Part 9
=Chair Exercises.=--A light chair, grasped firmly by the outer upright supports of the back, with the two hands, and swung vigorously around the head ten to twenty times, first in one direction, then in the other, will afford one of the best simple exercises known. It brings into play the muscles of the hands, arms, legs, and many parts of the body, and if repeated at short intervals will not only increase the respiration and stimulate the circulation, but will also start the perspiration. The intervals should be occupied with exercises that bring into play other muscles, as rising on the toes, stretching the legs, breathing exercises, etc.
Another valuable chair exercise consists in placing two chairs, front to front or side to side, with a space between them of about six inches more than the width of the body. Place the hands flat on the chairs, then slip the feet back, and with the toes resting on the floor and the limbs and body rigid, lower and raise the body several times. For deepening the chest and strengthening the arms and shoulders, this will be found an excellent exercise.
Unless the chair feet are spread, care must be taken to place the hands well within the edge of the seat, to prevent the chairs from tipping over. One chair may be used instead of two, by grasping the sides of the seat firmly and bringing the chest nearly or quite to the front of the seat.
=Door-Jamb Exercise, No. 1.=--A light form of chest and arm exercise may be had by grasping the side jambs of a door-frame, about as high as the shoulders, and planting the feet a short distance back. Keep the lower limbs and trunk rigid, the head thrown well back, and thrust the body backward and forward from ten to twenty times.
=Door-Jamb Exercise, No. 2.=--For those having weak chests and weak arms there is no better exercise than that known as the “dips,” for which the parallel bars of the regular gymnasium are largely used. An excellent substitute for the bars may be made by boring a hole about two inches in diameter into each side of the door-frame, about waist high, and fitting to each hole a strong wooden handle or peg. These should project into the doorway with a space of eighteen to twenty inches between their inner ends in which to stand. The exercise consists in placing the hands on the pegs, and slowly raising and lowering the body a number of times by the muscles of the arms alone. At first, some assistance from the toes may be necessary. Soon the arms will be able to do the work alone. Beginning with five lifts, the number may be gradually increased to fifty. It is understood that the pegs may be removed when not in use.
If the disfigurement of the door-frame between two rooms, or room and hallway, is a serious objection, the jambs of a roomy closet door may be used, in which case the closing of the door shuts the holes from sight. Two high tables, or a foot rail of a bed and a table, or box placed firmly upon two chairs--in short, any two pieces that will afford a lift of the body, such as that described, will serve the purpose nearly as well.
=Door-Jamb Exercise, No. 3.=--By fastening two cleats or supports on the inner faces of the door-frame, with a niche or slot in each, to support a horizontal bar, extending across the doorway near the top, just within reach, a simple but very valuable piece of apparatus is ready for use. For strengthening the fingers and the grasp of the hands, as in swinging back and forth by the arms, and in developing certain arm, back, and abdominal muscles, as in lifting the body so as to touch the chin to the bar, few exercises are better. The latter was a favorite exercise of William Cullen Bryant, and one to which he attached much value. It is attended with some danger, however, and should not be attempted without preparatory drill. The sides of the bar, at the ends where it enters the cleats, should be slightly flattened, so as not to turn with the swinging motion of the body. Two or three sets of cleats may be used, adapting the height to different members of the family.
REST
=Its Necessity.=--Rest is as necessary as exercise. We cannot be active continually. Repose must succeed labor. Alfred the Great is credited with the recommendation that each day be divided into three parts, eight hours for labor, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for sleep.
=Change of Employment.=--A change of occupation affords rest. The wood chopper finds relief from his ax by using his saw. A different set of muscles is brought into play. Persons might often save themselves from excessive fatigue by the adoption of this principle. When physical labor is made to alternate with mental activity, the sense of rest is more apparent.
=Sleep.=--The best form of rest is found in sleep. All voluntary activity then ceases. Even the involuntary processes of circulation and respiration seem to share in the general restfulness, for during sleep their action is more tardy, and, as a result, the temperature of the body is somewhat lower. More covering is needed during sleep than during the waking hours.
While the body is in action, the process of pulling down predominates, but during sleep nutrition goes on, the wasted tissues are built up, and we rise refreshed and prepared for the new day’s duties.
=Amount of Sleep.=--All persons do not require the same amount of sleep. It is said that Frederick the Great slept only five hours each night. Napoleon Bonaparte could pass days with only a few hours’ rest. Persons whose labors are mental require more sleep than those who work with their hands.
The average person in good health requires eight hours’ sleep. Children, invalids, and the aged need more. Those who take less should make a careful study of themselves to ascertain whether they get all the refreshment of mind and body that they need. If sleep is insufficient, it will show itself sooner or later in general lassitude and weakness. The imperative demands of Nature are shown in the recorded instances of sailors on war vessels falling asleep on the gun-deck while their ships were in action, of soldiers falling asleep on the march, and even persons falling asleep on the rack in the intervals of their torture.
