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A. R. HORNE. 
 
COMMON SENSE 
 
 HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 BY 
 
 A. E. HOENE, D. D., 
 
 Editor "Nationai. Educator," and i,ate Principai, Keystone 
 State Normai, Schooi.; Principai. Normai, Depart- 
 ment Muhlenberg Coi^i^ege ; and Institute 
 Instructor, Allentown, Penn. 
 
 ~ CHICAGO: 
 
 A. FLANAGAN, Pubi^isher 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 

 COPYRIGHT 1893 
 
 BY 
 
 A. FLANAGAN. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The author and compiler of these notes has had an experience 
 of nearly half a century as editor, lecturer and teacher. He has 
 long felt the want of a hand-book on common sense hygiene. He 
 has, in his talks before schools and on the platform, endeavored to 
 impress upon young and old, particularly parents, teachers and 
 pupils, the great importance of the preservation of the health. 
 
 The sallow complexion, and the ghastly look of many, and 
 especially of teacher and pupils, too often betray the fact that sad 
 and serious mistakes are made on the subject of hygiene. The head- 
 aches, failing of appetite, diphtheria, and even consumption, of 
 which many suffer may, too often, be traced to the school-room. 
 
 Dyspepsia is a fashionable disease in our country. The man or 
 woman who is not a dyspeptic is considered unfashionble, or is, at 
 least, an exception to the general rule. Diphtheria, sore throat and 
 bad colds are as common as mosquitos on a summer evening. When 
 the average person goes out, he must wrap a sheet or comfortable 
 around his neck, for fear of catchimg cold. He is afraid of a breath 
 of fresh air, and would rather sit or sleep for hours in the foulest 
 atmosphere, than inhale a little fresh oxygen. He fears he might 
 catch a cold. He is afraid to eat a piece of pie or of roast beef 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ^'because it won't agree with him." Miserable being he is. Greatly 
 to be pitied, indeed ! By following the ordinary rules of health 
 laid down in this book he need have no fear of roast beef not agree- 
 ing with him. 
 
 Much of this misery, through which a large portion of the 
 human family pass, can be traced to poor ventilation, especially in 
 the school-room. We have seen a fifteen by twenty school-room 
 with low ceiling crowded to its utmost capacity with children, no 
 ventilation, and the air thick enough to drive a nail in and hang a 
 hat on. We have entered such school-rooms on a dull day where 
 the air was so vitiated that we almost fainted on passing from the 
 pure, sweet out-door atmosphere into such a den of corruption. 
 Here they were, a sorry looking set, the teacher and fifty or sixty 
 pupils, more dead than alive. 
 
 At other places we have seen school-houses built with fast 
 blinds to them, so that no cheering ray of God's sunlight could 
 enter. As in a dark cellar, sat the innocent little ones six to eight 
 hours a day. How glad they were to rush out of their prison, and 
 get a glance of the glorious sunlight. What a perversion of the 
 Almighty's wisdom. Why did he not make the world without a 
 sun ? We suppose that people who build houses in this way would 
 have made the world thus, had they been the makers of it. What 
 a pity they were |not. Were we compelled to dwell in such a dun- 
 geon, some time between night and daylight we would invite a 
 Sampson to carry these gates of Gaza to a distant hill-top. By acci- 
 dent, a pane of glass might easily be broken, to admit a little fresh 
 air, where no provision has been made for it. Those teachers and 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 directors and parents who deprive innocent children of God's fresh 
 air, and his glorious sunlight, when he has made so much of it, and 
 it can be had so cheaply, are guilty of a violation of that command- 
 ment which says : ' ' Thou shalt not kill. ' ' 
 
 That the practical common sense suggestions given in a limited 
 way may be promulgated, in a wider sphere, has led to the publica- 
 tian of these notes. If they are followed the average person's 
 health will be benefitted much, while doctors and patent medicine 
 men will lose much of their patronage. 
 
 The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to HalVs 
 Journal of Health, and numerous other sources, for some of these 
 notes. They are sent forth in the hope that they may be promotive 
 of great good. 
 
 Allentown, Pa. THE AUTHOR. 
 
Common Sense Health Notes, 
 
 Common Sense Notes About Air. 
 
 Air consists of two elements, oxygen and hydrogen. 
 The latter is but a negative, being neither promotive of, 
 nor injurious to health. It is true a candle will not burn 
 when immersed in it, nor will life be sustained by it. 
 But this is simply for a want of oxygen, and not be- 
 cause the gas is poisonous. Oxygen, however, is a 
 positive element — a sustainer of combustion, and conse- 
 quently also of life. For the want of this body, life 
 would go out, just as the flame of a candle expires. 
 
 Small Bedrooms. — If a person were put to sleep in 
 a room six feet high, eight feet long, and a little over 
 four feet broad, and no air was allowed to come in from 
 without, all the life of the air would be consumed, and 
 he would die at the expiration of the eighth hour, even 
 if each breath given out could be kept to itself 
 
 Since each out-breathing vitiates the whole body of 
 air in a close chamber, as a drop of ink will discolor a 
 glass of water, it should have a thorough ventilation; 
 that is, a current of air should be passing through the 
 open fire-place and chimney, carrying before it the bad 
 air, leaving a fresher and purer in its place. 
 
 7 
 
8 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 But very few chambers in this country measure 
 twelve feet square, and consequently are not large 
 enough for one person, let alone two ; and in proportion 
 as the room is too small, in such proportion are the 
 lungs and body and blood deprived of their essential 
 food, as essential to life as water is to the fish, and in 
 such proportion are sown the seeds of disease and 
 premature death. 
 
 A man takes into the lungs in twenty-four hours 
 about sixty hogsheads of air, as in health he breathes 
 about eighteen times in a minute, on an average, for 
 the twenty-four hours, and takes in about a pint or 
 forty cubic inches at a breath. 
 
 The air, when inhaled, undergoes a change, the 
 oxygen combining with the particles of matter in the 
 body, which are carbon, forms carbonic acid gas — a 
 deadly poison. To demonstrate this, take an ordinary 
 glass jar, through a glass tube, or in its absence, a 
 smoke pipe, exhale the contents of your lungs. In or- 
 der to do this the jar must be filled with water, and then 
 inverted and held in this position, in a bucket full of 
 \^ater. As you thus exhale the contents of your lungs 
 into the jar full of water, the water will be displaced, 
 and the contents of the lungs fill the jar. Now lower 
 into this jar, before any air is admitted, a lighted can- 
 dle. The flame will immediately expire. This exper- 
 iment may be repeated several times in the same jar. 
 The reason of the light going out, is the presence, in 
 the jar, of carbonic acid gas — the same poisonous sub- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 9 
 
 Stance found at times in old cellars, wells, and other low 
 places. It is evident that where combustion is not sup- 
 ported life cannot exist — life is a continued act of com- 
 bustion. Whoever doubts this may but try to go down 
 into a well, where a candle will not bum. 
 
 This same gas accumulates wherever there is com- 
 bustion, such as fires, lights, breathing, etc. Every- 
 where, in other words, where there is not a constant 
 supply of fresh air, where there is not a constant circu- 
 lation of fresh air, the air becomes foul, contaminated, 
 poisonous. Such will be the case in a room where 
 there is breathing, or a fire or a light burning. It is 
 astonishing how soon the fresh air of even a large 
 room will become so vitiated, though there are but few 
 persons in it, that it is no longer fit for inhalation and 
 becomes positively prejudicial to life. 
 
 Breathing a bad air for a very few days may 
 introduce a poison into the system which shall so 
 impregnate it that no amount of subsequent exposure 
 to a pure atmosphere will avail to arrest its malignant 
 and fatal influences, although months and years have 
 passed away since the occurrence of the infection. 
 
 If ordinary chambers are but equal to twelve feet 
 square, and that is barely enough for one sleeper, and 
 it is the common custom for two at least to occupy such 
 a room, we have the general fact of a world of people 
 voluntarily allotting to themselves just one-half of the 
 requisite amount of air during every night of their 
 existence, by which their blood is just half purified, 
 
10 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 their systems just half washed out, just half renovated \ 
 
 An ordinary candle forms eight hundred cubic 
 inches of carbonic acid gas in an hour, an average sized 
 man does the same in half an hour. One man in a 
 room, twelve feet long, broad and high, into which no 
 fresh air is admitted, would convert the whole atmos- 
 phere into carbonic acid gas in twelve hours. The 
 only reason why thousands of persons, who going to 
 bed in good health, in a small room, are not dead 
 before morning, is because some air forces itself into 
 the room at the cracks of doors and windows. 
 
 When a person enters a room, where others have 
 been vitiating the air for some time, he feels an 
 oppressiveness, the air is close, that is, it has but little 
 oxygen. Those whose lungs are weak feel it most. 
 But, whether felt or not, inhaling bad air — air which 
 has been partly converted into carbonic acid gas, 
 injures health and destroys life gradually. 
 
 Expired air contains water}^ vapor, carbonic acid 
 gas, and animal matter, which is probably the most 
 deleterious of all. The large amount of watery vapor 
 is shown by breathing upon a cold window pane: 
 carbonic acid by blowing the breath through lime 
 water : and the presence of animal matter may be 
 detected by breathing into a laige bottle and tightly 
 corking it for several days. A fetid odor will then 
 indicate the decay of animal particles. 
 
 This exhalation imparts an odor to the breath, and 
 is the active agent in the communication of contagious 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 11 
 
 diseases. The foul air of churches, tightly closed 
 during the week, with the bad air of the previous 
 Sunday, furnishes frequent illustrations of the third 
 class of impurities. 
 
 It is a mistaken idea that carbonic acid will settle to 
 the floor, and there remain out of harm's way. By the 
 law of diffusion of gases, it is immediately disseminated 
 through the room, and, unless removed by a constant 
 supply of fresh air, cannot fail of producing injurious 
 effects. It is not enough to renew the air of the room 
 at recess at noon. The supply should be constant. In 
 many rooms the air is vitiated in less than ten minutes. 
 No physiologist pretends that less than seven cubic feet 
 of air per minute are needed for each person, and some 
 say that ten feet are necessary to maintain a proper 
 condition of the atmosphere. 
 
 Poorly Ventilated School-houses. — In many 
 cases the true cause of a dislike for school may be 
 found in a poorly ventilated house. Nor is a neglect 
 of proper ventilation confined alone to district schools. 
 In towns and cities where beautiful buildings attract 
 the eye of the visitor, where furniture and apparatus 
 are faultless, children may be found living innocently 
 in an atmosphere of poison ; inhaling the poisonous 
 effluvia which pervades the atmosphere, and is not only 
 re-breathed, but adheres to all surroundings, it sticks to 
 the walls and furniture, settles into the drinking cups, 
 food, utensils ; permeates the clothing and attaches to 
 the person. It creates a nidus which is not only in 
 
12 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 itself poisonous, but also becomes a hot-bed for planting 
 and propagating specific poisons, such as small-pox, 
 scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and the 
 whole categor}^ of epidemic diseases, and is that frightful 
 source of scrofula and consumption. 
 
 The specific poisons which perpetuate this class of 
 diseases are kept alive by the conditions common to 
 the school-rooms. 
 
 Heat intensifies, but does not cause the summer 
 poisons, and it frequently has the same efiect in over- 
 heated school-rooms at other seasons. In taking charge 
 of a school, a teacher becomes responsible, not alone 
 for the intellectual and moral development of his 
 pupils, but also for the health of the children committed 
 to his trust. 
 
 Body as well as mind require the constant care of 
 the true teacher. A teacher has as much moral right 
 to dose his pupils wdth arsenic as to permit the free 
 inhalation of carbonic acid gas, and, what is worse, 
 animal exhalations. 
 
 In one case the effects are immediately visible; in 
 the other they are frequently deferred, but just as 
 certainly go to make up the account which is balanced 
 only by disease or death. Too often the teacher can, 
 with some apparent justice, throw the responsibility 
 npon school officers and school committees. 
 
 In many districts no arrangement whatever is made 
 for lowering windows, or for the escape of foul air. 
 Farmers are always thoughtful enough to place slats 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 13 
 
 on their oarns and bam windows for the purpose of 
 securing proper ventilation for their stock. They know 
 animals will not thrive, and that they will become 
 diseased without such precaution, but the same persons 
 go together and build school-houses without one thought 
 or one care for the supply of pure air to their children. 
 But fresh air is so free and the supply so bounteous, 
 that no teacher can justly plead defective building ar- 
 rangements. Provide a place for the escape of warm foul 
 air, and a supply of new air will generally find its way 
 through crevices of doors and windows. School-houses 
 nearly always have a trap-door in the ceiling ; throw 
 that off partially, or wholly, and you will have done 
 much to secure pure air in the school-room. The air 
 may sometimes seem cool, but a temperature of sixty 
 degrees is far better than a filthy, noxious atmosphere. 
 The supply of oxygen to the lungs is a physiological 
 necessity. 
 
 In cold weather doors and windows are usually 
 closed, and the matter of pure air becomes one of 
 serious importance. During the day, the air of living- 
 rooms is pretty certain to be changed more or less by 
 the frequent opening of outside doors. During the 
 night, however, not infrequently all outside openings 
 are tightly closed, and the occupants of sleeping-rooms 
 might almost as well place themselves for the eight or 
 ten sleeping hours of night in an air-tight box. 
 
 In the morning, persons who thus deprive themselves 
 of life-giving oxygen, the great necessity of life, awake 
 
14 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 unrefreshed and dispirited, languid, pale and weak, 
 with headache, giddiness, no appetite, and many other 
 symptoms of the foul air poisoning to which the system 
 has been subjected. This accounts for a very large part 
 of the colds and other forms of physical wretchedness 
 of which a good many complain at this season of the 
 year, and which is ordinarily ascribed to the change of 
 season. The system is filled with impurities as a result 
 of deficient oxygenation of the blood, and so the body 
 becomes in a high degree susceptible to all causes of 
 vital disturbance. The reception of a few fever germs 
 is all-sufiicient to bring on a violent illness, by setting 
 fire to the fever- feeding material with which the tissues 
 are filled as the result of deficient air cleansing. 
 
 Airing Apparel of Wear. — On a clear, cool, dry 
 day, make a point of exposing wearing apparel to air 
 and sunshine. Articles of clothing are absorbents of 
 foul, poisonous gases, which in turn will be absorbed by 
 the pores of the skin, if the clothing is worn without 
 being thoroughly ventilated. 
 
 Bad Ventilation. —Many persons, more particu- 
 larly females, and especially female teachers, and girls 
 attending school, become sufferers in consequence of bad 
 ventilation, from throat troubles, headaches, nausea at 
 stomach, and the legitimate consequences of breathing 
 the fetid atmosphere of illy ventilated rooms. 
 
 The great question, however, is how to remedy 
 this state of afiairs. It certainly is not good policy to 
 lower the tops of the window-sash so as to admit the 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 15 
 
 raw, cold air on the heads, necks and backs of those 
 sitting near by. If the air-cells in the lungs were 
 opened and spread out on a wall, over four hundred 
 square feet of surface would be covered, or about as 
 much as the whole surface of the body. If the hand be 
 put in water, and then suddenly placed on any part of 
 the body, the shock of the coldness is such that it pro- 
 duces a disagreeable sensation all through the system. 
 If a bucket of cold water were dashed over our bodies, 
 immediately on coming out of a warm apartment, the 
 shock and the ill effects would prove fatal in many 
 cases, especially if this were repeated a dozen times. 
 
 The lungs are as sensitive as the skin. We breathe 
 sixteen times a minute, and thus inhale the cold air by 
 the bucketful, where it is thus thrown upon us. Hence 
 it is not to be wondered at that persons often *' catch 
 their death of cold" in the shape of pleurisy, lung 
 fever, pneumonia, bad colds and terrible chills. 
 
 How to Ventilate. Here are a few suggestions : 
 
 Always ventilate thoroughly by opening windows 
 and doors of every room, whether school room, church, 
 sleeping apartment, etc. , where there has been foul air, 
 as soon as everybody is out. This should be done at 
 recess time in school rooms, and especially in the 
 evening after dismission. 
 
 Never allow dinners or lunches to be eaten in the 
 room where persons hive been for hours beforehand. 
 This applies to factories,' workshops, etc. , as well as to 
 schools. Always compel all to go out into the open air 
 
16 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 and walk or run off the foul air for five minutes before 
 eating in such a room. Meanwhile let the room be 
 ventilated by opening doors and windows. Tr>^ this 
 and you will be delighted with the change. 
 
 Have several gymnastic or singing recesses in 
 school each half da}^, and while two or three minutes, 
 or even five are thus spent in profitable recreation, 
 throw open doors and windows, but have them closed as 
 soon as the exercise is over. 
 
 Where lowering and raising of windows must be 
 resorted to for ventilation, be exceedingly careful to 
 have all so seated that no draught of cold air can reach 
 them. Whenever a window is lowered from the top, it 
 should also be raised below, so as to allow a current of 
 air to circulate, and thus carry off the foul air. 
 
 Teach children how to breathe, how to expand 
 the chest and fill the lungs, not to inhale with mouth 
 open, but through the nose, and then when they get out 
 into the fresh air enjoin on them to inhale and exhale 
 to the full capacity of the lungs, filling every air cell. 
 This should be done several times a day, and particu- 
 larly in the night before retiring. Having a breathing 
 exercise in school, as well as a reading, an arithmetic and 
 a grammar drill. It is as necessary to learn to breathe as 
 it is to learn to spell and read. 
 
 As you value your own life and that of your child, 
 do not neglect ventilation, and if compelled to remain 
 in badly ventilated rooms any length of time embrace 
 the first opportunity to inhale fresh air out of doors. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 17 
 
 We talk in this Christian land loudly of the 
 dreadful results of paganism, and yet how much there 
 is to be learned and done at home ! We are horrified at 
 the idea of the heathen mother casting her baby into 
 the Ganges, of the wife burning a voluntary sacrifice on 
 the funeral pile of her dead husband, but what have we 
 to say of an innocent babe being not suddenly, and 
 perhaps painlessly brought to death by drowning, but 
 by a slow and tortuous process, killed off by poisonous 
 air? Or, what say we of the young man or woman 
 who commits premeditated suicide by inhaling a most 
 pestiferous, deadly poison, when God's fresh air can be 
 had without money and without price? Wake up, 
 preacher of Christ, preach a gospel of health, a gospel 
 of the salvation of the body as well as the soul, and 
 you will also thus preach Christ. Wake up, teachers, 
 and teach your pupils how to save themselves from a 
 miserable existence while they live, and an untimely 
 death, and you will be doing a most noble work. 
 Parents, impress the lessons of health upon your 
 offspring, and teach them thus to avoid misery and 
 become happy. And we who know our duty, blessed 
 are we if we do it. He that knoweth to do good, and 
 doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. 
 
18 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Health Notes for Autumn. 
 
 Autumn. — This is the season when both out of 
 doors and in the house great care must be taken of 
 health. Insufficient clothing, inconsiderate exposure, 
 and other various indiscretions are prejudicial to health. 
 Health is easily lost, but not so easily regained. An 
 ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure. 
 A little attention to the laws of health may prevent 
 much sickness and distress. Every teacher and parent 
 is responsible, to a great extent, for the health and 
 well-being of those committed to his care. Observe 
 and enforce the following common sense suggestions : 
 
 Let the clothing be sufficient, rather a little 
 uncomfortable than insufficient. It is better to don the 
 heavy underwear of winter now than to defer doing so 
 and catch a severe cold. 
 
 Avoid all exposure, such as draughts, throwing aside' 
 articles of clothing, when they become uncomfortable, 
 sitting on the porch, at an open window, on the door- 
 step, etc. 
 
 Do not bundle up the throat with scarfs, mufflers 
 nor anything else. If the throat is kept bare it will 
 become hardened like the face, and thus enabled to 
 stand almost any kind of exposure. Wrapping it up 
 makes it susceptible to changes, and readily affected 
 thereby. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 19 
 
 There is no necessity for children getting the 
 measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, scarlet fever, 
 diphtheria and similar diseases. If they are kept aloof 
 from those attacked thereby till they are outgrown, the 
 danger of taking these diseases is not very great. 
 
 The danger of taking cold is always greater in an 
 overheated room than in one a little uncomfortable, 
 provided there is no dampness. 
 
 In illy ventilated rooms the system becomes filled 
 with impurities, and thus the body becomes susceptible 
 to all kinds of vital disturbances, the reception of fever 
 germs, and various kinds of illness, of which headaches 
 are the precursors. Ventilate school rooms, sitting 
 rooms, sleeping apartments, vEntii^ate, ventilate. 
 
 In cold weather there is danger of bathing being 
 neglected. Now is the time when it is most necessary, 
 because the heavier the clothing the more the effluvia 
 of the body are retained, therefore the absolute neces- 
 sity of keeping the body clean by frequent ablutions. 
 Bathe, wash, keep the body clean. 
 
 September a Sickly Month. — September is the 
 most sickly month of the entire year. It is fruitful in 
 diarrhcea, dysentery and fevers of every description, from 
 the common fever and ague to the most malignant form 
 of bilious, congestive and yellow fever. 
 
 The causes are hot days and cool nights, and the 
 habits of individuals. Few persons have good appetites 
 in hot weather. They then resort to stimulants. The 
 stomach is taxed beyond its ability to work by eating to 
 
20 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 the fill of a stimulated appetite. The result is that the 
 food is not perfectly assimilated, and hence it makes 
 bad blood. The entire mass of blood becomes cor- 
 rupted, and the person feels unwell. Do iiot force the 
 appetite. He ** takes something,'* perhaps, whisky, 
 beer, peppermint, an appetizer, a tonic, tea, bitters, in 
 short anything or everything, Lebens^ Tinctur^ Life 
 Elixir to Schnapps, 
 
 The delicate mucous membrane or lining of the 
 stomach is irritated, he imagines he feels a gnawing 
 sensation, which indeed he does, but it is a morbid 
 sensation not a healthful craving for food, and he 
 continues to stuff himself with additional food. The 
 stomach, in fact the whole machinery of the body, is 
 nov/ taxed still more severely. The result is that the 
 body loses its vigor, its capability of resisting causes of 
 disease and warding off sickness. ' ' The slightest thing 
 in the v/orld ' ' gives such a person a cold. The reason 
 is he is full of bad blood. 
 
 The appetite gives out more and more, there is a 
 bad taste in the mouth on waking up in the morning, 
 an uncomfortable chilliness, and the person is a fit 
 subject for any cause of disease existing in the atmos- 
 phere; he becomes the first victim to any epidemic. 
 
 It is customary at this season to attribute to the 
 morbid influence of ** malaria'' many^ of the diseases 
 which are really the result of exposure to midday heat 
 and nocturnal chilliness. The air temperature is now 
 subject to great diurnal range because the solar heat 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 21 
 
 absorbed by the soil during sunshine hours is rapidly 
 thrown oiF at nightfall. On the far western plains 
 thermal changes of thirty-two degrees in twenty-four 
 hours have recently been reported. These daily vicissi- 
 tudes are less marked near the sea coast and at some 
 points in the arctic regions, as Melville Island. During 
 the winter the midnight and the midday temperatures 
 are almost identical. But in all the middle latitudes, 
 even on our Atlantic seaboard, the contrasts are very 
 sensible. Excursionists and travelers especially should 
 keep out of the night air, and if all classes would be 
 prudent in this respect we should hear but little of 
 malarial fevers in autumn. 
 
 The miasm generated by decaying vegetable matter, 
 mud, leaves, plants, roots, etc., when the noonday sun 
 shines upon them, rises into the air. At night this air 
 is condensed, becomes heavy, falls to the ground, is 
 breathed in the swamps of the South, on the banks of 
 rivers, along the shores of lakes, along streams in 
 valleys, but more particularly on elevated ground, and 
 produces the diseases mentioned above. 
 
 How to Escape Malaria. — How can a person 
 escape these malign effects? Ivive plainly, temper- 
 ately, exercise abundantly, work off the bad blood and 
 effete matter in the system ; do not overload the stomach, 
 use no stimulants, avoid pepper, salt and spices in 
 general ; the less meat the better, except a good piece 
 of beefsteak for breakfast, avoid corn bread especially, 
 also bacon — hear it, southern friends, dispense with 
 your bacon; no bacon ! no bacon ! 
 
22 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Never go out of doors before you have some 
 warm food in the stomach, particularly a cup of good 
 strong coffee, none of your cloudy, muddy stuff in 
 which the coffee has been omitted. Ripe fruit, eaten in 
 season, is always healthful. But sometimes the fruit is 
 eaten unripe and frequently these damp, murky days 
 decay begins almost the moment it is ripe. When it is 
 thus eaten it is no longer in a healthful condition. In 
 this state it is poisonous and breeds disease. As such it 
 should be shunned. 
 
 All decaying matter should be carefully and con- 
 scientiously removed whether in cellar, pantry, 
 outbuildings, yard, garden, street, alley or farm. Allow 
 no rotting fruits or vegetables about the premises. 
 Search from cellar to garret daily, and remove whatever 
 is suspicious without delay. 
 
 This state of things, if permitted, is a prolific 
 breeder of disease. Better pay the children a small 
 sum to gather up and haul away this refuse than to pay 
 a large doctor's bill and entail suffering, sickness and 
 death on you and yours. 
 
 Here, by the way, let us also again shock the 
 pseudo modesty of some by calling attention to the 
 vital necessity of cleaning and disinfecting cesspools 
 and privies. The damp air carries the poisonous 
 emanations to your own and neighboring buildings, to 
 say nothing of the stench and vile odors which 
 arise from them in damp weather. Buy a pound of 
 copperas and dissolve it in two gallons of water. Pour 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 23 
 
 the solution by the tincupful into water closets and 
 around the building. 
 
