THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH
The Human Body and How it is Made—How to Take Care of Yourself—Rules for a Long and Happy Life—General Information
If the question were generally asked, “What is the most important factor in the happiness of mankind?” spiritual matters not to be considered in the query, it is safe to say that a tremendous majority of all the intelligent people of the world would reply, “Health.”
Indeed, almost all the other conditions of real importance in life depend more or less on health, and with health as a possession almost all misfortunes can be overcome or borne with patience. Wealth, for instance, is of very little consequence in comparison with health. Without the latter there can be little real enjoyment of the former. Without wealth, however, health can assure true happiness, and it is, indeed, one of the most serviceable factors in enabling one to add wealth to his possessions.
With these facts clearly recognized as they are, it is not strange that intelligent men and women more and more give their attention to the welfare of their bodies. In the most highly civilized countries the advance of scientific surgery and discoveries in medicine are hailed with the greatest applause. In such countries the subjects of sanitation and hygiene are given the closest attention, not only by students and scientists, but by every thoughtful individual. It is being recognized that there is no great and impressive mystery about our physical natures by virtue of which we escape responsibility for guarding our own health in every reasonable way. The thing to do is to keep well if we possibly can, and when we fail, give the best attention possible to repairing the damage.
The one who should neglect the well-known principles of hygiene, because of faith that a good doctor could cure any resulting sickness, would be no less than a fool. The one who gets wet on a stormy day, fails to change his clothes, neglects the cold which follows, contracts pneumonia and dies, is not “removed by an all-wise Providence,” as so many resolutions of sympathy declare, but by his own folly. It is unjust to blame a wise and beneficent Power for such results. The household that suffers from typhoid, when drinking well-water drained from its own cesspool, needs sympathy, indeed, not only for the sickness but for the stupidity that placed the well and the infection side by side.
Thus it is that, in arranging the order of subjects in this book of practical information for everyone, it was readily decided to discuss this subject with considerable detail. Household recipes and suggestions appeal specially to women; stock, farm and orchard come within the province of men; but health, hygiene and the kindred subjects command attention with equal force, from man and woman and child.
Anyone who adopts the policy of “getting all the money he can, and keeping all he can get,” is certain to make himself obnoxious to all about him, and in the end to become very miserable as an embittered, soured and friendless man, a failure in life, however wealthy he may become. But the one who chooses the policy of getting all the health he can and keeping all he gets, will have a very different tale to tell. Regular habits, careful living, sunny disposition, a clear head, a bright eye, a sound mind and a sound body give one a cheerful outlook on the world, enable one to use all his energies to the best advantage, guarantee that he will have real friends, assure happiness, and make of one a genuine success in life, whether with or without the prosperity that is very likely to accompany such qualities.
And what does it involve, this intelligent effort to acquire and retain good health in these bodies of ours?
We have here at our disposal a marvelous and complicated machine, perfect in design, and imperfect only through some inherited fault or weakness of our ancestors. Most of its processes are automatic, though some are deliberate, or voluntary. The automatic processes themselves may fail to operate, however, through some carelessness of our own in details that we must attend to of our own will. When the voluntary processes are continued with great regularity, they become so habitual that they may be considered almost automatic themselves, and in this state of affairs the whole machine is operating to the best advantage, and will receive no injury except from some outside cause.
This wonderful machine must breathe—an involuntary or automatic action—but it must have pure and wholesome air, day and night, which is to be made sure only by our own care and voluntary action. It must be well nourished by proper food, obtained, selected and prepared by our own voluntary effort, but the food then is assimilated into our strength and support by the automatic and involuntary processes of digestion. So it is through a long list of details which might be named, that the machine of our body is kept in running order—in health, as we say—by a combination of voluntary and involuntary processes, the latter depending on the former in high degree for their success. All of these details are simple enough in themselves when studied a little.
In normal and wholesome surroundings, such as, fortunately, most people in this country enjoy, it is an easy matter to avert disease by proper care, and to bring the system into such condition that in the event of sickness the ailment can be thrown off readily by proper attention. Carelessness of habits not only makes the individual more liable to the outbreak of disease, but weakens the power to combat the disease after it has once gained a hold.