=Position While Sleeping.=--An active, healthy child will sleep well in almost any position, but a nervous, wakeful person, who is obliged night after night to woo sleep, must study what conditions are most conducive to its attainment.
Most persons sleep best on the right side. In this position the stomach is easily emptied, and the liver does not press upon the heart and stomach. Those affected with heart trouble will experience less oppression and distress in this position than by sleeping on either the back or on the left side.
=The Pillow.=--A high pillow, especially if firm and unyielding, cramps the neck and interferes with respiration and circulation. Some writers upon health advocate the use of no pillow, but most persons, either from habit or for more substantial reasons, find a pillow of moderate size to be of advantage.
=The Mattress.=--The old-time bed-ticking filled with clean oats straw, thoroughly shaken up each day, and renewed once or twice a year, made a thoroughly comfortable and wholesome bed. In these modern days, hair, cotton, felt, and corn husk are the substances most commonly employed. A good mattress is neither too soft nor too hard, but yields to the exterior bony processes of the body without engulfing the sleeper. Feathers, once very widely used, are now generally condemned by physicians and sanitarians.
=Rest During the Day.=--Almost everyone has experienced the invigorating influence of an after-dinner nap during the long days of summer. Many persons would accomplish more work by taking a rest of ten or fifteen minutes once or twice a day at all seasons of the year. To women in poor health, and to those who are overworked, this suggestion has special application. It not only rests the tired muscles but it soothes the nerves, and serves as a most refreshing tonic. Instead of being a loss of time, it will prove to be time saved. More actual work, both of hands and brain, will be accomplished, and with less expenditure of vital force. Dr. William Pepper accomplished an immense amount of work with but very little sleep. It was not unusual for him, when sorely in need of rest, to break off in the midst of his work, lie down and immediately go to sleep, and after five or ten minutes wake up refreshed.
DWELLINGS
=Site.=--In the selection of a home, due regard should be had to the site. High ground is more healthful than that which is low; a loose, dry, sandy, or gravelly soil is better than one that is wet and clayey. Made ground, as a rule, is unhealthful, as it is usually low to begin with, and is commonly filled up with earth which contains more or less organic matter.
=Soil.=--The interstices of the soil are occupied by air, or water, or both. The impurities of the soil mingle with the ground air, and render it unfit for breathing. When this ground air is forced above the surface by an influx of water or by the pressure of the heavier air above, much danger lurks in the surface atmosphere. Damp cellars and basements should be avoided, and the upper rooms of the house selected for living and sleeping rooms. Careful scientific investigation has established a close connection between cholera, typhoid fever, malarial fevers, and the rise and fall of the water in the soil.
Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, of Boston, some years ago, formulated these two propositions:
First, A residence in or near a damp soil, whether that dampness be inherent in the soil itself or caused by percolation from adjacent ponds, rivers, meadows, or springy soils, is one of the principal causes of consumption in Massachusetts, probably in New England, and possibly in other portions of the globe.
Second, Consumption can be checked in its career, and possibly--nay, probably--prevented in some instances by attention to this law.
The truth of these propositions was, later, corroborated by Dr. William Pepper, of Philadelphia, and by Dr. Buchanan, of England. It is even suspected by certain physicians that some of the prevalent diseases among horses and cattle are due to dampness of the soil.
=Drainage of the Soil.=--In view of the above facts, the importance of draining wet soil is obvious. A noted scientist states that ground in which the water is sixteen or more feet below the surface is uniformly healthy; when it is less than five feet, it is always unhealthy; and that a fluctuating level, especially if the changes are sudden, is very unhealthy. Certain trees and plants, such as the eucalyptus and the sun-flower, whose roots absorb a prodigious quantity of water which is given off through the leaves, are useful in drying wet soils.
The close connection between various forms of disease and the condition of the soil has many times been pointed out. Some years ago, the British government instituted an examination of the effects of drainage in twenty-four towns. While the results indicate a general diminution of the death-rate, the deaths from consumption show the greatest reduction. All forms of malarial disease, fever and ague, neuralgia, influenza, dysentery and other diseases of the bowels are also greatly reduced by draining wet soils.
=Duty of the Householder.=--It should be the first duty of every householder to secure perfect means for conveying beyond the walls of his domicile everything of a dangerous character that is generated within it, and to secure his home against the entrance of foul air, impure water, or unusual dampness. While the responsibilities of the dweller in the city are shared by the city officials, in that the city supplies the water and provides the sewer to carry off the waste from the kitchen, lavatory, and toilet, yet the householder needs to see that absolute cleanliness is observed, that the pipes are regularly flushed, and the traps kept in good working order, that no decomposing substances are permitted to give off their poisonous gases in cellar, alley, or yard, and that the cellar and foundation walls are free from excessive moisture. The dweller in the country has the additional responsibility of securing and preserving a pure water supply, and of providing proper means for the disposal of the waste of the household.
