Chapter 1

BY ALVIN DAVISON, M.S., A.M., PH.D. PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY IN LAFAYETTE COLLEGE

NEW YORK · CINCINNATI · CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY ALVIN DAVISON.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON.

HEALTH LESSONS. BK. 1. W. P. 6

PREFACE

Scarcely one half of the children of our country continue in school much beyond the fifth grade. It is important, therefore, that so far as possible the knowledge which has most to do with human welfare should be presented in the early years of school life.

Fisher, Metchnikoff, Sedgwick, and others have shown that the health of a people influences the prosperity and happiness of a nation more than any other one thing. The highest patriotism is therefore the conservation of health. The seven hundred thousand lives annually destroyed by infectious diseases and the million other serious cases of sickness from contagious maladies, with all their attendant suffering, are largely sacrifices on the altar of ignorance. The loving mother menaces the life of her babe by feeding it milk with a germ content nearly half as great as that of sewage, the anemic girl sleeps with fast-closed windows, wondering in the morning why she feels so lifeless, and the one-time vigorous boy goes to a consumptive's early grave, because they did not know (what every school ought to teach) the way to health.

Doctor Price, the Secretary of the State Board of Health of Maryland, recently said before the American Public Health Association that the text-books of our schools show a marked disregard for the urgent problems which enter our daily life, such as the prevention of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and acute infectious diseases.

Since the observing public have seen educated communities decrease their death rate from typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and diphtheria from one third to three fourths by heeding the health call, lawmakers are becoming convinced that the needless waste of human life should be stopped. Michigan has already decreed that every school child shall be taught the cause and prevention of the communicable diseases, and several other states are contemplating like action. This book meets fully the demands of all such laws as are contemplated, and presents the important truths not by dogmatic assertion, but by citing specific facts appealing to the child mind in such a way as to make a lasting impression.

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

Nearly all of the illustrations used are from photographs and drawings specially prepared for this book. These, together with the large amount of material gleaned from original sources and from the author's experiments in the laboratory, will, it is hoped, make this little volume worthy of the same generous welcome accorded the two earlier books of this series.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. CARING FOR THE HEALTH 9

II. PARTS OF THE BODY 15

III. FEEDING THE BODY 21

IV. FOOD AND HEALTH 30

V. HOW PLANTS SOUR OR SPOIL FOOD 36

VI. MILK MAY BE A FOOD OR A POISON 41

VII. HOW THE BODY USES FOOD 47

VIII. THE CARE OF THE MOUTH 60

IX. ALCOHOLIC DRINKS 68

X. ALCOHOL AND HEALTH 74

XI. TOBACCO AND THE DRUGS WHICH INJURE THE HEALTH 78

XII. THE SKIN AND BATHING 85

XIII. CLOTHING AND HOW TO USE IT 94

XIV. BREATHING 100

XV. FRESH AIR AND HEALTH 111

XVI. THE BLOOD AND HOW IT FLOWS THROUGH THE BODY 117

XVII. INSECTS AND HEALTH 127

XVIII. HOW THE BODY MOVES 135

XIX. THE MUSCLES AND HEALTH 144

XX. HOW THE BODY IS GOVERNED 149

XXI. HOW NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS AFFECT THE BRAIN AND NERVES 158

XXII. THE SENSES, OR DOORS OF KNOWLEDGE 165

XXIII. KEEPING AWAY SICKNESS 174

XXIV. HELPING BEFORE THE DOCTOR COMES 183

INDEX 189

HEALTH LESSONS