This chapter is not primarily a medical work in the general use of that term. That is to say, it does not go into the scientific and technical details of physiology, nor yet the description and treatment of every disease, simple or otherwise. Until all persons are educated in disease and medicine, the very best advice that can be given in the event of serious illness is—Call a competent, progressive, educated physician as promptly as possible, and yield absolute obedience to his instructions and treatment. But these instructions will include details of nursing and diet, general care of the health, and other things which are of great importance in assisting the work of the doctor. He will welcome the evidence of knowledge of such things which can be gained from this practical book. Furthermore, for an intelligent understanding of the human body, how to keep it in health, and how to treat its simple ailments, and the emergencies of all sorts that demand quick attention, this department of the present work is confidently offered to the reader.
THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS CONSTRUCTION
Let us now look briefly at the construction of the human body and the duties which its various parts are intended to perform, after which we will take note of the methods of preserving health in general, and the diseases and injuries which must be guarded against.
First, some explanations of the terms used in these connections: We divide all nature into three classes of objects, those belonging to the Animal, Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms, and all things belong in one or another of these. They are also divided into organic and inorganic bodies. The first are those having organs by which they grow, such as animals and plants. Inorganic bodies are those which are without life of their own, such as air, water, stone and the like. All inorganic bodies are included in the mineral kingdom. Those organic bodies which have no power to feel are included in the vegetable kingdom, and those which have the power to feel form the animal kingdom. There are things in nature which are so close to this dividing line that even scientists disagree as to whether they belong to the vegetable or animal kingdom.
The parts of an organized body, such as the mouth or the foot of an animal, the root or the leaf of a plant, are called the organs, and the work which an organ is intended to perform is called its function. The material out of which any organ is composed is called tissue, and in the human body, for instance, at least six different kinds of tissue are found, forming the various organs. We will speak of the various solids and fluids of the body by name, only in connection with their ailments and their care hereafter. The tissues themselves are composed of fifteen of the sixty-five chemical elements, or simple substances, known to exist in nature.
The various organs of similar structure and common purpose found in the human body, when taken together, are called a system.
These are the Osseous System, the Muscular System, the Digestive System, the Circulatory System, the Respiratory System and the Nervous System. The Osseous System means the skeleton, which gives shape to the body and supports it, enables us to move and extend our limbs, and protects the delicate organs from injury. The Muscular System is the flesh of the body, forming a pad or covering around the bones, and thus also serving as a protection, in addition to producing at will the motions of our limbs and the controllable organs. The Digestive System is composed of those organs which receive, transmit and dispose of our food, separating the waste matter from the useful, and giving the latter to our nourishment and strength. The mouth, the stomach, the intestines, and various other organs are included in this service.
The Circulatory System includes the heart, the arteries, the veins and the capillaries, those organs which transmit and purify the blood, building up all other organs by this essential fluid which is life. The Respiratory System is that which transmits the air and makes use of it in the body for purifying the blood, thus including the lungs, and the passages and valves which lead thither. The Nervous System is that part of the organism by which the different parts of the body are controlled and caused to work together, and through which mind and body are connected. The brain, the spinal cord, the nerves and the ganglia of the nerves are the organs of the Nervous System. They have been compared most appropriately to an intricate telegraph system, of which the brain is the head office or directing intelligence, the spinal cord is the main line, the nerves are the wires running to every station, and the ganglia are the stations themselves.
In addition to these general systems which have been named we must take note also of the skin, which covers the whole exterior of the body; the mucous membrane, which covers the open cavities and lines the organs; the urinary organs, which separate and discharge the liquid waste of the body and thus are akin to the digestive system; and the organs of generation and reproduction by which the race is perpetuated.
