. Just as one kind or species of 
 animal or plant differs from another, so the 
 kinds of germs differ in the kind of life they 
 represent, and in the effects they produce either 
 upon dead substances or upon our bodies. 
 
 In order the better to understand something 
 about the work of these germs, we may con- 
 sider the history of 'yeast.' Yeast is a sub- 
 stance used by the baker and by the brewer. 
 If we place yeast under a microscope, we see 
 that it consists of large numbers of little round 
 objects or ' cells ; ' these we term yeast plants. 
 Each cell, pf course, is a little living plant, and 
 it has its own work to do in the world. 
 , If we sow a pinch of yeast in water, nothing 
 
40 DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 will happen, the water not being a soil in which 
 yeast can grow. But if, on the other hand, 
 we sow our yeast plants in a fluid or substance 
 containing sugar, such ,a fluid is highly suitable 
 for their growth. We find in a little time that 
 the sugary fluid becomes somewhat agitated, and 
 that bubbles of gas rise to its surface. When 
 this action, which is called 'fermentation,' is over. 
 
 Yeast Plants (greatly magnified). 
 
 we find the sugary fluid to have changed its 
 nature in a very remarkable manner. The gas 
 bubbles given off" from the fermented sugar 
 consist of the same gas that we give oft" from 
 our lungs in the process of breathing — namely, 
 carbonic acid gas. Left behind is a fluid known 
 as 'alcohol.' What we mean, then, by fermen- 
 tation is that work or action of yeast which 
 splits anything containing sugar into carbonic 
 
DIRT AND ITS DANGER?. 41 
 
 acid gas, which passes off into the atmosphere, 
 and alcohol, which remains behind. 
 
 When the baker uses yeast, he wants to 
 obtain the carbonic acid gas w|iich raises his 
 dough, and makes his bread light. When 
 the brewer uses yeast, he has no use for the 
 gas, but he requires the alcohol, which is to 
 form part of his beer. If we examine yeast 
 when fermentation has ceased, we find that its 
 plants have grown in enormous numbers, and 
 it is their growth and multiplication which has 
 produced the action of fermentation. We now 
 understand what is meant by the expression in 
 the Bible about the little leaven leavening the 
 whole lump. A few of these plants are sown 
 in the sugary solution, and at the end of their 
 work the few have multiplied t|iemselves into 
 many thousands. 
 
 Now, what is true of the yqast plant and 
 fermentation is also true of the germs which 
 produce disease ia our bodies. If we swallow 
 or breathe in the germs, say, of a fever, 
 we may not receive into our bodies a large 
 number of them, but when they have settled 
 down in our frames they begin to grow like the 
 yeast plants and to multiply exceedingly, and 
 the result is that we are stricken down with 
 disease. It is here as if the little leaven 
 of disease leavened very quickly the whole 
 lump of the body. Fevers and many other 
 
42 DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 diseases are the result of the growth in our 
 bodies of the germs to which they owe their 
 origin. 
 
 It is curious to note that each disease 
 which is caused by germs imitates very closely 
 the life of an animal or plant. The animal is 
 born, it grows, it comes to its full growth ; 
 then' it declines, becomes old, and finally dies. In 
 the same way a fever begins, as we have seen, 
 in a small way when the germs are received or 
 sown in our bodies. As the germs multiply, 
 the fever becomes severe, then it comes to a 
 head, and finally dies away, and if the patient's 
 strength holds out, he then g^ts well. Life is 
 just as clearly represented in the case of a 
 fever as it is in our own bodies, and in the 
 stages that these bodies of ours pass through 
 as we advance from infancy to old age. 
 
 Each germ, being a living thing, requires its 
 own kind of soil and suitable surroundings in 
 which to -flourish. The germ of a fever called 
 typhus fever, for example, lives in the foul air 
 of overcrowded rooms. More especially if the 
 people in the rooms are poor, ill-nourished, and of 
 dirty habits, there is every likelihood of typhus 
 fever breaking out. You may have read in 
 your school-books of the labours of John Howard 
 to reform jails, and to change them from their 
 former wretched and dirty state into the clean 
 and healthy places which they are to-day. In 
 
DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 45 
 
 these old days, large nurabefs of persons' died 
 from a trouble "called jail-fever. ' This fever 
 was typhus fever, and it broke out in jails 
 because they were overcrowded, ill-ventilated, 
 and dirty. We never hear of jail-fever to-day, 
 because the modern jail is a clean and well- 
 ventilated place. The germ of typhoid fever 
 lives and breeds amongst sewage matter, and 
 when sewage is allowed to escape into drink- 
 ing water we can understand how the fever is 
 conveyed to us. Each germ, therefore, is like 
 a seed wanting its own kind of soil ; and in not 
 growing unless it gets that soil, it resembles 
 very closely a living plant. ' 
 
 The next point which we have to notice is 
 that each kind of germ gives rise to other 
 germs like itself, and to no other kind. If we 
 sow peas, we expect to find peas growing up 
 from the seeds ; arid so it is with the germs of 
 disease. The germs of measles produce measles, 
 of cholera, cholera, and so on. 
 
 When germs pass from the bodies of people 
 who are suffering from a fever, they escape 
 into the air around them. This is the case with 
 many infectious diseases, such as measles, scarlet 
 fever, and smallpox. Germs may pass into 
 water, and through water into milk. The 
 germs of diphtheria, typhoid fever, and cholera 
 are mostly conveyed to us through water which 
 has thus been polluted. Scarlet fever may also 
 
44 DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 come to us through milk which has been in- 
 fected. If on a dairy-farm some person is ill 
 with scarlet fever, the germs are very apt to 
 pass from this person's body, and thus to infect 
 the milk. All those who drink such milk run 
 a very serious risk of catching the disease. 
 
 Other germs can only affect us when our 
 bodies are actually inoculated with them through 
 a cut or wound. Thus, if we are wounded, and 
 are not careful to keep the wound very clean, 
 certain germs may pass into the wound and 
 cause blood-poisoning. You have no doubt heard 
 of a very serious trouble called 'lockjaw.' It is 
 so named because the muscles of the jaws and 
 the general muscles of the body are thrown 
 into spasms. Lockjaw is caused by a germ 
 which is found in the earth around us. It 
 cannot do us any harm so long as there is no 
 break in our skin, but if the lockjaw germs 
 get into our bodies through some wound, or 
 even through a scratch in the skin, they 
 are then placed in a position in which they 
 can produce all their serious effects. 
 
 We may well ask ourselves now if there 
 are any means we can employ to avoid being 
 attacked by this great army of germs which 
 seems everywhere to surround us. One thing 
 we can all do — namely, try to keep ourselves 
 in good health by breathing fresh air, taking 
 sufficient outdoor exercise, and carefully attend- 
 
DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 45 
 
 ing to our personal cleanliness. A person in 
 perfect health is much more likely to repel 
 the attacks of disease-germs than one whose 
 bodily condition is not so good, for even if 
 the germs do fall upon him, they will prob- 
 ably be destroyed in the body before doing 
 any harm. 
 
 But we must also remember that every 
 germ must have come from a case of the 
 disease it represents. No germ can come into 
 existence of itself It is a living thing, and, 
 like every other living thing, must have had a 
 parent to produce it, that parent being the 
 germ which existed before it. We see, first, 
 that no fever can be produced unless we are 
 infected with its germs ; and second, that its 
 germs can only have come from a previous 
 case of the fever. Now, what can we do to 
 prevent this spreading of germs, and to keep 
 them from being conveyed from those who 
 are sick to those who are well ? The answer 
 is that we should take great and instant care 
 of the first cases of illness. If we could at 
 once separate those who are taken ill from 
 those who are well, and prevent any germs 
 from escaping from the bodies of the sick 
 persons, we should not have so many cases of 
 fever spread abroad. 
 
 Whenever illness appears it is of great 
 importance that the sick person should not 
 
46 DIKT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 be allowed to mix with other people. If 
 his illness is of an infectious kind, he 
 should be at once separated from all other 
 persons. This is what doctors and others are 
 trying to teach peojDle. When scarlet fever 
 or measles breaks out in schools, we all know 
 that sometimes laro-e numbers of the children 
 are attacked, and have to be nursed for weeks. 
 The beginnings of such illnesses very often 
 come from one child who has suftered from 
 the fever and who returns to the school before 
 he is (juite well. He gives off from his skin 
 or from his breath the germs of the fever, 
 and other children sitting beside him, or play- 
 ing with him, receive the germs and are 
 infected. 
 
 It is a great thing to be able to pre- 
 vent disease, and I have tried to show you 
 in this way how we might escape much illness 
 if people were only careful to see that a 
 person who has suffered from a fever is not 
 allowed to mix with other people until he is 
 quite well. We know that the air contains 
 numbers of the germs of diseases. They can 
 only get into the air through the careless- 
 ness of peojile who have cases of illness in 
 their houses, and it is therefore very imj^ortant 
 that we should all be taught that so lonfy as 
 we, keep cases of fever by themselves, we are 
 able to prevent the spreading of such troubles. 
 
DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 47 
 
 The list of ailments which are caused by 
 germs is a very long one. We have' seen that 
 such diseases as cholera, typhoid fever, typhus 
 fever, smallpox, scarlet fever, and measles are 
 germ-produced diseases. To these we can add 
 whooping-cough, mumps, influenza, diphtheria, 
 chicken-pox, and several others. Consumption, 
 ■jvhich you all know is a very serious trouble, 
 causing wasting of the body, also, comes from 
 the attack of a particular germ. This disease 
 teaches us how much we can do to prevent ill^ 
 ness. The germs of consumption are coughed 
 up from the lungs of consumptive people in 
 millions every day. When the coughed-up 
 matter dries, the , germs also dry ai^d pass 
 into the air to form part of the air-dust. 
 They are also found in the dust which sticks 
 to the walls and roofs of rooms in which con- 
 sumptive people have lived. , If we, breathe 
 these germs into our lungs when we are in 
 good health, it is not likely that we shall be 
 affected by consumption, because the healthy 
 lungs destroy the germs. Like seeds falling on 
 barren ground, they do not find a soil in the 
 healthy lung in which to, grow. But if we are 
 in ill-health and our lungs are weak, and we 
 breathe in the germs of consurnption, then it 
 is ve^y likely that thes, disease will be, set. up 
 in,;9ji;i7;]bq(^i9s.;;; ;,,:;;/.; !■:-'..! -v, i ■. •./ 
 
 Ip prder -to,irpr^yent ,- consumption, we see 
 
48 DlRT AND ITS DANGERS. 
 
 that it is necessary that all the matter that 
 is coughed up from the lungs of people who 
 are suffering from the disease should be in- 
 stantly destroyed. If this were always done, 
 we should find cases of consumption to be 
 very few indeed. We are all liable to suffer 
 from these consumption germs being scattered 
 abroad in the way I have described, and so 
 attempts are made to stop the disease by 
 putting up notices warning people of the 
 danger of spitting in the streets and other 
 public places. 
 
 In addition to disinfecting — that is, killing 
 — the germs coughed up from a consumptive 
 person's lungs, we ought to pay special 
 attention to the regular cleaning of the room 
 in which he lives. Many cases of con- 
 sumption are set up in people through their 
 going to live in rooms or houses in which 
 consumptive people have dwelt. These rooms 
 and houses have not been disinfected and 
 purified, and the germs are thus left in them. 
 
 In order to kill the germs of disease, we 
 have to employ certain substances called dis- 
 infectants. Substances of which no doubt you 
 have heard, such as carbolic acid and the 
 like, have the power of killing germs, and 
 when we mix these substances with water, 
 we can steep infected clothes in the solution 
 we make. We can also apply such sub- 
 
DIRT AND ITS DANGERS. 49 
 
 stances to the matter coughed up from con- 
 sumptive lungs, and to any other matters 
 from infected bodies which contain the germs 
 of disease. For all ordinary purposes a table- 
 spoonful of carbolic acid added to forty or 
 fifty times as much water forms a very good 
 mixture for the destruction of disease-germs. 
 
 In the case of poor people who are affected 
 with fever, and also in the case of persons who 
 are better off in the world, it is well that they 
 should be at once taken to a fever hospital. 
 We can all see that it is very difficult indeed, 
 where one person in a family has fever, to 
 keep the other persons from taking it. A 
 great deal of pain and misery will probably 
 be saved, and much risk will be avoided, if, 
 when any person is seized with fever, he is at 
 once taken to a fever hospital. There he will 
 be well attended to and nursed, and care will 
 be taken that no germs pass from his body to 
 the air or to water to infect people who are 
 healthy. In most towns, and also in other 
 places, fever hospitals are now built, and they 
 are very useful in preventing infectious diseases 
 from spreading. 
 
 If we now sum up all we have learned 
 in this lesson on dirt and disease, we see, 
 first, that the dust of the air contains a 
 certain number of germs capable of producing 
 disease when they gain admittance to our 
 
 H. K. W. D 
 
50 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 bodies. Second, we see that each germ is a 
 living thing, and that when it multiplies it 
 produces germs like itself. Third, we are taught 
 that every case of fever or other disease 
 caused by germs can only arise when the 
 germs of that disease, coming from a pre- 
 vious case, have been received into the body. 
 Fourth, we learn that by taking care of the 
 first cases of a fever, and separating them from 
 all contact with people who are well, we can 
 prevent the spread of fevers, and keep one case 
 from multiplying itself into many. Fifth, we 
 see the great good of destroying disease-germs 
 wherever we meet with them, and this is done 
 by the use of substances we call disinfectants ; 
 or it may be effected by the use of steam. 
 By means of a special machine, clothes and 
 bedding which have been infected can be 
 steamed so as to kill all the germs they 
 contain, and thus rendered safe for use again. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 We must now return to the house, and 
 learn something more about air in relation 
 to health. Keeping in mind all that was said 
 in our first lesson regarding air as necessary 
 
MORE ABODT AIR AND VENTILATION. 51 
 
 for life, we must now look at air as it is 
 affected by ourselves. We must also get some 
 notion of the manner in wliich, in the case of 
 our houses, we can get a supply of fresh air, 
 and get rid of the impure air which we have 
 seen to be a source of illness and disease. 
 
 You have probably been taught that what 
 we call the 'atmosphere' is a great shell of 
 air surrounding the earth. How thick this 
 air- shell is we do not know, but we do 
 know that it thins off as it leaves the earth, 
 until at last it may be regarded as disappear- 
 ing into a lighter substance which seems to fill 
 all space, and which is called the ether. Air 
 is thus a kind of personal belonging of the 
 earth on which we live. Astronomers tell us 
 that the moon has no atmosphere, and also 
 that it is destitute of water. If water and air 
 are absent from any planet, no life can exist 
 thereon ; therefore the moon can have no life 
 upon it. 
 