 Do it at once. Delays are dangerous. . Save your- 
 self and family. 
 
 Dampness Causes Sickness. — The raw, damp 
 mornings and evenings are fruitful causes of colds and 
 sickness. Damp walls, damp rooms, damp cellars, 
 damp ground and damp clothes are productive of heavy 
 colds. Sitting in a damp room until one feels chilly, 
 dressing in damp clothes which have been lying about 
 on damp floors in the night, damp parlors, sitting 
 rooms and school rooms, in which there are as yet no 
 fires, will swell the sick list and mortality bill most 
 fearfully. 
 
 What is to be done? The weather cannot be 
 changed. These cool, damp September nights visit us 
 every year, only some years more so than others, as the 
 season is more wet than dry. Now is the time for 
 fever, this is the month malign. We cannot change 
 the month, but we can guard against exposing our- 
 selves unnecessarily to the dampness, or remaining 
 long in a damp, chilly room. 
 
 Fires must be made to take off the dampness, even 
 if for only half an hour in a day. Undergarments 
 must again be worn. Avoid being out in the dampness, 
 especially after nightfall. Always have a bright fire 
 after sunset. Do not retire at night into a damp bed, 
 even if it only feels damp. Do not ''slip on'* your 
 damp clothes feeling sticky, like molasses, where they 
 
24 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 touch the body. Keep windows and doors closed until 
 the sun shines out brightly again. Remember that 
 diphtheria, scarlet fever, malaria, rheumatism, etc., 
 are getting in their deadly work, and will carry off to 
 the grave their victims by thousands this fall again, not 
 only children, but also adults. Will you be one of 
 them? Multitudes of children are taken sick with 
 different maladies, resulting from damp school rooms, 
 with possibly water in the cellars. Nine-tenths of 
 these diseases and deaths are avoidable. It is our duty 
 toward God to do all in our power to preserve our 
 health and a clean, dry, warm room will go far toward 
 accomplishing this. 
 
 Parents, see that your children wear underclothing; 
 begin now ; never mind a few warm or even hot days ; 
 they can be endured much better than subsequent 
 sickness ; the cool, damp days and nights will soon 
 have the majority. Do not allow children to run 
 around with bare feet and damp stockings at this 
 season. Make them eat something warm before they 
 go out in the morning. It will not hurt you to observe 
 the same rules, though children are more sensitive and 
 hence get sick more frequently. 
 
 Teacher, you especially are under obligations to 
 God and to children and their parents to enjoin the 
 observance of the laws of health upon the young. You 
 will have to answer at the bar of your conscience, and 
 at the day of judgment, if you are derelict in these 
 matters. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 25 
 
 Observe the I^aws of Health. — In general keep 
 a fire in the living room, night and morning, on these 
 September days, when it is hot in the middle of the 
 day, but cool and damp at its beginning and close. If 
 you have a good old-fashioned hearth, so much the 
 better. Keep bright fire on it; nothing is more 
 pleasant or healthy. Do not think because you have a 
 fire 3^ou must shut the doors. This is better than 
 quinine for keeping off malaria. Fruit, peaches, 
 apples, pears and grapes are much more healthful than 
 pastry and pudding. Trust in God and you will have 
 done your duty, and most likely escape the evils of the 
 month malign. 
 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Apoplexy. 
 
 Description. — This disease has become very com- 
 mon of late years. The word Apoplexy means * 'stricken 
 from;'' a description given by the Greeks, under the 
 feeling that it was of unearthly origin. The person falls 
 down as if stricken with death. There is neither thought, 
 feeling, nor voluntary motion. There is no sign of life, 
 except that of heavy breathing. It comes on with the 
 suddenness of the lightning's flash, and with as little 
 premonition. A common fainting fit occurs suddenly, 
 but there is no breathing, no pulse, and the face is pale 
 and shrunken. In apoplexy, if the person is not really 
 dead, the face is flushed, the breathing loud, and the 
 pulse full and strong, usually. In mild attacks, a 
 person is found in bed of a morning apparently in a 
 sound sleep ; but if so, he can be easily waked up. In 
 apoplexy no amount of shaking makes any impression. 
 The earliest Greek writers described apoplexy with a 
 minute accuracy, which has scarcely been exceeded 
 since, showing that it is a malady belonging to all time. 
 To pass from apparent perfect health to instant death 
 on entering one's own dwelling, or sitting down to the 
 family table, or while at the happy fireside, in the 
 loving interchange of afiectionate ofiices, strikes us as 
 being perfectly terrible. But the terror belongs to the 
 witness ; the victim is as perfectly destitute of thought, 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 27 
 
 feeling, sensation, and consciousness, for the time being, 
 as if the head had been taken off by a cannon t ball. In 
 many cases, after lying for hours and even days in a 
 state of perfect insensibility, the patient wakes up as if 
 from an uneasy sleep or dream; but often, as many 
 sadly know, there is no return to life again. The 
 essential nature of the disease seems to be such an 
 excess of blood in the brain that its appropriate vessels 
 or channels cannot contain it, and it is ' 'extra vasated,'* 
 let out, upon the substance of the brain itself, and thus 
 arrests the functions of life. Persons with short necks, 
 who are * 'thick-set," corpulent, are almost the sole 
 subjects of apoplexy, when not induced by falls, blows, 
 shocks, and overdoses of certain drugs. 
 
 Apoplexy Avoidable. — Apoplexy is an avoidable 
 disease, except in some cases of accidents, which we 
 can neither foresee nor prevent ; it is, essentially, too 
 much blood in the brain. This blood is either sent 
 there too rapidly, or, when there, is detained in some 
 unnatural manner, the essential effect being the same. 
 Whatever "excites the brain" does so by sending an 
 unnatural amount of blood there ; such as intense and 
 long thought on one subject. Also all kinds of liquors, 
 containing alcohol, whether ale, beer, cider, wine or 
 brandy, excite the brain, and endangers apoplexy. So 
 will a hearty meal, especially if alcoholic drinks are 
 taken at the same time ; going to bed soon after eating 
 heartil}^, sleeping on the back, if corpulent, may bring 
 on an attack any night ; so will a hot bath, so will a 
 
28 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 cold bath soon after eating. The ultimate effects of all 
 opiates are to detain the blood in the brain, while the 
 things just mentioned send it there in excess. The 
 great preventives are v/arm feet, regular daily bodily 
 habits, eating nothing later than three o'clock p.m., and 
 the avoidance of opiates, tobacco and all that can intox- 
 icate. In case of an attack send for a physician. 
 Meanwhile, put the feet in i^^^f water, and envelop the 
 head with cold water ; ice is still better. It is safer to 
 live in a hilly than level country, in town than country. 
 Winter is more dangerous than summer. The liability 
 increases rapidly after forty years of age, greatest at 
 sixty, when it gradually diminishes. Statistics seem to 
 show^ that the most dangerous years are forty-eight, fifty- 
 eight, sixty-six, while forty-six and forty-nine are almost 
 exempt. The well-to-do are more liable than the labor- 
 ing. Sudden changes of weather promote attacks. Let 
 the liable, especially, live in reference to these well-es- 
 tablished facts. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 29 
 
 Bathing. 
 
 All Should Bathe. — Every person should take a 
 good wash, a thorough bathing, once a week, a thor- 
 ough washing of the whole body with soap, water 
 and a brush. Do not remain in the water longer than 
 ten minutes, and keep in active motion all the time. 
 Never bathe on a full stomach. The hands, face, 
 neck, throat, arm and armpits should be washed once 
 a day. 
 
 Spring is the time of the year that baths are needed 
 most. Warm weather coming on induces more sensible 
 and insensible perspiration than in winter time, and 
 hence the importance of more frequent baths. The 
 Sanitary World says : ' ' Warm baths will prevent the 
 most virulent diseases. A person who may be in fear 
 of having received infection of any kind should take a 
 warm bath, suffer perspiration to ensue, and then rub 
 dry. Dress warmly to guard against taking cold. If 
 the system has imbibed any infectious matter, it will be 
 removed by resorting to this process, if done before the 
 infection has time to spread over the system ; and even 
 if some time has elapsed the drenching perspiration 
 that may be induced by hot water will be very certain 
 to remove it. 
 
 In cases of congestion, bilious colic, inflammation, 
 etc., there is no remedy more certain to give relief In 
 
30 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 cases of obstinate constipation, also, wonderful cures 
 have been wrought. For sore throat, diphtheria and 
 intiammation of the lungs, a hot compress is one of the 
 most potent remedies. ' ' 
 
 The trouble sometimes is to find conveniences for 
 a bath, especially at school. The pupils at our Soldiers' 
 Orphan Schools bathe in pickle barrels, six of them 
 being "dumped in '' at a time, and the same water used 
 for about twenty-five and one towel for fifty. Such 
 bathing is worse than none. In many of the normal 
 schools, boarding schools and colleges there are no pro- 
 visions whatever for bathing. Many homes of our land 
 have none, and the worst of the matter is that, in con- 
 sequence, many persons have not had their entire bodies 
 bathed since the days of their babyhood. They live in 
 spite of the fact that the crust of ages has accum-ulated 
 on their bodies, but many of them live miserably, com- 
 plaining, aching, suffering and breeding disease all the 
 time. 
 
 I/Uxury of the Bath.— O what a luxury a good 
 warm bath, followed by a thorough rubbing with a 
 coarse towel is ! Be determined to have it. You can 
 get it even when at school, or in a home where there 
 are not the conveniences of a bath tub and warm water. 
 
 An alcohol lamp and pan with a handle to it will 
 answer for the purpose of heating water where it cannot 
 be had in the kitchen. The entire arrangement will 
 not cost fifty cents. In almost any school or family, 
 however, a wash-basin full of hot water can be had. A 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 31 
 
 Sponge, a good soft Turkish wash rag, a rough towel 
 and a warm room will constitute your bathing facilities. 
 With these, if you have no better conveniences, bathe 
 your entire body at least once or twice a week, wherever 
 you are, in school or at home, domi militaeqice^ and 
 you v/ill be surprised at the store of health and Com- 
 fort received. It will be value received in full. 
 
 Necessary to Health. — Among all the appliances 
 for health and comfort to mankind, we may safely say 
 there is nothing so well known, so useful and withal so 
 comforting and yet so little practiced, so carelessly and 
 thoughtlessly neglected as judicious bathing. The 
 $kin of the human body, from head to foot, is a network 
 of pores which ought always to be kept free and clear of 
 obstructions. These pores are the openings into minute 
 tubes or channels, which lead through unseen meander- 
 ings into the sanctum of life within. 
 
 To those blessed with good health, a bath as a 
 common sense appliance, gives thrift and growth to 
 healthy functions, a brightness and delightful serenity, 
 a clearness of mind and buoyancy of spirit. It is 
 certainly a blessing to both mind and body. For the 
 mental worker it is a nerve tonic. A thorough immer- 
 sion in water of proper temperature will calm and give 
 strength and tone to his whole system. The indoor 
 laborer who gets but a scanty supply of fresh air, needs 
 a bath to obtain those invigorating elements so common 
 in the open air. 
 
 The outdoor laborefr— especially the farmer — who 
 
I 
 32 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 works with heroic energy all day long, unavoidably 
 gathers on the entire surface of his body a complete 
 prison wall of dust and thickening, gummy perspira- 
 tion ; and when his day's work is done he needs then, 
 more than any other thing, not only a wash but a good, 
 luscious, full bath to fit him for a clean bed and a 
 refreshing sleep. 
 
 The glutinous mass of perspiration, dust and filth, 
 which gathers on the surface of the body naturally 
 covers and clogs the pores, and often enters them and 
 poisons the system. To remove that filth frequent 
 ablutions and occasional immersion in water are 
 exceedingly desirable and usually indispensible to 
 health and comfort ; consequently every family should 
 have a convenient bath — and a full bath, too — of some 
 kind, not only for general neatness of person, so 
 desirable to every individual of taste and culture, but 
 as a means of preserving health, and in many cases, 
 especially under the advice of a good physician, as the 
 safest, pleasantest and one of the most powerful and 
 efficient means of combating disease. Baths assist in 
 curing any disease. Directed by good judgment and 
 wise counsel, a bath is a valuable auxiliary to other 
 remedies, and it can be used when internal remedies 
 cannot. In the long catalogue of diseases to which 
 flesh is heir, scarcely one can be named in the treatment 
 of which a bath is useless. In an emergency, which 
 often happens when least expected, as in cholera, 
 cholera infantum, cholera morbus, cramps, fits, etc., a 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 33 
 
 pliable, portable bath wliicb requires but little water, 
 ready at just the right time, may save some precious 
 life. 
 
34 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 ^ 
 
 The Blood. 
 
 Purifying the Blood. — Natural means are the 
 best for purifying the blood in cases where the indi- 
 vidual is in good health, and so able to employ them. 
 To ^ ' physic ' ' for this end — whether with the old- 
 fashioned '^sulphur and molasses, '* or '*root beer," or 
 with any of the more modern '* tonics" or ** blood pu- 
 rifiers" — is a mistake ; as it is, also, to be bled, which 
 in cases of feebleness may be absolutely dangerous. 
 The way to purify the blood is not by putting some- 
 thing into it, or by draining it impartially, but by tak- 
 ing out of it the impure substances which it contains. 
 Nature has provided five organs for doing this — the 
 lungs, skin, kidneys, liver and bowels. 
 
 Why Impure? — The blood becomes impure for 
 one or both of two reasons : i. Something impure has 
 been put into it. 2. The five excretory organs just 
 mentioned have not been sufficiently active. In the 
 first case alter your diet, eschewing pasty, "heavy" 
 foods and everything unhygienic. In both cases set the 
 excretory apparatus in full operation. To do this for 
 the lungs take abundant exercise in the open air. The 
 more vigorous this is, short of exhaustion, the better, 
 for the quicker and deeper will be the respiration and 
 the greater will be the amount of impurity, in conse- 
 quence, thrown off. Remember that a person walking 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 35 
 
 at the rate of three miles an hour breathes three times 
 as much air as if he were sitting still, and that in more 
 active exercise the benefit received is in proportion. 
 
 To quicken the action of the skin get up a good 
 sweat. . Take hot drinks and wrap up in blankets. 
 Try a hot bath two or three times a week. Friction, 
 too, applied to the skin after bathing, is of great assist- 
 ance. If robust, though it would perhaps be an 
 extreme measure, it might be well, and could not be 
 dangerous, to take a Turkish vapor bath every day for a 
 while. 
 
 The kidneys, liver and bowels may be stimulated 
 to full action by drinking hot water in abundance — say 
 from twelve to twenty glasses a day. No better means 
 exists for accomplishing this end. Not only does it 
 stimulate the organs just named, but it cleanses the 
 stomach, liver and kidneys, and the water permeating 
 the whole body, drains impurities from it as it passes off 
 by the pores. 
 
 Hot baths take water — sometimes as much as two 
 pints of it — and, with it, impurities, out of the blood, 
 which induces thirst, and so increases the water drinking, 
 which in turn supplies the water lost, as well as increases 
 the sweating. The exercise produces sweating, which 
 causes increased water drinking ; it also invigorates the 
 action of the diaphragm, which squeezes the old bile 
 out of the liver, and that again augments the water 
 drinking. Thus each means used assists the others, 
 and the entire treatment gains cumulative impetus 
 thoroughly to do its work. 
 
36 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES 
 
 Croup. 
 
 How Croup Originates. I/ife Saving Sugges- 
 tions.— In the early part of spring many children die of 
 croup, which is simply a common cold settling itself in 
 the windpipe and spending all its force there. 
 
 The very sound of a croupy cough is perfectly 
 terrible to any mother who has ever heard it once. In 
 any forty-eight hours it may carry a child from perfect 
 health to the grave. Croup always originates Vli a cold, 
 and in nine cases out of ten this cold is the result of 
 exposure to dampness, either of the clothing or of the 
 atmosphere, most generally the latter, and particularly 
 that form of it which prevails in thawy v/eather, when 
 snow is on the ground, or about sundown in the early 
 spring season. At midday the bright sun lures the 
 children out of doors, and having been pent up all 
 winter a hilarity and a vigor of exercise are induced 
 much beyond v/hat they have been accustomed to 
 recently. They do not feel either tired or cold; but 
 evening approaches, the cool of which condenses the 
 moisture contained in the air, this rapidly abstracts the 
 the heat from the body of the child, and with a doubly 
 deleterious impression ; for not only is the body cooled 
 too quickly, but by reason of the previous exercise it 
 has been wearied and has lost a great deal of its power 
 to resist cold, hence the child is chilled. Exercise has 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 87 
 
 given it an unusual appetite, a hearty supper is taken, 
 and in the course of the night, the reaction of the chill 
 of the evening before sets in and gives fever ; the 
 general system is oppressed, not only by the hearty 
 meal; but by the inability of the stomach to digest it, 
 and fever, oppression and exhaustion, all combined 
 very easily sap av/ay the life of the child. 
 
 The first night the child wakes with a cough, but 
 it seems to pass off again. The child runs about the 
 next day and is perfectly well, but the next night the 
 symptoms are more decided, and the third night the 
 child dies. All this might have been averted, if from 
 the first night the child had been i^ept in a warm room, 
 warmly clad, the bowels kept free, and nothing eaten 
 but toast with tea, or gruel, or stewed fruits. 
 
 Children should be kept warmly clad, at 
 least until May, as in the depth of winter ; they should 
 not be allowed to remain out of doors later than sun- 
 down, when they should be brought into a warm room, 
 their feet examined and made dry and warm, their 
 suppers taken, and then sent to bed, not to go outside 
 the doors until next morning after breakfast. 
 
 Keep little children indoors the whole of all rainy, 
 thawy, raw, windy days, and always until after break- 
 fast and from and after one hour before sundown. 
 
 Remedies.— Common sense dictates the instant 
 sending for a physician in case of an attack of croup, 
 but the moment a messenger is dispatched have three 
 or four flannels, dip them in water as hot as your hand 
 
38 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 can bear and apply them successively to the throat of 
 the child, so as to keep the throat hot all the time, so as 
 to evaporate the matters which if retained cause the 
 clogging up inside which soon stops the breath. Hot 
 water should be constantly added to that into which the 
 flannels are thrown, so as to keep it all the time hot. 
 Keep the water from dribbling on the clothing of the 
 child, and see to it that the feet are dry and warm. . 
 Most likely the child will be out of danger before the 
 physician arrives, and it is pleasant to turn over the 
 responsibility on him. Loose cough, free breathing 
 and a copious discharge of phlegm indicate relief and 
 safety. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 39 
 
 Colds and Pure Air. 
 
 VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 Catching: Cold is the rule, those who escape con- 
 stitute the exception. Why should it be so ? The good 
 I^ord doeth all things well, and he certainly has as little 
 pleasure in making us uncomfortable, or punishing us 
 with bad colds, as he has in the death of the sinner. It 
 is not the good Lord, nor the good land and climate that 
 he has given us, nor the weather with its copious rain- 
 falls, for which we should be exceedingly glad, that 
 are to be blamed for our indiscretions, but it is our own 
 conduct that is at fault. For, as Bishop Heber has 
 taught us to sing, of Ceylon's isle: 
 
 "Where every prospect pleases, 
 And only man is vile," 
 
 So in reference to our complaining about suffering 
 from the weather and the climate, the true source of 
 complaint must be sought in ourselves. 
 
 Result of Imprudence. — Climate is made the 
 scapegoat of personal imprudence. If people will over- 
 heat their houses or places of business in winter, if they 
 choose to sit for an hour at a time, overcoated, shawled, 
 hatted and india-rubbered, in one another's oven-like 
 offices, and to plunge then, bathed in perspiration, into 
 an open-air temperature below the freezing point, what 
 right have they to charge the climate with their 
 
40 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 coughs, influenzas, sore throats and consumptions? 
 Nobody could be pitched out of the tropic of Capricorn 
 into the frigid zone two or three times a day without 
 damage to his breathing apparatus. 
 
 Practically, so far as difference of temperature is 
 concerned, thousands of us pass through this sort of 
 ordeal almost every winter's day. And yet sufferers 
 from diphtheria, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, etc., 
 generated by their own insane neglect of the most 
 obvious sanitary rules, are taught to believe that they 
 are the victims of climatic influences. 
 
 Keep the thermometer down to 70° in your stores, 
 counting houses, school rooms and domiciles from 
 November till April ; never sit in rooms heated even 
 to that moderate degree in your beaver cloaks, furs, and 
 promenade headgear; warm yourselves with exercise 
 instead of immoderate artificial heat ; and don't be 
 afraid to let the outside air brush the inside of your 
 dwellings, etc. , with its healthful wings, at least twice 
 every twenty-four hours. Do this, all ye who are 
 **subject" to coughs and colds that keep you barking 
 and snuffing the winter through, with a deadly-lively 
 glimpse of consumption in prospective, and we venture 
 to say you will think better of this "terrible climate** 
 next spring than you do at present. 
 
 A normal condition of the skin is the chief protec- 
 
 ion against a cold. Three-fourths of the sufferers from 
 
 catarrhal pneumonia or chronic bronchitis are found to 
 
 be in the habit of neglecting the skin. Their skin has 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 41 
 
 become degraded, and is no longer a protective cover- 
 ing for the body. 
 
 The skin needs to be hardened by the use of the 
 flesh-brush, the cold douche, the air bath, and by^ 
 frequent change of underclothing. Active exercise 
 needs to be added, to keep the tissues from clogging. 
 The time to cure the patient is before he gets the cold. 
 
 Do Not be Afraid to Co Out of Doors because 
 it is a little colder than usual. The cold air will not 
 hurt you, if you are not bathed in perspiration, and are 
 properly protected and take exercise enough to keep 
 the circulation active. On the contrary, it will purify 
 your blood, strengthen your lungs, improve your diges- 
 tion, aJBford a healthy, natural stimulus to your torpid 
 circulation, and strengthen and energize your whole 
 system. The injury which results from going into a 
 cold atmosphere is occasioned by a lack of protection to 
 some part of the body, exposure to draughts, or from 
 breathing through the mouth. 
 
 How long, oh, Lord ! how long before the people 
 will learn that the person who bundles himself or her- 
 self up in heavy clothing and thick bandages to escape 
 colds and kindred inconveniences is the person who is 
 most likely to catch cold and be troubled generally by 
 the ills he attempts to escape ? In winter one often sees 
 the foolish young man who will not go into the cold air 
 unless his neck is muffled in a silk handkerchief, or 
 shielded from the wind by the turned up coat collar. 
 And that person always has a cold. Just about this 
 
42 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 time of the year, when colds are plentiful enough, 
 youUl notice that the people who catch them are the 
 people who are forever exhibiting the utmost anxiety 
 lest they will catch them, and adopting elaborate pre- 
 cautions against the dread disorder. 
 
 Well, here is something that is true. The way to 
 keep cold off is to strengthen those parts that are 
 usually the seats of disturbance, and the way to 
 strengthen those parts is by exposure. That sounds 
 like bad advice, but it isn't. Do not be afraid to let 
 the wind get a good crack at you, and let it strike 
 often, and you will not have so many colds as the fellow 
 that is always muffled. 
 
 The people who are constantly bundled up, when 
 they go out, are the ones that catch cold by the least 
 breath of cool air striking them. They are all the time 
 cooped up in a temperature of 70 to 80, without any 
 ventilation. They keep their hats on in an overheated 
 room, and don't remove their rubbers in the house, sit- 
 ting for hours with them on. The least exposure gives 
 them a cold. No wonder. 
 
 Don't be afraid of a blizzard. Wrap up warmly 
 and face it with a will. Keep moving, no matter how 
 cold, walk a mile or two, and you will feel first rate 
 when you get into the house. 
 
 The immediate cause of a vast number of cases of 
 disease and death is a "cold ;" it is that which fires a 
 magazine of human ills; it is the spark to gunpowder. 
 It was to a cold taken on a raw December day, that the 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 43 
 
 great Washington owed his death. It was a common 
 cold, aggravated by the injudicious advice of a friend 
 which ushered in the final illness of Washington Irving. 
 Almost any reader can trace the death of some dear 
 friend to a ''little cold." 
 
 Causes of Colds. — The chief causes of cold are 
 two: ist, cooling oflf too soon after exercise ; 2d, get- 
 ting thoroughly chilled while in a state of rest without 
 having been overheated ; this latter originates dan- 
 gerous pleurisies, fatal pneumonias (inflammation of the 
 lungs,) and deadly fevers of the typhoid type. 
 
 Persons in vigorous health do not take cold easily; 
 they can do with impunity what would be fatal to the 
 feeble afid infirm. Dyspeptic persons take cold readily, 
 but they are not aware of it, because its force does not 
 fall on the lungs, but on the liver through the skin, 
 giving sick-headache ; and close questioning will soon 
 develop the fact of some unusual bodily effort, followed 
 by cooling off rapidly. 
 
 A little attention would avert a vast amount of 
 human sufferings in these regards. Sedentary persons, 
 invalids, and those in feeble health, should go directly 
 to a fire after all forms of exercise, and keep all the gar- 
 ments on for a few minutes ; or, if in warm weather, to 
 a closed apartment, and, if any thing, throw on an 
 additional covering. When no appreciable moisture is 
 found on the forehead, the outer-door garments may be 
 removed. The great rule is, cool off very slowly, 
 
44 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 always, after the body has in any manner been heated 
 beyond its ordinary temperature. 
 