PROPER FOOD AND ITS IMPORTANCE
To keep all of these various tissues and organs in health, as has been suggested heretofore, we must be properly nourished by the most suitable food. It is of prime importance, therefore, to know the true value of foods in order that we may select wisely. To a higher degree than is commonly realized, our physical welfare depends on this matter. We are not speaking here of food for the sick, but of food for the well, not of special delicacies, but of the every-day food of the average household the practical subject for the practical man, woman or child. Let us see what we may learn from the researches of the wisest students who have considered the subject. It is not necessary here to go into the chemical analysis which has proved the following facts, for facts they are. They may be accepted absolutely as safe guides, with the assurance that only benefit can result.
The popular division of foods into animal and vegetable is neither scientific nor satisfactory. Not that it is a matter of indifference whether man lives on a purely animal or purely vegetable diet or on one derived from both kingdoms, but the differences depend not on the source whence the foods are obtained, but on the proportions in which the various food elements are combined, and on the digestibility and other special properties of the foods selected. The materials supplied in the form of food, and digested and absorbed by the body, are partly employed for building up growing organs and making good the wear and tear—the loss of substances—which they are constantly undergoing, and partly as fuel for the production of heat and of energy.
Speaking roughly, raw meat of ordinary quality consists of water seventy-five per cent, albumen and nitrogenous matters twenty per cent, and fat five per cent. Although meat becomes more tender by keeping, it is more wholesome while fresh, and freshness should not be sacrificed for a tenderness really due to the beginning of decomposition. The flesh of mature cattle, that is, four or five years old, is more nutritious than that of younger ones. It is a matter of experience that beef and mutton are more easily digested than veal and pork. Veal broth, however, contains more nutritious matter than mutton broth or beef tea. Poultry and wild birds, if young, yield a tender and digestible meat. Fish vary much in their digestibility, salmon, for instance, being utterly unfit for weak stomachs. Crabs and lobsters are notoriously indigestible.
Milk is the sole nourishment provided by nature for the young of man and beast, and contains all food stuffs in the best proportions for the infant’s needs. But milk alone is not adapted to the adult. Supplemented by other food, however, it is invaluable and not appreciated as it ought to be. Cheese is highly nutritious, but not very digestible. Eggs resemble milk in composition, except that they contain less water. The nearer raw the more digestible they are, and the yolk is more so than the white, which, when hard boiled, is the most indigestible form of albumen known. The addition of eggs to baked puddings is of questionable utility, and next to a raw egg, well beaten, in milk or water or in soup or beef tea, not too hot, a light boiled custard is the best form for invalids.
From the earliest ages the grains or cereals have formed a portion of man’s diet. Wheat has always been the most esteemed, and some varieties of it may be grown in every climate except the very hottest and coldest. Barley, rye and oats may be grown much farther north, but are less digestible. Oatmeal cannot be made into bread, rye bread is rapidly being displaced by wheat, and barley has almost entirely fallen into disuse, except for the purposes of the brewer and distiller. In the tropics rice is the chief cereal. It consists almost entirely of starch, and is thus unfit for bread making. Our own corn, which we inherit from the Indians and have immensely improved, is of all the cereals the nearest approach to a perfect food.
Among roots the potato holds the most prominent place. Potatoes are wholesome only when the starch granules, which compose them, are healthy, as shown by their swelling out during boiling, bursting their covering, and converting themselves into a floury mass, easily broken up. They contain from twenty to twenty-five per cent of nutriment, but this is almost entirely starch, and as a food in combination with meat, cheese or other vegetables, they are not equal to rice. Parsnips, beets and carrots are wholesome and nutritious, and should be used much more than they are. Turnips are not so valuable. Cabbages and their kindred have but little food value, although the salts they contain are excellent in the preservation of health. As regards green vegetables in general the importance of having them fresh is not sufficiently realized. When they have been cut some days changes occur just as truly as in animal food, and the freshness should be carefully watched, except with those specially adapted for storing.
Salads are useful in maintaining the health, although many of them are very indigestible, those of radishes, celery and cucumbers among the list. Fruits are prized chiefly for their taste. Grapes alone, among fresh fruits, contain any large proportion of food stuff. As an aid to digestion, however, they all are properly highly prized. Fruits should be fully ripe, but without any trace of decomposition.