 You were told in a previous lesson that 
 if we are deprived of air for even a few 
 minutes we die. In so far as solid food and 
 water are concerned, we can still live even if 
 deprived of these for a certain number of days. 
 If we seek to know the amount of fresh air 
 which a man requires every hour, we may 
 put this amount down at about 3000 cubic 
 feet. This seems a very large amount of air 
 
52 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 indeed, but we must not forget that a person 
 spoils more air than he breathes. Hence, 
 when we require a supply of pure air, we 
 must get rid of a very large amount which 
 has been rendered bad through our breathing. 
 
 Let us now see of what the air consists. It 
 is a mixture of two gases called oxygen and 
 nitrogen. When I say a 'mixture,' I mean 
 that the particles of these two gases are merely 
 in contact with one another, but are not 
 chemically united in the way in which the 
 particles of oxygen and hydrogen gas are 
 united to form water. Water is a chemical com- 
 pound, and to separate the two gases of which 
 it consists we require to perform a chemical 
 experiment. The two gases in the air are not 
 so united together, but are merely mixed. 
 
 If we analysed 100 parts of air we should 
 find, roughly speaking, about 23 parts of 
 oxygen gas and 11 of nitrogen. We might 
 think that if oxygen is the gas which 
 animals and plants require, there would appear 
 to be very little of it in the atmosphere as 
 compared with the nitrogen gas, but the pro- 
 portion is quite sufficient for our use. Nitrogen 
 is what we call an inert gas. It merely serves 
 to dilute — that is, to mix with and weaken — the 
 oxygen, and has no effect whatever upon our 
 bodies. We could not breathe pure oxygen. 
 That would cause our bodies to burn away at 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 53 
 
 too great a rate. Pure oxygen is only used for 
 breathing by persons who are very ill, and who 
 have a difficulty, as in inflammation of the lungs, 
 in getting into their blood the necessary amount 
 of this gas. 
 
 In addition to these two gases, which 
 really constitute ' air,' we find that the atmo- 
 sphere everywhere contains small quantities of 
 other things. Thus, in ordinary pure air we 
 find a certain amount of carbonic acid gas. 
 This should not amount to more than 4 or 5 
 parts in 10,000 parts of air. In impure air 
 the quantity of carbonic acid gas is very much 
 increased, and, as we have seen in a previous 
 lesson, it is the presence of this carbonic acid 
 gas, breathed out from our lungs, which is one 
 of the most common causes of the impurity of 
 the air, and necessarily also of disease. 
 
 There is always a certain quantity of water, 
 in the shape of vapour, suspended in the air. 
 The quantity of water carried by the atmo- 
 sphere depends on the degree of heat of the 
 air. If the temperature is very high, more 
 water can be carried off from the earth. At 
 the same time, the air may not in such a 
 case appear to be loaded with moisture. We 
 may consider that the amount of water in 
 the air amounts to from 1 to 1^ per cent, of 
 its bulk. 
 
 Another thing that we meet with in the air 
 
54 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION, 
 
 is ammonia, which in pure air should be pre- 
 sent only in the merest traces. If we find it 
 in greater quantity we know that the atmo- 
 sphere is of an impure character. 
 
 Another element of air is 'ozone,' Ozone 
 is found only in the purest of air. It really 
 represents oxygen gas in a very active form. 
 It is produced in the atmosphere during 
 thunderstorms by the action of the elec- 
 tricity upon the air, and it is also formed 
 during the fall of snow. This element is 
 specially found in the air of mountains and in 
 that of the sea, and we are told that to the 
 presence of ozone the air in these localities 
 owes a great deal of its healthful nature. 
 We do not find ozone in the air of towns 
 or in the air of our houses. If it is blown 
 across a town, it speedily disappears when it 
 comes in contact with the impurities of the 
 air. 
 
 In addition to these substances in the 
 air, we must not forget the dust, of which 
 mention has been made in a previous lesson. 
 This floating dust, of course, forms no part of 
 the air itself, and in pure air such dust is not 
 found. 
 
 Let us now see the differences between the 
 air before it has been breathed, and after it 
 is given off" from our lungs. In the first place, 
 the air which is breathed in is, of course, of 
 
MORE ABOUT AtR AND VENTILATION. 55 
 
 the temperature of the atmosphere around us. 
 If the temperature of a dwelling-room, say, is 
 55 or 60 degrees as indicated by a thermometer, 
 the air we take into our lungs will have the 
 same degree of heat. On the other hand, the 
 air which we breathe out is, of the tempera- 
 ture of the blood — namely, about. 9 8 "4 degrees, 
 this being the natural blood-heat, We must 
 remember in this connection that the air we 
 take into the lungs is there brought in contact 
 with the blood, and is raised by it to its own 
 temperature. 
 
 In the second place, the air which we 
 breathe in contains the amount of oxygen 
 already mentioned as proper to the atmosphere; 
 together with a little carbonic acid gas. That 
 which we breathe out has had its oxygen 
 lessened, because so much of it has passed 
 into the blood ; while the carbonic acid gas is 
 much increased in the air we give out, because 
 it is waste matter which has come from the 
 blood. 
 
 In the third place, whatever the amount of 
 water the air contains before it is breathed 
 in, it is loaded with water when it comes 
 from our lungs. As a proof of this, you 
 have only to remember what happens . in a 
 close room, especially on a cold night, or 
 in a crowded railway carriage, the windows 
 of which are closed. The windows at first 
 
56 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 become dim, and then later on we find mois- 
 ture condensing on the cold glass, and 
 streams of water trickling down the inside 
 of the panes. This teaches us that in addi- 
 tion to containing a large amount of watery 
 vapour, the air coming forth from our lungs 
 is also heated. 
 
 The air which is breathed out contains a 
 certain amount of ammonia, and we can 
 also detect in it a little of what is called 
 'organic matter.' This matter consists of the 
 worn-out cells and particles derived from our 
 bodies. It is the cause of the close, stuffy- 
 smell of ill-ventilated rooms, and we know this 
 'organic matter' to be the special substance 
 in the air in which the germs of typhus fever 
 breed and grow. 
 
 Remember when we talk of breathing, and 
 when we say that the blood is purified by 
 the lungs, that this duty is not the only 
 one performed by them. It is quite true that 
 we breathe out waste matters from our lungs, 
 such matters being also given off from the skin 
 and kidneys. But in breathing we also per- 
 form a second duty. We not merely give 
 off waste, but we also take oxygen into our 
 blood. Now, oxygen gas is a very important, 
 nay, an essential, part of our food-supply. 
 We may say that if oxygen is not put into 
 the blood, all our other foods will be of no 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 57 
 
 service in nourishing our bodies. Suppose we 
 have a fire laid in a grate. We know that 
 before the fire can be made use of we have to 
 put a light to it, in order to cause the sticks 
 and coal to burn. Suppose now that our 
 ordinary foods are represented by the coal 
 and sticks in the grate, then the oxygen we 
 breathe into our lungs would represent the 
 light, without which the fire could not be made 
 to serve its purpose. We must always bear 
 in mind, therefore, that in addition to water 
 and solid foods our diet includes oxygen gas, 
 which in one sense is the most important food 
 of all. 
 
 It may prove useful to us to know of some 
 simple test whereby we may be able to tell 
 whether the air in a room is pure or not. 
 Suppose we get from a druggist a small bottle 
 of lime-water. The lime is dissolved in the 
 water, and the water itself is perfectly clear. 
 If now I blow through a tube into the 
 lime-water, and continue to blow for some 
 time, I see the lime-water become first of a 
 cloudy and then of a milky tint. Last of all, 
 I should find a white powder to settle in the 
 bottom of the bottle, this white powder being 
 chalk. The chemical name of chalk is car- 
 bonate of lime, and I have made the chalk 
 by adding carbonic acid gas from my lungs 
 to the lime in the water. In other words, 
 
58 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 I have made a chemical compound by bring- 
 ing together the substances of which it is 
 composed — lime and carbonic acid gas. 
 
 This little experiment has been applied to 
 enable us to test the air in a room. Of 
 course, the air of the room must not be dis- 
 turbed, and the doors and windows must be 
 kept shut, while it is also advisable that the 
 damper of the grate be put down to prevent 
 the escape of air by the chimney. These pre- 
 cautions having been taken, we provide our- 
 selves with a bottle of clear lime-water, and 
 a wide-mouthed stoppered bottle which holds 
 10^ ounces. We stuff a handkerchief into this 
 bottle, so as to fill it as completely as possible, 
 before we enter the room. On entering the 
 room and closing the door quickly, the hand- 
 kerchief is rapidly drawn out so as to take 
 out the air which was in the bottle and allow 
 the air of the room to enter it. Into the bottle, 
 which is now full of the air of the room, we 
 place half an ounce of clear lime-water. The 
 stopper is put in and the bottle shaken. If 
 the lime-water remains clear, then the air may 
 be regarded as pure. If the air is impure, the 
 lime-water will become more or less milky, 
 according to the amount of carbonic acid gas 
 which is present in it ; and we may take the 
 quantity of carbonic acid gas, shown us by 
 the milkiness of the water, to tell us the 
 
MOKE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 59 
 
 amount of other impurities which are likely to 
 be in the air. 
 
 Seeing that it is necessary for our health 
 that we should receive a supply of pure air, 
 and that we should get rid of impure air, we 
 must now try to understand what we can do 
 to secure this end. The chief things which 
 we have to fight against and to get rid of 
 are the carbonic acid gas and the organic 
 matter which represents the worn-out particles 
 of our frames ; in place of these we need a 
 supply of life-giving oxygen. 
 
 Very many people do not appreciate the 
 need for fresh air, and as a consequence are 
 content to live in overheated and stuffy rooms, 
 the atmosphere of which is very injurious to 
 their health. If we come directly out of the 
 fresh air into an overheated room, we feel the 
 atmosphere close and stuffy ; but we cannot 
 remain long in such a room without noticing 
 that in a short time the stuffy sensation dis- 
 appears. We get accustomed to bad air ; and it 
 is just this power of accommodating ourselves 
 to what is bad for us that makes many people 
 neglect to obtain a supply of fresh air. We 
 become 'tolerant' of bad air, as we become 
 accustomed to a good many other things that 
 are injurious, but none the less surely is our 
 health injured because of this fact. 
 
 A famous scientific man, Claude Bernard, 
 
60 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 once put a sparrow under a glass jar. The air 
 contained in the jar was sufficient to maintain 
 the life of the sparrow for three hours. At 
 the end of the second hour, when the sparrow 
 had yet another hour to live, a second and 
 fresh sparrow was placed under the jar. This 
 second sparrow at once tumbled over and 
 died, because it breathed the air which had 
 been rendered impure by sparrow number one, 
 although it would have served to keep the 
 first sparrow alive for another hour. The 
 reason was that the first sparrow had become 
 'accustomed to and 'tolerant' of the bad air 
 under the jar, whereas the second sparrow, 
 like a person entering a stuffy room, experi- 
 enced in an extreme degree the effects of 
 passing from a pure into a foul atmosphere. 
 
 When we get rid of foul air for fresh, we 
 are said to 'ventilate' our houses. It is a far 
 more difficult thing than many people think 
 to get a full supply of fresh air. I have 
 said that a human being spoils much more 
 air than he breathes, because he is sending 
 forth into the atmosphere the waste matters 
 of his body coming from his lungs. We have 
 seen that a man needs 3000 cubic feet every 
 hour he lives. He does not pass this amount 
 of air through his lungs, but he spoils sufficient 
 air to cause him to require the amount stated 
 if the air in which he lives is to be kept pure. 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 61 
 
 Let us suppose a man placed in a box 10 
 feet long, 10 feet broad, and 10 feet high. 
 Here he would be living in 1000 cubic feet 
 of space. In order to keep the air of the 
 box pure, we should have to , change it three 
 times every hour. Say at one o'clock he starts 
 with 1000 cubic feet of pure air in his box, 
 at twenty minutes past one we should require 
 to sweep out the air in the box, and give him 
 a second 1000 cubic feet, whilst at twenty 
 minutes to two o'clock we should then supply 
 him with a like quantity, and again at two 
 o'clock. It is, however, impossible in our ordi- 
 nary life to do such a thing, and when we say 
 that a man requires 3000 cubic feet of air 
 every hour, we really mean that that amount 
 of fresh air should be gradually supplied to 
 him during the hour. The foul air must, of 
 course, be as regularly got rid of 
 
 The difficulty of ventilation lies in getting 
 the amount of fresh air that we need without 
 draught. We could easily ventilate any room 
 and sweep out the foul air by opening the 
 doors and windoAvs widely ; but in cold weather 
 this plan would have the effect of giving us 
 colds and serious lung troubles. Hence people 
 have endeavoured to devise ways and means 
 of allowing the fresh air to enter rooms gradu- 
 ally, and as gradually getting rid of the foul 
 air. 
 
62 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 Movements of the outside air are called 
 winds, and we all know that wind is the result 
 of diiFerences of temperature in the atmosphere. 
 When the air over a certain spot is heated, 
 it expands, and becomes lighter. It must, 
 therefore, rise, whereupon cold air from sur- 
 rounding districts rushes in to take its place, 
 thus producing a wind. 
 
 The air of a room is warmer than that out- 
 side, because of the heat produced by fires, by 
 lights, and even by our own bodies. The 
 hot air inside the house draws in cold air from 
 the outside, as it were. The warmer and 
 lighter air passes up towards the ceiling of the 
 room or goes up the chimney, and the colder 
 air comes in beneath the doors, through the 
 keyholes, by the chinks of the windows, and 
 in some cases even through the walls of the 
 rooms themselves. 
 
 In considering the amount of air needed, we 
 have to think not only of the human beings 
 in a room, but also of the lights that 
 are burning in it. We know that a common 
 gas-burner will produce in an hour a very 
 large amount of carbonic acid gas ; so that 
 instead of merely reckoning that each person 
 in a room requires 3000 cubic feet of air per 
 hour for himself, we must add largely to this 
 quantity where lights are used, if we are to 
 preserve the air in a pure state. The ad- 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 63 
 
 vantage of having electric lights in a house 
 is, that whilst they give off a certain amount 
 of heat, they do not produce the impurities of 
 the air which are given out by naked lights, 
 such as gas-jets, lamps, and candles. 
 
 The larger a room is, the less air im- 
 purity will be present ; but as many of our 
 rooms are very small, there is the greater need 
 in such cases to use some system of ventila- 
 tion which will give us a pure atmosphere. 
 When we make arrangements to ventilate our 
 houses, we should see that the air comes from 
 a pure source. It should not be drawn from 
 other parts of the house, or through passages 
 in which bad air is apt to be found. It will 
 be well, too, if we get a constant supply of 
 fresh air, and not an irregular supply. 
 