 Neglecting- Colds. — Every intelligent physician 
 knows that the best possible method of promptly cur- 
 ing a cold is, that the very day in which it is observed 
 to have been taken, the patient should cease abso- 
 lutely from eating a particle for twenty-four or forty- 
 eight hours, and should be strictly confined to a warm 
 room, or be covered up well in bed, taking freely hot 
 drinks. It is also in the experience of every observant 
 person, that when the cold is once taken, very slight 
 causes indeed, increase it. The expression, * 'It is noth- 
 ing but a cold, ' ' conveys a practical falsity of the most 
 pernicious character, because an experienced' medical 
 practitioner feels that it is impossible to tell in any given 
 case, where a cold will end ; hence, and when highly 
 valuable lives are at stake, his solicitudes appear some- 
 times to others to verge on folly or ignorance. 
 
 The symptoms of cold in a patient are chills, with- 
 out lowering of the temperature, however. The tem- 
 perature will often rise two degrees while the patient is 
 undergoing a chill. Colds frequently result from 
 wearing slippers and thin stockings. No convalescent 
 patient should be thinly clad about the extremities. 
 They all should wear woolen underclothes, because 
 wool absorbs moisture, which is condensed in the fibers 
 of the cloth, and so heat is returned to the body again. 
 Everybody should wear woolen underclothes through 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 45 
 
 the winter and many invalids should never leave them 
 off 
 
 A severe cold, and perhaps an attack of pneumonia, 
 may be prevented if premonitory symptoms are heeded. 
 A chilly sensation along the spinal column, a cold 
 clammy feeling across the chest, are sure indications 
 that a severe cold is trying to settle in the system. 
 
 Colds are Caught more frequently by being in 
 rooms, of which the temperature is too high, than where 
 it is not high enough. Both are bad, but the former 
 is the greater evil. Halls, Sunday-school rooms, 
 churches, and crowded apartments, in general, are of- 
 ten too warm. Seventy degrees is sufficiently warm 
 for any one, better have it a few degrees lower than 
 higher. 
 
 In passing from a warm room inio the open air the 
 body should be kept as nearly as possible at the same 
 temperature, either by active exercise, or by putting on 
 extra clothing. School children should be taught this 
 by every teacher. To let them run out from a heated 
 room, with no extra clothing on, and heads uncovered 
 is suicidal. The mouth should be kept tightly shut in 
 passing from a warm room into cold air. 
 
 Worse than Herod. — Children are killed by the 
 hundreds of thousands every year by parents and 
 teachers. Herod killed several hundred children, in 
 trying to find the babe of Bethlehem, nineteen centuries 
 ago. We denounce him as a great sinner and yet the 
 American people who kill off their children by the 
 
^ 
 
 46 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 
 
 scores of thousands annually are saints and go to 
 churcli and Sunday school, and pray most earnestly, 
 and sing the songs of Zion most pathetically. Children 
 are sent to school with feeble, nervous constitutions at 
 the age of six, when they ought to be out in the open 
 air, romping and playing and getting all the health 
 they can. They should not be confined to school a 
 single day, before they are eight or nine. They are 
 urged on by ambitious parents and teachers, to wade 
 through problems in arithmetic and even grammar 
 before they are ten, when they should not have any- 
 thing but oral exercises and reading. These children, 
 hot-house plants, forced in their mental growth, soon 
 droop, fail in health and die, while the dull ones, who 
 have their out-door amusement and skipped school, 
 become the useful men and women, because they have 
 the bodily health and vigor. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. ' 47 
 
 How to Avoid Colds, 
 
 The old and the young alike are subject to colds at 
 all times and places, and a few words on how to avoid 
 colds from the best medical authorities, and founded on 
 sound philosophy are in place. 
 
 Physiologists have said that if a few drops of the 
 blandest fluid of nature are injected into a blood vessel 
 against the current, death is an instantaneous result. 
 
 Millions of canals or tubes from the inner portion 
 of the body, open their little mouths at the surface, and 
 through these channels, as ceaseless as the flow of time, 
 a fluid containing the wastes and impurities of the 
 system is passing outwards, and is emptied out on the 
 skin ; ordinarily, it is so attenuated, so near like the air, 
 that it can not be seen with the naked eve, but ex- 
 traordinarily, under the influence of increased natural 
 or artificial heat, as from exercise or fire, this fluid is 
 more profuse, and is seen and known as ' * the sweat of 
 the brow" — perspiration. 
 
 This fluid must have exit or we die in a few hours. 
 If it does not have vent at the surface of the body, it 
 must have some internal outlet. Nature abhors shocks 
 as she does a vacuum. Heat distends the mouths of 
 these ducts, and promotes a larger and more rapid flow 
 of the contained fluid ; on the other hand, cold contracts 
 them, and the fluid is at first arrested, dams up and re- 
 
48 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 bounds. If the purest warm milk,* injected against the 
 current of the blood, kills in a moment, not from any- 
 chemical quality, but from the force against the natural 
 current, there need be no surprise at the ill effects of 
 suddenly closing the mouths of millions of tubes at the 
 same instant, causing a violence at every pin-head sur- 
 face of the body. If these mouths are gradually closed, 
 nature has time to adapt herself to the circumstances by 
 opening her channels into the great internal * 'water- 
 ways ' ^ of the body, and no harm follows. Hence the 
 safety of cooling off slowly after exercise or being in a 
 heated apartment, and the danger of cooling off rapidly, 
 under the same circumstances, familiarly known by the 
 expression '' checking the perspiration.*' 
 
 The result of closing the pores of the skin is various 
 according to the direction the shock takes, and this is 
 always to the weakest part ; in the little child it is to 
 the throat, and there is croup or diphtheria ; to the 
 adult it is to the head, giving catarrh in the head, or 
 running of the nose ; to the lungs, giving a bad cold, 
 or, if very violent, causing pneumonia or inflammation 
 of the lungs themselves ; or pleurisy, inflammation of 
 the covering of the lungs ; to the bowels causing profuse 
 and sudden diarrhoea, or to the covering of the bowels, 
 inducing that rapid and (often) fatal malady known as 
 peritoneal inflammation ; if the current is determined to 
 the liver, there is obstinate constipation, or bilious fever, 
 or sick headache. Hence a '*cold'' is known by a 
 cough, when perspiration is driven inward, and is di- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 49 
 
 rected to the lungs ; by pleurisy, when to the lining of 
 the lungs ; by a sick headache or bilious fever, when to 
 the liver, etc. ; diarrhoea or constipation when to the 
 bowels and liver. 
 
 To avoid bad colds, then it is only necessary to 
 avoid closing the pores of the skin, either rapidly, by 
 checking perspiration, or slowly, by remaining still 
 until the body is thoroughly chilled, that is, until the 
 pores are nearly or entirely closed by inaction in a cold 
 atmosphere or room. In the matter of health, these 
 suggestions are of incalculable importance. 
 
 * * If a cold is serious, a physician should be called. 
 The first thing to do is to draw the excess of blood from 
 the affected part by soaking the feet in hot water. The 
 action of the skin can be restored and the blood brought 
 back by a hot bath, *wet pack,' nitre, or Dover's pow- 
 ders. To eliminate the watery element from the blood 
 give a laxative. ' ' 
 
 How to Cure a Cold. — The moment a man is satis- 
 fied he has taken cold, let him do three things : 
 
 First, eat nothing; second, go to bed, cover up 
 warm in a warm room ; third, drink as much cold water 
 as he can, or as he wants, or as much hot herb-tea as he 
 can ; and in three cases out of four he will be almost 
 well in thirty-six hours. 
 
 If he dofes nothing for his cold for forty-eight 
 hours after the cough commences, there is nothing that 
 he can swallow that will, by any possibility, arrest the 
 cold, for, with such a start, it will run its course of 
 
50 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 about a fortnight in spite of all that can be done, and 
 what is swallowed in the mean time in the way of food, 
 is a hindrance and not good. 
 
 * * Feed a cold and starve a fever " is a mischievous 
 fallacy. — A cold always brings a fever ; and a cold never 
 begins to get well until the fever subsides ; but every 
 mouthful swallowed is that much to feed the fever ; and 
 but for the fact, that as soon as a cold is fairly started, 
 nature, in a kind of desperation, steps in and takes away 
 the appetite, the commonest cold would be followed by 
 very serious results, and in frail people would be always 
 fatal. 
 
 These things being so, the very fact of waiting 
 forty- eight hours gives time for the cold to fix itself in 
 the system ; for a cold does not usually cause cough until 
 a day or two has passed, and then waiting two days 
 longer gives it the fullest chance to do its work before 
 any thing at all is done. 
 
 The following is the advice, given by a prominent 
 doctor, for getting rid of a cold : 
 
 Good Advice. — When the first symptoms manifest 
 themselves is the time for action, and this should consist 
 of a hot mustard foot-bath before going to bed and a hot 
 draught of milk. The covering of the body should be 
 linen and wool, the former in the way of the sheet and 
 the latter in the blanket. 
 
 No drug can nor will do the service of preventive 
 measures. The very best preventive of cold is cold 
 water. Bathe the neck and chest every morning with 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 cold water, and rub dry with a rough towel until the 
 flesh is of a pink hue. A cold sponging (all over the 
 body) is better, but often too little spare time in the 
 morning forbids such a luxury. Many little ones may 
 be saved from croup if attention be given to the cold 
 sponging. 
 
 Simple Remedies. — No attempt to get up an ac- 
 tive sweating should be made. The foot-bath and the 
 warm drink will give a sense of warmth and facilitate 
 the natural excretion of m^aterials which should pass 
 away by the skin, and any effort to aggravate this will 
 be not only superfluous, but harmful. 
 
 The blanket should never be worn next to the 
 night robe, and should not be so thick as to confine the 
 air next to the body. It is, indeed, often advisable to 
 lighten the covering of the feet, and to preserve a cer- 
 tain amount of weight over the loins, and to have the 
 shoulders protected from the external surroundings in 
 general. 
 
 The last measure is not to be underrated ; a sensi- 
 tive lung carries with it susceptibility to take to itself 
 everything that could possibly affect it to its detriment. 
 Ivung diseases belong to sensitive persons, and may or 
 may not be the sequence of a ^' cold." The majority of 
 them, however, can be traced to imprudence in dress 
 and exposure. Pneumonia, pleurisy and consumption 
 are partners of carelessness in the dressing of the chest 
 and back, and ** colds," which might stop at the throat 
 by a little prudence, are their apprentices. 
 
 :/ 
 
52 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Avoid too much Medicine. — If you have uncon- 
 sciously contracted a cold and want to get relief from it, 
 you must, in the first place, avoid too much medication. 
 A properly clad skin and a clear digestion ought to 
 shorten the life of a '^cold.'^ If a little comfort can be 
 secured by wearing a light covering on the head during 
 indoor hours it should be respected. 
 
 Ventilation of apartments comes in for a slight 
 amount of attention, and it should be simply sufficient 
 to furnish fresh air and not to produce currents which 
 can be appreciated. Nothing is more fallacious than 
 the belief that health is promoted and life prolonged by 
 air in excess, and this is proved by tombstones. 
 
 Don't take Cold. — Best of all, avoid taking a 
 cold. Do not expose yourself Hold on to flannels and 
 underwear. Avoid getting chilled. Change damp 
 clothing at once to dry. Keep your feet warm and dry. 
 Do not check prespiration by suddenly cooling. Keep 
 out of draughts. Keep your mouth shut when you go 
 out of doors, and especially do not think because we 
 have a few warm days, that now you can act as in sum- 
 mer, stick to your fires, your clothing, and your cold 
 weather habits, a little longer. 
 
 You say, "that is all talk.'^ "I can't do it," a 
 person canH take care of himself! Can't observe the 
 laws of health 1 No, but you can afford to pay a $50 
 doctor bill. You can afford to stay in the house and in 
 bed a month or two when you are sick. You can af- 
 ford to die prematurely on account of utter disregard of 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 53 
 
 God's laws. All these you can do, because you will be 
 compelled, when you refuse to exercise your common 
 sense. But which is better ? Sapienti sat 
 
 Don*t Neglect a Cold. — Ah ! my friend, you 
 should not think lightly of a cold, with the many ex- 
 amples and warnings constantly staring you in the face 
 of how colds lead to serious consequences. A cold is a 
 fever, and a fever is a serious matter. It may, and it 
 may not pass off as easily as you hope. George Wash- 
 ington, Chief Justice Waite, Roscoe Conkling and mul- 
 titudes of others made light of a cold, but it did not of 
 them. 
 
 If you have caught a cold, do not delay a single 
 hour to rid yourself of it. I^et no business, no engage- 
 ment, nothing whatever prevent you from giving it at- 
 tention. DonU for a moment suppose that you can 
 force yourself that you are an exception to the human 
 family, and that the Lord will perform a miracle for 
 you. One of your first duties is health. God has said 
 *'Thou shalt not kill," and that means, among other 
 duties, **get rid of your cold at once.'* It is better to 
 remain in bed one day, than go through a sixty days' 
 siege of fever. The pores of your skin are closed, steam 
 open, and induce perspiration at once, so that your bod- 
 ily functions can go on again in the usual way. 
 
64 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES 
 
 Coughs. 
 
 A Cough is Nature's Safety Valve. — ^As long as 
 a person can cough and expectorate he will not die. Con- 
 sumptives often cough almost incessantly. As long as 
 they can do so they don't die. If, however, the cough 
 subsides, they die in a few days, as now the matter 
 which was brought up by coughing fills the lungs, the 
 air being prevented from entering the small vessels, the 
 blood is no longer purified and death ensues. Hence, 
 it is that the last stages of consumption are so deceptive, 
 the patient believing that he is much better, because his 
 cough is stopped, when he is really in the greatest dan- 
 ger. The folly of taking something to stop the cough 
 is, hence, apparent. If anything is taken it should be 
 something to promote coughing, so that the lungs may 
 be cleared of the matter in them. 
 
 Coughing at Night. — Healthy persons are some- 
 times troubled with coughing at night. They wake up 
 with a violent cough and are prevented from falling 
 asleep again for a long while. This coughing is caused 
 by lying with arms uncovered, thus cooling the skin, 
 contracting the pores, and driving in upon the lungs 
 that which oppresses and irritates. This kind of cough 
 often requires only the covering up of the arms till they 
 become warm. To take something for stopping a 
 cough of this kind is not only a great folly, but highly 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 55 
 
 injurious to health. Paregoric, laudanum, trochees, 
 drops, lozenges, etc. , will ease the coughing, stop it en- 
 tirely, but to the great injury of health, possibly, invit- 
 ing other diseases, such as pleurisy, pneumonia and 
 dangerous hemorrhages. It is like painting one's face 
 to hide the dirt, instead of washing it clean. The ano- 
 dyne, trochee, or tablet only smothers the cough. 
 
 Children's Coughs. — Persons, particularly child- 
 ren, rushing out of a heated room, filled with a vitiated 
 atmosphere, such as our school rooms often are, when 
 overcrowded, are liable to contract a cold, and a cough- 
 ing spell is the result. A troublesome cough sticks to 
 them for months, they being unable to shake it off. 
 The best thing is never to be guilty of so unwise a prac- 
 tice, and it is particularly the teacher's duty to use every 
 honorable means of preventing it. But, when once a 
 cough has settled itself on the system, it is not to be 
 cured by the use of cough medicines and patent prepar- 
 ations. These contain opium, and though they may 
 plaster over and relieve for a short time, they only en- 
 ervate the system, and protract the seige which it wages 
 against the enemy. Work off the cold thus contracted, 
 by active exercise, which induces perspiration, and 
 causes the pores to open, so that the impurities may be 
 thrown off. The cough will then stop of itself. 
 
 Cold Feet especially on retiring in a cold room, in 
 a cold bed, produce coughing in a short time. Never 
 go to bed with cold, clammy feet, nor allow a child to 
 sit in the school room with damp stockings and cold 
 
I 
 
 56 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 feet. If you do, a serious cough and cold will be the 
 result in less than twenty- four hours, and not only a 
 cough, but some other serious illness. It is sheer sui- 
 cide to permit this. 
 
 The croupy cough of children must be especially 
 watched. When it is observed in school, the child 
 should be at once sent home, and the attention of the 
 parent called to it. When at home it should be put to 
 bed and wrapped up warm. Death may come within 
 forty-eight hours, if the cough is not attended to. Call 
 a physician, at once. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES 57 
 
 The Deadly Cold Bed. 
 
 "The Spare Room."— If trustworthy statistics 
 could be had of the number of persons who die every 
 year, or become permanently diseased from sleeping in 
 damp or cold beds, they would probably be astonishing 
 and appalling. It is a peril that constantly besets trav- 
 eling men, and if they are wise, they will invariably in- 
 sist on having their beds aired and dried, even at the 
 risk of causing much trouble to their landlords. But 
 this peril resides in the home, and the cold ** spare 
 room'* has slain its thousands of hapless guests, and 
 will go on with its slaughter till people learn wisdom. 
 Not only the guest but the family often suffer the pen- 
 alty of sleeping in cold rooms and chilling their bodies 
 at a time when they need all their bodily heat, by get- 
 ting between cold sheets. Even in warm, summer 
 weather, a cold, damp bed will get in its deadly work. 
 It is a needless peril, and the neglect to provide dry 
 rooms and beds has in it the elements of murder and 
 suicide. It is better to sleep in one's clothes than to run 
 the risk of taking a death cold in the damp bed. This 
 precaution should be taken when you have to use a bed 
 the owner of which does not know its danger. Of course 
 you will not be guilty of inflicting any such barbarism 
 on any of your guests. 
 
68 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Catarrh. 
 
 There are several distinct forms of catarrh, which may 
 be classed under two general heads, the dry or non-dis- 
 charging, and the mucous or flowing catarrh, of which 
 the latter is by far the more prevalent. 
 
 A Cold in the Head, strictly speaking, is a ca- 
 tarrh, and if suffered to run its course without interrup- 
 tion, may assume all the worst features of this trouble- 
 some disease, and finally become so thoroughly seated 
 as to occasion no little difficulty in its dislodgment. It 
 first attacks the mucous membrane of the nasal aper- 
 tures, inflaming it and causing a continuous watery 
 flow, thence extending downward to the air passage 
 leading to the chest, causing constant irritation, and 
 finally settles upon the lungs with a deadly grip. Its 
 worst symptoms are attached with headache, impaired 
 hearing, sight and memory, loss of appetite and general 
 debility. We have known cases where the loss of smell 
 as well as taste were attributed to this cause. 
 
 Many persons have a vague notion what nasal ca- 
 tarrh is. Some think that the ordinary running from 
 the nose in a case of cold is nasal catarrh. In a certain 
 sense, in the original sense of the word it is. Catarrh 
 is derived from the Greek Kata^ down, and Rhea^ to 
 run, just as diarrhea is from Dia^ through, and Rhea^ to 
 run. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 59 
 
 Different Kinds of Catarrh. — Catarrli is a name 
 given by the Greeks to ailments whicli throw off fluids 
 in unnatural quantities ; it means a * ' flowing from. ' ' 
 These catarrhs are always originated by a cold taken in 
 some way ; and upon whatever part of the system the 
 cold ** falls," it is called a catarrh of that part. Hence, 
 ** catarrh of the head" when the eyes water a great 
 deal ; ** nasal" catarrh when the ** nose runs;" ** catarrh 
 of the chest" when a cold settles on the lungs and a 
 large expectoration follows. Some persons who have 
 * * weak bowels ' ' always have diarrhea ; thin, watery, 
 light-colored passages, or catarrh of the bowels, when a 
 cold is taken. 
 
 The Action of a Catarrh is curative, and should be 
 let alone, for it is nature's effort to carry off the disease ; 
 to wash it away as it were. If nature were only left to 
 herself in these cases, an incredible amount of suffering 
 would be prevented, especially if nothing were eaten 
 until relieved but bread and water ; and if two or three 
 hours in the forenoon and afternoon were spent in the 
 open air, in bodily activities sufficient to promote and 
 keep up a very gentle perspiration. But when there is 
 a cough, or a troublesome running at the nose, or a wa- 
 tering of the eyes, with a fullness about the head and all 
 over the body, indicating that a general cold has been 
 taken, there is, almost a mama for ^ ' taking something. " 
 If the person has some medical knowledge, and even 
 a small amount of common-sense, leading him to wait 
 on nature, while he endeavors to aid her as just indi- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 
 
 cated, every second person he meets, exclaims, **Wliy 
 don't you do something for it?'' and he is brave indeed 
 who resists steadfastly to the end. 
 
 Dangerous Remedies. — A lady had a trouble- 
 some itching and running of the nose, and being advised 
 to snuff up cold water freely, she did so and was 
 ^' cured" in a day ; but in twenty-four hours she nearly 
 died of asthma ; for, although the ** flowing" from the 
 nose was checked, the disease fell upon the lungs ; na- 
 ture would have a vent somewhere. 
 
 A gentleman complained of a cold in the head, 
 with sick headache; some one advised him to have 
 buckets of cold water poured on top of his head, which 
 was followed by a welcome relief ; the next day he com- 
 plained of a sore throat, which troubled him as long as 
 he lived. 
 
 A gentleman had a cold in the head which affected 
 his hearing ; it was ignorantly tampered with, and ap- 
 parently cured ; but the eyes began to complain shortly 
 after, to remedy which he spent two years and a thou- 
 sand dollars under the most eminent Allopathic and 
 Water-Cures, with no efficient result ; and his eyes are 
 as troublesome to-day as they were some ten years ago. 
 All ** Sowings," ** runnings," etc., are the result of 
 what, in common parlance, is a ''humor in the blood," 
 and nature is endeavoring to ''run it off," but our reck- 
 less and ignorant interferences thwart her in her efforts, 
 and bring on greater calamities. 
 
 Use Care in Stopping Diarrhea. — In the diar- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 61 
 
 rhea of children, summer complaints, etc., which so 
 often arise from the colds settling on the bowels, pare- 
 goric is given, and ** soothing syrups,'* (in all cases 
 made of molasses and laudanum, never made without 
 sugar and opium.) The great effort of ignorance is to 
 **stop the diarrhea.'' This is done ; the parents are 
 charmed, write out a certificate in great gratitude ; this 
 is published in the morning papers of the same week, 
 as also in another column the death of the * 'cured" 
 child of " convulsions " or " water on the brain." 
 
 The cough of consumption, and the large amount 
 of glairy or multi-colored "matter" discharged from 
 the lungs in bronchitis, are the curative ''flowings," 
 catarrhs of nature, and the checking of them by cough- 
 drops, lozenges, troches, syrups, snuffs, etc., always^ 
 AIRWAYS, ALWAYS makes death more certain, more 
 speedy and more dreadful. In all catarrhs, in all Sow- 
 ings, keep the bowels free, keep up a very general per- 
 spiration, and eat but very little for forty-eight hours, 
 and if not better send for a respectable physician. An- 
 nual sneezings and nose runnings are of this nature, 
 preventable by previous judicious depletions. 
 
 In all catarrhs, chronic or acute, long or short, a 
 wise physician will do nothing to stop or repress but 
 will use means to cause a greater activit}^ of the liver, 
 and prescribe an unstimulating and cooling diet, 
 warmth and judicious exercise. 
 
 For ourselves we would give physic a wide berth. 
 If we had a '* flowing from," a catarrh, a cold, all of 
 
I 
 
 62 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 wliicli mean precisely the same thing in nature and es- 
 sence, we would let it flow, and thus have the system 
 relieved of an enemy, whose presence it will not toler- 
 ate. But there are three other things which may be 
 done to very great advantage, because they would expe- 
 dite the cure. 
 
 Common Sense Remedies. — i. Keep the body, 
 especially the feet, very comfortably warm by every 
 available means. 
 
 2. Take a good deal of exercise in the open air, 
 to the extent of keeping up a very slight perspiration 
 for several hours during the twenty- four. 
 
 3. I/ive on light, loosening, cooling food — moder- 
 ate amounts — such as water-gruel, crust of bread, 
 stewed fruits, ripe berries, and nothing else, until en- 
 tirely well. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 63 
 
 Cholera. 
 
 Asiatic Cholera, as first known in this country in 
 1832 and '33, is chiefly a disease prevailing in warm 
 weather, or rather in a warm atmosphere, for it can be 
 created at any season, and in the coldest latitudes, by 
 combining the proper degrees of the three essential 
 requisites, to wit, moisture, vegetable decay, and a reg- 
 ular heat, exceeding eighty degrees. The great and 
 distinguishing feature of cholera is a copious, frequent, 
 and painless discharge from the bowels of a substance 
 almost as thin as water, with a whitish tinge, as if rice 
 had been washed in it, or as if a little milk had been 
 dropped in it. When this occurs the patient soon be- 
 gins to perspire profusely, the skin assumes a leaden 
 hue and shrivels up, the nails become blue, insufferable 
 cramps come on, and the victim's death occurs in a few 
 hours with the most perfect calmness, in the fullest pos- 
 session of all the faculties, and absolute freedom from 
 every pain. 
 
 Important about Cholera. — Three things ought 
 to be known, in reference to cholera, by every human 
 being : 
 
 First . The writer has never known a case in 
 which it was not preceded, for one, two, or more days, 
 by the bowels acting tjyice, or oftener, in every twenty- 
 four hours ; universally styled * ' the premonitory symp- 
 toms.'' 
 
64 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Second : A cure is impossible under any conceiv- 
 able circumstances, without absolute quietude of body, 
 on a bed, for days together ; the time of confinement 
 being shortened, in proportion to the promptitude with 
 which the quietude is secured, after the first action of 
 the bowels has taken place, which gives a feeling of 
 tiredness, and, on sitting down, a sensation of rest and 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Third : When the patient ceases to urinate he be- 
 gins to die, and its resumption is a certain index of re- 
 covering health, always and infallibly. 
 