=Dry Cellars.=--The floor of the cellar should be covered with an impervious concrete. The foundation walls, especially if built of soft stone, should be furnished with a course of hydraulic cement or other impervious material, and the inside surface thoroughly coated with the same. Where there is a heater or furnace in the cellar, the evils of dampness are somewhat reduced during the winter months while the fires are kept going. If the soil is wet or springy, a drain of ordinary field tile of small size should be laid all around the inside of the cellar walls, and, together with the rest of the cellar floor, should be covered with concrete.
=Kitchen Drains.=--In many country houses this is the only drain, and it is often the source of incalculable mischief, due in most cases to sheer carelessness. The drain pipe need not be large--four inches in diameter is sufficient--but it must be kept free of obstruction, so that the waste from the kitchen may pass off rapidly, and no part of it be suffered to lodge, to decompose, and to send its death-distilling gases back to the kitchen, and thence through the other rooms of the house. Not only should the outlet of the kitchen drain be kept away from the well or cistern, but no part of the drain pipe should come within twenty feet of it. The best of pipes and joints, unless frequently renewed, are apt to break, and a very small aperture leading from the drain pipe into the source of supply of drinking water may endanger not only the single household but the entire community. A well of infected water in London, spoken of as “the Broad Street pump,” and famous in the annals of epidemics, is known to have caused the death of over five hundred people in a single week.
=Drinking Water.=--So large an amount of sickness has been directly traced to an impure water supply that too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the need of proper precaution. Not only should the ground about the top of the well be banked to throw off surface water, but the upper wall of the well, for a distance of five or six feet from the surface of the ground, should be laid in cement, and the space between the wall and the ground filled in with wet clay well puddled around the curbing.
If a gravel seam or loose porous rock lies between the well and the cess-pool, even when these are a considerable distance apart, there is absolute danger, unless the receptacle for the waste products of the household be made thoroughly water-tight. Without this precaution, the well may be safe for a few months or even a year or more, but sooner or later the foul fecal matter will reach the source of water supply, carrying with it disease and death. No odor or taste may mark the inflow of polluted matter. Some of the most dangerous well-waters are sparkling in appearance and refreshing to the taste.
=Sewage.=--Few subjects relating to health are of greater importance than the proper disposal of the refuse and waste matter of the household. Even if free from the specific germs of disease, the organic matters contained in sewage give rise to noxious emanations, which, when inhaled, lower the tone of the system and render it an easy prey to disease.
=Dangers of the Soil Pipe.=--It is chiefly through the soil pipe that cess-pool and sewer gas finds its way into the house. The return of these foul emanations is often caused by the force of their own expansion and sometimes by the pressure of the sewer air behind them. The water-traps afford but a slight barrier to their progress. Every drain pipe leading to cess-pool or sewer should be connected with a ventilating shaft which will carry the foul vapors above the roof of the house, and as far away from the windows as possible.
The Medical Officer for Edinburgh, in a recent report, declared that wherever water-closets had been introduced, in the course of one year there were double the number of deaths from typhoid and scarlet-fever, and that any epidemic fever occurring in these houses assumed a character of malignant mortality.
=Disinfectants.=--Chemical disinfectants are used by many good housewives, and are helpful, but they cannot be wholly relied upon. Cleanliness, ventilation, and dryness are the natural disinfectants. Artificial disinfectants can no more be substituted for them than perfumes can be made to take the place of soap and water.
=Sewer Gas.=--This poisonous gas is known chiefly by its effect. It frequently passes the water-traps and enters our sleeping and living rooms, there to do its fatal work. The alternate floods of hot and cold water open the joints of iron pipes, and allow the gas to escape. Leaden gas pipes decay and become perforated, with the same result. Dr. Fergus, in his pamphlet “The Sewage Question,” says: “For some years I have insisted on a careful examination of the soil pipes wherever I have cases of typhoid or diphtheria, and in every case where I could get this carefully carried out I have detected perforated pipes, or have found sewer air getting into the houses in some other way. In many cases the plumbers have declared pipes to be all right, which turned out to be very defective when uncovered.”
=Water-Traps.=--These are not so effective in preventing the escape of sewer gas as they are considered to be. Experiments with glass tubes shaped and arranged just as the ordinary water-traps in sinks and closets are arranged have shown that the light gases pass through by the top of the bend, and the heavy gases by the bottom. A rush of wind up the mouth of a sewer, or a heavy dash of rain which fills the sewer and reduces the air space, so increases the pressure of the gas within the sewer and soil pipe that the ordinary water-traps are not able to resist it.