 It is very difficult, as our houses are built, to 
 have perfect ventilation. When we think of it, 
 an ordinary room is like a box which we have 
 done our best to render air-tight. If we shut 
 the door and close the windows, we can see 
 how our room is like a shut box. We depend 
 upon pure chance for giving us the air which 
 is so necessary for our life and well-being. 
 
 The window is the first and most convenient 
 source of ventilation. We can always flush a 
 room out by opening the window and door ; 
 but we have seen that there are many objec- 
 tions to this plan, on account of the cold and 
 
64 
 
 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 draught which it causes. A very useful plan 
 of ventilating a room is that of raising the 
 
 
 Ventilation l>etween tlie Saslies of a Wimlow. 
 
 bottom sash of tlie window on a bar of wood, 
 leaving the top sash untouched, so that the 
 air comes in between the sashes. If we do 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 65 
 
 this, no direct draught blows in upon us, and 
 the air receives an upward movement, and is 
 slightly warmed in the upper part of the room 
 before it descends to the lower portion. Some- 
 times the top sash of the window may be 
 drawn down a few inches, and zinc gauze 
 placed across the opening. We may also fix 
 into the window a pane of glass provided with 
 movable ventilators, which we can shut or 
 open as required. 
 
 The chimney of a room forms in many 
 cases the only ventilating tube or shaft the 
 room possesses. An open fire has this ad- 
 vantage at least, that a current of air is 
 drawn up the chimney, and as a result fresh 
 air is brought into the room. Even when the 
 grate is empty, the chimney may act in this 
 way ; but if no fire is present, we may find 
 a down-draught from the chimney, which also 
 brings in air. We should take care that the 
 damper of the grate is never closed, because 
 in that case the ventilating power of the 
 chimney is lost. 
 
 If fresh air is introduced into our rooms, we 
 must also provide an outlet for the foul air. 
 This may be accomplished by putting a valve 
 opening into the chimney near the ceiling. 
 Such valves allow the foul air to pass up 
 the chimney, but they only act when the 
 pressure of air from the room into the 
 
 H.K. w, E 
 
66 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 chimney is greater than that from the chim- 
 ney into the roora. Public halls, churches, and 
 like buildings have ventilators in the roof, 
 opening directly into the air. Many of these 
 are useful enough, although they do not always 
 act as perfectly as we could wish. 
 
 In many rooms an opening is made through 
 the outside wall at the floor level, and the 
 air which passes in through such openings is 
 carried into the room by tubes running up the 
 corners of the room. These tubes, which can 
 be closed or opened by valves placed at the 
 top, rise to such a height that they bring in 
 fresh air above the level of the people in the 
 apartment. The proper course for fresh air is 
 to pass upwards into the room, and then 
 to descend to mingle with the air already 
 contained in it. 
 
 Some buildings are ventilated by means of 
 machinery, such as ventilating fans. These are 
 usually driven by electricity, one fan being 
 used to bring air into a room or building, and 
 another to take away the foul air. We should 
 remember that in order to make air pass in 
 and out of our houses at the rate and in the 
 quantity we want, it is necessary to move it. 
 Therefore some kind of machinery like fans, if 
 we could have them in our homes, would be 
 the best means of keeping the air moving, and 
 of giving us a sure supply of fresh air. 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 67 
 
 The lighting and warming of a house are 
 carried out by means familiar to us all. Every 
 light we know, except perhaps the electric light, 
 produces carbonic acid gas, heat, and vpater. 
 These are given off to the air, so that every 
 naked light is a source of air impurity. 
 Candles are not much used in our houses 
 to-day, whilst lamps have been largely replaced 
 by gas and electric light. 
 
 Paraffin-oil is now used in most lamps. The 
 best lamps are those which possess circular 
 wicks, or which have two flat wicks placed 
 parallel to each other. If lamps are used, we 
 should be careful to see that the oil consumed 
 in them does not possess what is called 'a low 
 flash-point.' This means that in the event of 
 a lamp being overturned, and the oil catching 
 fire, it will not easily explode. On the other 
 hand, when very cheap oils are used and 
 an accident occurs, an explosion is much 
 more likely to happen. We should see that 
 all our lamps possess a broad base or stand, 
 so that they will not be easily overturned. 
 The oil in the lamp must not be .allowed to 
 sink too low, because the risk of an explosion 
 is very much increased where only a small 
 quantity of oil is left in the reservoir. 
 
 With regaird to gas-lights, we find that;, 
 great improvements have been made in recent 
 years, giving us a much better light , with 
 
68 WOKE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 less consumption of gas. You may know, 
 for example, that what we call incandescent 
 
 Improved Sitting-Room Grate. 
 
 gas-lights, in Avhich a ' mantle ' is used, give 
 us a much efreater amount of liffht, whilst 
 the quantity of gas which is consumed is 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 69 
 
 much less than where an ordinary burner is 
 used. 
 
 DiflFerent nations use different means for 
 
 Section of Improved Sitting-Room Grate. 
 (The arrows indicate the course of the smoke.) 
 
 warming their dwellings. As a rule, the air 
 of a room should show a heat of between 
 
70 MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 
 
 50 and 60 degrees ; but it is sometimes neces- 
 sary in the case of illness, and for the safety 
 of infants and very old persons, to raise the 
 heat to 65 degrees. The common way in 
 our own country of heating rooms is by means 
 of the open grate. As open fireplaces are too 
 often constructed, this is a very wasteful form 
 of using coal, because only a small portion of 
 the heat is thrown into the room, by far the 
 larger part passing up the chimney. At the 
 same time, the open grate has its advantages, 
 because, as we have seen, it is a ventilating 
 shaft, a current of air passing up the chimney, 
 and therefore drawing in fresh air from the 
 outside. 
 
 It is possible, however, to make the ordi- 
 nary open grate consume its coal better, to 
 give us more heat, and to cost us less for 
 coal, by making a few alterations in it. If 
 the grate be made so as to have less iron, 
 and more brick about it, than is usually the 
 case, the amount of heat produced will be 
 greater. The back of the fireplace should pro- 
 ject or lean over the fire, and the opening 
 of the chimney must not be too wide. The 
 bottom of the fire should also be made deeper 
 when measured from front to back. The slits 
 in the bottom of the grate must be narrow, 
 and the front bars should also be narrow. 
 There is an open space, as we know, below the 
 
MORE ABOUT AIR AND VENTILATION. 71 
 
 fire. This should be closed in front by an iron 
 shield. A grate thus altered will use less 
 coal, and give out more heat, than one of the 
 ordinary kind. 
 
 What are known as ' well ^res ' are fires 
 which burn below the level of the hearth. 
 These, when properly attended to, give out a 
 large amount of heat, and consume very little 
 coal indeed, while they are very useful in 
 aiding the ventilation. 
 
 Stoves of various kinds are also used for 
 heating bouses. Those which are of the closed 
 .or shut-in form are the most economical, and also 
 produce the greatest amount of heat. Stoves, 
 however, have a tendency to make . the air of 
 a room too dry, whilst very often a disagree- 
 able smell is given off from them. Many 
 people are accustomed to put shallow pans of 
 water near the stove, so as to avoid too much 
 drying of the air. Where gas-stoves are used 
 for any purpose, we should be very careful to 
 see that the flue opens into a chimney, so 
 that the waste gases are safely carried away. 
 Large buildings are often warmed by hot air, 
 by steam, or by hot water carried in pipes. 
 Hot water is probably the best means of 
 heating such buildings, because it is less dan- 
 gerous than steam, and not so apt to cause 
 explosions. 
 
72 THE HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 Vert necessary is it for our health's sake 
 that we should live in a house that is healthy. 
 You have been told in a previous lesson that 
 where any form of dirt or waste matter is 
 allowed to accumulate about a house or in 
 its drains, disease will very likely attack the 
 inmates. Cleanliness of the house is, therefore, 
 just as important as cleanliness of the body. 
 When we come to think of it, a house has 
 many points of resemblance to the man who 
 lives in it. Like a man, the house requires 
 plenty of light ; and like the people who live 
 in it, it also demands plenty of air. Houses 
 that do not have plenty of light, and those 
 crowded together so that air does not pass 
 through them and about them, cannot possibly 
 be regarded as healthy dwellings. When we 
 go to the slums of a great city and notice 
 the absence of light and air in the dwellings 
 of the poor, we cannot wonder that they grow 
 up with feeble bodies, and that disease is 
 very frequent amongst them. 
 
 It has already been shown you how over- 
 crowding amongst human beings causes disease. 
 We saw that typhus fever only appears where 
 
THE HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 73 
 
 we find people crowded together in rooms too 
 small to contain them, and where the dwellings 
 are dirty and the people themselves unclean 
 and their bodies ill-nourished. 
 
 In order that our house may be healthy, we 
 must make sure that the soil on which it is 
 built is of a dry character. If you live in a 
 house which is damp, you will probably suffer 
 from rheumatism, and you will also be more 
 liable to the attack of consumption. Two 
 very distinguished doctors many years ago 
 proved that the number of deaths from con- 
 sumption always fell after the ground was 
 well drained, because the houses were no longer 
 damp. The effect of dampness in a house is 
 to cause a low state of health, in which the 
 germs of consumption are most likely to find 
 a lodgment in the lungs. 
 
 We must have all round the house plenty 
 of fresh air. In some towns we find collections 
 of what are called 'back-to-back' houses. 
 The back wall of one house forms also the 
 back wall of another, and thus in both houses 
 the windows and the door are necessarily found 
 only at the front. From the very nature of 
 the case, such houses cannot be so healthy as 
 'through' houses. Where the air is not readily 
 changed, and where there is no free circulation 
 of air about the house, the food, especially 
 milk, is apt to become tainted, and danger 
 
74 THE HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 coines from this as well as from other sourceg 
 of disease. 
 
 Equally important is the question of light. 
 You all know that a green plant grown in a 
 dark cellar does not develop the colour which 
 is natural to it. Its leaves are blanched and 
 white, and the plant grows up in a very 
 weakly state, if it does not actually die before 
 it attains its full growth. The human body 
 is in the same position as the plant. If 
 we bring up children in a place where in- 
 sufficient light is provided, they do not develop 
 the rosy colour and the healthy appearance we 
 see in children brought up in the country. 
 We cannot be healthy unless plenty of light 
 is afforded us, any more than we can develop 
 sound bodies in the absence of fresh air. 
 
 Sunshine, too, is an important factor in the 
 production of perfect health. It is easy to 
 prove that sunshine has a marked effect on 
 the welfare of human beings. Certain diseases 
 are cured by the exposure of the body to 
 the direct rays of the sun, but more im- 
 portant still is the fact that sunshine actually 
 prevents disease. Where rooms are flooded 
 with the light of the sun, germs are killed, 
 so that we may regard sunshine as one of our 
 best, as it is certainly our cheapest, germ- 
 killer or disinfectant. 
 
 If at any time we were tempted to doubt 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OP OtJR BODIES. 75 
 
 the eiFect which sunshine, or even ordinary 
 hght, exerts in preventing disease, we should 
 remember what actual experiments have shown 
 scientific men. If we expose the germs of 
 consumption to the action of the direct rays of 
 the sun, these germs are killed in from four 
 to six hours. If the germs are exposed to 
 ordinary daylight— that is, not direct sunshine 
 — the germs will eventually be killed, although 
 a longer time will be occupied in the good 
 work. 
 
 There is no doubt that sunshine acts upon 
 disease germs of other kinds, and tends not only 
 to stop their growth, but actually to kill them. 
 In this sense we may very well say that the 
 germs of disease are ' the children of the dark,' 
 and that light is their great enemy. Further, 
 we see that under all the circumstances of 
 our life, light, and plenty of it, and especially 
 sunshine, should be enjoyed as a means of 
 preventing disease and of preserving our health. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 We must now turn to the important 
 matter of the cleanliness of our bodies. No 
 one requires to be told that a person whose 
 skin, hair, or clothes are allowed to remain 
 
76 THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 dirty, must be an object of offence to every- 
 body around him. More than this, we may 
 say that he is liable, in consequence of his 
 dirty habits, to be attacked by certain diseases, 
 amongst these being diseases of the skin. We 
 have already seen that the use of soap is to 
 remove the dirt particles w^hich are engrained 
 in the skin. Soap may be described as con- 
 sisting of some form of fat united with some- 
 thing called an alkali. An 'alkali' is the 
 opposite of an acid, such as vinegar, and we 
 find examples of alkalies in substances such as 
 soda and potash. Soaps used for the skin are 
 made of a fat and soda. Those which are 
 made of fat and potash are generally of a 
 coarser nature, such as soft soaps, which are 
 very effective in cleaning floors and woodwork 
 generally. 
 
 For the perfect cleansing of the skin it 
 is necessary that the water should be soft. 
 We have already seen the difference between 
 hard and soft waters. Where the water 
 is very 'hard,' a considerable waste of soap 
 takes place, because it is more difficult to 
 make a lather with hard than with soft water, 
 and we have, therefore, to use more soap 
 with the hard water than with the soft. It 
 has been estimated that if the water of 
 London were a little less hard than it is, 
 the saving in money spent on soap would 
 
THE CLEANLrNESS OF OUR BODIES. 77 
 
 amount to many hundreds of thousands of 
 pounds per year. 
 
 When we wish to cleanse our skins 
 properly, we must use hot water. The hot 
 water exercises a dissolving action on the 
 dirt, and assists the soap in removing it. 
 With "respect to baths, the hot bath is un- 
 doubtedly that which alone can perfectly 
 cleanse the skin. Many people take cold baths, 
 and some are accustomed to bathe in the sea 
 or in rivers. The diiference between the 
 cold bath and the hot bath is that the cold 
 bath is a stimulant. It braces up the body, 
 and gives a tone to the muscles and the 
 nervous system ; but it does not cleanse the 
 body, and has little action in removing dirt 
 from the skin. 
 
 Most of you know that there are other 
 kinds of baths than the simple hot bath. 
 Certain of these are known as Turkish baths 
 and Russian baths. They depend for their 
 action on heat, but the heat is supplied in the 
 form of hot air. This causes the skin to act 
 very thoroughly and to produce profuse sweat 
 or perspiration, thus ridding the skin completely 
 of any engrained dirt it may contain. 
 
 In order to understand why we should 
 always attend to the cleanliness of the skin, 
 let us glance for a moment at the structure 
 or build of the skin, and also learn something 
 
78 
 
 THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 of the duties it performs. We might very 
 well desci'ibe the skin as a kind of lunar 
 spread over the surface of the body. It 
 consists of two parts — an upper layer, which 
 we may call the ' outside skin,' and a lower 
 layer, or ' under-skin.' The outside skin has 
 
 OUTER SK 
 
 HAIR BULB 
 
 FAT CELLS 
 
 Section of the Skin. 
 
 neither nerves nor blood-vessels. You could 
 pass a needle through it, and you would 
 neither feel pain nor draw blood. But if the 
 point of the needle happened to pass down- 
 wards, you would then be conscious of pain, 
 and a spot of blood would appear. This is 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 79 
 
 because the needle has touched or wounded 
 the second layer of the skin. This 'under -skin' 
 is very sensitive. In it we find the ends of 
 the nerves by which we exercise the sense of 
 feeling or touch. When we touch any object, 
 we are really feeling it with the nerves of 
 the under-skin through the upper or outer 
 skin. If you happen to knock off a little 
 portion of the upper skin from the end of 
 your finger, and bring the injured part in 
 contact with any object, you will certainly 
 feel more acutely, but the feeling will be one 
 accompanied by pain. 
 