 One of the usual attendants of an attack of cholera 
 is an unconquerable tendency to vomit. The very in- 
 stant anything reaches the stomach, even if it is but 
 cold water, it is ejected ; the mildest food meets the 
 same fate in such cases, much less will medicine find a 
 lodgment, except one, and that it is impossible to vomit 
 up if it once reaches its destination ; that medicine has 
 no taste, it is small in bulk, will retain its virtues for a 
 quarter of a century, as the writer knows by personal 
 experience and repeated observation. Unless it is in 
 the very last stages, it is believed capable of arresting 
 the disease nine cases out of ten — a pill made up of ten 
 grains of calomel with a little gum- water ; if the symp- 
 toms do not abate in two hours, double the dose, and let 
 it work itself off ; do nothing else, but let the patient be 
 quiet and eat all the ice he may want. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 65 
 
 Cholera Infantum. 
 
 Cholera Infantum (summer complaint) is the 
 Herod of large American cities in this latitude during 
 the summer season. In the city of Philadelphia it 
 causes about one-twentieth of all the deaths for the en- 
 tire year, and one-sixth of all the deaths of infants un- 
 der two years of age ; and this wholesale destruction of 
 infant life takes place in the short space of two months. 
 Continued high temperature, night and day, appears to 
 be its essential cause. It is important, therefore, first 
 to keep the child cool, and secondly, to keep its food 
 (milk) cool. Infants at the breast are much less liable 
 to be attacked than those brought up by hand. There- 
 fore, nurse the baby through the second summer if pos- 
 sible. To accomplish the first object, allow the baby to 
 drink freely of cool, not excessively cold, water ; bathe 
 it frequently in cool or lukewarm water two or three 
 times a day if the thermometer is above 90°; keep it in 
 the open air in the shade ; take it into the country or 
 out on the water as often as possible. I^et it wear a 
 very thin flannel undershirt, or if not this a flannel 
 bellyband. 
 
 To accomplish the second, get your milk from a 
 dairy where it is kept on ice, keep as little on hand as 
 possible — and keep it on ice if possible. As soon as 
 you get it, boil it for a few minutes and then add a ta- 
 
66 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 ' blespoonful of lime water to every pint. If the child is 
 siezed suddenly with diarrhoea, stop its milk at once, 
 and feed it on raw white of egg^ gelatine, barley water, 
 and meat or chicken broth ; and do not give it milk 
 again until the diarrhoea has stopped. If possible go 
 away with it to the country at once, or, if you live in 
 the country, go to the mountains. Change of air has 
 saved thousands of children's lives in this disease. 
 Never try to treat looseness of the bowels in a baby in 
 hot weather yourself, but send at once for a doctor. 
 
 Cholera Morbus. 
 
 All of these well-known diseases occur principally 
 during the summer and autumn. 
 
 Cholera morbus is caused by improper fcod and 
 suddenly chilling of the body after exposure to great 
 heat. Certain substances will produce it in certain per- 
 sons, such, for instance, as veal, raw milk taken with 
 fish, or shellfish, and all dishes cooked with milk, such 
 as rice pudding, cream puffs, and even ice cream wken 
 kept too long. Unripe and overripe fruit, especially if 
 taken with large draughts of ice-water, will also cause 
 it. But sound, ripe fruit is a natural food in hot 
 weather, and wholesome. Avoid becoming chilled dur- 
 ing sleep. In a climate as changeable as ours, a light 
 blanket should always be at hand, to be drawn up in 
 case it suddenly becomes cold during the night. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 67 
 
 Constipation. 
 
 Of Great Importance. — Next to sleeping, the 
 item of most universal application is the proper regula- 
 tion of the bowels. We will feel a thousand times re- 
 paid for writing this article, if every mother who reads 
 it will begin, without a day's delay, to impress upon 
 the mind of every child she has, from four years old and 
 upward, that the omission to go to the privy every day, 
 will never fail to accompany or precede nine-tenths of 
 all the sickness of old and young. 
 
 Do not Trifle with Nature. — In four cases out of 
 five, the foundations of life-long ailments, which embitter 
 the whole existence, are laid in habits of constipation 
 originating in the school-room — oftener, perhaps, in a 
 late breakfast, which makes it necessary to hurry off to 
 school, and in the excitement nature's calls are unno- 
 ticed, and may remain so until school is called, and 
 time has been allowed for all to settle down quietly at 
 their lessons. But then a recitation is called ; then the 
 child ''must" wait until the lesson is over ; ajfter that 
 the teacher may be too busy ; next the child begins to 
 calculate that it will soon be time for dismission. Thus, 
 in one way and another, nature is baffled, but not with 
 impunity ; for just precisely in this or similar ways, 
 habits of constipation commence in multitudes, old and 
 young, every day, paving the way for some of the most 
 
68 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 protracted, some of the most troublesome, some of the 
 most painful ailments known to man. In the earlier 
 stages, and most commonly, there is a complaint of cold 
 feet, of headache, of chilliness, of want of appetite, of 
 no inclination for breakfast of mornings, of dullness, of 
 want of vigor, vivacity, animation ; and the child goes 
 off to school, or the adult to business, '' more dead than 
 alive, ' ' and all creation looks as blue as indigo. The 
 child is fickle, fretful, peevish ; the man sullen and 
 groany ; the woman — my stars ! how she does make ev- 
 ery body stand about ! The servants huddle together in 
 the kitchen, the children will be as mute as mice, and 
 " father, *' if he has a mite of sense, will quietly edge 
 himself off into all out-doors. If breakfast be taken at 
 seven o^ clock, or at seven and a half, during January 
 and February, there need be no hurry for school, and 
 there will be that leisure which allows of deliberate at- 
 tention to nature's admonitions. 
 
 It is well worth while to be at very great pains to 
 guard our children against falling into habits of consti- 
 pation, when it is known' that such habits lead to dys- 
 ppepsia iles, fistula, bilious colic, sick headache, and 
 that * ' nervousnes, or neuralgia ' ' which make life in- 
 tolerable to so many wives and daughters. 
 
 Remedies. — Hot water taken freely half an hour 
 before bedtime is the best cathartic possible in the case 
 of constipation, while it has a most soothing effect upon 
 the stomach and bowels. 
 
 Fever and restlessness in children is frequently 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 caused by indigestion. If you find the skin of the little 
 one hot and dry, remember, if you can, what she ate for 
 supper. Give the child a warm bath, then give it a cup 
 half full of warm water to drink. In a few minutes the 
 undigested food will be thrown off the stomach, and the 
 child will soon be sleeping soundly. A dose of magne- 
 sia, half a teaspoonful, given in the morning before 
 breakfast, will probably restore to the child its usual 
 health, but, should fever and nausea continue during 
 the day following the attack, send for a physician. 
 
 Watch the Children. — Constipation, Dyspepsia, 
 and Brain-Fever are the three great dangers of children 
 at school. When a child gets to pass a day or two 
 without an action of the bowels, it becomes at once ex- 
 posed to every disease that is abroad ; if there is any 
 prevalent sickness whatever, a constipated child is sure 
 to suffer from it ; while it takes cold from the slightest of 
 all causes, and thus becomes tinder for diphtheria, scar- 
 let fever, and putrid sore-throat. Hence, breakfast 
 should be taken early, long enough before half past eight 
 o'clock to allow them to have abundant time to go to 
 the privy ; and to promote this, they should be required 
 to repair to the family-room or parlor, from the break- 
 fast table ; because by the mind being composed, the 
 call of nature is more certainly noticed. It is a crimi- 
 nal neglect, not to clearly explain to each child, the in- 
 evitable ill results and danger to life, which attend 
 going over twenty-four hours, without an evacuation 
 of the bowels. 
 
70 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 
 
 Contagion. 
 
 Do not take Chances. — It is all very well for 
 children to attend school regularly and strive to be pres- 
 ent at every session, but the teachers bid too high for 
 this, and encourage them to go to school when there is 
 danger in doing so alike for themselves and mates. To 
 be absent from school, except in the most urgent cases, 
 is considered a matter of reproach. In consequence, 
 children are often permitted to attend when they should 
 be at home and in bed. This is certainly wrong. It 
 is, of course, well to stimulate in children a desire to 
 make the most of their opportunities and to be in school 
 every day when they properly can do so, but there is a 
 reasonable limit, and harm is likely to result if it is 
 passed. Parents should always give due heed to their 
 children's complaints, and if they are at all ailing they 
 should be kept from school until well. During the 
 commencing stage of contagious diseases the symptoms 
 are not defined, and do not indicate the nature of the 
 trouble coming on. And oftentimes they are less severe 
 in character than those which are present in simple 
 transitory disturbances. It is true, also, that in the first 
 stage of some of the most fatal contagious diseases the 
 victims are a menace to all whom they encounter, 
 capable as they are of transmitting the disease poisons 
 to them. As, for instance, a child is coming down with 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 71 
 
 scarlet-fever. He has a little sore throat ; his appetite is 
 poor, or gone altogether ; and he appears rather weak 
 and languid. Most mothers would assume that he had 
 caught a little cold, and they would not consider him 
 sick enough to remain away from school. And yet, 
 were he to attend he would be likely to infect some of 
 his mates, for his disease is often contagious before the 
 eruption is out enough to clearly indicate its nature. 
 Teachers as well as parents, have a grave responsibility 
 in this matter of disease. They should be closely ob- 
 servant ; and children who appear languid and other- 
 wise ailing, should be sent home at once, and their pa- 
 rents informed of the reason. Only by this exceeding 
 care, without '^taking any chances,'* can parents and 
 teachers do their whole duty toward preventing the 
 spread of contagious diseases in schools. 
 
72 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 A Fearful Disease. — It is estimated that one per- 
 son of every seven dies of consumption. How import- 
 ant, this being so, that every person should know some- 
 thing of the nature, cause and prevention of this 
 disease, cure there being none, after it has advanced to 
 a certain stage. In consumption the whole man is 
 diseased, every drop of his blood is on fire. When all 
 the fat and flesh are consumed (consumep— -tion), 
 (Schwindsucht\ and there is no more oil to feed the 
 flame, then the consumptive l^egins to freeze. Cold 
 fingers, cold feet, until the heart is chilled, and death 
 ensues. The forenoon brings a shivering chill, the 
 after part of the day, a burning fever, and the night a 
 cold, clammy drenching sweat. As soon as the poor, 
 wasted, wearied body is laid in the bed, the cough 
 begins, and it continues through the weary hours of 
 the night, until exhausted, the patient falls into a 
 troubled sleep. As long as he can cough he will not 
 die, coughing is nature^ s safety valve, but when once 
 the cough stops, when the consumptive becomes too 
 weak to expectorate, he dies. 
 
 Symptoms. — Though there is consumption of the 
 throat, bronchitis, and of the bowels, yet consumption 
 of the lungs is usually meant, when the disease is spoken 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 73 
 
 of. A cough, pale face, wasted flesh, stooping frame, 
 slow and careful walk, large round eyes, a waxen coun- 
 tenance is the picture of a consumptive. In consump- 
 tion the whole person is diseased, every drop of blood 
 is on fire. This ceaseless feaver burns out life. When 
 all the fat and flesh are consumed, and there is no more 
 oil, no carbon to feed the flame, nothing but skin and 
 bone, the tendon and ligament, and strings, the patient 
 begins to freeze. The cold chill of death creeps higher, 
 until from cold hands and feet, the heart itself begins to 
 chill, and death ensues. Blood spitting is one of the 
 frightening accompaniments of consumption, and, yet 
 those who do spit blood live longer by months and years, 
 had not this symptom been present, since every time 
 this happens the blood-vessels are unloaded, and, hence, 
 the tubercles are diminished, and the fewer the tubercles, 
 the greater is the hope of cure. Not one of a hundred 
 thousand who spit blood bleed to death. The very 
 moment blood- spitting is first observed not a single hour 
 should be lost, a physician at once consulted, and in 
 three cases out of four a permanent cure may be efiected. 
 Consumption may be cured. — Ofttimes even, 
 with care, a consumptive lives to become an old man. 
 The friend and acquaintance of the author's childhood 
 days, John Narrigong, of Richlandtown, Buck Co., Pa., 
 was pronounced incurable by physicians, and told to 
 drink milk freely and by next spring he would die. He 
 lived yet forty years subsequently, and died at the age 
 of seventy-five. 
 
74 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 About Feebleness. — Feebleness does not neces- 
 sarily cause consumption. The feeble feel the necessity 
 of taking care of themselves and strengthening their 
 bodies, and hence, the stout, robust and strong some- 
 times soonest fall victims to this disease. The author 
 of this book was a small, puny boy, and it was pro- 
 phesied by many, who knew him as such, that he would 
 never live to see maturity, especially as his two uncles 
 had died of consumption before they were twenty-one. 
 He was convinced of the fact that he must do or die. 
 He did. He plowed, he mowed, he spread manure, he 
 chopped and sawed v/ood, *'hollored," bellowed, and 
 did a thousand things to develop and strengthen his 
 body, and to-day, on the other side of fifty, he is * ' hale 
 and hearty," with healthy lungs, while a score of his 
 strong youthful companions fill consumptives' graves. 
 
 Sleeping in close rooms, insufficient food or 
 clothing, being in damp, dark apartments, the want of 
 full breathing give birth to consumption, so does the 
 want of pure blood. Whatever has a debilitating eflfect 
 on the body, whether of a mental, moral or physical 
 nature, is the fruitful source of consumption. 
 
 The best place for studying, sleeping- and 
 spending your time, is in a high, dry, well lighted, 
 well ventilated room. Near the earth, on the ground 
 floor, or under the ground, the air is cold, raw, impure. 
 In second, third, or fourth story rooms, the air is drier, 
 purer, more rarified and more health-giving. The 
 ** study '' of the clergyman, the "ofiice" of the physi- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 75 
 
 cian and the lawyer, tlie ''library'' of the family, the 
 ** sitting-room" of the household, the ''place for 
 studying" for the school child, and the "chamber" of 
 the sleeper should be in the upper stories. The higher 
 up, the more rarified the air ; this greater rarity excites 
 the instinct of our nature to deeper, fuller breathing, 
 this kind of breathing is a preventive of consumption. 
 Consumption is the scourge of civilized society, and de- 
 stroys a sixth of our adult population. In the city of 
 Mexico, 9,000 feet above the level of the sea, only three 
 of one hundred die from consumption. In our larger 
 cities, near the sea-level, eighteen out of every hundred 
 die of consumption. 
 
 Every student, every sedentary person, everybody 
 should try to have the room, in which much of his time 
 is spent, as far above the ground as possible. Particu- 
 larly get all the sun-light possible. Never close the 
 shutters in day time. Always allow the sun to shine 
 into your room, and especially the school room, the 
 great portion of the day. The sun's rays assist power- 
 fully in rarifying the air, and thus developing and ex- 
 panding the lungs. 
 
 Out-door activities, causing a consumption of pure 
 air and nutritious food, or, in other words, whatever 
 builds up the system and makes good blood, is curative 
 of consumption in its incipient stages. Always consult 
 a good reliable physician, where there is suspicion of 
 consumption. 
 
 I^t every teacher require pupils to stand and sit in 
 
76 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 an erect posture, breathe pure air, and take exercise as 
 a preventive. 
 
 The earliest symptoms of Consumption are : 
 
 A quicker pulse than ordinary, a paler face, easily- 
 chilled after eating, shortness of breath, wasting away 
 of flesh, unrest on rising in the morning, a tendency to 
 coldness of hands and feet, subject to colds, and a con- 
 firmed cough, which all means a want of vitality of 
 general vigor. The pulse beats 68 to 72 times a minute 
 in healthful adult life. When it is below 66 or over 72, 
 continually, there is ground of apprehension that con- 
 sumption is approaching. 
 
 To Prevent Spread of Consumption. — It is to a 
 very large extent preventable. It is, though not gener- 
 ally known a contagious disease. Consumption, or pul- 
 monary tuberculosis, is in every case caused by disease 
 germs which grow in the lungs in enormous numbers. 
 When a person is sick with this disease, these germs are 
 coughed up in great quantities in the expectoration, and 
 when this becomes dry and crumbles, or is trodden to 
 dust, the germs float about in the air and are liable to 
 be breathed into the lungs of any one. If the lungs of 
 the person who does breathe them are poorly developed, 
 or if the constitution is feeble, the germs are very sure 
 to grow and cause the disease. Unfortunately we do 
 not know how to kill them when they are once in the 
 air passages. The best that can be done is to build up 
 the system and strengthen the lungs by the use of cod 
 liver oil, good food, and fresh air. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 77 
 
 Much, however, can be done to prevent the spread 
 of the disease by destroying the germs as completely as 
 possible in every case. 
 
 (i) No person having consumption should ever spit 
 on the floor or in the street. If handkerchiefs or bits of 
 cloth are employed, they should at once be disinfected 
 or burned. A good plan is tc use a small wide-mouthed 
 bottle with a rubber stopper. The contents should be 
 thrown into the fire and the bottle and stopper thoroughly 
 scalded with boiling hot water every day. 
 
 (2) The dishes used by a consumptive should be at 
 once scalded, and the unwashed underwear and bed 
 clothing should be thoroughly boiled as soon as possible. 
 
 (3) When a person with consumption has diarrhea, 
 the discharges from the bowels should at once be disin- 
 fected, as at this time they contain the disease germs. 
 A good way is to add a half teacupful of fresh chloride 
 of lime, or fill up the chamber vessel with boiling water. 
 
 (4) No one with consumption should sleep in the 
 same room with another person, and the room occupied 
 by a consumptive should be made thoroughly clean as 
 often as possible. 
 
 (5) No mother with consumption should nurse an 
 infant, and children ought never to be taken care of by 
 a consumptive person. 
 
78 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Cough Medicines. 
 
 Dangerous Cough Medicines. — All intelligent 
 physicians agree that patent cough medicines and nos- 
 trums are dangerous, particularly when administered to 
 children. 
 
 All medicines sold for coughs, colds, consumption, 
 and tickling in the throat, contain opium in some form 
 or other. They repress the cough but do not eradicate 
 it ; hence the first purchase paves the way for a second 
 or a third ; meanwhile, as it is the essential nature of 
 opium to close up, to constringe, to deaden the sensibil- 
 ities, the bowels do not feel the presence of their 
 contents calling for a discharge, and constipation is in- 
 duced and becomes the immediate cause of three-fourths 
 of all ordinary ailments, such as headache, neuralgia, 
 dyspepsia, and piles. 
 
 There are but few, if any, cough medicines which 
 do not contain opium in some form, and being invari- 
 ably advertised as perfectly harmless the consequence is, 
 many cases of poisoning by them every winter. They 
 are seldom among adults, because the quantity of the 
 drug is small ; but children in large numbers are vic- 
 tims, for the reasons their parents do not know how to 
 properly regulate the doses. 
 
 Patent Medicines Cause Many Deaths. — We 
 know that more than one-third of all the children die 
 before they are five years old. One cause for this terri- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 79 
 
 ble mortality is the indiscriminate use of patent medi- 
 cines and especially those advertised as cures for coughs, 
 colds and bronchial affections. If a child has bron- 
 chitis, the same medicine which would be good for it in 
 the first stage of the attack would, as a rule, do it much 
 harm after the disease had run on for several days. 
 With scarcely an exception, parents consider in such 
 cases that the one all important object is to stop the 
 cough ; they never consider that there is a disease back 
 of that which should first be overcome, and until it is, 
 the cough should exist to clear the air passages of mat- 
 ters which accumulate rapidly. Stop the cough under 
 those conditions and you but dam up in the chest what 
 must be expelled by coughing, otherwise suffocation is 
 threatened. 
 
 It should be clearly understood that a cough at all 
 severe * * must have its run, ' ' and would not be likely to 
 disappear inside of two or three weeks. If the patient 
 ** holds his own" at first, and after a week improves a 
 trifle each day, that ought to satisfy any one. If it does 
 not do that under the simple treatment which we have 
 advised, then a physician should, by all means be con- 
 sulted. If that is not done, but, instead, experiments 
 with patent medicines are tried, harm is sure to result, 
 and if the child is injured thereby and fails to recover, 
 then the parents are alone to blame for its death. 
 
 Cough drops, lozenges, troches, syrups are an in- 
 jury in coughs and colds. They retard, instead of pro- 
 moting expectoration^ which is nature's plan to get rid 
 of accumulated matter. 
 
/4 
 
 80 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 I 
 
 rioney Making and Health. 
 
 The first of April has had its effect on the health 
 of many persons. It is the day when settlements are 
 usually made, and woe to the person who is short. It 
 is the time when changes in business and employments 
 are usually made, and woe to him who gets left. 
 
 What a blessed thing it is to feel that to-morrow is 
 certainly and abundantly provided for, to be a little fore- 
 handed, to have a little spare money always on hand. 
 Money is a mec'^.cine, and making money in a legitimate 
 way is both a tonic and stimulant. It accelerates the 
 circulation. It enlivens the spirits. It lightens the 
 heart. It wakes up our energies. The Bible tells us 
 that * 'money is a good thing. " Of course the inordi- 
 nate desire for money is a sin. *' The love of money is 
 the root of all evil. ' ' With money, as with everything 
 else, there can be abuses. These are sinful. But to 
 have enough money to meet the ordinary requirements 
 of life and of the family, is invigorating to health and 
 spirits. 
 
 Money a Good Tonic— Take any man any day 
 who is '*hard up" — with whom the world does not go 
 well — who finds he is going backwards pecuniarily, and 
 yet claims are coming upon him which must be met ; 
 wants which must be supplied ; necessities which cannot 
 be evaded; his rent must be paid; his board bill must be 
 liquidated ; the butcher and baker and milkman all are 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 81 
 
 pressing for their respective dues ; let a man be ever so 
 hopeful, ever so courageous, ever so brave, in general, 
 there will be moments when the difficulties of his posi- 
 tion become so pressing that his manliness almost for- 
 sakes him ; he starts at his own shadow and well nigh 
 comes to the conclusion that it is useless to struggle 
 longer, and that he ' * might as well give up. ' ' Just at 
 this juncture let a proposition be made, by which with 
 the expenditure of a reasonable amount of bodily activity 
 and mental adroitness, more money can be certainly 
 made than he has been accustomed to realize in so short 
 a time, with every guarantee that the dividend will in- 
 crease with time in an encouraging proportion, and he 
 becomes a new man within the hour ; his face wears a 
 new aspect, a new life comes into his eyes ; color rushes 
 to the cheeks ; the spring of youth is impressed into his 
 steps and there is an elasticity imparted to both mind 
 and body to which he has been long an entire stranger. 
 Therefore money-making, in a legitimate way, is a med- 
 icine good to take and easy, and to save is the easiest 
 way of money-making. Practice economy. Spend a 
 little less every day than you earn. You will thus have 
 that ease and comfort of mind so conducive to health. 
 
 Which is Cheaper ? — Is it cheaper to pay five or ten 
 cents for a street car or an omnnibus, when going to and 
 from the depot, or to walk, rushing to make the train 
 and carrying a load of bundles, over-heating yourself, 
 so that you have to pay five or ten dollars to the doctor, 
 and lose a week or two from your work or business? 
 
 Which is cheaper, to strain your eyes reading or 
 
82 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 sewing in the twilight, in order to save a few cents in 
 your gas bill, and then paying dollars for spectacles, and 
 suffering the inconvenience and annoyance of impaired 
 eyesight the rest of your life time ? 
 
 Which pays better, to rush over a street crossing, 
 in front of a conveyance, and, perhaps accidentally slip 
 and be run over, or to wait a minute, cross at your leis- 
 ure, and go your way rejoicing ? 
 
 Is it better to work yourself into a fit of excitement, 
 live in a perpetual *'stew," do everything by the high 
 pressure principle, and eventually, when the system can 
 bear the strain no longer, topple over in an attack 
 of apoplexy, before you have lived out half the period 
 allotted to man, or to take life more at ease, give your- 
 self time to do your work, not let your business drive 
 you crazy, and outlive the period which Moses assigns 
 to man in the ninetieth Psalm? 
 
 Which is worth more to your child's lifetime, to 
 rush him to school and through the Fifth Reader by the^ 
 time he is ten, and then to suffer from a broken down 
 constitution, nervousness, debility and a thousand other 
 complaints, or to let him get a good, sound physical 
 frame, by plentiful outdoor exercise first, even if he is 
 not quite as smart as some of your neighbor's children, 
 and yet, at the age of thirty be capable of better active 
 service, having the sana mens in sano corpore ? Health 
 first and knowledge afterwards, or an over burdened 
 mind, with a body too effeminate to carry its weight — 
 which ^ 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 83 
 
 Precautions Against Contagious and 
 Infectious Diseases. 
 
 SCARLET FEVER, DIPHTHERIA, SMALL-POX, VARIOLOID, 
 
 TYPHOID FEVER, TYPHUS FEVER, YELLOW FEVER, 
 
 MEASLES, CHOLERA, DYSENTERY, ERYSIPELAS, 
 
 MUMPS, AND WHOOPING COUGH. 
 
 Some of these diseases are communicated directly 
 from person to person ; such as scarlet fever, small-pox, 
 and measles. Others contaminate fluids and solids 
 which are eaten by human beings and thus enter the 
 system ; such are typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery, 
 while others still pass from person to person through 
 the air, (so far as our present knowledge extends,) such 
 as typhus fever, small-pox, whooping-cough and in- 
 fluenza. 
 
 It is fully believed by sanitarians that most infec- 
 tious and contagious diseases could be '* stamped out'* 
 completely, could mankind be induced to live up to the 
 light which we now possess concerning their nature. 
 The "plague," *' the black death," "the sweating 
 sickness," and "cholera," m former years ravaged 
 continents, carrying to the grave from one-fourth to 
 three-fourths of all the inhabitants. Their ravages have 
 been stayed ; some of them are unknown in civilized 
 countries. May the diseases here named be unknown 
 
84 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 to future generations. To aid in their restriction, the 
 State Board of Health publishes this circular. 
 
 HOW CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ARE SPREAD. 
 