Water-traps that are not used for a time become death-traps. The water soon evaporates, and affords an unobstructed channel for the conveyance of foul gases from cess-pool or sewer to the rooms of the house. Houses that are vacated for the summer, and that are without tenants for a time, should be thoroughly cleaned and ventilated, and have all pipes and drains flushed with water before being occupied.
=Size, Flow, and Fall of Drain Pipes.=--The efficiency of a drain or sewer depends upon its capacity, its slope or incline, and the velocity of its flow. If the amount of water flowing is proportionate to the size of the conduit, sewers of different sizes give the same velocity at different inclinations. A ten-foot sewer with a fall of two feet per mile, a five-foot sewer with a fall of four feet per mile, a two-foot sewer with a fall of ten feet per mile, and a one-foot sewer with a fall of twenty feet per mile will have the same velocity provided they are filled in proportion to their capacity. The ten-foot sewer will require one hundred times as much sewage as will the one-foot sewer. If it has less, the velocity of its stream will be correspondingly diminished. It is especially important, therefore, that the size of the conduit be adapted to the volume of the stream, as well as to the slope or inclination.
An experienced engineer gives a velocity of three feet per second as the least that should be allowed for the outlet drain of a house. To secure this flow a four-inch drain should have a minimum inclination of one inch in ninety-two; a six-inch drain, one in one hundred and thirty-seven; a nine-inch drain, one in two hundred and six; and to attain the above velocity of three feet per second at these inclinations they must run not less than half full. The great purpose of all modern sewage systems is to carry off all waste matters before they have time to decompose.
=Joints of Drain Pipes.=--These should be made so smooth within as not to impede the flow of sewage, nor become obstructed by catching thread, strings, hair, and other floating substances. They should be so tight as absolutely to prevent any leakage of either fluid or gaseous matter, and render impossible the entrance of the small filaments of the roots of trees growing along their course. They should be supported on solid pillars of brick or stone, and not spiked to cellar walls where a slight settling will force the joints and cause a leak. They should be so firmly supported at every point that after the joints have been cemented no possible change of direction or slope of pipe can occur. Any such change is sure to work disaster.
=Sewer Ventilation.=--No sewer is safe that does not have a free current of air passing through it. Motion and aeration are the safeguards against infection. Sewers should be constructed so as to secure a constant flow, with no sharp angles or short turns to impede its progress, and with frequent vents leading to the surface of the street. Thus diluted, the sewer gas becomes harmless, the pressure in the conduits is relieved, and the danger of the gas forcing its way through the water-traps into the living and sleeping rooms of our homes is avoided.
=Location of Closet.=--The water closet should be so placed as to have an exterior window, by means of which it may be fully ventilated. Under no circumstances should the closet open directly into the bedroom. When entered from the hallway or landing, the conditions may be improved by cutting off half of the space as a vestibule or outer apartment, thus preventing any foul odors from reaching the sleeping rooms. For reasons of convenience as well as of health the bath-room and lavatory should be separate from the water closet.
=Disposal of Garbage.=--In cities, the public authorities collect and dispose of the solid waste of the kitchen. In the country, and wherever chickens, cows, or pigs are kept, these waste substances may be utilized. Some private families burn them. Where this cannot be done they should be removed from the dwelling far enough to prevent their decomposition from giving rise to any unpleasant or unwholesome odors. No compost heap should be maintained within one hundred yards of a dwelling.
=Dry Earth Closet.=--This system of disposing of the waste matter of the household is not so well known in the United States as it is in England, where it has been in successful use for many years. The best apparatus is that invented by Rev. Henry Moule, an English clergyman.
The following claims are made for it, and they are supported by the best authorities:
1. It furnishes a comfortable closet on any floor of the house, and it may be supplied with earth and cleaned of its deposits by the servants without the intervention or knowledge of any member of the household.
2. It furnishes a portable commode in any dressing-room, bedroom, or closet, the care of which is no more disagreeable than that of an ordinary fireplace.
3. It affords appliances for the use of immovable invalids which entirely remove the distressing accompaniments of their care.
4. It provides for the complete and effectual removal of all liquid waste of sleeping-rooms and kitchen.
5. It completely suppresses the odors which, despite the comfort and elegance of modern living, still hang about cesspools and privy-vaults, and attend the removal of their contents.
The expense is trifling as compared with that of water sewerage. The care and attention needed is somewhat greater, and this probably accounts for the limited use of the system in this country. In country houses, and in small towns and villages where the facilities of a system of public sewerage are not to be had, it would seem that the advantages of the earth-closet system would commend it to general favor.