 The skin has as its covering the things 
 we call 'hairs.' On man's body the hair 
 is very slightly developed, save on the head. 
 In the case of the lower animals, we see this 
 hair forming a very complete covering to the 
 body, protecting it against the effects of cold. 
 
 The skin has embedded in it certain little 
 organs, which under the microscope appear to 
 our eyes like coiled-up tubes. These are called 
 sweat-glands, because into them there pass 
 from the blood certain waste matters we 
 call sweat or perspiration. The end of each 
 coiled-up sweat-gland passes right up to the 
 top of the skin in the form of a tube, and 
 this tube opens on the surface in a little 
 aperture called a pore. The pores of the 
 skin therefore represent the mouths of the 
 
80 THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 sweat-glands, and it is from these little mouths 
 that the perspiration is discharged on to the 
 surface. 
 
 Bearing in mind the fact that one of the 
 functions of the lungs is to get rid of waste 
 matters, we can readily understand why the 
 skin might be called a lung spread over the 
 surface of the body, for it performs in part 
 the same duty as the lungs. The perspiration 
 which it gives off consists largely of water, 
 with some minerals contained in it. Common 
 salt is one of the chief of these minerals. 
 Heat is also given off from the skin. The 
 perspiration usually disappears by evaporation, 
 without our noticing it ; but if we have been 
 taking a good deal of violent exercise the 
 sweat does not disappear so quickly, and we 
 are able then distinctly to feel the skin very 
 damp and moist, and even to see drops of 
 perspiration showing themselves on the brow 
 and on other parts. We must, however, re- 
 member that the skin is always acting. It 
 is a mistake to think that we perspire only 
 when we have been running or taking exercise, 
 for the truth is we are always perspiring, 
 always getting rid of waste, and all that the 
 exercise does is to increase the amount of 
 perspiration which is given off by the sweat- 
 glands. The healthy skin is really a moist 
 skin ; indeed, a perfectly dry skin is a sign of 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 81 
 
 ill-health, and is a well-marked symptom in 
 cases of fever. 
 
 That the skin should be kept clean, there- 
 fore, goes without saying, because if perspira- 
 tion is always being given off from the sweat- 
 glands, there must always be a certain amount 
 of waste matter to be removed by washing. 
 
 But there is another reason why the care 
 of the skin is a most important duty. The 
 upper skin is composed of untold thousands of 
 very minute bodies called 'cells,' which require 
 a powerful microscope to see them. They lie 
 in layers in the outer skin, those of the lower 
 layers being somewhat thicker than those on 
 the top. Indeed, those at the top are mere 
 dry scales, and are given off from the skin 
 every day of our lives in large quantities. 
 They pass away into the air as invisible dust. 
 In order that the outer skin may be renewed 
 and may retain its thickness, we find that new 
 cells are always being produced below, and 
 these in their turn become dry scales when 
 they arrive at the surface. 
 
 Now, if there is taking place in our 
 skin this perpetual giving off of the old cells, 
 and as constant a growth of new ones, we 
 see that in addition to the removal of the 
 dirt which the skin has received from the 
 outside, we have also to think of the getting 
 rid of the old cells of the skin themselves. 
 
 H. K. W. P 
 
82 THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 
 
 Many of these cells are worn off the skin 
 by the friction of our underclothing. This 
 ■fact teaches us that it is necessary for 
 health and cleanliness that our underclothing 
 should be frequently changed and washed, for 
 it becomes loaded with old skin particles, 
 which give to garments that have been worn 
 too long a most disagreeable smell. We know 
 that many of the lower animals moult, or 
 change their skin covering, once a year ; and 
 we might say of human beings, considering 
 that the upper skin cells are being perpetually 
 given off, that they are always moulting. 
 
 Having regard to the fact that the skin 
 is an organ which, as part of its duty, gets 
 rid of so much bodily waste, we see that 
 any serious interference with its work may 
 result in grave illness or in death itself. 
 Suffocation can be easily caused by interfering 
 with breathing, as in the case where a person, 
 instead of taking into his lungs pure air, 
 breathes carbonic acid gas. It would, of 
 course, be also possible to suffocate a person 
 by forcibly closing his mouth and his nostrils, 
 so that no air at all could gain admittance to 
 his lungs. 
 
 We could also produce a similar result 
 by closing the pores of the skin, which are 
 always giving off waste matter. The real 
 cause of death when a person is suffocated is 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 83 
 
 that waste matters, which should be got rid 
 of, are kept within the blood, and thus cause 
 death by a species of poisoning. When the 
 chicken is being developed inside the egg, it 
 breathes at a certain stage of its existence, 
 and we can easily kill it by varnishing the 
 egg-shell, thus preventing the air passing 
 through the pores of the shell to the young 
 bird within. 
 
 In some animals, the skin plays an even 
 greater share in getting rid of bodily waste 
 than in ourselves. This is the case in the 
 frog. It is found that a frog will live for 
 a considerable time if its lungs are taken 
 away, because the skin of the animal per- 
 forms such a large share of the work which 
 is common to lungs and skin alike. Even in 
 our own case, we might be seriously injured, or 
 even killed, if the skin were prevented from 
 doing its duty. When Pope Leo X. ascended 
 the Papal throne in Italy, a little child took 
 part in the gorgeous procession which marked 
 the occasion. He was made to represent the 
 figure of the Golden Age, and to carry out 
 this idea, his little body was covered ovet 
 with gold-leaf The result was, that owing 
 to the complete blocking up of the pores of 
 his skin and to the stoppage of the skin's 
 work, the child died in about six hours. 
 
 Each sweat-gland we have seen to consist of 
 
84 THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 a little coiled-up tube, the end of which passes 
 upwards to the surface of the skin and ends in 
 a pore. The length of such a sweat-tube, if 
 we suppose it to be pulled straight, is about 
 one-quarter of an inch. In the palm of the 
 hand there are about three thousand sweat- 
 glands to each square inch of the surface. They 
 are equally numerous in the soles of the feet, 
 whilst in the neck and back there are not so 
 many, their number in these regions being about 
 four hundred to each square inch. Throughout 
 the whole body, it has been estimated that the 
 sweat-glands number between two and three 
 millions. If, therefore, all the sweat-tubes from 
 a man's body were to be unravelled and placed 
 end to end to make a kind of rope, we should 
 find that the total length would be ten or 
 twelve miles ; indeed, one celebrated scientific 
 man calculated the total length of sweat- tubing 
 in a human body to be from twenty-six to 
 twenty-eight miles. 
 
 The care of the hair forms an important part 
 of the care of the skin. There is a soldier's 
 saying to the efi'ect that ' where there is hair 
 there is dirt.' This is very apt to be true, 
 because hair is exactly the kind of substance 
 in which dust collects, a fact which should be 
 carefully borne in mind by people who work 
 in a dusty atmosphere. You have only to 
 look at the well-powdered head of the miller 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 85 
 
 in order to realise how much dust may adhere 
 to our heads. 
 
 In so far as the care of the hair is con- 
 cerned, it should be kept fairly short in men 
 and boys. If we take a cold bath regularly, 
 we should not wet the head in the bath; 
 whilst if we swim or dive, we should take care 
 that the hair is speedily and thoroughly dried. 
 If we wet the head often, the natural oil 
 which certain little glands in the skin throw 
 out, to keep the skin supple and moist and to 
 nourish the hair, is washed away. Baldness 
 is very often found in people who are in the 
 habit of constantly wetting the head. It is 
 important, on the other hand, that the head 
 should be thoroughly washed every fortnight 
 or so, to get rid of any engrained particles 
 which attach themselves to the 'scalp,' or skin 
 covering the head. 
 
 It is not wise to use too much oil of any 
 kind on the hair, but a little pure oil may 
 be used as a dressing each morning. When 
 the hair begins to fall out, it is needful to 
 consult a doctor, because such a sign very 
 often indicates a weak state of health. 
 
 People who do not attend to the cleanliness 
 of their heads are liable to find certain little 
 insects attaching themselves to the hairs. 
 These parasites are not found in cleanly people, 
 and are an evidence of the presence of dirt of 
 
86 THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 some kind. A little carbolic oil, which the 
 chemist will supply, applied after washing the 
 head thoroughly with soft soap and water, 
 will destroy these insects, whilst the hair itself 
 should be cut short. 
 
 We are told in the Scriptures that 'the 
 glory of a woman is her hair.' In the case of 
 a girl's hair, it should be combed and brushed 
 every night; and when the hair is dressed or 
 put up, no great tightness should be used, 
 because when tied too tightly, it becomes 
 weak, and tends to fall out. 
 
 The teeth come next in order in respect of 
 the attention which requires to be paid to our 
 health. Very important organs indeed are the 
 teeth. We should remember that the presence 
 of a set of sound white teeth is itself a personal 
 ornament, whilst when we have regard to the 
 duties which the teeth perform, we soon see 
 that they play an important part in the 
 preservation of health. 
 
 We have two sets of teeth, one after the 
 other. The first set are called milk-teeth, and 
 begin to appear at about the seventh month 
 of a baby's life. This set numbers twenty. The 
 whole of these disappear in due time, when the 
 second set is developed. The second set begins 
 to appear at about the seventh year of life, 
 but is not completed as a rule until about the 
 age of twenty or twenty-two, when the four 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 87 
 
 hindmost teeth in the jaws are developed, these 
 being known as 'wisdom teeth.' The second 
 set of teeth numbers thirty-two. 
 
 Each tooth is composed in the main of a 
 substance called ivory, and not, as some 
 people think, of bone. Ivory is the substance 
 
 The Second Set of Teeth in Vertical Section through a Tooth 
 
 the Upper Jaw. lodged in its Socket : 
 
 a, enamel; b, ivory; d, lining of the 
 cavity in the gum ; e, bony socket 
 in gum ; /, pulp cavity. 
 
 of which the handles of knives are often made, 
 and is got from the tusks of the elephant 
 and the walrus. Coating the top of each tooth 
 is the hardest substance in the body, called 
 enamel. The reason why the top of the tooth 
 should be coated with this hard matter is 
 because of the wear and tear to which it is 
 exposed, so that the harder this part of the 
 
88 THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 
 
 tooth is, the less likelihood there is of its 
 being quickly worn away. 
 
 The teeth may be attacked by a disease 
 which we know as 'decay.' A decayed tooth 
 sooner or later has not merely its enamel, 
 but also its ivory, eaten away. Each tooth 
 is hollow, and we find that the soft and 
 delicate pulp in the inside of the tooth, a 
 substance well supplied with nerves and blood- 
 vessels, is exposed by the decay, and being 
 irritated by the cold, gives us the pains 
 and pangs of toothache. 
 
 The decay of the teeth can in most eases 
 be prevented if we pay constant attention 
 to their care. It is very surprising to find so 
 many boys and girls allowed to grow up with- 
 out being taught to clean their teeth regularly 
 every morning and every night. You would 
 not care to eat your food with dirty knives 
 or forks, and you should be equally careful not 
 to have dirty teeth. 
 
 That which makes the teeth decay is the 
 presence of particles of food which are left 
 between them. These particles are acted upon 
 by certain germs which we breathe into the 
 mouth from the air. The germs set up in 
 the mouth a kind of fermentation (see page 
 40), and the result is that certain acids are 
 produced, which eat away the substance of 
 the teeth. It is clear, therefore, that if we 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OF OXJK BODIES. 89 
 
 brush the teeth regularly, and thus get rid of 
 the food particles left in the mouth, we remove 
 the cause of tooth destruction. 
 
 The teeth should be brushed every morning 
 on rising, and every night before retiring. The 
 night brushing will remove the particles of 
 food which have accumulated during the day. 
 Use a hard brush and some simple powder, 
 such as camphorated chalk. In addition to 
 brushing the teeth across, brush them up and 
 down also. If any decay appears in the teeth, 
 we should at once go to the dentist, because a 
 very great deal can be done by him to stop 
 the decay and preserve a tooth from utter 
 destruction. 
 
 Our eyes and ears are such important organs 
 that the greatest possible care should be taken 
 to preserve them from all stress, strain, and 
 injury. This is all the more necessary in the 
 case of the eyes, for the reason that when one 
 eye is affected the other is also apt to suffer, 
 because there is a kind of sympathy between 
 the two. We should avoid all eye -strain, 
 caused by some defect in the eye, which makes 
 our eyes ache when we attempt to read 
 print of ordinary size. When we find any 
 diflSculty in making the letters and words out 
 clearly, this is a sign that we probably require 
 spectacles to aid us in preserving our eye- 
 sight. 
 
90 THE CLEANLINESS OF ODR BODIES. 
 
 Many children suffer from eye-strain, and 
 as a result of this they are troubled with 
 headaches, which are produced by the constant 
 attempt to make the eyes do work for which 
 they are not fitted. Therefore in all cases of 
 what we may call 'weariness' of the eyes we 
 should seek the doctor's advice as to whether 
 we require glasses or not. We should not 
 attempt to read in a bad light, because eye- 
 strain is thereby caused ; nor should we fatigue 
 the eyes by reading for too long periods at 
 a time. It is a good thing for young people, 
 after they have been reading, to practise look- 
 ing at things far off, and thus accustom the 
 eyes to be equally serviceable both for near 
 sight and for far sight. 
 
 When anything gets into the eye, great pain 
 may be caused, and sometimes an eye may be 
 destroyed in this way. Do not rub the eye 
 Avhen anything gets into it, but pour in a few 
 drops of salad-oil, and then place a pad over 
 the eye, keeping it in position by a bandage. 
 The oil will soothe the eye, and save pain till 
 the doctor can come. 
 
 The ear is a more complicated organ than 
 the eye. It consists of various parts. What 
 we commonly call the ear is the least impor- 
 tant part, being but the outer ear, which really 
 serves as a kind of trumpet to catch the waves 
 of sound. The opening into the ear is like a 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 91 
 
 street with only one way into it. It is a blind 
 alley, and is closed at its inner end by what we 
 call the 'drum' or 'drum-head.' This delicate 
 structure is of great service in hearing, because 
 it receives the waves of sound, and the tremors 
 or vibrations caused by these waves are sent 
 from the drum to the all-important 'inner ear,' 
 which lies inside the head, in the bone called 
 the * temporal bone.' The inner ear, which is 
 of a very complicated nature, is so acted upon 
 by the waves of sound that the impressions it 
 receives are carried to the brain, and there 
 give rise to the sense of hearing. 
 