 How Spread. — It is believed that each of these 
 diseases is the result of a special poison (contagion) 
 working in the body. These enter the system in differ- 
 ent ways, and exert their main force on different parts 
 of the body. 
 
 Scarlet fever, small-pox and measles and all erup- 
 tive fevers of the skin are probably propagated by a poi- 
 son discharged in the dead skin, as well, also, as by 
 means of all discharges from the bowels, bladder, nose, 
 mouth, eyes and ears. The discharge from the skin, 
 dry dust, scales, scabs, etc., as well as from the nose 
 and mouth, are believed to be especially malignant. 
 
 In diphtheria, the discharges from the mouth, nose 
 and throat, as well as from the bowels and bladder, are 
 believed to contain the poison, especially those from 
 nose, mouth and throat. The same is true of whooping- 
 cough. In the case of consumption the matter coughed 
 from the lungs probably is a means of propagating that 
 disease. Typlioid fever, cholera and dysentery have 
 their special poisons in the discharges from the patient's 
 bowels which are disseminated in drinking water. The 
 same is probably true of yellow fever. Puerperal fever 
 may be conveyed from patient to patient on the person 
 of physicians and nurses. Parasitic diseases are ob- 
 tained from foods and drinks, and by actual contact of a 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 85 
 
 healthy person with one diseased. The same is true of 
 syphilis. Typhus fever seems to be a disease caused by 
 over-crowding, and by foul gases from sewers and 
 drains. 
 
 TIME REQUIRED TO DEVELOP THESE DISEASES. 
 
 The time intervening between exposure to the spe- 
 cial poison and the appearance of the first symptoms of 
 these diseases varies greatly. It may be from only a 
 few hours, as in the case of cholera and yellow fever, to 
 three or four weeks or even longer as in typhoid fever. 
 
 A case of genuine yellow fever was developed at 
 Womelsdorf, Pa. , which caused the death of a child, 
 after a few hours of sickness with black vomit. The 
 disease was carried all the way from Florida, in the 
 shipping of a live alligator, sent to the boy as a present 
 What an impressive health lesson is taught by this oc- 
 currence. 
 
 The germs of disease, not only of yellow fever, 
 but of scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc., are frequently 
 carried in clothing, playthings, etc., of children and 
 thus transmitted long after the disease has disappeared. 
 
 At a meeting of the Funeral Directors Association, 
 at Brie, Penn., a very interesting communication was 
 read by B. Frank Kirk, a member of the fraternity. 
 He told, with grim satire, of many experiences in 
 burials after infectious diseases, one of which shows so 
 plainly the indifference of people to the matter of pre- 
 vention. It is worth repeating : 
 
86 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 **A wealthy lady, whose little boy we carried to 
 the tomb after he had died of scarlet fever, requested us 
 to carry in our wagon a large bundle of his clothing to 
 a poor family not far away. When we meekly sug- 
 gested that the articles had better be disinfected first, 
 she seemed hurt, and with a look of ineffable scorn 
 repelled the imputation that any disease lurked in the 
 habiliments of her precious babe. 
 
 **But we must do the lady the justice due her big, 
 kind heart, and testify to the fact that she contributed 
 quite largely to the expenses attending the burial of the 
 two children of the poor woman whose little ones soon 
 wilted and perished of scarlet fever after receiving the 
 package of fine clothing.'* 
 
 PervSons I/iable to these Diseases. — As a gen- 
 eral rule, one attack gives immunity from any second 
 attack. Scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, and whoop- 
 ing cough prevail most among children, but may attack 
 all ages. The other diseases named attack persons of 
 all ages. As a rule, the cleanly, temperate, well-fed, 
 and well-housed suffer less from these diseases than do 
 the ill-fed, intemperate, ill-clothed, over-worked, and 
 ill-housed, but this is not always so. The intemperate 
 certainly suffer more than others. Those who have 
 been successfully vaccinated within seven years, do 
 positively escape small-pox. Persons who are in a 
 ** run-down'* and exhausted state of body, are [more 
 liable than others to have the germs of disease take root 
 in their bodies than are others. Typhoid fever espec- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 87 
 
 ially attacks those in vigorous life. Diphtheria gener- 
 ally passes nursing babies. 
 
 How to Avoid these Diseases. — See to it that 
 your family and yourself are successfully vaccinated. 
 Unless your services are needed, stay away from all 
 houses in which these diseases are present. Don't 
 attend funerals from any of these diseases. Keep 
 children away from all houses in which these diseases 
 prevail. If any of these diseases, to which children 
 are subject, are epidemic in a town, keep your children 
 from day and sabbath schools, from churches, and all 
 assemblies. Be sure that the water you drink is pure ; 
 well water is always to be suspected. In traveling, it 
 is safest t;o drink only boiled water, such as one gets in 
 tea and coffee. When renting a house always ask if it 
 has been free for the past two years, from all these 
 contagious diseases, and demand a written guarantee. 
 Educate the people of your neighborhood as to the 
 nature of these diseases, and what they should do when 
 they occur. Aid in establishing a local board of health, 
 and see that your community has laws in reference to 
 cleanliness, private funerals, the isolation of those sick 
 of contagious diseases, and the closing of schools and 
 churches against those living in houses in which any 
 disease prevails. The country privy and the city cess- 
 pool should be abolished everywhere absolutely. The 
 most scrupulous cleanliness must be enforced every- 
 where. When contagious diseases prevail, do not send 
 your clothing to the public laundries. There should be 
 
88 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 a notice on every house in which there is a contagious 
 disease, so that the public may be warned to remain 
 away. 
 
 If one is required to be about one sick with a 
 contagious disease, he should eat his meal regularly, 
 take some exercise in the open air each day, get his 
 usual amount of sleep, and dismiss all over-anxiety as 
 to the danger of contagion. But he must avoid the 
 special poison. Do not take the breath of the sick one. 
 Do not touch with the lips any food, drink, cup, spoon, 
 or anything else that the sick person has touched, or 
 that has been in the sick room. Do not wipe your 
 face or hands with any cloth that has been on or near 
 the sick person. Do not wear any clothing the sick 
 has worn during, just before, or just after his sickness. 
 Keep your hands free from any discharges from the 
 body or skin of the sick person, and if they do become 
 soiled, wash them soon as possible in water containing 
 a solution of chloride of lime. Do not touch the sick 
 with sore or scratched hands. Particularly avoid 
 receiving into the body through the mouth or nose, any 
 of the scales or scabs from the skin of those sick or 
 recovering from scarlet fever or small-pox. Consump- 
 tives should spit on rags and these should be burned. 
 This sputa should never be eaten by chickens or other 
 domestic animals, as there is reason to believe that it 
 will infect them, and they in turn, through their meat, 
 other human beings. 
 
 Whenever a place is threatened with an epidemic 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES 89 
 
 of any contagious disease, the local board of hea*^, or^ 
 the town council, should appoint a few discreet persons 
 who should go from house to house and instruct th( 
 people in what they should do to avoid the threatened 
 danger. This should be done without creating any 
 alarm. The town should be thoroughly and scientific- 
 ally cleaned and disinfected, and the condition of the 
 drinking water examined by an expert. 
 
 . Precautions, — One of the greatest errors into 
 which people can fall, is the belief that whatever is to 
 be will be. Won mer' s hawe soil grikt nier' s doch^ is 
 an expression very often heard among Pennsylvania 
 Germans. It is frequently said : ' ' I am not afraid 
 that I will get this disease, for if I am to have it, I will 
 get it anyhow.'* This is fatalism in its worst form. 
 If Adam was to fall, he would have sinned, regardless 
 of what he could have done ; if a person is destined to 
 go to the bad, he will go and nothing can prevent it. 
 If a person is to have measles or small-pox, or diph- 
 theria, or consumption, or typhoid fever, he will get it 
 despite all precautions." This is a fatal error. 
 Parents and teachers should guard, assiduously, 
 against instilling such principles into the minds 
 of the young. We are bound by the duties which we 
 owe to ourselves and our fellow-men, especially our 
 families, to take all precautions for the preservation of 
 property, body and mind. The householder, who is 
 careless with his lamps and fires, is responsible if a 
 conflagration results from his carelessness. The parent, 
 
90 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 who does not watch over the health of his children, is 
 guilty of the sin of neglect, especially if he lets arsenic 
 lie around the house, where the little ones have access 
 to it and swallow it. The mother, whose little ones 
 have measles, or chicken pox, or mumps, or scarlet 
 fever, is in duty bound to keep them warm and dry. 
 If she drives them out into the wet and cold, she is 
 responsible for the result, and it will not do for her to 
 argue, **if they shall get well they will get well, and if 
 they are to die they will anyhow. '* The father who 
 refuses or neglects to send for a skillful physician, when 
 his children are sick, holding the fatalistic doctrine, if 
 they shall get well they will do so, whether I furnish 
 them medical treatment or not, is as guilty of sending 
 them to the grave, as if he refused to put a roof on his 
 house, on the principle that, if they are to be sheltered 
 they will be, and if it is not to be so it will not 
 
 Precautions are Necessary under all circum- 
 stances. To employ all the means, which God and 
 nature has given us for the prevention of disease, is a 
 solemn religious duty, as well as a common sense prin- 
 ciple. Let no one neglect it, or be blinded by the 
 fatalistic belief, that what is to happen will happen. 
 When there are contagious diseases in the community, 
 take the necessary precautions in school and family. 
 Keep the children away. Isolate them from other 
 members of the family if there is sickness in the house. 
 Let those whose duty it is, attend to the sick and take 
 the necessary precautions, just as physicians, ministers, 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 91 
 
 and nurses do in such cases. Do your duty and trust in 
 God. 
 
 Infection from Paper Money. — Some singular 
 facts concerning the danger of infection by paper 
 money have been educed by a bacteriological analysis 
 of the bank notes of the Spanish Bank of Havana in 
 general circulation. Attention was drawn to the sub- 
 ject by the fact that circulation increased the weight of 
 the notes in consequence of their acquiring foreign 
 matter. The examination made showed on the notes 
 in use for some time a considerable number of microbes, 
 and on some notes as many as 10,000 microbes were 
 detected. Eight pathogenic species were encountered, 
 including those of diphtheria and tuberculosis. The 
 result of the examination was that a general warning 
 was issued to the public against the active source of 
 danger. The use of bank notes is at all times attended 
 with a certain degree of risk, and especially in Havana, 
 where children have the habit of carrying paper money 
 in their mouths and are thus very liable to swallow the 
 germs of some mortal disease. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Disinfectants. 
 
 Valuable Ones. — Attention cannot be called too 
 frequently to the necessity of disinfecting school rooms, 
 buildings and premises, in general, especially if diseases 
 prevail in the neighborhood. 
 
 The sun's rays are powerful. The accumulations of 
 the winter months inside and outside of buildings, some 
 of them almost unavoidable, are such as to require 
 immediate attention. Alleys, yards and roadsides 
 should be thoroughly cleaned at once, for, to say noth- 
 ing of the unsightly and ofttimes disgusting appearances, 
 these refuse piles present, they are disease and death 
 breeders. Give a thorough cleaning out to all gutters 
 and receptacles of debris and have all accumulations 
 removed. Rake together all dead leaves, grass and 
 decaying vegetable matter, and burn them up. In other 
 words, remove and destroy all disease breeding germs in 
 and about the premises. Do not depend on disinfect- 
 ants, as long as the sources which are capable of 
 producing sickness remain. 
 
 The mere creation of an odor to overpower some 
 other odor, or the use of a material which only retards 
 decomposition, has no claim to be trusted in destroying 
 disease germs. Large sums of money are spent 
 annually for worthless chemical agents, while the proper 
 precautions are neglected. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 95 
 
 Gases not Odors Should be Killed. — An item 
 goes the rounds of the papers that onions, cut in thin 
 slices, and put on a plate in a room will absorb noxious 
 effluvia. This is just as true as that the smarting from 
 the scratch of a pin becomes instantaneously unfelt if a 
 person is knocked down. Camphor sprinkled around, 
 sugar burnt, cologne, bay rum and similar perfumes 
 only add to the mischief It is not the odor you want 
 to get rid of, or which does the mischief, but the poison- 
 ous gases and miasm generated by escaping substances, 
 which generally emit very little or no odor. You must 
 go to the root of the matter, for as long as there is no 
 eradication from the foundation the mischief is not rem- 
 edied. The American Public Health Association has 
 given the following definitions : A disinfectant is an 
 agent capable of destroying the infective power of 
 infectious material. Agents which merely mask un- 
 pleasant odors are deodorants, and their purpose is not 
 the destruction of disease germs. 
 
 We repeat, at this season of the year, spring, you 
 can not begin too early ; take decisive steps to have 
 your premises put in a clean condition, if you would 
 guard against malaria, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, 
 diphtheria and similar diseases. Use lime, chloride of 
 lime, copperas solution, chlorine gas, and similar disin- 
 fectants freely, but first of all, give the premises a 
 thorough cleaning. 
 
 A cheap disinfectant is a solution of chloride of 
 lead. It is inodorous, effective, and the cost is small. 
 
94 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Take half a drachm of the nitrate and dissolve it in a 
 pint or more of boiling water. Dissolve two drachms 
 of common salt in a pail or bucket of water ; pour the 
 two solutions together and allow the sediment to sink. 
 A cloth dipped in this solution and hung up in a rooom 
 will correct a bad odor promptly, or if the solution be 
 thrown down a drain or upon foul-smelling refuse, it 
 will have the same effect. 
 
 The author recommends mercurial chloride. The 
 windows, chimneys, etc. , are carefully closed up, and 50 
 grms. mercuric chloride are placed in any suitable vessel, 
 which is then set on a pan of burning charcoal, the 
 operator leaving the room and closing the door. After 
 about four hours he re-enters, with a cloth over his 
 mouth and nose, and throws open the windows. After 
 some hours of ventilation, a slight stoving with sulphur 
 is made to follow, which neutralizes any remnants of 
 mercury. This process not merely disinfects, but de- 
 stroys all kinds of vermin. 
 
 The room to be purified with sulphur should be 
 made as tight as possible, so that no fumes can escape, 
 either by window, door or chimney. Put three pounds 
 of sulphur in an iron pot, which should not stand upon 
 woodwork or carpet, lest they be burned, but in a large 
 pan of ashes, or upon a layer of bricks ; on this pour a 
 tablespoonful of alcohol. This is then set on fire, and 
 everybody immediately withdraws from the room. The 
 room should remain closed ten hours, after which it 
 should be thoroughly aired before it is occupied, for the 
 fumes of the sulphur are irritating to the lungs. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 Heat is one of the best, if not the best disinfecting' 
 agent. Articles of bedding and furniture that cannot 
 well be treated otherwise can be purified by a long ex- 
 posure to a temperature of 240° F. In some cities, 
 especially in England, furnaces are made for the recep- 
 tion of bulky articles that have become infected. 
 
 Fresh pure air is another powerful agent. If woven 
 fabrics, clothing and the like are for a long time aired 
 out of doors, they cease to be infective ; probably by the 
 enormous dilution, if not destruction of the elements of 
 danger. 
 
 THE TIME TO DISINFECT. 
 
 Not only because there is danger of cholera 
 visiting us, but for sanitary reasons, in general, it is 
 important that great care should be exercised, so that 
 the premises of home and school be cleaned and disin- 
 fected. This work can not begin too early. 
 
 Therefore, as soon as the weather permits, clean 
 away all rubbish, ash piles and deposits of whatever 
 kind in the vicinity of dwellings and school houses. 
 Especially clean and whitewash cellars. Permit no 
 rotten potatoes, or other vegetables that are going to 
 decay, to remain there. Scatter lime about the build- 
 ings ; chloride of lime is better, but it is expensive. 
 Dissolve two pounds of copperas (sulphate of iron) in a 
 bucketful of soft water, and pour off the solution, by 
 the tincupful, into water closets and around the walls of 
 buildings and out-houses. Repeat this every week till 
 warm weather has fairly set in. 
 
96 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 
 
 Dyspepsia. 
 
 A LITTLE COMMON SENSE ON A TRITE SUBJECT. 
 
 Sarly Rising a Humbug. — Dyspepsia has one 
 virtue, it will get out, bag and baggage, if given a fair 
 chance. It can only be kept as a companion by being 
 fed and nourished according to its own peculiar tastes. 
 
 Of all the humbugs ever gotten up for the cure of 
 dyspepsia, early morning walks are, perhaps, the 
 greatest. A long walk on an empty stomach will ex- 
 haust and tire a well man, Hov/ much more will it 
 exhaust and tire one already suffering from lack of vital 
 energy ? It will do very v/ell for those with a tendency 
 to overfatness or with too much vital energy. The 
 dyspeptic is the better for sleep and rest. 
 
 The old doctrine that the early morning air is purer 
 and healthier than that of midday has been exploded. 
 The foul damps that rise from the earth after the vital- 
 izing and purifying rays of the sun have been withdrawn 
 are still afloat. The air may feel much cooler, and to 
 one with plenty of good blood it is most agreeable, be- 
 cause it robs his system of the surplus heat, which in- 
 duces the languor he experiences when he gets out of 
 bed. 
 
 A thin- blooded individual will suffer chills, while 
 his fat friend will be experiencing a glow. One is 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 97 
 
 braced up, the other shaken up. There is the difference. 
 It is a question of blood, not of nerve or disposition. 
 The fat man is not jolly because he is fat, nor is the 
 jolly man fat because he is jolly. They are fat and jolly 
 because their digestion is good. 
 
 The first thing a Dyspeptic must do in order to 
 get well, is to give his brain a rest. I^et him cultivate 
 a habit of resting quietly one hour after eating a break- 
 fast of boiled steak, toast.and clear coffee ; sleeping one 
 hour, or more, after a dinner of roast beef, fish or fowl, 
 toast and coffee or milk ; an hour's rest after a supper of 
 steak, game or fish, toast and coffee or tea, plain. 
 
 There has been a good deal of fun poked at the hot 
 water cure for dyspepsia, yet the fact remains that no 
 better tonic and regulator for the stomach is known to 
 the medical profession, than that same goblet of hot 
 water — as hot as can be borne sipped slowly a half hour 
 before each meal. 
 
 Rest, plain food, plenty of sleep and freedom from 
 care will knock the toughest case of dyspepsia silly. 
 Pills and powders are no good for steady use. Occasion- 
 ally they may be needed, but not often. 
 
 Alcoholic and fermented drinks are bad medicines 
 for dyspepsia ; neither is too much cracked wheat, oat 
 meal or corn starch good. These should be touched 
 sparingly. Milk is excellent when it agrees with one. 
 It should never be gulped down, but drank slowly. 
 
 The Causes of Dyspepsia. — One of the most fre- 
 quent causes of dyspepsia (says Dr. Pepper), is the con- 
 
98 COMMON SENSE HEAL JH NOTES. 
 
 stant use of irritating substances, such as tobacco, al- 
 cohol and highly seasoned food. Tobacco and strong 
 tea and coffee act both by depressing the nerve force of 
 the stomach, and, if swallowed, by directly interfering 
 with the digestive processes. It will not be disputed b s 
 any fair-minded person that tobacco, tea and coffee are 
 injurious when taken in excess. It must be admitted 
 that the majority of men, in a state of health, can use a 
 certain amount of tobacco without injury. This amount 
 varies with the individual, but is in any case small. I 
 cannot speak too strongly against the filthy and dis- 
 gusting habit of chewing tobacco. 
 
 How to Cute Dyspepsia. — Court fresh air by day 
 and night. Always sleep with a half-open window. 
 Masticate your food thoroughly, that is, chew it fine. 
 Avoid spices, pickles, cheese, salt meat, sour crout, etc. 
 Rise early, wash frequently, take plenty of exercise. 
 
 A cup of hot water or hot milk at meals is better 
 than coffee or tea, and much better than cold water. 
 
 Do not eat too miicli, or force the appetite. 
 Man is a miserable dyspeptic for a large part of his life ; 
 and all from his not having had wit enough to know 
 when he had eaten plenty, and being foolish enough, 
 when he had felt the ill effects of thus eating too much, 
 to repeat the process an indefinite number of times ; and 
 all for the trifling object of feeling good for the briei 
 period of its passing down the throat. For each minute 
 of that good time he pays the penalty of a month of such 
 suffering as only a dyspeptic can appreciate. What a 
 fool man is 1 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 99 
 
 Dysentery. 
 
 Dysentery. — Is literally a *' difficulty among the 
 intestines ;' ' it is a discharge of blood from the bowels, 
 accompanied with what has been aptly called *'an 
 atrocious pain. ' ' You feel as if you would be relieved 
 by an evacuation, but when the attempt is made, there 
 is a fruitless straining, termed tenesmus^ and nothing 
 comes of it, unless it be blood. The rectum, or last 
 foot of the lower bowel, is the main seat of dysentery, 
 which is commonly called "bloody flux." It should be 
 always considered a dangerous disease. At first the dis- 
 charges are odorless ; but as the parts come more under 
 the influence of the disease, they become disorganized, 
 rotten, and insufferably offensive. Dysentery most 
 abounds in hot, dry weather, and in often caused by bad 
 air, a sudden check of perspiration, or by whatever 
 makes the skin of the body cold. In fact, dysentery 
 may be considered an exaggerated or aggravated 
 diarrhea — the latter is water, the former, blood. The 
 great distinguishing features of dysentery are bloody 
 passages, with a frequent, fruitless, and painful effort to 
 stool. It is one of those diseases which are very apt to 
 go to a fatal termination, if let alone ; a disease which is 
 often made more speedily fatal by being ignorantly 
 tampered with ; and whether blood is passed from the 
 
100 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 bladder or tHe bowels, a skillful pbysician should be 
 called in as promptly as possible, as promptly indeed, as 
 if it were an attack of ckolera. 
 
 Remedies. — ^While tlie physician is coming, there 
 are several things which may be safely done for the 
 comfort of the sufferer, if not for his cure. The patient 
 should not sit up a moment ; should keep as quiet as 
 possible ; should eat nothing but boiled rice, or flour- 
 porridge, and swallow bits of ice to complete quenching 
 of the thirst. A little cold flaxseed- tea may be swallowed 
 from time to time. A favorite prescription of some of 
 the old physicians of a past generation, and which is now 
 said to be in vogue in Russia, for several forms of 
 diarrhea and dysentery, is the use of raw meat — thus, 
 take fresh beef, free from fat, scrape it into a pulp with 
 a knife, season it with salt to make it more palatable, or 
 with sugar for children, to whom begin with one tea- 
 spoonful three times a day, gradually increasing the 
 amount as they become fond of it. Adults may use it 
 by spreading it between two slices of stale bread. Its 
 merit consists in its being easily digested, very nutritious, 
 of small bulk, and readily assimilated to the system. It 
 is well known that children having the summer com- 
 plaint will ravenously eat, or rather chew or grind bet- 
 ween their gums, a piece of the rind of bacon or ham, to 
 which is attached half an inch of fat, and begin to im- 
 prove in a few hours. The whites of several eggs 
 ** whipped,'' and then sweetened with white sugar, and 
 drank through the day, without any other food, is an 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 101 
 
 admirable remedy in these ailments. Or for dysentery 
 or protracted diarrhea take half a teacup of vinegar, with 
 as much salt as it will take up, leaving a little excess of 
 salt at the bottom, add boiling water until the cup is 
 two thirds full, remove the scum, let it cool, and take 
 one tablespoonful three times a day until relieved. It 
 has not failed of cure in many hundred trials. 
 
 As dysentery is often epidemic, it is wise to consider 
 every case as a possible source of danger to others, and 
 to disinfect the discharges with care. 
 
 
102 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Diphtheria. 
 
 The word ** diphtheria," was introduced by M. 
 Breton veau in 1826. It means a double skin. We 
 have an inside skin, as well as an outside one. The in- 
 ternal skin is called the mucous membrane. When the 
 throat or wind-pipe is inflamed, a thin substance 
 exudes from the inner skin of the throat, the mucous 
 membrane. This appears in patches which spread and 
 harden and thicken, until the wind-pipe is closed and 
 death ensues. In croup the substance is less solid and 
 forms a kind of phlegm, which is more or less tough, 
 but not as solid or compact as in diphtheria. It is not 
 as leathery in its nature, and not so difficult to remove. 
 Diphtheria is also more dangerous than croup, on account 
 of the general debility which seizes the patient, and 
 its tendency to destructive ulceration, a kind of rot- 
 ting or mortification. 
 
 The whole mass of blood is corrupted, diseased, is 
 destitute of those elements which are necessary to 
 health. 
 
 Children are mostly attacked with diphtheria, because 
 it is a disease which depresses every power of life, and, 
 hence, the weaker the subject, the more liable to the 
 attack. The few grown persons who **take diphtheria" 
 have some scrofulous or other weakening element. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 103 
 
 Neither adult nor child in really vigorous health is ever 
 attacked with it ; only such as are deficient in stamina 
 suffer from it. 
 
 The reason that several members of a family are 
 attacked is the similarity of constitution, habits of life, 
 diet, breathing the same air, etc. The immediate cause 
 being mostly breathing a faulty or defective atmosphere. 
 Hence raw, thawy, rainy days are the most dangerous. 
 
 The Causes of Diphtheria are but imperfectly 
 understood. It visits all places, town and country, dry 
 and damp regions, elevated and marshy localities, illy- 
 ventilated apartments and the open country. It tends, 
 however, always to fasten on debilitated constitutions, 
 or where the vitality is lowered. Bad blood is an es- 
 sential condition of the disease. Impure and indiges- 
 tible food, v/ith inattention to cleanliness, is also a 
 source of it. Perhaps a pork diet may be named as one 
 of the causes. It is certain that hog's meat is not very 
 conducive to health, and that those who are predisposed 
 to diphtheria, on account of constitutional weakness, 
 would better abstain from the use of pork. No doubt, 
 too, it is very often spread by the exposure of the corpses 
 at funerals, and especially by the large attendance of 
 children at funerals, and the indiscriminate visiting at 
 the houses of the sick. 
 