Stimulants and condiments of high seasoning have little food value of their own, but they have value as aids to digestion when used moderately, and in making simpler foods more palatable. Alcoholic liquors, whether mild or strong, hardly need to be considered here. It is to be gravely doubted if such beverages are ever necessary or of value in the diet, and in this place we are not considering them from any other point of view.
It is equally difficult to speak positively and generally in reference to tea and coffee. It is safe to say, however, that many people drink these tempting beverages to excess, with harm resulting to themselves from it. Tea and coffee alike act as exciters of the nerve centers, accelerating and strengthening the heart’s action and respiration, causing wakefulness, and increasing the secretion of the kidneys and skin. Tea and coffee are far superior to alcohol in enabling man to resist the depressing influence of fatigue and exposure to cold, and are admirably adapted to the needs of soldiers on the march or men on outdoor night duty. Cocoa, chocolate and their preparations contain some active elements similar to those of tea and coffee, but the proportion of nutritive material is so much greater that they are to be looked on rather as food than drink.
The considerable use of ice and iced drinks is to be avoided. Small quantities are of service in relieving thirst and vomiting, and in cooling the body when exposed to great heat. But since ice causes the mucous membrane of the stomach to become temporarily pale and bloodless, it checks or altogether suspends the flow of the gastric juice. Thus iced drinks at meals interfere seriously with digestion. Observe also that there is no truth in the popular notion that frozen water or ice is always pure. Water is not purified by freezing, and may be even more polluted than it was before.
CLOTHING AND ITS RELATION TO HEALTH
Having considered thus briefly the matter of food and its relation to health, the question of clothing and personal hygiene now rises for attention. Besides serving for covering and adornment and guarding the body from injury, the use of clothing is to help in preserving the proper animal heat in spite of external changes. In health the normal temperature of the body, ninety-eight to ninety-nine degrees Fahrenheit, is invariable. In order that this temperature shall be maintained with the least strain on the vitality, the clothing should be such that heat is not readily conducted to or from the body.
Cotton and linen keep off the direct rays of the sun and favor the loss of heat from the body, but being bad absorbers of moisture they are apt to interfere with evaporation from the skin, and cause dangerous chills. Linen and cotton are good conductors of heat, especially the former, and do not readily absorb moisture. Silk and wool are bad conductors. Wool has also a remarkable power of so completely absorbing moisture that it feels dry when cotton or linen would be wet and cold. Its value as a non-conductor, retaining internal heat and excluding external heat, is shown by the fact that we wrap ice in blankets to keep it from melting, and cover teapots with woolen “cosies” to keep them from getting cold. These qualities together render it the most perfect material for clothing under all conceivable circumstances.
The young and the old, the rheumatic, all persons liable to colds or weak in lungs, or who have suffered from kidney diseases, those who are exposed to great heat or cold or are engaged in laborious exercises, ought to wear woolen next to the skin and, indeed, everyone would be better for doing so. Rheumatic persons and those liable to cold feet will find it a great luxury to sleep in blankets in winter instead of sheets, and young children who are apt to get uncovered at night should wear flannel night-gowns next the skin in the winter and over cotton ones in the summer.
The color of clothing is a matter of little importance in the shade, but in the sun the best reflectors are coolest, such as white and light grays, while blue and black are the worst, absorbing the most heat. Dark colors also absorb odors more than light colors do. Indeed, for every-day use light-colored garments of whatever material, provided it can be washed, are to be recommended, though dark colors are too often preferred because they do not show the dirt. What woman would like to wear a cotton waist and skirt six months without washing? Yet it would not be half so dirty as the more absorbent dark woolen dress that she would wear as long without a scruple.