 We therefore really hear not with the ear 
 itself, but with the brain ; for it is only when 
 the waves of sound act upon the inner ear, and 
 the impressions thus made are carried to the 
 brain, that we know what we are hearing, and 
 can act upon the information we receive. Simi- 
 larly, although the eye plays a most important 
 part in the sense of sight, we see, not with the 
 eye itself, but with the brain ; we taste, not 
 with the tongue, but with the brain ; and so on. 
 
 Beware of putting anything into your ears. 
 Children in joke put peas, cherry-stones, and 
 the like into one another's ears. This is 
 always dangerous, because sometimes doctors 
 have found such things remaining in the ear 
 for several years and causing deafness, the 
 cause of ihe trouble not being known. Never 
 
92 THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 
 
 put the end of a pencil or anything sharp into 
 your ear, because in that ease you may make 
 a Httle hole in the drum, when your hearing 
 will be entirely lost until the hole heals up. 
 
 Sometimes children after scarlet fever or 
 measles suffer from what we call 'running ears,' 
 when a discharge appears, this discharge very 
 often possessing a disagreeable odour. If any 
 one's ears are like this, the patient should be 
 taken to a doctor at once, because if the 
 trouble is not cured, the drum of the ear may 
 be entirely destroyed, and the power of hear- 
 ing lost for ever. Be also very careful never 
 to strike any one on the ears, or to box the 
 ears, because a smart blow on the ear, in 
 addition to being painful, is also dangerous, 
 as it may break the 'drum.' 
 
 In the ruling of our lives in order that we 
 may be healthy, there are several things to 
 be attended to which are necessary for our 
 health and happiness. We must take care 
 that we do not work too long, and that we 
 enjoy a certain amount of recreation or play. 
 Too much play is, of course, just as great an 
 evil as too much work. When we play we 
 should take care that we have plenty of fresh 
 air, and also a certain amount of exercise. We 
 cannot be healthy unless we use our muscles, 
 and thus cause ourselves to grow up strong 
 and able to stand a certain amount of fatigue. 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 93 
 
 People who do not take sufficient exercise 
 are apt to grow very weary after slight exer- 
 tion. Gymnastic exercises and drill, which are 
 carried out at school, develop the bones and 
 muscles when these are growing. Games 
 such as cricket, football, tennis, and the 
 like, also develop the body in a healthy 
 fashion. Exercise also does good, because it 
 causes the lungs and the skin to do their 
 work perfectly. The waste matters of the 
 body are more easily got rid of, whilst we 
 receive a full supply of the oxygen gas neces- 
 sary for the maintenance of health. Exer- 
 cise also tends to improve our appetite, and 
 causes us to enjoy our food more thoroughly. 
 When we enjoy our food and eat heartily, we 
 can build up our bodies more perfectly. 
 
 Sleep may be described as a habit which 
 is implanted in our nature. Whenever the 
 work of the body has reached a certain point 
 or degree, sleep becomes necessary. The 
 proper period of sleep is, of course, during the 
 night. The body then rests from its labours, 
 and this rest fits it for the work of the day 
 which is to come. A starving man will want 
 less food if he sleeps or even rests in bed, 
 because he lessens the work of his body. 
 
 Although sleep can thus to a certain degree 
 replace food, we must remember that, on the 
 other hand, no amount of food can replace 
 
94 THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 
 
 sleep. Those wonderful brain-cells of ours 
 grow tired with the labour of the day, and 
 our muscles become fatigued, whilst all the 
 organs of the body also demand a certain 
 period of rest. Unless, therefore, we sleep 
 well and sleep soundly, we cannot expect to 
 be healthy. 
 
 To enjoy sound sleep, we should go to bed 
 feeling somewhat tired. We should sleep, as 
 we have been taught in a previous lesson, 
 in a pure atmosphere — that is, in a well- 
 ventilated room. The room should be dark, 
 and as far as possible it should be quiet. 
 Noise is apt to render our sleep disturbed, 
 even if we are not actually awakened by it. 
 Young people require about ten hours' sleep, 
 whilst older people feel satisfied with seven or 
 eight hours. 
 
 It is curious to think that even the 
 heart, which must work during sleep, as do 
 the lungs, has its own little periods of rest 
 between its beats. This fact alone shows us 
 Nature's teaching — namely, that no organ or 
 part of the body can go on working without 
 rest. The same rule applies to the whole 
 body itself. We have already been taught 
 that if the air of the room in which we sleep 
 is not pure, we cannot enjoy a good night's 
 rest, because our brain-cells, instead of being 
 supplied with a sufficient amount of oxygen 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 95 
 
 gas, are receiving carbonic acid gas, which in 
 its way is a kind of poison to the cells. 
 
 Whilst in winter-time we should sleep in a 
 bedroom with a sufficient degree of heat, it is 
 well that we should avoid overheated rooms. 
 It is better to cover ourselves with light and 
 warm materials than to have heavy bed-clothes. 
 This is the reason why heavy blankets do not 
 form such excellent bed-clothes as lighter ma- 
 terials, such as eider-down quilts. We require 
 to be warm during our sleep, but not to be 
 overheated, or burdened with a great weight. 
 
 If it is necessary that our body clothes 
 should be frequently changed, it is equally 
 important to see that our bed-clothing is also 
 kept clean, and changed when necessary. If 
 any want of care is exhibited in this respect, 
 the bedroom itself tends to become unhealthy 
 and unclean. Bed-clothes may thus make the 
 air impure, besides being apt to convey to 
 us illness of various kinds. 
 
 The object of wearing clothes is to protect 
 ourselves against sudden changes of tempera- 
 ture. It is a common idea that it is our 
 clothing that gives us warmth. This is a 
 great mistake. All the heat we enjoy is pro- 
 duced by the body itself as a result of the 
 chemical burning in the system of certain 
 kinds of food, of which fat, starch, and sugar 
 are the chief examples. 
 
96 THE CLEANLINESS OP OUR BODIES. 
 
 The use of clothing is to preserve and to 
 store for us this bodily heat. In winter we 
 clothe ourselves heavily, and wear materials 
 which are bad conductors of heat — that is, 
 they do not allow the heat to pass through 
 them readily, and thus to be given off to the 
 air. On the other hand, in summer we wear 
 lighter articles of clothing which are good 
 conductors of heat, allowing the heat to pass 
 through them freely, and therefore keeping us 
 cool. In the case of the lower animals, we 
 find their body coverings are, as a rule, bad 
 conductors of heat. Hair and feathers are 
 examples of such coverings. 
 
 We should always wear woollen clothing next 
 the skin. Wool is a bad conductor of heat, and 
 we keep our bodily temperature at the proper 
 point because of this property of wool. Linen 
 and cotton are good conductors of heat. When 
 we wear them the warmth of the body is 
 therefore conveyed away from it. Even in hot 
 weather the wearing of light woollen garments 
 next the skin is of importance, because the 
 outer heat is not conducted to the body, and 
 if free perspiration of the skin occurs, the 
 woollen material will absorb the perspiration. 
 Linen or cotton readily becomes saturated 
 with the moisture, and in the act of drying 
 may produce serious effects upon the skin, 
 giving us chills and colds. 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 97 
 
 The colour of our clothing varies to a cer- 
 tain extent according to the season. White 
 or light-coloured materials are preferred for 
 summer, and darker materials for winter. It 
 is found that colour has more effect upon the 
 taking up of heat than upon conducting it. 
 Experiments show us that while white-coloured 
 stuffs absorb heat amounting to 100 degrees, 
 dark-yellow absorb 140 degrees; dark-red, 165 
 degrees ; light-blue, 198 degrees ; and dark-blue 
 and black, over 200 degrees. We therefore 
 see that the lighter the tint of our clothing 
 in summer, the less heat is absorbed from 
 the outside ; but the main point for us to 
 remember is the difference between good 
 conductors and bad conductors, the good con- 
 ductors being of most service for our summer 
 dress, and the bad conductors for our winter 
 garments. 
 
 We have seen that a certain amount of 
 exercise taken daily is necessary to preserve us 
 in health. Boys and girls should attend care- 
 fully to the keeping of an erect carriage. 
 They should not bend or stoop so as to render 
 themselves round-shouldered. Not merely is it 
 a deformity to have round shoulders, but the 
 work of the lungs cannot be perfectly per- 
 formed imless the shoulders are well braced 
 back, and plenty of room given for the free 
 play of our organs of breathing. One of the 
 
 H. K. w. G 
 
98 THE CLEANLINESS OF OUR BODIES. 
 
 effects of school drill is to cause the body to 
 be well developed in this respect. 
 
 In the case of girls, they should be specially 
 careful to avoid all compression of the chest. 
 The habit of tight lacing is one that is con- 
 demned by all doctors. Not merely does it 
 deform the chest, and thus prevent proper 
 breathing, but if the lower part of the chest 
 is compressed, we find other organs of the 
 body put out of place. No girl can possibly 
 be healthy if she is allowed to tight-lace her- 
 self If we look at the natural shape of the 
 body and of the skeleton, we see that the 
 broadest part of the chest is really below. If, 
 therefore, tight lacing is practised, the girl 
 produces a deformity of the chest such as 
 gives rise to a great deal of ill-health and 
 disease. 
 
 Amongst personal habits one very impor- 
 tant duty must be noticed. This is the duty 
 of attending very strictly to the action of the 
 bowels. No one can be healthy who does 
 not attend to this part of his or her per- 
 sonal life. When the bowels do not act 
 with regularity, people are said to suffer from 
 constipation. Such a trouble is often the 
 beginning of far more serious disease. Most 
 commonly it arises from carelessness and want 
 of attention to the demands of nature. The 
 bowels should act at least once a day, and 
 
THE CLEANLINESS OF OCR BODIES. 99 
 
 the most natural time for such action to take 
 place is in the morning. It is curious to 
 notice how the influence of habit is seen here 
 as in most other things. If we get into the 
 habit of bowel action taking place each morn- 
 ing, such a habit will become established. 
 Where constipation exists, a simple change in 
 food may cure this condition. The eating of 
 fruit, such as apples, oranges, and prunes, 
 before or at meals, and the use of green vege- 
 tables, especially salads, are means which are 
 •very often effective in bringing about a cure 
 of this trouble. 
 
 Any one who attends to the ordinary laws 
 of health not merely enjoys a far greater 
 measure of happiness than one who is ill, but 
 shows this happiness in his or her appear- 
 ance. The signs of good health are many. 
 First there is a clear complexion. The tint 
 of the skin is healthy, and can at once be 
 distinguished from the excessive paleness which 
 marks the presence of ill-health. The eyes are 
 bright and sparkling, whilst the breath is 
 sweet, owing to the fact that the teeth have 
 been kept clean, and that food particles have 
 been duly removed from the mou,th by the 
 cleaning of the teeth. The expression of the 
 features is usually of a pleasing and happy 
 description. It is when we are in pain or 
 in ill-health that our faces _ clearly show that 
 
100 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 something is wrong. It is impossible to suiFer 
 pain and to show at the same time a cheerful 
 countenance. 
 
 Again, our work should be not a toil but a 
 pleasure when we are healthy ; in a state of 
 perfect health we should be equally ready for 
 work on the one hand, and for play and 
 recreation on the other. In a word, good 
 health means that we are in a condition to 
 ' work while we work, and play while we play.' 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 We all know that in a certain time after 
 we have eaten food and taken drink we grow 
 hungry and thirsty again. If any one asked 
 why it was that we wanted food or drink, the 
 answer to this question might not be so easily 
 found as we might suppose. To say that we 
 eat and drink because we are hungry and 
 thirsty is really no answer at all, because we 
 should have to ask another question, namely, 
 ' Why are we hungry and why are we thirsty ? ' 
 The real answer to these inquiries is to be 
 found when we become aware of the actions 
 and duties which the body is always perform- 
 ing. Whether we are asleep or awake, our 
 
EATING AND DRINKING. 101 
 
 bodies are continually at work. In the day- 
 time, when we are moving about, it is clear 
 that the body is acting as a living machine, 
 and this is true whether we do our work with 
 our hands or our brains, or with both. Even 
 when we are asleep the work of the body does 
 not cease. We know that in sleep the heart, 
 while its rate of beating is slower, is yet 
 perpetually at work keeping the blood circu- 
 lating through our bodies. Our chests still 
 rise and fall in the act of breathing ; and 
 if we could look more deeply into the body, 
 we should find that during our hours of rest, 
 whilst there is less work being done than 
 when we are awake, the body's labours do not 
 actually cease. 
 
 Sleeping or waking, from the moment we 
 are born till the moment we die, our bodies 
 are machines that are constantly engaged in 
 work. Now, all work, whether it is done in 
 the living body or in a steam-engine, implies 
 waste. This waste is the result of the work 
 done, and we can see that if the living body 
 went on working and wasting without rest or 
 repair, a time would surely come when it could 
 no longer discharge its duties. The waste has 
 to be repaired, and the loss represented by the 
 work done has to be made good. If this is 
 the case, we can now answer the question 
 ' Why do we need food ? ' Food represents 
 
102 EATING AND DRINKING 
 
 the material which the body needs in order 
 that it may make good the waste which we 
 have seen to be the result of the work it does. 
 If the work of the body could be entirely 
 stopped and no waste took place, we should 
 not require food or drink at all. 
 
 The body may in one sense be compared to 
 a fire which is always burning. In the case 
 of the fire, it is coal which is consumed to 
 produce heat. In the case of a candle, it is 
 the wax which is consumed in the act of 
 giving off light and heat. In the body, a kind 
 of chemical burning is always going on. The 
 fuel used is the food we eat. It is not con- 
 sumed exactly in the same way as the coal of 
 the fire or the wax of the candle is burned, 
 but there are many points of likieness between 
 the body on the one hand and the fire and 
 the candle on the other. In both the fuel 
 is consumed, and there is a certain likeness 
 to be found in the kind of matter which is 
 burned in the body and in the fire. There is 
 another likeness to be discovered in the fact 
 that the body, like the fire and the candle, 
 gives off waste matter as the result of the 
 burning. In the case of the fire, we have to 
 put coals on when the fire burns low ; and so 
 with our body, we have to supply it with fresh 
 food as its fuel, when it has used up what we 
 have previously taken. 
 