 How Children Complain and what to do in 
 Diphtheria, — The three universally present symptoms 
 of diphtheria are : Tst, a general prostration of the whole 
 system ; 2nd, an instinctive carrying of the hand to the 
 
104 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 throat ; 3rd, an offensive breath. Sore throat, swelling 
 outside, and an exceedingly offensive breath are among 
 the first indications of diphtheria. On opening the 
 mouth there will be seen in the back part of the throat 
 and tonsils spots of a whitish or grayish white color, 
 with fever and general depression and debility. 
 
 Remedies. — In the earliest stages, a gargle of salt 
 water should be freely used, every fifteen minutes, and 
 flannel should be tied around the neck, dipped in salt 
 water, as hot as the patient can endure, renewing every 
 five minutes. Whether diphtheria is in the neighbor- 
 hood or not, if a child complains of sore throat and has 
 an offensive breath, send instantly for a physician. 
 When diphtheria appears in a family, keep up a 
 thorough ventilation, and send all the children who are 
 not affected to a place several miles distant. Allow no 
 child from a diphtheria family to come to school, or into 
 another family where there are children. Allow no 
 children to go to a house or funeral where this disease 
 has been. Use chloride of lime as a disinfectant very 
 freely. 
 
 Disinfect the school, when the disease prevails in 
 the neighborhood, with chlorine gas, prepared by mixing 
 in a saucer placed on a warm stove a handful of fine 
 salt, with an ounce of black oxide of manganese, and 
 pouring sulphuric acid mixed with three times its bulk 
 of water on it. Open the doors and windows when you 
 disinfect the school. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 105 
 
 What may be done to prevent Diphtheria. 
 
 Every damp or foul place should be an object of sus- 
 picion. Every damp cellar, every confined, sunless space 
 is a source of danger, as well as every sewer or drain. 
 Not, as we believe, because sewer gas by itself would 
 give diphtheria, but because a sewer is an admirable 
 place, according to the best of our knowledge, for the 
 diptheritic poison to multiply, and if the gas of such a 
 poisoned sewer is inhaled, the poison is likely to be in- 
 haled with it, the gas playing the role of a carrier, just 
 as drinking water often does for the poison of typhoid 
 fever. 
 
 It is not pretended that care can prevent diphtheria 
 with anything like the same certainly that vaccination 
 prevents smallpox, but much can be done, and if the 
 disease does come, there is not added to the trial of 
 dangerous illness the distressing sense of criminal care- 
 lessness. 
 
 Let, therefore, sunlight and pure air go everywhere 
 about the habitation ; if any foul place be observed, see 
 that it is cleansed, if necessary disinfected, and if pos- 
 sible kept sweet and dry. Do not let the slops of the 
 kitchen, be thrown upon the ground ; do not invite the 
 filth of poultry by feeding them about the door. Do 
 not — but the detail of household errors need not be gone 
 into. 
 
 How to Prevent its Spreading. — But if diph- 
 theria has actually come, what shall be done to prevent 
 its spread ? This is a threadbare tale, but must be told 
 
106 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 over and over again. First, remove, if possible, all 
 children from contact witli the patient and from the 
 place of supposed infection. If the latter be not possi- 
 ble, keep all children absolutely away from the sick 
 one and for a long time after the case is ended, as well 
 as from the room where it was ill. Moreover, let no 
 adults w^ho are not much needed go near the child, and 
 let no one attend both the patient and the well children. 
 Such details involve much care, we grant, but neglect- 
 ing them so often means serious, if not fatal, illness 
 that they must be insisted upon. Instances enough of 
 the results of laxness in this particular could be given, 
 but they are too painful. Let nothing go out of the 
 sick room to other children. We have in mind the 
 setting up of diphtheria in a town in a distant state by 
 means of a doll, the plaything of a child fatally sick 
 with diphtheria and sent after her death to one of her 
 little friends. All things that can be burned with 
 decent regard for economy, should thus be disposed of. 
 For this reason no handkerchief should be used, but, in 
 their stead, old rags or soft paper, which can be put into 
 the fire directly or at frequent intervals. 
 
 There is one source of diphtheria that has not been 
 mentioned which may be best alluded to here, and 
 which is held by many experienced observ^ers to be a 
 very important one. It is contagion from patients able 
 to be abroad. Some are, perhaps, adults, in whom the 
 disease was not sufficiently severe to have ever laid 
 them up, and passed unrecognized. Other are conval- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 107 
 
 escent cases — children mainly — who are allowed too 
 soon to be about, and who carry to their companions in 
 the house, the school or the street the poison which still 
 clings in the recesses of their throats or their garments. 
 
 It is the part of prudence to give care to the condi- 
 tion of children's throats, and, if they present catarrhal 
 condition, to teach them to cleanse them by the use of 
 proper gargles or sprays. This may be done at morn- 
 ing or evening or both. Among throat specialists there 
 are a number of cleansing solutions pretty generally 
 employed. A very simple one which answers this pur- 
 pose very well, and can be made extemporaneously at 
 slight expense, is a drachm (a small teaspoonful) of pure 
 carbolic acid in a pint of lime water. * 
 
 Valuable Hints. — Concerning the management of 
 a case of diphtheria, so far as that they may fall within 
 the domain of the parents, the following few rules, 
 while not incorporating all, are still the most important 
 for preventing the spread of this dreadful disease, and 
 our earnest advice to every mother is to study them 
 carefully, and preserve them for future reference. 
 
 First, strips of linen or cotton fabric, about eight 
 inches wide, folded several times, and long enough to 
 reach from ear to ear, should be wrung out of ice water 
 (if in winter), and if in summer put directly upon ice, 
 and then applied externally to the throat, and as fast as- 
 one cloth gets warm another should be ready to take its 
 place. If the child -complains of being cold, its feet 
 and hands should be bathed in as hot water as it can 
 
108 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 stand. When the child is very young, it may be readily 
 ascertained if it be cold or not by feeling its hands and 
 head. Under no circumstances should hot applications 
 be made to the throat. If the child is old enough, it 
 may be given broken ice to suck constantly, even if the 
 water is spit out. The cold applications inhibit the 
 growth of the microbes. The patient's hands should 
 be washed frequently — and here let me say so should 
 those of the attendants — and the vessel used for the 
 purpose should not be used by anyone else. The pa- 
 tient's clothing needs protection in front. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 109 
 
 Diarrhea. 
 
 Hints for Summer. — August is one of the most 
 fatal months of the year. Nearly twice as many per- 
 sons die in August as in December. Cases of sickness 
 are very frequent in August and September. Many of 
 these are avoidable by exercising care in eating and 
 drinking. Acids promote the secretion of the bile, 
 prevent fevers and keep the system free. Hence, eat 
 fruits, berries, cold-slaw, pickles, salads, and avoid 
 sweet milk, ale, beer, porter, which tend to create bile, 
 to constipate, to induce headache, cold feet, neuralgia, 
 and want of appetite. The whole system is weak, and 
 indisposed to efforts in hot weather. The stomach is in 
 a relaxed condition, and to impose on it full, heavy 
 meals, and then to urge it by tonics, stimulants and 
 tempting viands is suicidal, and the cause of much of 
 the sickness and suffering of summer. 
 
 Diarrhea, looseness of bowels, is a very common 
 complaint in summer. It is not caused by eating ripe 
 fruit, with moderation, as some people surmise, but, on 
 the contrary, fruit in season is healthful when ripe and 
 temperately eaten, and a prevention of bowel diseases. 
 It is nature's food, prepared for use, at the time of 
 ripening. Common sense teaches that it should be used 
 at the time that the. Creator dishes it up for us on his 
 great table in nature. 
 
no COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 In warm weather, when there is excessive vermi- 
 cular action of the bowels, or looseness, as it is famil- 
 iarly called, every step a person takes has a tendency to 
 set the bowels in motion. Instinct and common sense, 
 therefore, dictate the most perfect rest. Drinking fluids 
 aggravates the malady. Lumps of ice chewed and 
 swallowed, in as^large pieces as possible, will allay the 
 excessive thirst. This treatment will cure nine, cases 
 out of ten, if adopted within forty-eight hours, if not, 
 call a physician. 
 
 Diarrhea Cured by Quietness.— Z^/^rr/^^^ of hot 
 weather is often cured by maintaining perfect quietude 
 in bed, and eating acid fruits and berries in their nat- 
 ural state while ripe, raw and fresh. If the acid fruit 
 fails, eat nothing for a few days but common rice, 
 parched brown like coffee, and prepared in the usual 
 way. 
 
 Persistent summer diarrhea is usually caused by 
 malaria, sewer air or impure water. The conditions 
 liable to contaminate air and water should be carefully 
 sought out and remedied. The water can be rendered 
 safe by boiling. 
 
 Many persons have diarrhea as a consequence of a 
 cold; they can not rest until they "take something'' to 
 *' check it,'' with the certain result of its falling on the 
 liver, to end in a "bilious attack," if not on the lungs, 
 to cause pneumonia, or pleurisy, or other more serious 
 form of disease. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. Ill 
 
 Diet. 
 
 Why we Should Bat. — We eat and drink for two 
 reasons : to supply waste and to keep warm. The more 
 we work or think, the more waste there is, the more we 
 must eat. The heat of the body is 98 degrees, and this 
 is the same, in health, whether we are on Greenland's 
 icy mountains, or India's coral strands, or where 
 Afric's sunny fountains roll down their golden sands. 
 
 The temperature of the body being the same, 
 always, at all places, the amount of heat to be supplied, 
 the food to be eaten must vary, and be proportioned to 
 the heat needed, just as we make more or less fire in 
 our dwellings, to meet the temperature without. The 
 family using the same amount of coal in July as in Jan- 
 uary is crazy. The man who eats as much in July as 
 in January is ditto. But there are still bigger fools 
 than this man. They are those who when warm 
 weather comes, finding that their appetite is not as 
 keen, think "there is something the matter" with 
 them, and begin to ' ' take something " to " sharpen the 
 appetite," as tonics, bitters, whiskey, etc. 
 
 We change our clothes in spring from heavier to 
 lighter, beigin to wear straw hats, shave down our 
 beards, and lay aside our hibernating habits. Among 
 the things that should receive special attention now, is 
 
112 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 our food. Many people have a supply of pork on hand, 
 which must be eaten up — one of the worst things that 
 can be done. Our instincts revolt against this practice. 
 If we were but as wise as the animals, we would heed 
 the warning and refrain from eating fat meats. It may 
 do for the Esquimau to swallow his blubber and eat 
 tallow candles. But, we are neither Esquimaux, nor 
 do we live in the frigid zone. If we disregard the indi- 
 cations of nature, the stomach will rebel and we 
 become bilious. 
 
 When the winter appetite like our thick clothing, 
 is put off, or reduced, to attack nature by an attempt to 
 hamper the appetite by the use of delicacies and choice 
 viands and overloading the stomach, is the height of 
 folly. This results in overworking the stomach, 
 deranging the organs of digestion, and inviting disease. 
 
 Do not use Appetisers. — Appetizers, tonics and 
 ** Spring'' medicines are next resorted to. If the 
 old-fashioned sassafras tea were used, the effects would 
 not prove so injurious, but instead of this all kinds of 
 patent medicines and nostrums are swallowed, and the 
 result is weakness, biliousness, chills and perchance 
 malaria. 
 
 Now, all this trouble might be avoided by proper 
 diet, in proper quantity, and at proper times. Let the 
 following rules be observed, and many of the spring 
 ailments can be avoided : 
 
 Change from a fatty to a less fatty diet 
 
 Avoid pork and rich pastry. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 113 
 
 Spread your butter only half as thick. 
 
 Bat a soft boiled ^^'g or two for breakfast. 
 
 Eat a piece of beefsteak, done rare, once a day. 
 
 Use plenty of vegetables. 
 
 Eat fish rather than too much meat. 
 
 Always drink a cup of strong coffee in the morn- 
 ing before leaving the house. 
 
 Do not eat between regular meals. Parents do 
 their children great injury, and oft-times prepare the way 
 for sickness, by indulging them in this habit. 
 
 Don't eat dinner, nor any other meal, at 9 p. m. 
 
 Nature craves for something acidous. Drink 
 weak lemonade occasionally. 
 
 Avoid highly seasoned food. 
 
 Mustard, horse-radish and onions, if used at all, 
 should not be used in large quantities. Better avoid 
 them. 
 
 Salt should be used but sparingly. 
 
114 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Importance of a Good Breakfast. 
 
 Better to make your Coffee good and less of it 
 than to have a bucketful of slop, that has no taste of 
 coffee. The people of the South know how to make 
 good coffee. They can beat us Pennsylvanians in coffee 
 making, though we can beat them in cooking. Coffee 
 should not be boiled * ' all to pieces. ' ' A cup of good 
 coffee y even, if it is not a good cup of coffee, a little of 
 it, but good and strong, is the best medicine a person 
 can swallow in the morning. It is a great health pro- 
 moter and preserver. 
 
 Better to have a small piece of beefsteak for your 
 breakfast, well prepared, good and tender, not all burnt 
 to a crisp, all the flavor and nourishment, which it con- 
 tained sent up the chimney, than much of the tough, 
 indigestible, tasteless stuff, so often found on the table. 
 It should be broiled, rare and juicy. 
 
 What a grand thing it is to rise with the sun, at 
 this season of the year. He that lies abed till seven 
 misses one of the great operas of nature — the birds* 
 concert. It pays to take in this gratuitous performance 
 — for the admission is ''free, gratis, for nothing.'' But 
 it does not pay to go abroad with an empty stomach. 
 
 The morning meal, or breakfast, breaking the fast, 
 Frueh-Stuecky early piece, ''early bit," is the most 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 115 
 
 important meal of the day. On it, and the time it is 
 taken depend, to a great extent, our feelings of the day. 
 It should be taken within an hour after leaving the 
 bed, and especially before going out into the raw air 
 and dampness of the morning. If the "fast is not 
 broken'^ soon, the physical and mental energies, unsup- 
 ported by food, gradually lessen and exhaustion ensues. 
 The fluids of the stomach and smaller tissues begin to 
 act upon the coats of these viscera, instead of the food, 
 and an unpleasant feeling of hunger, or a loss of appe- 
 tite comes on, as a natural consequence. When 
 breakfast cannot be taken within a reasonable period 
 after rising, the • gap should be filled up by chewing a 
 crust, a biscuit or the like. A raw ^gg ^'' sucked''^ from 
 the shell, or broken into a teacup and drunk, will be 
 found most valuable for the purpose. 
 
 Children Should Eat a Good Breakfast.— 
 Pupils are sometimes found in the morning without 
 having had any breakfast. It stands to reason that a 
 child will suffer from nervousness, headache, eye strain, 
 etc. — ills which come from a run-down state of the 
 system — if such a state of affairs is allowed. A diet of 
 doughnuts is not the best for either mental or physical 
 development, yet doughnuts are the most popular 
 luncheon in the intervals between the different sessions. 
 
 It is God's wise provision, to regulate our appetite 
 in accordance with the weather, so as to desire less 
 when the weather is warmer, and that of a differeiit 
 kind. In winter we crave meats and fats, starches and 
 
116 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 
 
 oily substances, sweetmeats and heat producing sub- 
 stances. In summer we ratber loathe these, and desire 
 acid berries, fruits, tomatoes, melons, etc.; we do not 
 want solid heating food, but cooling and watery diet. 
 Meats, sugar, cornstarch, fats, beans, rice, are heat pro- 
 ducing substances. But vegetables, salads, greens, 
 fruits, berries, tomatoes, melons, potatoes, etc., etc., are 
 not. 
 
 Nature furnishes in warm weather strawberries, 
 raspberries, gooseberries, cherries and all kinds of 
 small fruits, as well as garden vegetables and sim- 
 ilar articles of diet, simply because the system does 
 not require fire to warm it in summer, but water to cool, 
 water to supply the material for perspiration and evap- 
 oration, ninety-nine pounds of every hundred in berries 
 being water. 
 
 A person eating these plentifully will require but 
 very little drinking water. 
 
 Watermelons are the only articles of food that can 
 be eaten in hot weather, with impunity, until no more 
 can be swallowed. The seeds should not be swallowed, 
 as they are injurious. Only good, ripe melons should 
 be eaten. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 117 
 
 Different Kinds of Food. 
 
 About Fruit. — Taken in the morning, fruit is as 
 helpful to digestion as it is refreshing. The newly- 
 awakened function finds in it an object of such 
 light labor as will exercise without seriously tax- 
 ing its energies, and the tissues of the stomach 
 acquire at little cost a gain of nourishment, 
 which will sustain those energies in later and 
 more serious operations. It is an excellent plan, 
 with this object in view, to add a little bread to the 
 fruit eaten. While admitting its possession of these 
 valuable qualities, however, and while also agreeing 
 with those who maintain that in summer, when the 
 body is, at all events in many cases, less actively em- 
 ployed than usual, meat may be less, and fruit or 
 vegetables more freely used as a food, we are not pre- 
 pared to allow that even then an exclusively vegetarian 
 regimen is that most generally advisable. Meat 
 provides us with a means of obtaining albuminoid 
 material, which is indispensable in its most easily 
 assimilable form. It affords us in this material not 
 only an important constituent of tissue growth, but a 
 potent excitant of the whole process of nutrition. It 
 has, therefore, a real, definite, and great value in the 
 ordinary diet of man, and the wholesomeness of fruit 
 
118 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 combined with farinaceous food as an alternative dietary 
 is not so much an argument in favor of the vegetarian 
 principle, as a proof that seasonable changes in food 
 supply are helpful to the digestive processes and to 
 nutritive changes in the tissues generally. 
 
 Potatoes as Food. — As an article of diet, the 
 potato is not any more valuable or healthful than many 
 other kinds of food. Three-fourths of it is water, that 
 is, ^\oo IS nutriment, while ^^loo is waste. Almost the 
 entire nutriment is contained within a quarter of an 
 inch of the surface, immediately under the skin. In 
 peeling thick nearly all the most valuable part is 
 wasted. 
 
 Baked potatoes are easily digested. They require 
 only two hours and a half. If boiled, they require three 
 and a half. They are most healthful, and, perhaps, 
 too, most delicious, if baked in the ashes. To have 
 mealy potatoes, boil them until the fork penetrates 
 them easily, pour off all the water, and cover the vessel 
 with a cloth near the fire, till *' steamed" dry. 
 
 Potatoes should not be solid nor watery when 
 boiled — if so, they are injurious to health, indigestible. 
 When fried brown, in slices, the starch is converted 
 into charcoal, and the potato becomes indigestible and 
 innutritions. 
 
 Sixty pounds, that is a bushel of potatoes, give as 
 much nourishment as thirty pounds of meat. Potatoes 
 at fifty cents a bushel, therefore, are worth as much as 
 thirty pounds of meat, costing three dollars. A potato 
 diet is six times as cheap as meat. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 119 
 
 In other words, a pound of potatoes, costing one 
 cent, warms and nourishes the body as much as half a 
 pound of meat, costing five cents. 
 
 Meat, however, is more easily digested, and has 
 some valuable ingredients peculiar to itself. 
 
 All food contains nitrogen, the substance which 
 supplies muscle, flesh or strength. Carbon, another 
 element contained in food, gives warmth. The colder 
 the weather, the more carbon is required. Alcohol is 
 almost wholly carbon, and, hence, it produces heat, but 
 it does not add a particle of flesh nor strength. A 
 person feels stronger after taking a drink of spirits, but 
 it is not real strength. It is only strength preternatur- 
 ally drawn in advance, the nervous system having been 
 stimulated to make that draught, by the influence 
 which the alcohol had on it. 
 
 Sugar is not Injurious to Health, nor, indeed, 
 to the teeth. It is absorbed through the veins into the 
 circulation, and there burned away for the production 
 of heat. It is largely carbon, and as the carbon of the 
 wood and coal furnish the heat in the stove, so sugar 
 furnishes heat for the body. There is an old opinion 
 that sugar attacks the teeth, corrupting them and caus- 
 ing their decay. This, however, is one of the * ' buga- 
 boos ' ' of frugal parents, in order to deter children from 
 indulging in this luxury. Their fondness for sugar is a 
 natural instinct, nature having placed it in milk, in 
 order to form part of their nourishment. No people on 
 earth have finer teeth than the negroes of Jamaica, who 
 
120 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 live almost exclusively from sugar. Instead of repress- 
 ing the appetite for sugar, it ought to be gratified in 
 moderation. But the evil is in the use of candies, 
 many of which are adulterated. The sugar of which 
 pure candies should be made is replaced with glucose, 
 terra alba, oleomargarine, tonka, vanilline, nigrbane oil, 
 Venetian red, extracts of coal tar, compound ethers, etc. 
 Avoid the use of highly colored, highly flavored can- 
 dies ; most of them contain poisonous ingredients. 
 
 Children especially, even some larger ones, will be 
 tempted to eat a considerable quantity of candy on 
 Christmas. There is no particular harm in pure candy, 
 if eaten with moderation. Too much of anything is 
 too much, even so of candy. Always get clear candy, 
 and indulge in it with moderation. It will not hurt 
 you. 
 
 Topics of this kind can be taught and talked on, 
 in connection with the study of physiology. They are 
 of great practical benefit, not only to children, but 
 through them the older folks, who have never had the 
 opportunity of studying physiology, will be placed in 
 possession of this much needed information. 
 
 Some Persons Bat Themselves to Death, 
 others drink themselves to death. When a man is 
 weak or does not feel well, he often thinks he could 
 become strong and well again by eating. His friends 
 are of the same opinion, and urge him to eat, to force 
 down food. Now, all this is not only nonsense, but 
 suicidal. Nature takes away the appetite purposely 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 121 
 
 under some circumstances, and makes the sight of food 
 nauseating. When a man does not feel well he is 
 feeble, and the stomach shares in this debility. To 
 require the stomach to do duty, under such circum- 
 stances, is like imposing a load of labor on a man after 
 he has performed a hard day's work and is *' tired to 
 death." 
 
 In hot summer weather every one, even the health- 
 iest, becomes somewhat enervated, and is thus in the 
 condition of a sick person. Now, if we sit down and 
 shovel in a lot of provender, enough for an elephant, 
 many would call this what is needed, when, in fact, it 
 is the worst thing a person can do. As well take a dose 
 of arsenic, which will do the killing quicker, with less 
 protracted suffering. 
 
 What is needed for ailing persons, and even the 
 healthy in hot weather, when the stomach is averse to 
 taking food, is to eat but little, and that the lightest 
 kind of food, coarse bread, ripe fruits and vegetables, 
 and then exercise in the open air. 
 
 The stomach under such treatment may be able to 
 convert a small amount of food into pure invigorating 
 blood. 
 
 Do not be afraid that you are going to be sick, if 
 your appetite diminishes, in hot weather. Don't take 
 Dutch gin, Schiedam schnapps, plantation bitters, '*rot 
 gut," dirty beer, or ale, or porter, and thus impose on 
 the stomach more labor than it can perform, and lay the 
 foundation for summer fevers, dyspepsia, colic, dysen- 
 tery and other diseases, often prevalent at this season. 
 
122 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Ivcarn an object lesson from the dogs, the donkeys, 
 the geese, and other live teachers in the animal king- 
 dom, which are not fools enough to force down food, 
 when their stomachs do not crave it, nor guzzle down 
 vile stuff for an appetizer. 
 
 Care in Eating. — You will be tempted to eat too 
 much at many special occasions. Be on your guard, and 
 stop before you are surfeited. If you feel that you have 
 eaten too much, take a walk, gradually increasing its 
 rapidity, until there is a free perspiration, and continue 
 at this gait till every feeling of discomfort about 
 the stomach or lungs has dissappeared ; then cool off 
 very slowly, in a closed room, and do not eat an atom 
 until the second meal thereafter, that is, omit one meal. 
 
 Besides, as we have often said, eat and drink 
 moderately, live on vegetables and fruits, avoid tainted 
 meats and fatty substances. Let the children have all 
 the ripe fruit they can eat with moderation. Fruits are 
 intended by the Creator for diet in hot weather, yes, 
 always. Exercise great moderation in all things, and 
 attend to personal cleanliness, and ** whether you eat 
 or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of 
 God." 
 
 Nature is no respecter of persons, not even of pres- 
 idents ; she will punish the trangressor of her laws. 
 
 Bating Before Retiring, — There has been quite 
 a revolution of late years in many countries in regard 
 to the connection between eating and sleeping, and it is 
 said that a radical change is likely to take place before 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 123 
 
 long in tlie practice of a great many families in 
 England. The popular idea is that eating at night is 
 highly injurious to the constitution. It is now recog- 
 nized that nature contradicts this notion. Provided a 
 man is hungry and his stomach is in proper condition, 
 the practice is not only unharmful, but rather beneficial. 
 To go to bed on an empty stomach is apt to drive sleep 
 away altogether. Three or four hours before bedtime a 
 substantial dinner or supper should be eaten, and on 
 going to bed some simple food should be taken every 
 night by those who have an inclination for it, and 
 especially by delicate persons or invalids. Persons 
 invariably feel drowsy after a heavy meal, and, on the 
 other hand, wakefulness is often merely an indication of 
 hunger. The digestive organs having finished with it, 
 the blood flows once more to the head, bringing with it 
 consciousness. The prevalent notion seems to be that 
 the digestive organs rest simultaneously with the brain. 
 Physiology does not support this proposition. Innum- 
 erable cases can unfortunately always be found of men, 
 women and children complaining of sleeplessness solely 
 occasioned by hunger, the satisfying of which would 
 immediately be followed by sleep. 
 