Beds and bedding are likewise elements of importance in the general health, although not always sufficiently considered. Soft, and especially feather, beds are weakening. The harder a bed, consistent with comfort, the better. Good hair mattresses are the most wholesome. Coverings should be light, porous enough to carry off the evaporations from the body, and yet bad conductors of heat. Most blankets are too heavy, and thick cotton counterpanes are heavy without being warm. Flannel night-dresses are much preferred to cotton at all times, both for comfort and for health. Warmer in winter, they obviate the chill of the cold sheets; while in summer they prevent the more dangerous chill when in the early morning hours the external temperature falls, when the production of internal heat in the body is at its lowest ebb and the skin perhaps bathed in perspiration—a chill which otherwise can be avoided only by an unnecessary amount of bed clothes.
THE BATH AND ITS IMPORTANCE
The dirt of the skin and underclothing consists of the sweat and greasy matters exuded from the pores, together with the cast-off surface of the skin itself, which is continually scaling away. The importance of frequent bathing will be better appreciated when we remember what are the functions of the skin, and the amount of solid and fluid matter excreted thereby. The quantity varies greatly according to the temperature and moisture of the air, the work done, and the fluids drunk, but is probably never less than five pounds or half a gallon daily, and with hard labor and a high temperature this amount may be multiplied many times. From one to two per cent of this consists of fatty salts, without taking into account the skin scales.
A good cistern, spring or well of wholesome water is a positive necessity on every farm. A bath-tub and its frequent use are quite as essential to the welfare of the farmer.
In the cities, where soot and dense coal smoke soil linen and mulch the lungs and air passages, there is necessarily a greater regard for cleanliness on the part of the inhabitants than may be observed in the country, where the agencies which oppose cleanliness are of an entirely different composition and productive of different results.
The farmer during the summer season is lightly clad—a straw or hickory hat, a strong shirt, a pair of overalls, socks and heavy shoes constituting his bodily protection. The absence of underwear—sometimes socks—is excused upon the ground that the lighter the harness the less energy is diverted from the performance of work.
Clothed as he is, the farmer when working in the fields or engaged in any farm work, soon not only gets his clothing soiled, but the pores of his skin fill with particles of dust and this retards their normal and vitally necessary functions. No vocation in life makes frequent bathing unnecessary. Farmers and miners, perhaps more than any other class of laborers, who are continually in contact with the earth, need the elevating influence, physical and spiritual, of a daily bath.
From a moral and hygienic standpoint the matter of cleanliness, which is next to godliness, is of great importance, and it is fine evidence of intellectual progress and spiritual growth when men use more water and soap at the end of the day’s work.
For purposes of cleanliness a bath without soap and friction is perfectly useless, and warm water is more effectual than cold. The shock of a cold plunge or sponge bath, however, has a powerful invigorating influence on the nervous system, and helps it guard against the risks of catching cold. The purpose of health and cleanliness alike will be best served by the daily bath with cold water and once a week with warm.
Speaking of cold baths, we may take note of a popular error as to what this means. The temperature of the body is always a little under one hundred degrees F. If, then, in summer, a bath at sixty degrees F., or forty degrees below that of the body, is considered cold and gives the desired amount of shock, it will do the same in winter, and to insist on plunging into water still colder than that is, to say the least unreasonable. The cold bath, then, is one at forty degrees below the temperature of the blood, and is the same in January as in July. To bathe in water from which the ice is broken, as some do, is a result of misunderstanding or folly, and may be followed by dangerous consequences.
It is dangerous to bathe after a full meal, and also when fasting. An hour or two after breakfast is a good time, but if one wishes to bathe earlier, a bit of food should be taken first. Again it is dangerous to bathe when exhausted by fatigue, but the glow of moderate exercise is a decided advantage. A light refreshment and a short run or brisk walk are the best preparations for a swim, which should not be prolonged until fatigue and chill are felt, and should be followed by a rub-down, speedy dressing and a quick walk home.
When the resisting and rallying power and the circulation generally are weak, as shown by shivering, coldness of the extremities, and sense of exhaustion, river or sea bathing should be given up. So, too, persons whose lungs and hearts are weak, and above all those who have any actual diseases of those organs, should not attempt it. There is a general tendency among those who enjoy outdoor bathing to stay in the water too long. Boys in summer remain for hours at lake or river side, most of the time in the water. This is an exceedingly weakening practice. Half an hour is ample for all the benefit that can be derived from such a swim, and a longer time in the water is apt to be distinctly injurious.