BATING AND DRINKING. 1^3 
 
 When we speak of the body 'burning,' we 
 are apt to think that the kind of action 
 which takes place is dry burning, as in the 
 fire. In the body the burning might be 
 better described as a wet burning, in which 
 water plays an important part. We may find 
 an illustration of wet burning in the heat 
 produced when water is thrown upon quick- 
 lime. The same thing happens when hay has 
 been put in stacks while it is wet. Here, also, 
 we find that heat is produced to such a 
 degree that in some cases the farmer's stacks 
 take fire. Keep in mind, therefore, that when 
 we speak of our foods being consumed in our 
 bodies by a burning process, we do not mean 
 dry burning, such as is seen in the fire, but 
 rather wet burning, like the action of the lime 
 and the hay. 
 
 We may understand better the purposes 
 which food serves in our frames if we corn- 
 pare the human body to an engine. We 
 have first to build our engine, say, of 
 iron; and having built it, we must supply it 
 with coal and water in order that we may 
 raise steam so as to make the engine do its 
 work. Kow, the stuff of which the engine is 
 built is very different from that burnt in the 
 furnace — namely, coal, which heats the water 
 in the boiler and gives the machine working 
 power. 
 
104 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 The body may be compared exactly to the 
 engine, because we find that the foods we 
 require may be divided into two classes. The 
 first class may be compared to the iron of the 
 engine, because they go to build the body. 
 The second class contains foods which represent 
 the coal and the water. When they are con- 
 sumed in our bodies they give us 'energy,' 
 or the power of doing work. The first class 
 of things we eat may therefore be called 
 body-building foods. The second class may 
 be called energy-producing or work-producing 
 foods. 
 
 Other names have been given to these 
 two classes of articles on which we feed. 
 The body-building ones are often called 'nitro- 
 genous' foods, whilst those that give us 
 the power of doing work are named 'non- 
 nitrogenous.' These names teach us that the 
 first class of foods contain, amongst other 
 things, an element called nitrogen, whilst this 
 element is wanting in those foods that give us 
 working power. 
 
 An engine will have consumed many times 
 its own weight of coal and water when it 
 has worked even for a very short time. In 
 that time, however, it will not need any 
 great amount of repair in the shape of new 
 iron being added to it. Our bodies are again 
 seen to be like the engine, because every day 
 
EATING AND DRINKING. 105 
 
 we consume a far greater amount of the foods 
 that give us working power than of those 
 which build up and repair the actual waste of 
 the body itself. 
 
 All the food we eat, sooner or later, is 
 changed, when we digest it, into such a state 
 that it can be added to the blood. The blood 
 is the common fluid containing everything 
 needed to build and repair the body, and also 
 to supply our muscles and other parts with the 
 power of doing their work. We thus see that 
 the food, however unlike ourselves it may be 
 before we eat it, must be really changed into 
 ourselves and added to the body before it can 
 be of any service to us. 
 
 The blood, which gives up its substance to 
 nourish the body, and is therefore always 
 having nourishment taken out of it, is re- 
 paired and renewed by our taking food, which, 
 after it has been digested, is added to the 
 blood. As the body is perpetually wasting in 
 all its parts, so we find it is a,lways being 
 renewed by the blood sent to every portion 
 of the frame. If the blood were not renewed 
 by our taking food, the body would grow 
 thinner, would cease to be properly nourished, 
 and in the end we should die of starvation. 
 
 To show how the body is again like a fire, 
 we find that a starved man really dies from 
 loss of heat. His bodily fire has not been 
 
106 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 replenished by fuel in the shape of food, and 
 so his life comes to an end. The destination 
 of food is the blood, and the blood is the 
 one fluid from which all parts of the body 
 draw the nourishment they need. If we do 
 not get enough food, or if we take foods of 
 an improper kind, such as do not nourish the 
 body, we cannot expect to be healthy, or to 
 be capable of doing our work properly. 
 
 Remember that two kinds of food are 
 required for the support of the body — namely, 
 food which will build the body, and food 
 which, like the coal of the engine, when con- 
 sumed in the body, will give it the power of 
 doing work. In most cases the common foods 
 we eat contain both kinds. Milk may be 
 taken as an example of such a combination. 
 If we give milk to a chemist, that he may 
 analyse it and discover the things of which it 
 is composed, he will tell us that it contains a 
 large amount of water. He will show us that 
 it also contains minerals, and the fat with 
 which we are familiar in the shape of cream. 
 It also contains a substance named casein, 
 which is commonly called the 'curd' of milk. 
 Last of all, the chemist would find in milk 
 a certain amount of sugar, which he calls 
 sugar of milk. 
 
 We see the cream or fat of milk rising to 
 the top when milk newly drawn from the cow 
 
EATING AND DRINKING. 107 
 
 is allowed to stand. If this cream, or fresh 
 milk from which the cream has not been taken, 
 is churned, we get butter, the churning having 
 the effect of removing the fatty part or cream 
 of the milk. If the milk is skimmed, so that 
 the fat or cream is removed, we cannot, of 
 course, expect to get butter from it. If, on 
 the other hand, the milk is allowed to remain 
 for a day or two it becomes sour, and if we 
 apply heat to the soured milk we find it 
 to split up into the curd, which appears as 
 a whitish and stringy matter, and a watery 
 and sweet part which we call whey. Whey 
 is composed of the water, the minerals, and 
 the sugar of milk ; the curd contains the 
 casein and the fat. 
 
 Milk is the food upon which the young of 
 quadrupeds, as well as of man, are fed in the 
 early part of their lives. The baby fed on 
 milk grows and increases in weight. We learn 
 from this that milk is a perfect food for the 
 child. It must, therefore, contain both classes 
 of foods — namely, those which build the body, 
 and those which give the body the power of 
 doing work. Now, the body-building part 
 of milk is the curd or casein, whilst the fat 
 and the sugar of milk represent those foods 
 which may be compared with the coal and 
 water of the engine, for they are the foods 
 which supply the body with working power. 
 
108 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 The minerals are also very important for 
 building bones, and are used in other ways in 
 the body, while the water of the milk is also 
 required as an important food. We can 
 understand the importance of water as a 
 food when we remember what we learned in 
 a previous lesson — namely, that two-thirds 
 of the weight of the human body consists 
 of water. The water is combined with the 
 solid parts of the body, and also forms an 
 important part of the blood, and of every 
 other part of our frames. The water in the 
 milk is therefore a very important thing, seeing 
 that it supplies the body with something 
 which is necessary not merely for building it up, 
 but also for the carrying on of all its work. 
 
 We must also remember that water is always 
 being formed in the body, and is being given 
 off from the lungs, skin, and kidneys. If there 
 is a drainage of water always taking place 
 from the body, we know that we must obtain 
 a fresh supply, and this is why we take water, 
 not only by itself, but also in tea, coffee, and 
 other beverages. As milk is the natural food 
 for young children, they should not at first 
 be fed upon other things. After the age of 
 seven or eight months, this diet may be 
 gradually extended by the addition of light 
 milk puddings, bread and milk, rusks, and the 
 like. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING. 109 
 
 In order that we may know how to feed 
 ourselves, we must learn something about the 
 things that are contained in the various 
 articles that we eat. If we eat meat of any 
 kind, we obtain from the lean parts substances 
 which, like the curd of milk, build our body. 
 The fat of meat is like the butter of milk, in 
 that it is a food that produces heat and gives 
 us the power of doing work. The gristle and 
 certain other things that we find in meat are 
 not of such great importance as foods, but we 
 can get from gristle and from bones when they 
 are boiled a substance called gelatin, which 
 to a certain extent is of use in the building of 
 the body, but not so perfectly as the curd of 
 milk or the juice of lean meat. 
 
 The potato is a very common article of food. 
 In the potato we find a large amount of 
 water ; about three-quarters of its weight, in- 
 deed, is composed of water. The rest of the 
 potato is made up of starch and minerals, 
 along with a very small quantity of body- 
 building stuff called gluten and a small 
 quantity of fat. 
 
 Bread, which has been called 'thet staff 
 of life,' a-nd is made from flour, contains a 
 large quantity of starch, with gluten similar 
 to that found in the potato. Bread also 
 contains minerals, a small quantity of fat, and 
 water. Cheese is a food very rich in fat. 
 
110 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 It also contains curd (casein) obtained from 
 the milk from which the cheese is made. 
 Cheese is a very valuable food, but many- 
 people cannot take very much of it, because 
 it is not easily digested. Suet pudding is 
 mostly composed of fat and flour, the flour 
 containing gluten similar to that in bread. 
 
 We must keep in mind that although starch 
 and sugar do not seem to be like one another, 
 they are in reality very much alike. If we 
 take a piece of cooked potato into our mouth, 
 and hold it there for some time so that it 
 mixes with the water of the mouth, or saliva, 
 as it is called, we soon become aware of a 
 sweetish taste. This is because the saliva of 
 the mouth contains a substance which turns 
 starch into a sugar. We call this sugar grape- 
 sugar, because it is more like the sugar found 
 in grapes than the sugar we obtain from the 
 sugar-cane. We are taught by this that the 
 digestion of our food really begins in the 
 mouth. Starch must be changed into sugar 
 before it can be absorbed by the blood. 
 This change takes place not merely in the 
 mouth, for if any starch is not turned into 
 sugar there it will be converted after the 
 food leaves the stomach. On no account 
 should food containing starch be given to a 
 baby under the age of seven or eight months, 
 for up to that time it is unable to digest 
 
EA.TING AND DRINKING. Ill 
 
 the starch, in other words, to turn it into 
 sugar. 
 
 Not only does the body require the two 
 kinds of foods already noted — namely, those 
 that build the body, and those that are burned 
 or consumed within it — but it requires them in 
 certain proportions. We might live upon lean 
 meat alone, or upon cheese alone, although we 
 should require a very large amount of meat, 
 but not so much of cheese, to support us. 
 We should not, however, be healthy with such 
 a diet, because neither of these foods contains 
 the things we need in the proper quantities. 
 
 We usually take more than one kind of food 
 at a meal, so as to get out of one food what 
 the other lacks. For example, we add butter 
 to bread, and thus supply the fat in which 
 bread is deficient. Similarly, meat of any kind 
 contains no starch, which is a valuable food ; 
 therefore we take potatoes or bread with meat, 
 and so enjoy a better and more nourishing meal 
 than if we took the bread, or potatoes, or meat 
 alone. A rice-pudding may be made without 
 eggs being added to it, but if eggs are mixed 
 with the rice, the pudding is made more nourish- 
 ing, because we have added not merely the 
 ■white of the egg, which is a body-building food, 
 but also the yolk, which largely consists of fat. 
 
 We have thus learned about the foods which 
 are required to build and support our bodies. 
 
112 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 and we have also learned that before food can 
 be used in our body, it must be added to 
 the blood through certain actions we call 
 'digestion.' Each kind of food carried by the 
 blood is used by the body for its own pur- 
 pose, either to build up the body and to 
 repair its waste, or to be consumed by the 
 burning process we have spoken of, and so 
 to give us our power of doing work. Under 
 certain circumstances, the curd of milk and the 
 like substances may also be burned so as to 
 give us working power. The true use of such 
 substances as the curd of milk, the lean of 
 meat, and the gluten of flour, however, is 
 really to build up the body ; whilst it is the 
 fats, starches, and sugars that really represent 
 the coal of the human engine. 
 
 That we may be well and keep well, it is 
 necessary that we should eat neither too much 
 nor too little food. If we eat too much, the 
 stomach is apt to become disordered, and the 
 excess food which has, to be got rid of dis- 
 turbs the body at large. Even if we take too 
 large quantities of particular foods, we may 
 make ourselves ill. In taking too much food, 
 it is as if we were overloading the engine fire 
 with more fuel than it requires to do its 
 work. Besides, the blood, being overcharged 
 with food it does not need, cannot nourish the 
 body properly. Too large amounts of food in 
 
EATING AND DRINKING. 113 
 
 the blood really act as a kind of poison to the 
 body. 
 
 We have already seen that water is the most 
 important food we take, because our bodies are 
 composed of so much of this fluid. A proof 
 of this is seen when we remember that a man, 
 as you were told in a previous lesson, is 
 capable of living on water alone for a long 
 time, varying from thirty to forty days. At 
 the end of that time he will probably die of 
 starvation, because the water and the oxygen 
 he breathes in from the air, which has also 
 to be taken into account, will not supply 
 him with all the body needs. It is a very 
 wonderful thing, however, to think that water 
 by itself will keep us alive for so long a time. 
 
 We must also remember that the minerals 
 contained in our food are of great importance 
 to us. A mineral needed in order that the 
 stomach may do its work properly is common 
 salt. It is also needed for other purposes in 
 the body, such as helping to remove the 
 waste ; and it is found in every fluid the 
 body makes. We can discover it in the tears 
 that wash the eyes. It exists in the blood, 
 and it is also found in the perspiration or 
 sweat given off from the skin. 
 
 Among other minerals we require to keep 
 the body in health, iron may be mentioned. 
 This iron helps to form the colouring matter 
 
 H. K. W. H 
 
114 TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 
 
 of the blood, which is contained in the little 
 red corpuscles that float in the blood and give 
 to that fluid its red hue. If these red cor- 
 puscles do not get sufficient iron, illness results. 
 In the same way, another mineral, potash, is 
 necessary to preserve us in health. This 
 potash is found in the blood, and also in 
 various parts of our frames. If we do not 
 get sufficient potash in our food we become 
 afflicted with a disease known as scurvy. 
 This disease is cured by our taking foods 
 such as fresh meat, milk, potatoes, and green 
 vegetables, all of which contain potash. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 
 
 We have seen how necessary water is for 
 the support of the body. One of the chief 
 reasons why we require every day a large quan- 
 tity of water, you will remember, is that 
 two-thirds of the weight of the body consists 
 of this fluid ; and it is required, besides, in all 
 our bodily actions. We drink other beverages 
 besides water, such as those made from tea, 
 coffee, cocoa, and chocolate. Tea, as you 
 know, consists of the dried leaves of the tea- 
 plant, coffee of the ground beans of the coffee- 
 plant, while cocoa, and the chocolate which is 
 
TE4, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 115 
 
 made from it, is the product of a plant known 
 as the cacao-tree. 
 
 There is a wide difference to be noted be- 
 tween tea and coffee on the one hand, and cocoa 
 and chocolate on the other. If we ask a 
 chemist to analyse cocoa for us, he will tell us 
 that it contains a certain amount of gluten, 
 which we have seen is found in flour, and cor- 
 responds in its nature to the curd of milk. It 
 is a body-building food. In cocoa he will also 
 find starch and a large amount of fat, together 
 with some minerals. In tea and coffee we do 
 not find these things, or at least, if they exist, 
 they are present in such small quantities as to 
 be practically useless for nourishing the body. 
 Tea and coffee are not, therefore, foods in the 
 true sense of that word, because they do not 
 add anything to the substance of the body, nor 
 do they supply us with working power; whereas, 
 on the other hand, cocoa, containing fat, starch, 
 and gluten, must be considered to be a true 
 food. 
 