324 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Drinking Water and Water Drinking. 
 
 Use in Moderation. — There is a strong tempta- 
 tion, in warm weather, to drink ice water. A little 
 common sense reflection will convince any one that 
 this is injurious to health. lyct us reason together. 
 The temperature of the stomach is about a hundred 
 degrees. This is the natural warmth at which di- 
 gestion goes on. Swallow cold water, the progress 
 of digestion is at once arrested, and is not resumed 
 until the water introduced into the stomach has 
 been there long enough to be warmed, from the 
 temperature of the ice water, say forty degrees, to 
 a hundred. To accomplish this, heat must be ab- 
 stracted from the system. Strong, robust persons 
 may not feel it, but the feeble will feel chilly and 
 feverish, digestion is imperfect, the stomach loses 
 its vigor, and the foundation of disease is laid. 
 What is the inevitable, common sense inference? 
 That ice water is injurious to health, if taken at 
 meals ; injurious to the most healthy, if taken in 
 large quantities, and to persons in feeble health, 
 if taken at all, beyond a few swallows. 
 
 But the chief danger is the shock produced by 
 swallowing the ice water. The blood is driven from 
 its regular course, arrested in its flow, thrown, pos- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 125 
 
 sibly, upon the heart, and, if sudden death does not 
 result from apoplexy, there is great danger that 
 the reaction will be such, if not suddenly to pro- 
 duce serious consequences, nevertheless to weaken 
 the efforts of the organs, so that disease of these 
 organs will ensue. Organic diseases have become 
 fearfully prevalent of late years, and one of the 
 fruitful causes thereof is, no doubt, to be found in 
 the indiscreet drinking of ice water. 
 
 It has been a ^^schwerfrage^^ for a long time to 
 decide if iced water is causative of kidney disease, 
 from which it seems to be settled that the Ameri- 
 can suffers more than other races, and the end is 
 not yet Some physicians strongly protest against 
 drinking any water or other liquid that is below 
 freezing point. Stomach nerves are quick to re- 
 sent sudden shocks, and temporary total arrest of 
 digestion follows a draught of iced water or a plate 
 of ice cream. Cool drinks, by all means, but never 
 cold ; and no ice cream or frozen stuffs directly after 
 meals. 
 
 A series of experiments upon dogs proved that 
 a tablespoonful of ice cream would suspend diges- 
 tive processes for two hours; and there is no reason 
 to presume that it would act differently in the hu- 
 man stomach. If it must be eaten at all, it is safe 
 only midway between meals or at bed time — and 
 then only for young people, whose stomachs are 
 quickly replenished with nerve energy from well 
 filled centers. 
 
126 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Better, therefore, avoid the use of ice water, 
 than run the risk of contracting kidney disease. 
 
 On Use of Ice — On the other hand ice itself 
 may be taken as freely as possible, not only with- 
 out injury, but with the most striking advantage in 
 dangerous forms of disease. If broken in sizes of 
 a pea or bean, and swallowed as freely as practic- 
 able, without much chewing or crushing between 
 the teeth, it will often be efficient in checking vari- 
 ous kinds of- diarrhea, and has cured violent cases 
 of Asiatic cholera. 
 
 To drink any ice-cold liquid at meals retards 
 digestion, chills the body, and has been known 
 to induce the most dangerous internal congestions. 
 
 If ice is put in milk or on butter, and these are 
 not used at the time, they lose their freshness and 
 become sour and ' stale, for the essential nature of 
 both is changed, when once frozen and then thawed. 
 
 Some Good Advice. — Much of the advice giv- 
 en by papers, as to what we should drink, is bad 
 advice, some, indeed, is dangerous. In some cases 
 the good and the bad are so mixed that it takes a 
 level head and considerable common sense to sepa- 
 rate the chaff from the wheat. The following can 
 be safely followed. 
 
 The addition of oatmeal to drinking water makes 
 it nutritive, satisfying and agreeable to the stomach. 
 For laborers it makes a useful addition to the diet, costs 
 but little aud repays the small outlay in the form of in- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 127 
 
 creased ability to perform labor either physically or 
 mental. 
 
 The heat of the body may be modified to some ex- 
 tent by the use of fluids cooled to any degree from that 
 of the normal standard to the freezing point, and ice it- 
 self may be swallowed when necessary to hasten the re- 
 duction of temperature. When beverages are taken 
 cooled in this way the amount needed is reduced. 
 
 Water, as a beverage, iced or at the ordinary tem- 
 perature, is frequently modified to render it more agree- 
 able to the palate or stomach, or slightly nourishing or 
 stimulating. The addition of a vegetable acid, such as 
 lemon juice or vinegar, usually with sugar in some 
 form, makes a drink agreeable to the taste, more diges- 
 tible and slightly nourishing. 
 
 Diluted cold tea has long been known as an agree- 
 able, slightly stimulating beverage. For this or any 
 other purpose the tea leaves must not be boiled. 
 
 If you are away from home on a hot day, and feel 
 as if it would be perfectly delicious to have a glass of 
 lemonade, soda-water, or brandy toddy, by all means 
 resist the temptation until you get home, and then take 
 a glass of cool water, a swallow at a time, with a second 
 or two interval between each swallow. Several note- 
 worthy results will most assuredly follow. 
 
 After it is all over, you will feel quite as well from 
 a drink of water as if you had enjoyed a free swig of 
 either of the others. 
 
 In ten minutes^ after you will feel a great deal 
 better. 
 
1 
 128 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 You will not have been poisoned by the lead or 
 copper which is most generally found in soda-water. 
 
 You will be richer by five cents, which will be the 
 interest on a dollar for one whole year ! 
 
 You will not have fallen down dead from the 
 sudden chills which sometimes results from drinking 
 soda, iced wated, or toddy, in a hurry. 
 
 No well man has any business to eat ices or to 
 drink iced liquids in any shape or form, if he wants to 
 preserve his teeth, protect the tone of his stomach, and 
 guard against sudden inflammations and prolonged 
 dyspepsias. It is enough to make one shudder to see a 
 beautiful young girl sipping scalding coffee or tea at the 
 beginning of a meal, and then close it with a glass of 
 ice-water ; for at thirty she must either be snaggle- 
 toothed or wear those of the dead or artificial ones. 
 
 Fresh Water the Best Drink. — Fresh spring 
 or well-water is abundantly cool for any drinking 
 purpose whatever. In cities where water is artificially 
 supplied, the case is somewhat different ; but even then 
 there is no good excuse for drinking ice-water, because, 
 even if the excuse were good in itself, the effects on the 
 stomach and teeth are the same. 
 
 Make a bag of thick woolen doubled, lined with 
 muslin, fill it with ice ; have in a pitcher an inch or 
 two of water above the faucet, and let this bag of ice be 
 suspended from the cover within two inches of the sur- 
 face of the water. The ice will melt slowly and keep 
 the \7ater delightfully cool, but not ice cold. A still 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 129 
 
 better effect will be produced if the pitcher is also well 
 enveloped in woolen. Again, water almost as cool as it 
 can be, unless it has ice actually in it, may be had with- 
 out any ice at all, by enveloping a closed pitcher partly 
 filled with water, with several folds of cotton, linen or 
 bagging, and so arranging it that these folds are kept 
 wet all the time by water dripping from another vessel, 
 on the principle of evaporation. 
 
 A glass of cool water, not ice water, is the most 
 delicious, grateful and gratifying beverage that a person 
 can take in hot weather, besides costing nothing and 
 leading to no bad habits. Men in glass factories, where 
 the heat is fearful, drink water only, not iced, and are 
 healthy and vigorous. Field hands, on cotton and 
 sugar plantations, drink a mixture of molasses and 
 water. A safe drink for harvesters is water in which 
 oat-meal has been stirred. Butter-milk is cooling, 
 nutritious, and a liver stimulant. 
 
 But even pure cold v/ater may be drunk too freely 
 in summer. A person who drinks water, in large 
 quantities in the early part of a summer day, will be 
 more troubled with thirst, during the remainder of the 
 day, than if these cravings had been resisted a few 
 hours. 
 
 If the drinking water is "hard,", having lime in 
 solution, a teaspoonful of vinegar, or a bit of lemon 
 juice squeezed into a tumblerful, will neutralize the 
 lime, and make the water palatable. If it is murky, 
 the least bit of powdered alum will make it clear as 
 crystal. 
 
130 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 To guzzle down glass after glass of cold water, on 
 getting up in the morning, without the feeling of thirst, 
 is a stupidity of which even a horse, a dog, or a hog, 
 would not be guilty. 
 
 Drink cold water very slowly. The more thirsty 
 you are, the more necessary it is, to the safety of life, to 
 rinse out the mouth two or three times, before taking a 
 swallow of cold water. A fruit stone or pebble, held 
 in the mouth, or a bit of cracker chewed moderates 
 thirst. 
 
 Where you are forced to drink suspicious water 
 boil it, and let it stand in the open air over night, so as 
 to absorb oxygen. 
 
 Those who drink but little, even of water, in sum- 
 mer, will be more vigorous, more full of health, and 
 much more free from bodily discomfort, than those who 
 place no restriction on their portions. 
 
 Drinking- When Very Warm — Many a person 
 has dropped dead at the pump or at the spring, the 
 result of drinking cold water when overheated, where 
 there is bodily fatigue. Always when you are very hot 
 and fatigued, grasp the glass of water in the hand, and 
 hold it half a minute, and then do not take more than 
 two swallows till you take a rest of fifteen seconds. 
 
 Drinking Soda Water. — We do not wish to spoil 
 the soda water business, nor is it likely that we shall, 
 as people will drink soda water, regardless of what we 
 write, just as they will go on to sin, regardless of what 
 the preacher says. It is very certain, however, that 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 131 
 
 the indiscriminate gulping of soda water is injurious. 
 Not that the drinking of water impregnated with car- 
 bonic acid is injurious. Per contra^ carbonic acid, 
 when introduced into the stomach is wholesome, though 
 it is highly pernicious in the lungs. But soda water is 
 sometimes prepared by means of sulphuric acid, and the 
 sirups very frequently contain injurious ingredients. 
 The lemon sirup frequently is prepared with citric or 
 oxalic acid, which is corrosive and destructive of the 
 lining of the stomach. Many of the fruit flavors, such 
 as strawberry, orange, banana, etc., do not contain a 
 particle of the juice of these fruits, but are a vile and 
 dirty preparation of coal tar, old cheese, etc. 
 
 It is infinitely better to quench thirst, in warm 
 weather, with good, pure water, slightly acidulated 
 with lemon juice, and to drink a little at a time and 
 oftener, than to swallow down a large quantity of any 
 liquid, at once, and particularly beer, soda water, mead 
 and similar swill. 
 
 Alcoholic stimulants should be especially avoided 
 in hot weather. Liquor no more applies digestive power 
 than the lash gives strength to an exhausted animal. 
 
 Polluted Drinking- Water. — It is a well estab- 
 lished fact that water, when exposed to exhalations and 
 expirations, will become so foully polluted, in a short 
 time, that it is entirely unfit for drinking purposes. 
 Never drink from a pitcher or pail of water after it has 
 stood in a bed-room, school-room, church, or lecture 
 hall for half an hour. It is surcharged wdth the 
 
132 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 poisonous effluvia and exhalations, of the room, even 
 after the occupants are gone, to say nothing of the 
 vileness which it has absorbed, when they are there. 
 
 Many a well exists in the country the water from 
 which is unsafe to drink. The water is contaminated 
 through the proximity of the outhouse, which the un- 
 enlightened countryman sinks near the well so that 
 both may be convenient to his back door. He wants to 
 "save steps,'* and so the well, the cesspool or blind 
 drain, the barnyard and the pigsty are all grouped so 
 conveniently together that the water of the well is sure 
 to be contaminated. 
 
CO MM ox SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 153 
 
 Care of the Eyes. 
 
 On the Wearing of Glasses. — In passing along 
 public thoroughfares, an observer of faces cannot fail to 
 notice the large number of young persons, particularly 
 girls, who wear glasses. In some cases, no doubt, 
 there is a legitimate necessity for this, but, we are fully 
 persuaded that in others, it is only a craze, and in many 
 a positive injury. There should be no cause for wear- 
 ing spectacles, except in rare exceptional cases, before 
 age requires it. The Creator has made the eye right, 
 these are, in most instances, the prime causes of myopy. 
 just as he has made the other organs and parts of the 
 body perfect. At least ninety per cent, of short-sight- 
 edness is preventable ; there is, in other words, no 
 necessity for it, if the eyes are properly cared for, or 
 precautions taken in time. 
 
 Work in factories, close application of the eyes in 
 the school room, reading, sewing or working with im- 
 perfect light and ventilation, or in too brilliant light ; 
 All strainings or exertions of the eye are injurious. 
 God has made the eye so that it is to see everything 
 without effort, with pleasure, without strain or pain. 
 We experience no pain in listening to music, . in smell- 
 ing perfumes, in tasting food, why should the eye be 
 pained in performing its normal work? Only when 
 
134 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 put to unnecessary exertion, as above stated, does it 
 shrink from its work, begin to water, and suffer injury. 
 This is the time to stop, and at once to change our em- 
 ployment, if we would save the eye. 
 
 Do not Hasten the Wearing of Glasses. — If, 
 however, the eye has been injured, its functions im- 
 paired, and near-sightedness induced, we should not 
 resort to spectacles. Here is where the craze comes in. 
 The doctors, of course, want to sell their wares, just as 
 they are anxious to turn their pills, and get rid of them, 
 if an^^one can be induced to swallow them. This is all 
 wrong. Let nature, with her recuperative powers, be 
 called in to do her work, before artificial means are 
 resorted to. No eye glasses, no spectacle for them, 
 unless you wish your children to become deformed, 
 crippled, disfigured for life, as so many whom we meet 
 everywhere are. Change the occupation and course of 
 life, at once, and thus save the eyesight. If glasses are 
 resorted to, the effect and consequence will be the same 
 as when medicine is taken, opium for example. Little 
 by little the dose must be increased, and the disease 
 increases in proportion. The concave lens, when 
 resorted to, only spoils the eye more and more, encour- 
 ages the imperfect vision, instead of correcting it. 
 Give the eye a chance to recuperate and correct the 
 defect, by exercising it in the natural way. That is, 
 remove the cause of the injury, and then exercise it to 
 restore it to its normal state. Hold the object to be 
 seen a little farther away, from day to day, as long as 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 135 
 
 no pain is experienced, and thus get the natural focus 
 again. Do not use glasses, unless imperatively neces- 
 sary, or you will spoil your eyes so that the eyesight 
 may never become normal again. 
 
 Important Rules. — The following rules and direc- 
 tions should be carefully observed for those with weak 
 eyes : 
 
 Reading by twilight ought never to be indulged in. 
 A safe rule is — never read after sun-down, or before 
 sun-rise. 
 
 Do not allow yourself to read a moment in any 
 reclining position, whether in bed or on a sofa. 
 
 The practice of reading while on horseback, or in 
 any vehicle in motion by wheels, is most pernicious. 
 
 Reading on steam or sail vessels should not be 
 largely indulged in, because the slightest motion of the 
 page or your body alters the focal point, and requires a 
 painful straining effort to readjust it. 
 
 Never attempt to look at the sun when shining 
 unless through a colored glass of some kind ; even a 
 very bright moon should not be gazed at. 
 
 The glare of the sun on water is very injurious to 
 the sight. 
 
 A sudden change between bright light and dark- 
 ness is always pernicious. 
 
 In looking at minute objects, relieve the eyes fre- 
 quently by turning them to something in the distance. 
 
 Let the light, whether natural or artificial, fall on 
 the page from behind, a little to one side. 
 
136 COMMON SENSE HEAL Til NOTES. 
 
 Every parent should peremptorily forbid all sewing 
 by candle or gas light, especially of dark materials. 
 
 If the eyes are matted together after sleeping, the 
 most instantaneous and agreeable solvent in nature is 
 the application of the saliva with the finger before 
 opening the eye. Never pick it oflf with the finger 
 nail, but wash it off with the ball of the fingers in 
 quite warm water. 
 
 Never bathe or open the eyes in cold water. It is 
 always safest, best, and most agreeable, to use warm 
 water for thai: purpose over seventy degrees. 
 
 Never read or sew directly in front of the light, or 
 window, or door. 
 
 Never sleep so that on first awaking the eyes shall 
 open on the light of a window. 
 
 Do not use the eyesight by light so scant that it 
 requires an effort to discriminate. 
 
 Too much light creates a glare, and pains and con- 
 fuses the sight. The moment you are sensible of an 
 effort to distinguish, that moment cease and take a walk 
 or ride. 
 
 The moment you are instinctively prompted to rub 
 the eyes, that moment cease using them. 
 
 The eyes are frequently injured for life, when 
 pupils are seated in school so as to face a window. The 
 seating of pupils should alwa}'s be. in such a way as to 
 face the north, on which side of the school room there 
 should be no windows. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 137 
 
 Attention to the Feet, 
 
 Attention to Them of Great Importance.— 
 
 It is utterly impossible to get well or keep well, unless 
 the feet are kept dry and warm all the time. If they 
 are for the most part cold, there is a cough or sore 
 throat, or hoarseness, or sick headache, or some other 
 annoyance. 
 
 If cold and dry, the feet should be soaked in hot 
 water for ten minutes every night, and when wiped and 
 dried, rub into them well ten or fifteen drops of sweet 
 oil ; do this patiently with the hands, rubbing the oil 
 into the soles of the feet particularly. 
 
 On getting up in the morning, dip both feet at 
 once into water, as cold as the air of the room, half 
 ankle deep, for a minute in summer ; half a minute or 
 less in winter, rubbing one foot with the other, then 
 wipe dry, and if convenient, hold them to the fire rub- 
 bing them with the hand until perfectl}^ dry and warm 
 in every part. 
 
 If the feet are damp and cold, attend only to the 
 morning washings, but always at night remove the 
 stockings, and hold the feet to the fire, nibbing them 
 with the hands for fifteen minutes, and get immediately 
 into bed. 
 
 Under any circumstances, as often as the feet are 
 
138 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 cold enough to attract attention, draw off the stockings, 
 and hold them to the fire ; if the feet are much inclined 
 to dampness, put on a pair of dry stockings, leaving the 
 damp ones before the fire to be ready for another 
 change. 
 
 Some person's feet are more comfortable, even in 
 winter, in cotton, others in woolen stockings. Each 
 must be guided by his own feelings. Sometimes two 
 pairs of thin stockings keep the feet warmer, than one 
 pair which is thicker than both. The thin pair may be 
 of the same or of different materials, and that which is 
 best next the foot, should be determined by the feelings 
 of the person. 
 
 Boots and gaiters keep the feet damp, unclean, and 
 noisome, by preventing the escape of the insensible 
 perspiration and odor which are constantly emanating 
 from a healthy foot ; hence the old-fashioned shoe is the 
 best for health and for the strengthening of the ankles, 
 by habituating it to support itself A piece of brown 
 or other paper wrapped around the foot over the stock- 
 ing sometimes keep the feet remarkably warm. * ' Cold 
 feet" arise from the want of a vigorous circulation in 
 them ; this is often remedied by putting them in hot 
 water in a wooden vessel, so as to cover the toes ; in 
 about ten minutes put both in cold water, the colder the 
 better, of the same depth, for half a minute ; the object 
 being to produce a shock, calculated to draw the warm 
 blood to the soles ; this may be done on retiring and 
 rising. Nothing should be considered a trouble, which 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 139 
 
 can have even a slight tendency to keep the feet warm, 
 because there never can be recovery from disease or sub- 
 stantial good health without it. 
 
 Congestion of the head, throat, or any organs of 
 chest or abdomen, is relieved by a good circulation in 
 the feet and legs. Being far from the vital apparatus, 
 and thus liable to become cold, they are, in addition, 
 kept in the coldest part of the room. During the cold 
 season the air at the floor is from 15 to 20 degrees colder 
 than that at the ceiling. The anxious mother shows 
 her familiarity of this fact when she says : * ' Children, 
 you must not lie an the floor ; you will catch cold. ' ' 
 
 Notwithstanding this -marked difierence, the feet 
 have less clothing than the body. Our chests would 
 sufier in a cold day if they had but a single thickness of 
 cotton and one of morocco. Warmth of the lower ex- 
 tremities is indispensable to health of the head and 
 chest. 
 
 Recently we met a mechanic, who resides in our 
 street, walking out on Sunday morning with his little 
 two-year old daughter. The father we have often ad- 
 mired for his immense and vigorous physique. He had 
 on a pair of boots with soles half an inch thick. The 
 little thing at his side wore a pair of red slippers, with 
 soles not thicker than pasteboard. ^ ' Why do you wear 
 those immense boots?" we asked. **To keep my 
 throat and lungs all right, ' ' he replied. * ' Is your little 
 girl well?" **She is rather poorly. The doctor says 
 we must take her out in the fresh air." *^ Do you think 
 
140 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 you could come out this morning on this cold, damp 
 walk with slippers?" we asked. "No, sir; it would 
 give me my death." "How do you think your little 
 delicate daughter can escape v/ith those thin morocco 
 slippers ? " " Well, it does seem curious ; but I don' t 
 know much about such things. You'll have to ask the 
 old woman. ' ' 
 
 The usual dress of children's feet, during the cold 
 season, is a shameful violation of physiological law. 
 
 Parents and teachers cannot exercise too much care 
 in inspecting the feet of children, when they have been 
 out on the damp ground. Do not allow them to sit, 
 even for a half minute, in the school room, or in the 
 house at home, with damp stockings. Remember, life 
 and health are at stake, and they are too precious to be 
 risked for the want of a little attention. Either have 
 damp stockings exchanged for dry warm ones, or if this 
 cannot be done, dry the feet at the fire at once. 
 
 Get heavy soled shoes for your wife and children, 
 and such as will keep out dampness. We, gentlemen, 
 would catch cold, and die of consumption, within a 
 year, if we should attempt to wear the thin paper-soled 
 shoes, which our wives and daughters and children 
 wear. 
 
 What a good thing it is that they are stronger and 
 healthier, and better able to withstand untoward nature 
 than we, their liege lords ! 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 141 
 
 Fetid Feet. 
 
 To have bod odored feet is a misfortune, and a 
 source of very great mortification to the refined and sen- 
 sitive. It may be ^ ' born ' ' with some, with others, if 
 not all, it is the result of a diseased condition of the 
 system, or of a neglect of personal cleanliness. There 
 is a peculiar odor emanating from the feet which is, 
 perhaps, always the result of uncleanliness. If daily 
 washings do not remove these odors, a very efficient 
 wash is found in red oxide of lead, one part, to twenty- 
 nine parts of the liquor of the sub-acetate of lead ; the 
 first to be bruised in a porcelain mortar, gradually add- 
 ing the latter ; apply a few drops once a week, oftener 
 in summer. 
 
 Wash the Feet Often. — Very many do not wash 
 their feet oftener than once during a month ; only a few 
 as often as once a week. The feet ought to be washed 
 every night before going to bed, and no stocking, boot, 
 or shoe should be put on a second time, until it has had 
 a whole day's sunning, at least by those who have an 
 ambition to be and feel as sweet and clean as a dew-drop 
 on the rose of summer. Or put two tablespoons of the 
 compound spirits of ammonia (hartshorn) in a basin 
 of water, and wash the face, hands, arms, armpits and 
 feet with it, and the skin is left fresh, clean and sweet. 
 It is perfectly harmless, and costs very little. 
 
142 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES, 
 
 A radical treatment for excessive perspiration of the 
 feet, accompanied with offensive odor, is to discard all 
 shoes previously worn ; then, with thin Scotch wool 
 stockings, low shoes should be procured, and, if the 
 weather is cold, the ankles should be protected with cloth 
 gaiters. Every night, after bathing the feet with cold 
 water, powdered starch or magnesia should be rubbed 
 well into them, and it is well to sleep in thin socks into 
 which either of these powders has been sifted. It may 
 be necessary, also, to sift the powders into the stockings 
 worn during the day. 
 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 143 
 
 Cold Feet. 
 
 Physiology and Hygiene. — No complaint is 
 more general than that of cold feet, and yet it ought not 
 to be so. Blood is the warming element of our bodies. 
 Where it circulates freely there is warmth. In accor- 
 dance with the principles of philosophy and physiology, 
 the circulation ought to be greatest in the lower extrem- 
 ities, and, consequently, the most heat there. Why is 
 this not the case? Examine your shriveled and dried 
 up feet, and the question is readily answered. lyook at 
 your toes. They are compressed and crippled appen- 
 dages, well nigh dead. The reason of this unnatural- 
 ness is that the feet are kept, not in shoes, but in boxes 
 which impede the flow of blood, and press out every 
 particle of fluid. 
 
 The feet of a small child are round, fleshy, soft. 
 They are as warm as other parts of the body. This is 
 quite natural. They are full of muscles and the blood 
 vessels are surrounded with fatty cushions, from which 
 the fluids have not yet been expressed. As soon as the 
 little one is able to walk its feet are pressed out of shape, 
 and the blood circulation is hemmed, by stockings and 
 tight shoes. Now the era of cold feet is inaugurated. 
 Stockings are presumed to give the feet warmth, where- 
 as, heat comes from the body itself. The tight covering 
 
144 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 of the foot not only compresses it and checks the circu- 
 lation, which creates warmth, but the effete exhalation 
 of the foot is prevented from passing off. The feet per- 
 spire, and become effeminate, susceptible to cold. The 
 thicker the stockings, the heavier the shoes and over- 
 shoes, the more the warmth of the body, which nature 
 supplies, is emasculated. 
 