HOT WEATHER BATH SUGGESTIONS
A good health preservative, especially in summer and in warm climates, is to sponge the body with water which contains a small amount of ammonia or other alkali. The ammonia combines with the oil or grease thrown out by the perspiration, forming a soap which is easily removed from the skin with warm water, leaving the pores open and thus promoting health and comfort.
SLEEP AND ITS VALUE
No general rule can be laid down as to the number of hours which should be passed in sleep, since the need of sleep varies with age, temperament, and the way in which the waking hours have been employed. The infant slumbers away the greater part of its time. Young children should sleep from six to seven in the evening, until morning, and for the first three or four years of their life should also rest in the middle of the day. Up to their fourteenth or fifteenth year the hour of retiring should not be later than nine o’clock, while adults require from seven to nine hours. Some can do with two or three hours less than this, but they are so few that they offer no examples for us to follow.
Insufficient sleep is one of the crying evils of the day. The want of proper rest of the nervous system produces a lamentable condition, a deterioration in both body and mind. This sleepless habit is begun even in childhood, when the boy or girl goes to school at six or seven years of age. Sleep is persistently put off up to manhood and womanhood.
Persons who are not engaged in any severe work, whether bodily or mental, require less sleep than those who are working hard. Muscular fatigue of itself induces sleep, and the man who labors thus awakes refreshed. But brain work too often causes wakefulness, although sleep is even more necessary for the repair of brain than of muscular tissue. In such cases the attention should be forcibly withdrawn from study for some time before retiring to rest, and turned to some light reading, conversation or rest before going to bed. A short brisk walk out of doors just before bed time may aid the student in inducing sleep. Drugs should be avoided.
After a heavy supper, either sleep or digestion must suffer, but the person who goes to bed hungry will not have sound and refreshing sleep. If one works after supper, through a long evening, he should eat a light lunch of some sort an hour or two before bed time.
Ordinarily persons do best to retire at ten or eleven, and the habits of society which require later hours are to be regretted. Brain work, however, after midnight is most exhausting, and though sometimes brilliant, would probably be better still if diverted to earlier hours. Whatever be the explanation, it is an undoubted fact that day and night cannot be properly exchanged. About one or two o’clock in the morning the heart’s action sinks, and nature points to the necessity for rest. Sleep in the day time does not compensate for the loss of that at proper time, and slumbers prolonged to a late hour do not refresh the mind or body as does sleep between the hours of eleven and six or seven, the normal period for rest.
Old persons require, as a rule, less sleep than those of middle age, just as they require less food, because their nutritive processes are less active than when they were younger, and perhaps because their mental efforts also are less forced and attended by less exertion and more deliberation. Women, generally speaking, require more sleep than men, at least under like circumstances, apparently because in their case the same efforts involve greater fatigue.
VENTILATION OF BEDROOMS
Rooms which are to be slept in after having been occupied during a whole evening must be thoroughly ventilated before the occupant prepares for bed. Doors and windows must be thrown open for several minutes, the gas or lamp put out, and the air completely changed, no matter how cold it may be outside. This is the only way to obtain refreshing sleep. On going to bed the usual ventilating arrangements should then be followed, but the great point is to change the air thoroughly first.
REGULARITY OF HABITS
The importance of regularity and punctuality in every circumstance of daily life is not sufficiently realized. The more often and regularly any act is performed the more automatic it tends to become, and the less effort, whether mental or physical, attends its performance. This is a matter of daily experience and observation, and is true not only of mental work and manual or mechanical exercises, but of the organic functions of the body. Quite apart from the harm done by too frequent eating or too prolonged periods between meals or want of rest, the brain finds itself ready for sleep, the stomach for digestion and the bowels for action at the same hour every day, when these acts are performed with unbroken punctuality, and the strain upon the system to adjust itself to new conditions is therefore reduced to a minimum.