 If people with not too much money to spend 
 on food would drink cocoa instead of tea, 
 they would be stronger and healthier. A very 
 great number of people drink tea and coffee, 
 believing that their bodies are nourished by 
 these beverages. This is a great mistake. 
 Tea and coffee are useful under certain circum- 
 stances because they contain substances which 
 
116 TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 
 
 stimulate us. When we are tired, and take tea 
 or coffee, we feel refreshed, because the sub- 
 stances contained in them stimulate our nervous 
 system, and through the nervous system the 
 body is thus made to work more quickly and 
 easily. 
 
 At the same time, we can see that if we 
 were only to stimulate our bodies by taking 
 tea and coffee, and not supply them with true 
 foods, we should be acting as foolishly as if we 
 flogged over-tired horses. The weary animals 
 require rest and food, and to whip or spur 
 them to make them continue working would 
 be foolish and cruel, because they would be 
 much worse after they had been whipped and 
 compelled to work than they were before. 
 Tea and coffee are of service in stimulating a 
 body which is well fed and well nourished, 
 because, in addition to helping us to do our 
 work more efficiently, they also seem to have 
 the power of making the food go a little 
 further in the nourishment of the body and in 
 the performance of the body's work. 
 
 In order that we may get the most good 
 out of the tea we drink, we must remember 
 that if tea stands long in the pot, the boiling 
 water will take out of the leaves certain sub- 
 stances which it is not good for us to drink. 
 Tea which has stood long, we all know, has a 
 very bitter taste. If such tea is allowed to 
 
TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 117 
 
 settle in a cup, a white substance appears 
 in the bottom of the cup when it gets cold. 
 It is this substance, called tannin, which causes 
 the bitter taste, and it is very much the same 
 kind of thing which is got from the bark of 
 trees used in tanning leather. 
 
 ' Stewed ' tea is therefore very bad for us, 
 because it not only prevents the digestion of 
 proper foods, but may itself upset the stomach 
 and cause illness. Tea should be taken only 
 when freshly made. The water used in making 
 it should be boiling, but should have just come 
 to the boil. We should place in the teapot a 
 strainer into which the tea-leaves are put, and 
 this should be removed, together with the 
 leaves, a few minutes after the tea is infused, 
 and before it is drunk. By taking the tea- 
 leaves out of the pot with the strainer, we 
 cannot possibly have the strong and bitter 
 tea which is so bad for us. If it is foolish 
 for people to expect they can live upon food 
 which consists of tea and bread-and-butter, 
 and if they make themselves weak by trying 
 to live on such things, they will make 
 themselves much worse when the tea they 
 drink is allowed to 'stew,' so as to take 
 out of it the injurious substances we have 
 described. 
 
 Tea and coffee, we have seen, stimulate the 
 nervous system and whip up the body, as it 
 
118 TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 
 
 were, to enable it to perform its work more 
 quickly. It is wrong to take tea and coiFee 
 with meat foods, because we know that these 
 drinks either slow down, or may actually stop 
 for a while, the digestion of food in the 
 stomach. When people take what they call 
 a ' meat tea ' or ' high tea,' and thus eat meat 
 and drink tea along with it, they are very 
 apt to suffer from indigestion. Also, we should 
 not take tea or coffee late at night, because 
 they are apt to keep us awake ; or if we do 
 fall asleep, they may cause our sleep to be 
 disturbed by dreams or nightmare. 
 
 Besides taking tea and coffee as drinks, 
 many persons take beer, porter, or various 
 kinds of wines or spirits. Among the wines 
 drunk are claret and port ; the spirits 
 most commonly consumed are whisky and 
 brandy. Now, in all thege drinks we find 
 a certain substance termed 'alcohol,' which 
 might also be called spirits of wine. Some 
 of these drinks, such as spirits, are stronger 
 than others, because they contain a larger 
 quantity of this alcohol. This is the substance 
 which in all of these drinks, if taken in too 
 great a quantity, causes people to become 
 drunk. The alcohol acts as a stimulant to 
 the brain and nervous system when taken 
 in small quantity ; but if a person drinks 
 much beer, wine, or whisky, he loses the power 
 
TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 119 
 
 of thinking properly. He is unable to walk 
 steadily, and sooner or later he passes into 
 a state of sleep. 
 
 Alcohol, let us remember, is produced by 
 an action we call fermentation. To make 
 alcohol we require yeast, which we saw to 
 consist of very minute plants. Each yeast 
 plant is a little round body termed a cell. 
 The baker uses yeast because, when fermenta- 
 tion occurs, carbonic acid gas is produced, and 
 this gas ' raises ' or lightens the dough from 
 which the bread is made. The brewer uses 
 yeast in order to produce fermentation, so 
 that the beer he makes will contain alcohol. 
 Alcohol and carbonic acid gas are, therefore, 
 two things which the yeast plants are able to 
 produce when they are added to any substance 
 containing sugar. The baker (loes not want 
 alcohol ; he wishes the carbonic acid gas to 
 lighten the dough. The brewer does not want 
 the carbonic acid gas ; he wishes to get the 
 alcohol for his beer. We see that what one 
 man wants the other does not require. 
 
 All these substances, from beer, which con- 
 tains little alcohol, to whisky or brandy, which 
 contain much alcohol, are not foods. They 
 may to a certain extent burn in the body, 
 but they burn so quickly that to use them as 
 foods would be a very wasteful thing to do. 
 If we put coals and sticks in a fire, the fire 
 
120 TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 
 
 burns slowly and gives off a large amount of 
 heat. Suppose we fed our fire with straw 
 instead of coal, we know we should get heat ; 
 but the straw would burn so quickly that we 
 should have to be always heaping fresh straw 
 on the fire, and we should be getting also 
 less heat than from the coal. The straw 
 would also be much more expensive in the 
 long-run than coal. If we compare our body 
 with the grate, our ordinary and true foods will 
 be like the coal ; but if we took beer, wine, or 
 whisky as foods, they might burn in the body, 
 but they would resemble the straw, and be 
 consumed so quickly that we should find it 
 very expensive to use them. 
 
 People take beer and other drinks con- 
 taining alcohol because they like the taste of 
 the various fluids which contain this substance. 
 It is not necessary for any healthy person to 
 take alcohol at all. It may act like tea and 
 cofifee when taken in small quantities, and 
 therefore whip up the body, enabling it to 
 do its work more quickly. If alcohol is 
 taken in any great quantity, its effect is really 
 to tire out the body sooner than if nothing 
 had been taken at all. In small quantity, 
 alcohol may therefore do little harm ; but 
 we may be quite sure about this, that alcohol 
 is not at all necessary for healthy people, and 
 it cannot be said to do them any real good. 
 
TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 121 
 
 Children should never take any alcohol, as it 
 stops the growth of the body, and acts very 
 injuriously in other ways. They should drink 
 water or milk, which are really much better 
 for them than even tea and coffee. 
 
 People who take too much alcohol, we have 
 seen, get drunk. The more alcohol there is in 
 any drink, the less of it will be required to 
 make a person drunk. A man might drink a 
 large quantity of beer without getting drunk, 
 but he would feel tired, heavy, and sleepy, 
 while his face would be flushed and reddened, 
 and he would not be able to think clearly and 
 to do his work properly. If people who are 
 accustomed to drink beer and other fluids 
 containing alcohol do not get druiik, this is 
 because their bodies have become accustomed 
 to the taking of alcohol; but it is none the 
 less true that they are doing themselves a 
 great deal of harm, and that they are laying 
 themselves open to the attack of disease. If 
 people who take beer, wine, or whisky because 
 they feel tired, would rest and take food, or 
 drink tea or coffee, they would be much 
 better. 
 
 . When people are not well it may be 
 different, for they may then require a small 
 quantity of wine or other fluid containing 
 alcohol as a kind of medicine to stimulate the 
 body. But this should only be taken bjj^ the 
 
122 TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 
 
 doctor's orders. When people begin to take 
 anything containing alcohol, they are apt to 
 get a liking for drink of this kind, and in 
 many cases are unable to stop the use of such 
 beverages. We know that very many persons 
 become drunkards because they are unable to 
 stop taking alcohol. Doctors would tell you 
 of many diseases which people who take much 
 drink are liable to suffer from. Those who 
 drink much beer, wine, or whisky are not 
 merely likely to die before their time, but are 
 also not able to do their work properly. In 
 this way a great deal of misery is caused 
 in the world by men who drink alcohol. For 
 if they are unable to do their work they 
 lose their employment, and if they cannot earn 
 money their wives and children must become 
 very poor, and suffer a great deal from 
 want of food and of other things we all 
 require to make us healthy and happy. 
 
 Tobacco is the leaf of the tobacco-plant, 
 and it is most commonly used for smoking. 
 People smoke it in pipes, or use it in 
 the shape of cigars or cigarettes. Powdered 
 tobacco is known as snuff, and some people 
 sniff this substance up the nostrils. Some 
 men are given to chewing tobacco. People 
 smoke tobacco chiefly because it gives them 
 a certain sense of restfulness. It is what 
 we might call a soother to the body. Those 
 
TEA, COFFEE, COCOA, AND ALCOHOL. 123 
 
 who take snuff do so because of the pleasant 
 sensation it produces in the nose. SnufF- 
 takers are apt to suifer from troubles which 
 affect the nose, and in many cases their voices 
 are also affected, so that they cannot speak 
 clearly. 
 
 Children should never smoke. Tobacco, if 
 not smoked in too great a quantity, may have 
 no, ill effects upon grown-up men, but it has 
 a very evil effect on the bodies of young 
 people. It tends to check their growth, because 
 of its- effects on the blood. There are, there- 
 fore, two things that children should on no 
 account taste or use. One is alcohol, and the 
 other is tobacco. A boy who smokes cigarettes 
 is certain to injure his health, because of the 
 action of the tobacco on his blood. - Tobacco 
 destroys the appetite, and he will not eat the 
 proper quantity of food he requires to build up 
 his body. 
 
 Boys who smoke do so because they think it 
 is a manly thing to imitate older people. They 
 are very much mistaken in thinking that 
 any one who sees them will consider them 
 more manly. They should remember, above 
 all things else, that if they smoke before 
 they are grown up they are certain to do 
 themselves a very great deal of harm. Boys 
 who do not smoke may not feel that they 
 require or like tobacco when they grow up to 
 
124 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 be men. If they do not smoke then, they 
 will save a good deal of money, because smoking 
 is an expensive habit. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 We are all liable to suffer from illness, and 
 we may at any time meet with an accident 
 which will cause us great pain, or may even 
 end in death. When any one is ill, or meets 
 with an accident, the doctor should be sent for 
 at once, because he knows exactly what should 
 be done that the patient may be restored to 
 health. Sometimes, however, the doctor is far 
 away, and it is therefore very important for 
 us to know what to do to relieve pain and 
 to help the sufferer until he arrives. 
 
 We ought all to be taught some simple 
 rules which we could easily follow as to the 
 best way of giving assistance to those who are 
 in distress. This is why grown-up men and 
 women attend what are called 'Ambulance 
 Classes,' or classes in which they are taught 
 how to give 'First Aid' to people who meet 
 with accidents, or are attacked by sudden 
 illness. Such assistance is well called ' First 
 Aid,' because it is intended only as a tempo- 
 rary measure until the presence of the doctor 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 125 
 
 can be secured. We can do a very great deal 
 indeed to save people pain by knowing exactly 
 what to do in various kinds of accidents, and 
 we must also know how to avoid doing im- 
 proper things. It is as important for us in 
 such cases to know what not to do, as to 
 know what to do. 
 
 Let us begin by seeing what can be done 
 when a person has a 'fit.' Notice first that 
 there are different kinds of fits, and that the 
 measures which relieve a person suffering from 
 one kind are quite different from those needed 
 in another case. The commonest of all fits 
 is what we call a fainting fit. We are apt 
 to faint when we remain too long in a very 
 heated room where there is much foul air. We 
 may also faint from receiving bad news, or 
 from suffering any kind of shock. In a faint- 
 ing fit the person becomes insensible. He falls 
 to the ground and lies quite still. If you look 
 at his face, you will find it very pale, and his 
 lips will also be bloodless. His eyes will be 
 shut, and if you feel his skin it will be cold. 
 
 When a person shows these signs, you 
 must first loosen everything about his neck 
 and chest, remove his collar and tie, and un- 
 button his waistcoat so as to give free play 
 to his chest that he may breathe properly. 
 See that he is carried into some place where 
 the air is pure, and prevent people from 
 
126 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 crowding about him. Keep his head low, and 
 remember that it is always well to do this 
 when the face is pale. By keeping the head 
 low, we assist the blood to return to the 
 brain, for when the brain gets its proper 
 supply of blood once more, the person will 
 wake out of his insensibility. If you have 
 smelling-salts, apply them to the patient's nose, 
 but see that the salts are not too strong. 
 Sometimes people burn feathers, and allow the 
 smell of the burning feathers to pass up the 
 nostrils. In a few minutes the patient will 
 probably recover, but it is well not to allow 
 him to sit up until he has rested in the 
 flat position for a while. 
 
 Another kind of fit is called an epileptic fit, 
 or a convulsive fit. Here the person very often 
 falls down with a sudden cry, and while on 
 the ground tosses his body about. His face is 
 pale and his mouth froths, and if you see a 
 little blood coming from the mouth you will 
 know that he has bitten his tongue. This is a 
 fit which sets all the muscles of the body into 
 ' convulsions.' The person is insensible, and if 
 you look at his hands you will see that the 
 muscles have drawn the thumbs right into- the 
 palm of the hand. 
 
 Here again you must remove all clothing 
 from the neck and chest. Put the patient on 
 a rug or mattress on the floor, because if you 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 127 
 
 jput him on a bed or sofa, it is likely lie will 
 throw himself off and hurt himself. All you 
 can do is to restrain his movements by grasp- 
 ing the arms by the wrists, and the legs by 
 the ankles. You must not attempt to stop his 
 movements, because you cannot do this, and if 
 you used much force you might hurt him. 
 He will soon cease struggling and will open 
 his eyes, but will be in a dazed or stupid 
 state. You must watch him carefully after- 
 wards, because he may take another fit, and 
 if he is left to himself, and no person is 
 beside "him, he may injure himself 
 
 A third kind of fit is that known as 
 apoplexy. The person falls senseless in this 
 case, and iiis face, instead of being pale, is 
 very red. There are no convulsions. If you 
 listen to his breathing, you will find that it is 
 of a noisy or snoring character. What has 
 happened is that something has gone wrong 
 with the brain. You must put the patient to 
 bed in a dark room ; take off his clothes, keep 
 the head high, and apply cloths moistened with 
 cold water and vinegar to the head. The 
 doctor should be sent for at once. 
 
 If we prick a finger with even a very fine 
 needle, we draw blood. Now, this blood is 
 contained within very fine tubes, and so fine 
 are the smallest of them that although the 
 point of a needle is a very minute thing, it 
 
128 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 will tear or wound a large number of them. 
 The blood everywhere in our body is contained 
 within such tubes, which are called 'blood- 
 vessels.' When, therefore, we cut our finger, 
 
 Diagram of the Circulation. 
 The arteries (which carry blood from the heart) are shown white; the 
 veins (which carry blood to the heart) are shown black. 
 
 or when any part of the body is wounded, 
 we see that we must have divided some of 
 these tubes in which the blood is carried 
 through the body. If it is a small cut we 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 129 
 
 can easily stop the bleeding, but it may be 
 difficult to do this if the cut is a big one, 
 and if we have wounded a large blood- 
 vessel. It is necessary to stop the bleeding 
 quickly, because if much blood is allowed to 
 escape from the body it causes great weak- 
 ness, and if a very large quantity of blood is 
 lost the person may die. 
 
 Pure blood is always being pumped from 
 the left side of the heart to nourish the body. 
 When this blood has been sent through the 
 frame, it returns again to the right side of the 
 heart. The blood coming back to the heart is 
 impure, because it has gathered from all parts 
 of the body waste matter, which, as we saw in 
 a previous lesson, is got rid of chiefly by the 
 lungs. The colour of pure blood going from 
 the heart to the body is bright-red, while that 
 of impure blood coming from the body back 
 to the heart is dark-purple. You must keep 
 in mind this difference, because if we wound a 
 blood-vessel which is carrying pure blood from 
 the heart to the body, we can tell that such 
 an accident has happened by the bright-red 
 colour of the blood which flows from the 
 wound. In such a case an artery has been 
 cut — that is, a blood-vessel carrying blood from 
 the heart to the body. On the other hand, if 
 the blood is dark-purple in colour, we know 
 that, we have wounded a vein — that is, a blood- 
 
 H. K. W. I 
 
130 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 vessel returning the impure blood to the heart 
 that it may be sent to the lungs. 
 
 As a rule, veins lie nearer the surface 
 than arteries. You will see how the blood 
 flows in the body if you tie a piece of string 
 round your wrist with moderate tightness, and 
 allow your hand to hang downward. The 
 veins in the back of the hand will swell, and 
 you will notice that they swell below the string, 
 and not above it. You learn, therefore, that 
 the string has stopped the flow of blood 
 coming up the arm in the veins, but has not 
 interfered with the flow of the deeper-seated 
 arteries. To do this, the string would have to 
 be tied as tightly as possible. 
 
 As pure blood is coming from the heart to 
 the body, we see that when an artery is 
 wounded we must tie a bandage tightly between 
 the wound and the heart. If, on the other 
 hand, it is a vein that is wounded, we must 
 tie a bandage either on the wound itself, or, 
 if that is not sufficient to stop the flow of 
 blood, a bandage must be tied on the side 
 of the cut farthest from the heart as well. 
 
 Artery wounds are always dangerous, be- 
 cause the heart is like a pump which is 
 driving blood through these blood-vessels. 
 You will know when an artery is wounded, 
 not merely by the bright-red colour of the 
 blood, but by the fact that it comes from the 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 131 
 
 wound in jets, each jet being caused by a 
 stroke of the heart. If it is a vein that is 
 wounded, in addition to the blood being of a 
 dark-purple colour, it will simply flow from 
 the cut, and will not spurt as in the case of 
 an artery. 
 
 In the case of a simple cut, which severs 
 only very small blood-vessels, you must 
 cleanse the cut thoroughly. Wash it well with 
 tepid water, and if possible add a few drops of 
 carbolic acid to the water, because the acid 
 will tend to cleanse the wound more thoroughly 
 than the plain water. It is most important in 
 all cuts and wounds to see that no dirt is left 
 in them. If dirt is left in a cut, the wound 
 will not heal quickly, and 'matter,' which is a 
 yellowish fluid, will form in it. 
 
 To bind up a wound, use a piece of lint or 
 linen rag, having first made sure that it is 
 thoroughly clean. Place it on the wound, and 
 then tie a handkerchief or other bandage 
 round it, both to keep the rag in position, and 
 to apply pressure to the wound in order to 
 stop the bleeding. When the bleeding stops, 
 as it will do if you have applied the bandage 
 properly, bring the edges of the wound to- 
 gether with strips of sticking-plaster. Over 
 these put your pad of clean lint or rag, and 
 then your bandage. 
 
 If the bleeding comes from an artery, you 
 
132 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 must at once press your fingers on the wound, 
 or between the wound and the heart and near 
 to the injury. In this way you can stop the 
 spurting of the blood at once and save the 
 injured person from losing blood. You should 
 then o-et some one else to tie a handkerchief or 
 
 O 
 
 other bandage tightly over a pad between the 
 wound and the heart, but as near to the wound 
 as possible. If this does not stop the bleed- 
 ing, take a piece of stick, pass it through the 
 looped end of the bandage or handkerchief, 
 and begin to turn the stick so as to twist 
 the bandage. In this way you will be able to 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 133 
 
 tighten the bandage so as to stop the flow of 
 blood till the doctor arrives and takes means 
 to prevent any further bleeding. 
 
 When a vein is wounded, and you see dark* 
 purple blood oozing from the cut, put a pad 
 of clean lint on the cut, and tie a bandage 
 over it. If this fails to stop the bleeding, put 
 another bandage on the side of the wound 
 away from the heart. 
 
 In a simple scratch of the finger we do not 
 need to pay much attention to the stopping 
 of the blood, for the bleeding soon ceases of 
 itself. This is because the blood clots and 
 forms a kind of plug which closes up the 
 wounded blood-vessels. Do not disturb this 
 clot, because it is not merely Nature's way of 
 stopping the bleeding, but it also seems to 
 supply material which aids in healing the cut 
 itself Never allow any one to apply cobw'ebs 
 to a cut to stop bleeding. They are full of 
 dirt and germs, and have often caused blood- 
 poisoning. 
 
 Sometimes people suffer from bleeding at 
 the nose, or they may bring up blood from 
 the stomach or lungs. When a person's nose 
 bleeds, you must prevent him from hanging 
 his head over a basin. He should be made 
 to lie down with the head slightly raised, and 
 the clothes should be loosened about the neck. 
 With your fingers you may press the root of 
 
13.4 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS.' 
 
 the nose; and it is helpful to apply to the 
 nape of the neck a sponge wrung out of cold 
 water. If the. bleeding is very severe, you 
 may put little plugs of cotton-wool in each 
 nostril, and ^end for the doctor. ; 
 
 \ Delicate people may bring up blood from 
 the lungs or the stomach. If the blood comes 
 from the. stomach, you will know this because 
 it will be dark-coloured, and will usually be 
 clotted. If the blood comes from the lungs, 
 t;he colour will be bright-red, and it will be 
 mixed with froth, because of -the air which it 
 contains. A person suffering from bleeding 
 from the lungs or stomach should be put to 
 bed in a cool room. His head and shoulders 
 should be raised on a pillow, and he should 
 be given little bits of ice to suck. If ice 
 cannot be got, give him sips of cold water, 
 and you may put a little vinegar in the water, 
 as this will assist in stopping the bleeding. 
 
 You have been told how important a thing 
 it is to see that every wound is cleansed, so 
 that no dirt be allowed to remain in it. You 
 were also told that when dirt remains in a 
 wound it sets up irritation, and there is pro- 
 duced a yellowish, thick fluid, which is known 
 as 'matter.' Suppose you prick your finger 
 with, a dirty needle, and do not suck the 
 wound and thus cleanse it, in a few hours the 
 finger will begin to feel painful. It will throb 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 135 
 
 and become very hot, and soon afterwards, on 
 looking at the finger, you will see matter form^ 
 ing beneath the skin. This is what people call 
 a festering or gathering finger. If matter forms 
 in a large cut, it may be very dangerous, 
 because the matter, which is injurious, may be 
 carried to other parts of the body and set up 
 disease. 
 
 The doctor often gets rid of the matter by 
 lancing the finger. When matter has formed, it 
 is a good plan to apply hot poultices of bread 
 and water to the part, because the heat of the 
 poultice, which must be constantly renewed, 
 assists the formation of the matter, and thus 
 brings the injury sooner to a head, so that 
 when it is lanced all the matter can be taken 
 away. After the matter has been removed, 
 the poulticing may be continued for a little, 
 in order that it . may clean the wound.. After 
 that, when the wound is in a healthy condi- 
 tion, it should be treated simply as an ordinary 
 cut. 
 
 When a person is stung by a wasp or bee, 
 you should remove the little black sting you 
 will find sticking in the wound. Get a little 
 weak ammonia and apply it to the sting, or 
 take the blue-bag from the kitchen, and apply 
 a little of the blue. The application of oil 
 will ease the pain. The juice of a raw onion 
 cut in halves is another old-fashioned remedy. 
 
136 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 Eemember if an insect stings any one in the 
 mouth to send for the doctor at once, as 
 the mouth will swell, and the person may be 
 suffocated. 
 
 In the case of a snake-bite, tie a tight 
 bandage between the bite and the rest of the 
 body, to keep the poison from spreading. If 
 you have no sore in the mouth, you can suck 
 the wound and spit out your saliva. Do. the 
 same things if a dog bites any one, and see 
 that the dog is kept chained up until you 
 know whether it is mad or not. 
 
 If you have reason to suppose that a per- 
 son has broken a bone, be very careful that 
 the broken part is not treated roughly in 
 any way, but is very carefully bandaged up 
 and all movement of the part prevented. A 
 broken arm should be carefully put up in 
 a sling.. You can see that if the bones of a 
 man's leg are broken, and you attempt to raise 
 him up and set him on his feet, you may 
 make his accident very much worse, because 
 the broken ends of the bone may be forced 
 through the skin. In the case of a broken 
 leg, the person should be carried very carefully 
 into the nearest shelter, and laid on a mattress 
 to await . the arrival of the doctor. If the 
 patient has to be carried any distance, you 
 jnust bandage, sticks or umbrellas on each side 
 of the broken leg, so as to keep it from being 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 137 
 
 moved. You must then tie the leg which is 
 Broken to the sound leg, because the sound 
 leg in such a case acts as a support to the 
 one which is broken. 
 
 If we receive a blow, it is apt to leave 
 marks on the skin. A person who has been 
 hit on the eye, for example, soon develops 
 what we call a 'black eye.' The blackness 
 is produced by the blood which has escaped 
 from the fine blood-vessels under the skin. It 
 takes a long time for this blood to be absorbed 
 or carried away. The bruise will not be cured 
 for some time^ and we see the gradual 
 changes of colour in the bruise, showing how 
 very slowly the blood is removed from the 
 part. It is helpful in the case of bruising to 
 apply cold to the part, and the sooner this 
 is done the better. Cloths Steeped in cold 
 water mixed with vinegar should be kept 
 constantly on the bruise. You may cover 
 these cloths with a little piece of oiled silk, 
 which will prevent the water from drying too 
 rapidly. For a black eye or other kind of 
 bruise, many people cut a little bit of meat off 
 a joint or steak and place this upon it. The 
 meat is cold and soft, and can be used instead 
 of the cold water. 
 
 If we miss our footstep in coming down- 
 stairs, or if we step on a slide, and our 
 foot doubles under us, we are apt to suffer 
 
138 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 from what is called sprain. Sometimes even 
 a bone may be broken through such an acci- 
 dent; but if it is merely a sprain, what 
 we have done in such a case is to strain very 
 severely the stout cords, called ligaments, which 
 bind the bones together at the joints. A 
 sprain may be a very painful accident indeed. 
 The part which is affected swells up, and it 
 may be impossible to move the joint at all 
 without experiencing great suffering. When 
 a sprain has occurred, the best thing to do 
 is to put the part into water as hot as can 
 be borne, and to allow it to remain there for 
 a long time, renewing the water so as to keep 
 up the heat. It is then helpful to bandage 
 the part. 
 
 Remember that in all sprains it is very 
 necessary that the part should be kept quite 
 at rest and no movement: permitted. When 
 the swelling has been somewhat reduced, you 
 may rub the place gently with oil, or use a 
 fluid which the chemist will supply you with, 
 and which is called a liniment or embrocation. 
 Sprains often take a long time to get better. 
 When this is the case, it may be helpful once 
 or twice a day to run cold water on the part 
 for a minute, and then to run hot water upon 
 it, using the hot and cold water in this way, 
 time about, for a few minutes at a time. 
 
 In the case of a burn or a scald, apply oil. 
 
WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 139 
 
 such as salad-oil, linseed -oil, or castor -oil, at 
 once on lint, and keep the air away from the 
 injury. If any clothing remains on the burn, 
 do not tear it off, but soak the burnt part in 
 tepid water, and thus loosen the clothing. The 
 best thing for a burn is Carron oil, made of 
 equal parts of linseed- oil and lime-water. 
 Apply this on strips of lint, and cover all 
 over with cotton-wool and a bandage. When 
 a person's clothes catch fire, place him on the 
 floor and cover him with the hearthrug or 
 anything else handy, so as to put out the 
 flames. If he rushes about, the flames will 
 only burn the faster. 
 
 The things you have just been told are to 
 help you to give assistance to people who are 
 in sudden distress. You can do much by such 
 aid to lessen pain and to get the person who 
 has been injured out of danger. Remember 
 that in any serious case some one should go 
 for the doctor, while you are doing your best 
 to give what assistance you can. All you can 
 do is to treat the injured person 'till the 
 doctor comes.' It would be well if people 
 would send for the doctor more frequently, 
 and also sooner than they do. 
 
 There are many signs of illness which should 
 teach us that the doctor ought to be asked to 
 come as quickly as possible. If a child has a 
 sore throat, and is very hot and feverish, it is 
 
140 WHAT TO DO IN ACCIDENTS AND ILLNESS. 
 
 possible he may be suffering from a fever, and 
 in such a case the only wise thing to do is to 
 get the doctor at once. If the child has a 
 rash on his body, this points to fever even 
 more clearly, and in that case it would be 
 well to put him to bed at once and to keep 
 him away from other children, so as to avoid 
 infecting them ; the doctor will do whatever 
 else is necessary. , 
 
 If a child has a nasty cough, with a whoop, 
 he may have whooping-cough, and he should 
 be kept in a room by himself until the doctor 
 sees him. A bad cough with a pain in the 
 chest, or a severe pain in the stomach, may 
 be the beginning of a serious illness, therefore 
 the doctor should be asked to see the patient 
 at once. If only people would get the doctor 
 to see those who are ill as soon as the signs 
 of illness appear, patients would be spared 
 much pain and many lives would be saved ; for 
 illnesses which could have been successfully 
 treated by him in their first stages, may have 
 grown quite beyond his power when there has 
 been delay in sending for him. 
 
 Edinbnrgb : Printed by W. & R. Cliambers, Limited.