 Why are your feet cold ? Because you have com- 
 pressed them unmercifully, and forced them out of their 
 natural shape, you wear heavy stockings and shoes, 
 with the expectation that these can generate heat, 
 whereas your circulatory system must do it, your diges- 
 tive organs are not performing their functions, and you 
 are suffering from diseases of the stomach and abdomen. 
 
 The author wears thin, low shoes all winter, with 
 plenty of room in them for the feet, and thin stockings. 
 He often rides twenty and thirty miles in the cold, in 
 midwinter, and never has cold feet. 
 
 Wash and rub the feet daily and exercise them 
 abundantly, and you will have warm feet. But, how 
 shall the feet be exercised, so as to become warm ? In 
 addition to brisk walking, jumping and running, feet 
 gymnastic exercises are excellent. Elevate the foot 
 slightly and describe a circle by its motion. Do this 
 fifteen or twenty times, and your foot will become 
 warmed, and inspire with new life. Take a stick and 
 strike the sole of the shoe briskly. If you are taking a 
 ride in the cold, wrap several sheets of tissue paper 
 around the feet, and draw the stockings over. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 145 
 
 Rubber over-shoes should always be worn when it 
 is damp or slushy under foot, never at any other time. 
 Leather is made so treacherously poor now, that ordinary 
 shoes are not water-proof, and gum over-shoes have be- 
 come a necessity ; but they are a nuisance and an injury 
 to the feet, if worn in dry weather, however cold it may 
 be, and if kept on in the house. They injure the feet, 
 and should be promptly removed, the moment a person 
 enters a room. Teachers must never allow children to 
 keep rubbers on the feet in the school-room. 
 
 Gum shoes, having no iron nails in them are highly 
 injurious to health, as they are non-conductors of elec- 
 tricity, insulating the wearer. In some localities the 
 school authorities have prohibited the use of them. 
 
 
146 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 The Ears. 
 
 " Picking the Bars '* is a most mischievous prac- 
 tice. In attempting to do this one has many a time 
 pierced the drum and made it as useless as a pierced 
 india rubber life preserver. Nothing sharper or harder 
 than the end of the little finger, with the nail paired, 
 ought to be introduced into the ear, unless by a physi- 
 cian. Persons are often seen endeavoring to remove the 
 ^' wax'* of the ear with the head of a pin. This ought 
 never to be done, first, because it not only endangers 
 the rupture of the ear by being pushed too far in, but if 
 not so far, it may grate against the drum, excite inflam- 
 mation and an ulcer which will finally eat all the parts 
 away, especially of a scrofulous constitution ; second, 
 hard substances have often slipped in, and caused the 
 necessity of painful, dangerous and expensive operations 
 to fish or cut out. The wax is manufactured by nature 
 to guard the entrance from dust, insects and unmodified 
 cold air, and when it has subserv^ed its purpose it be- 
 comes dry, scaly, light and in this condition is easily 
 pushed outside, by new formations of wax within. Oc- 
 casionally wax may harden and may interfere with the 
 hearing ; but when this is the case, it is the part of wis- 
 dom to consult a physician and let him decide what is 
 the matter and v/hat the remedy. If one can not be 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 147 
 
 had, the only safe plan is to let fall into the ear three or 
 four drops of tepid water, night and morning ; the saliva 
 is better still, for it is softer and more penetrating, but 
 glycerine is far preferable to either ; it is one of the 
 blandest fluids in nature and very rapidly penetrates the 
 hardened wax, cools the parts and restores them to a 
 healthful condition. If in a week, there is not a decided 
 improvement in the hearing, medical advice ought to be 
 had at once, as next to the eye, the ear is the most deli- 
 cate organ of the body. 
 
 Boxing" is an inexcusable brutality ; many a child 
 has been made deaf for life by it, because the **drum of 
 the ear " is a membrane, as thin as paper, stretches like 
 a curtain just inside the external entrance of the ear. 
 There is nothing but air just behind it and any violent 
 concussion is liable to rend it in two, and the *' hear- 
 ing ' ' is destroyed forever, because the sense of hearing 
 is caused by the vibrations of this drum or ' * Tympa- 
 num.** 
 
148 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Exercise. 
 
 Bad weather is no excuse for not going to pay a 
 debt ; it is no excuse to the faithful Christian for being 
 absent from worship. The same is the case with exer- 
 cise. Moderate, daily exercise in the open air, is worth 
 a thousand times more than all medicines. The ex- 
 ercise must, however, be regular, regardless of the 
 weather. If exercise is needed at all, it is necessary in 
 rain and cold and heat. Weeatin all weather, so must 
 we exercise. The very energy and moral courage which 
 enable a man to take out-door exercise, regardless of the 
 weather, is of itself a means for the cure even of serious 
 diseases. 
 
 The Weather Should be no Obstacle to taking 
 out-door exercise, but the clothing and protection of the 
 feet must be in accordance with the weather. Colds are 
 are not caught by going out regularly, even into all 
 kinds of weather, provided the body is properly pro- 
 tected, but they are caught by sitting in heated, unven- 
 tilated rooms, and then an occasional exposure. Even 
 the consumptive, who exerts himself, and takes regular, 
 careful exercise, going into all kinds of weather, will 
 live, while, if he shuts himself up in his hot room, and 
 sinks into his rocking chair, he will die in a short time. 
 What is true of the consumptive and sickly is doubly 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 149 
 
 true of the well. As long and as regularly as we eat we 
 must take exercise, to work oflf the effete particles. 
 
 Taking such deaths within a few years as those of 
 Grant, Matt Carpenter, Zach Chandler, Hancock, Hen- 
 dricks, Arthur, McClellan, Logan, David Davis, Gen. 
 Miller, Vanderbilt, and many less prominent but widely 
 known men, and it may be ascertained that their deaths 
 were due to high living and sedentary habits. Logan 
 was not rich, and therefore could not give many din- 
 ners ; but he was powerful, or promised to be so, and he 
 was a favorite with people who could give dinners, and 
 he suffered in consequence. To those who give and to 
 those who accept too much eating and drinking are 
 equally unfortunate. 
 
 The world laughs at Gladstone, chopping down his 
 almost daily tree at Hawarden, as a crank, but in con- 
 sequence of tree chopping and other healthful exercise 
 Gladstone is a power in the world at eighty years of 
 age ; and Emperor Wilhelm, who took his daily horse- 
 back exercise, was a very healthy old boy at ninety. 
 
 How many eighty-year-old able bodied men in pub- 
 lic life have we in the United States ? Washington 
 living and the packing of heavy dinners here and there 
 about the country uses Americans up at a time when 
 English statesmen are at their best. Bancroft, the his- 
 torian, was over four score when he died, but he took 
 his daily long walks, for over twenty years. But Amer- 
 icans with the physical qualities of Bancroft are scarce. 
 
 What our prominent and well-to-do people need is 
 
150 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 temperance in eating, and an abundance but not excess 
 of exercise. More of plain bread, beef and tea, and less 
 of turtle, oysters and wine ; more of active exercise and 
 less sedentary occupations ; more of walking and less of 
 carriage riding, and so better health and longer lives. 
 One thing more they should observe : The design of 
 nature was to make eating and drinking a benefit, not a 
 detriment, to the body ; and according to that wise pro- 
 hibition, cheap food, which is the most easily obtained, 
 is the best food, so that it be not foul nor corrupt with 
 decay or adulteration before being taken into the sys- 
 tem. The man who attempts to eat out his income 
 after it passes a reasonable sum will find his great in- 
 come a barrier to his happiness and a standing menace 
 against his life. What he and all such should do is 
 to live moderately and exercise freely. 
 
 Hard Work Never Killed Any One. — It is the 
 abuse of hard work that is guilty of so many murders. 
 The commonest malady which breaks men down nowa- 
 days is, we are told, overwork. But when we come to 
 analyze it, we find that the overwork of the doctors and 
 the hard work of real life are very diflferent things 
 indeed. 
 
 Overwork, in its medical meaning, is a violent 
 abuse of the mental and physical powers. Men subject 
 themselves to great physical and mental strains in order 
 to accomplish certain ends. They strive to ofiset or re- 
 place the natural decay of their forces by artificial 
 means, they live unnatural lives, seeking stimulus and 
 
C02IM0N SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 151 
 
 relaxation in excitement when they should find them in 
 calm exercise and sedate repose, and in time a crash 
 comes and they succumb to overwork ! 
 
 Meanwhile the hard workers, of whom the world is 
 full, go on laboring and living far into green old age. 
 They put nature to the test, but they do not outrage 
 her. They do not bolster exhaustion up with dissipa- 
 tion, or replace nature by art. They perform more 
 labor in the same length of time than the overwork of 
 any of their rivals perfect, and are only unhappy and 
 unhealthy when they are idle, and their blood runs slug- 
 gish for want of exercise. 
 
 Health Improved by Work. — A stor>^ with a pa- 
 thetic leaning has appeared in a recent issue of a lead- 
 ing newspaper, (says the Medical Record\ detailing the 
 case of a rich invalid lady who vv^as suddenly reduced to 
 poverty, and whose changed condition demanded the 
 performance of her ovvu household duties. As if, how- 
 ever, to prove that all evil is not unmixed with good, 
 we are informed that by the forced exercise of her new 
 functions at the washtub, the ironing-board and the 
 cooking-range, she became strong, her aches disap- 
 peared, and her sleep was sound and refreshing. Al- 
 though it was extremely sad that the calamity of forced 
 work should have fallen upon such a delicacy of fem- 
 ininity as- possessed by the unfortunate subject of this 
 healthful moral, all of her friends stand ready to con- 
 gratulate her on the change so radically wrought. 
 
152 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Influenza or Grippe. 
 
 Not a New Thing. — We never had it, never ex- 
 pect to get it, but we have seen so much of it, that we 
 feel competent to give some advice. The grippe is 
 possibly only an old disease under a new name. It 
 was formerly known as influenza. 
 
 Hippocrates recorded the first authentic account 
 of an epidemic of influenza, in the year 420 B. C, 
 and eight years later another invaded the Athenian 
 armies. The first well authenticated records however, 
 are of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, since 
 which time there have been frequent visitations. The 
 ancients supposed the epidemic to occur in cycles 
 of 100 years. The epidemic of 1832 originated in 
 China, and 1836 prevailed in Europe, and reached 
 this country in a mild form in 1843 ^^^ again in 
 1847, both visitations probably being a continuation 
 of the epidemic of 1832. Stephen Girard died from 
 the effects of it in 1833. We say from the effects of 
 it, for, in itself this disease is not likely to prove 
 fatal. It is, however, frequently followed by, or 
 runs into pneumonia, consumption or similar diseases. 
 The constitution of those who are attacked by it is 
 already somewhat weakly, or else becomes enervated 
 under it. In this condition the system is easily in- 
 vaded by kindred diseases, which prove serious. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 153 
 
 To raw spring weather, which continued with 
 scarcely an interruption, may be largely attributed the 
 prevalence of this unusually fatal malady, whose attack 
 in the primary stage so nearly resembles an ordinary 
 influenza as to give little apprehension of its dangerous 
 character. We confess to but scanty knowledge of this 
 strange malady. It would seem to make its main attack 
 upon the weaker and more impaired organs or mem- 
 bers of the afflcted. The brain, heart, lungs, liver, 
 kidneys, do not escape, if sufFering from any chronic 
 weakness. Sometimes the' point of attack is in the 
 joints of the limbs, accompanied with severe pains and 
 inordinate weakness. Then again the whole nervous 
 system is assailed. Its ravages are so swift that death 
 is oftentimes near without being suspected. The wisest 
 treatment is found to be careful home nursing, under 
 the direction of a skillful physician, with sufficient 
 foresight to assist nature in her efforts to overcome dis- 
 ease without paralyzing her energies by a too free use 
 of drugs. 
 
 The disease commences with a shivering, or a feel- 
 ing of coldness down the spine, with a hot, dry skin, 
 quick pulse, thirst and headache. Sometimes these 
 symptoms come on suddenly, sometimes they develop 
 slowly in two or three days. If they come on suddenly, 
 intense frontal headache, with aching pains over the 
 ■eyes, is generally the first symptom. 
 
 The symptoms of the disease are similar to those 
 of a bad cold, chilliness, headache, etc., followed by 
 
154 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 high fever, and aching of the bones. It has also been 
 called ' ' bone break fever. ' ' The plant called ' ' bone 
 set ' ' derives its name hence, since the tea prepared from 
 this herb was used among the older people as a remedy. 
 
 Nostrums will not Cure it. — Our observation 
 has been that no nostrum, not even whisky, however 
 highly recommended its use may be, as a preventive or 
 curative agent, by those who are fond of it, will ward 
 it off. Neither will asafoetida, onions, camphor, nor 
 any drug. Nevertheless, the ounce of prevention is 
 always the best, and what is that? First, and above 
 all else, maintain a high state of health. The robust 
 are seldom attacked by it. In exceptional cases, it is 
 true, the strong and healthful are attacked, but this is 
 not the rule. The weakly, the aged, children and those 
 predisposed to frequent attacks of sickness, usually be- 
 come victims of the grippe. Here, as in other diseases, 
 the remark holds, that some persons seem to be 
 *' attacked by every complaint that goes around." The 
 explanation is that there is a predisposition offered by 
 an emasculated constitution. 
 
 Build up tlie System. — How can a high state of 
 health be maintained or attained ? By building up the 
 system, and observing the laws of health. Several 
 things are necessary to this end, and, among these may 
 be named a temperate life, regular habits, wholesome 
 food and plenty of it, daily exercise, avoiding unneces- 
 sary exposure, etc. The opposite of this, intemperate 
 eating and drinking, and especially improper articles of 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 155 
 
 diet and drink, such as much fat, sweetmeats, condi- 
 ments, alcoholic stimulants, etc. ; indulging the appetite 
 at unsuitable hours, keeping late hours, robbing oneself 
 of rest and sleep, turning night into day, exposure, 
 particularly over-exertion, over-heating and sudden' cool- 
 ing, sitting in a draught, throwing off the clothing, etc. ; 
 these are the fruitful sources of this and other sickness. 
 
 When these few simple suggestions are observed, 
 experience has taught us, in our own case, and hun- 
 dreds of others brought to our notice, a person with a 
 healthy frame is reasonably secure from attacks of the 
 grippe. If, however, you become subject to it notwith- 
 standing the precautions, go to bed, and remain in it, 
 and in a warm room, until relieved. Do not force your- 
 self out too soon. Eat all the wholesome food which 
 your stomach will digest. Send for a physician and 
 follow his advice. 
 
 Keeping rooms well warmed and ventilated is the 
 best protection against it. The remedy is the same as 
 that for a cold. 
 
156 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 How to Aid the Injured. 
 
 In Case of Accidents. — Dr. Rush wrote more 
 than a hundred years ago, that it is every teacher's 
 duty to instruct children what to do in case of an 
 accident, and that no child should be permitted to 
 come to school, even a single term, without being 
 drilled in how to furnish aid in case of an emergency. 
 It is very important to instruct children, even at 
 home, when they are yet small, how to maintain 
 their presence of mind, so that in an accident, they 
 can render efficient assistance. Not a moment should 
 be lost, as a few minutes, in many cases, may involve 
 a precious life. 
 
 An external hemorrhage can be stopped by mak- 
 ing a tourniquet, by tying a handkerchief around the 
 part of the body where the severed artery is, and 
 twisting the handkerchief with a stick. Internal 
 hemorrhage of the lungs or stomach can be stopped 
 by laying cold cloths on the breast or abdomen. 
 Cold water is the first remedy for a bruise, afterward 
 laudanum may be applied with advantage. 
 
 When children get peas or shoe buttons in their 
 ears or noses, a pair of pincers should be used to pull 
 them cTut. A bit of meat lodged in the throat can 
 be plucked out with the thumb or fore-finger, and a 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 157 
 
 hard substance, such as a marble, may be forced out 
 by vigorous slaps on the back, which expel the air 
 from the chest through the throat, and the air carries 
 with it the marble. When this treatment fails, the 
 patient may be stood on the head with advantage. 
 
 Splints may be extemporised for a broken limb. 
 The limb must be first bared by cutting away the 
 clothing. A bit of flannel is laid next to the skin, 
 then a stick or the substitute for the splint, is pressed 
 upon it by bandaging, beginning from below. In 
 the case of a compound fracture, which is when the 
 broken bone has forced its way through the skin, a 
 warm wet cloth must be laid over the skin before the 
 splint is applied. 
 
 If an individual is endowed with common sense 
 and can exercise self-control when necessary, a slight 
 knowledge of physiology will enable him to act in 
 an emergency. 
 
 When an Artery is Cut. — A boy is brought 
 home with a severe cut on his arm. The blood spurts 
 out of the wound showing that an artery has been 
 severed. It is fortunate if a member of the family 
 can come forward and bind two pieces of cloth around 
 the limb directly above and below the wound; the 
 blood will cease to flow, and even if there should 
 be unavoidable delay in the arrival of the doctor, 
 he will be able to save a life that would certainly 
 have been sacrificed if the prompt treatment men- 
 tioned had not been resorted to. Precious moments 
 
158 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 have been lost while * ^waiting for the doctor'* who, 
 when he does arrive, frequently finds the patient be- 
 yond mortal aid. 
 
 Rusty nails make ugly wounds, which, if not 
 attended to at once may cause great suffering — per- 
 haps death. Smoke the wound with wool or woolen 
 cloth; fifteen minutes in the smoke will remove the 
 worst class of inflammation. 
 
 Burns. — The terrible pain caused by being 
 severely burned may be almost instantly relieved by 
 applying a mixture of strong, fresh lime water mixed 
 with as much linseed oil as it will cut. Before 
 applying, wrap the burn in cotton wadding saturated 
 with the lotion. Wet as often as it appears dry, 
 without removing the cotton from the burn for nine 
 days, when a new skin will probably have formed. 
 
 When One's Clothes Take Fire.— The instant 
 one's clothing takes fire the best thing to do is to at 
 once lie down and roll over and over, seizing the near- 
 est rug, cloak, strip of carpet, quilt or blanket to wrap 
 around the body and smother the flame. This quickly 
 done will put out the fire. The immediate application 
 of water occurs to every one where water is accessible. 
 After the flames are extinguished cover the parts 
 burned with lime water and oil (either linseed oil, olive 
 or lard oil), mixed equally, using linen or muslin 
 that is wringing wet. Do not remove the cloths; 
 keep them wet by pouring the mixture upon them. 
 
 Burns, blistered skin, sores, chapped hands and 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 159 
 
 even diphtheria and croup may be healed by the ap- 
 plication of glycerine. Glycerine is the essence of oil, 
 and when applied, permeates the body, even penetrating 
 the solid bone. It is one of Ijie best applications 
 known. The hands should be washed in soap and 
 warm water, on going to bed, a little glycerine rubbed 
 into them. 
 
 Bites and stings of insects, such as mosquitos, 
 wasps, bees, flies, midges and even snakes, are often 
 cured by washing the parts freely with a strong solu- 
 tion of aqua ammonia (hartshorn). 
 
 Sunstroke is prevented^ by wearing a silk hand- 
 kerchief in the crown of the hat, or green leaves, or a 
 wet cloth. Those who are compelled to be out in the 
 hot sun at mid-day should eat but little meat, and live 
 on coarse bread, fruit and berries, and have abundant 
 sleep. Wash the scalp in cold water several times a 
 day, and keep the surface of the body clean by rubbing 
 it with a damp towel every night before going to bed. 
 
 For Frost Bites and Freezing. — When feet or 
 hands have been so chilled as to be almost frozen, 
 gradually warm them by first rubbing with snow or 
 plunging the injured part into ice water or other cold 
 liquid. Never bring a person to the fire until the 
 frozen part is thawed. If a person is unconscious from 
 cold, remove the clothing quickly and rub all over 
 briskly (always rub toward the heart) with a fresh 
 brush or the hand enveloped in a mitten, piece of flan- 
 nel or woolen cloth. Artificial respiration must be 
 
160 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 tried — that is, lifting the arms from the sides of the 
 body to the back and top of the head and bring them 
 down again to the sides. As quickly as the patient can 
 swallow give him a teaspoonful of brandy or whisky 
 in hot water every fifteen minutes and then put him 
 in bed well wrapped up and protected from chilling by 
 placing hot water bottles or bags at the armpits, feet 
 and back. 
 
 A kind of cushion of powdered ice kept to the 
 entire scalp, has allayed violent inflammations of the 
 brain and arrested fearful convulsions induced by too 
 much blood there. 
 
 All inflammations, internal or external, are 
 promptly subdued by the application of ice, or ice- wa- 
 ter, because it is converted into steam and rapidly 
 conveys away the extra heat, and also diminishes the 
 quantity of blood in the vessels of the part. 
 
 A piece of ice laid on the wrist will often arrest 
 violent bleeding of the nose. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 161 
 
 Headache. 
 
 Causes.— This distressing complaint results from 
 varied causes. Overdoing, overeating, overheating, 
 lack of sleep, get the nerves of the stomach in a state 
 of rebellion. In many cases there is a cure. Pre- 
 vention by a careful diet and proper rest, is the wisest 
 course. A little good baking soda in water often gives 
 prompt reliet, or powdered charcoal, two teaspoons in 
 half a glass of water. 
 
 Sick Headache.— Sick headacne is sickness at 
 stomach, combined with pain of the head, generally on 
 the left side. It is caused by an over-abundance of 
 bile in the stomach. The causes of too much bile are : 
 insufficiency of exercise to work it off, late suppers, 
 heavy meals, indigestible food, eating too much of a 
 favorite dish, over-fatigue, great mental emotion or 
 severe mental application. The latter is frequently the 
 cause of it among school children, especially when they 
 sit in school with damp feet. A difficult lesson, hurry 
 to work out a lesson, worriment over a problem or 
 knotty question frequently cause headache of pupils. 
 Irritation, being bothered with a recitation, a trouble- 
 some noisy school, especially on a dull day, causes the 
 headaches of teachers. 
 
 As in every other disease, so in headache troubles. 
 
162 C OMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 
 
 an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. 
 Avoid the causes. Do not overload the stomach. Bat 
 food which is easily digested. Take plenty of exercise 
 and fresh air. Avoid constipation. Preserve an equa- 
 nimity of mind and temper. 
 
 To get rid of a headache, originating from the 
 stomach, the best thing to be done is to empty the 
 stomach. Anybody can do this, when there is nausea, 
 by reaching into the throat with the finger. A less 
 heathenish way is to take a glass of warm water and 
 stir into it a tablespoonful each of kitchen mustard and 
 salt. Vomiting will always follow this experiment in 
 less than two minutes. The headache will be gone 
 after a short rest or nap. 
 
 In a school-room, the most violent headache can be 
 cured, by opening the windows and introducing fresh 
 air, or by sending the pupil out of doors, for ten min- 
 utes, to inhale pure air. 
 
 One in authority says : ' ' Sick headache is often 
 periodical, and is the signal of distress which the stom- 
 ach puts up to inform us that there is an over-alkaline 
 condition of its fluids ; that it needs a natural acid to 
 restore the battery to its normal working condition. 
 When the first symptoms of a headache appear, take a 
 teaspoon of lemon juice clear, fifteen minutes before 
 each meal, and the same dose at bed time ; follow this 
 up until all symptoms are passed, and if not an excep- 
 tional case you will soon go free from your unwelcome 
 visitor. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 163 
 
 A teaspoonful of finely powdered charcoal in a 
 half a glass of warm water gives marked relief, as 
 it absorbs the gases produced by fermentation of 
 undigested food. 
 
 Headache almost always yields to the simulta- 
 neous application of hot water to the feet and back 
 of the neck. 
 
 A Few Hints for the Benefit of Nervous and 
 Over-worked People. — The radical, permanent cure 
 for sick headache in weak, nervous women must 
 combine the following: 
 
 A general toning up of the system. 
 
 Regularity of the habits. 
 
 Plenty of sleep at the right time. 
 
 A powerful exercise of the will to keep up a 
 cheerful, quiet, easy frame of mind. 
 
 As to immediate relief there is nothing better 
 than this method. 
 
 Get your druggist to make for you a strong 
 solution of : 
 
 Menthol, half ounce. Alcohol, one fluid ounce. Mix. 
 
 For external application, use this tincture full 
 strength. Paint it right over the pain. Then take 
 half a glass of hot water and add from three to ten 
 drops of the tincture, inhale the fumes until it 
 cools off, so that you can drink it, and remember 
 that it should be taken as hot as possible. 
 
 The Brain Worker's Headache. — There is an- 
 other headache which comes from unusual exhaustion 
 
364 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 and is terribly acute. It is ttie headache of the 
 brain worker. 
 
 It can always be stopped, however, by taking 
 a fair dose, say six grains, of quinine at bedtime 
 and a good night's sleep. 
 
 Then too we have the traveler's headache; even 
 this may be avoided. 
 
 First, do not work yourself up into a nervous 
 frenzy of hurry by trying to do a thousand and one 
 things and then rush to catch a train. 
 
 Do not worry all the way to the station about 
 the things you have left undone. 
 
 An excellent plan is to take a few raisins in 
 your pocket and eat them when you feel tired or 
 relaxed. Raisins are peculiar, and while I would 
 not advise you to eat many on ordinary occasions — 
 they are indigestible — still they will give an empty 
 stomach plenty of work; and their stimulant effect 
 upon a tired, exhausted person is quick, effective 
 and pronounced. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 165 
 
 (4 
 
 Heart Failure." 
 
 The Heart's Work.— We almost daily see re^ 
 ports of deaths attributed to heart failure. Now, what 
 I wish to ask is, what is it the heart fails to do? I 
 have always considered the heart the most perfect organ 
 of the animal economy, and one that never shirks its 
 duty. It commences its labor during the early stages 
 of pregnancy, and goes on until the last moment of life, 
 without one second^ s rest, night or day, often without 
 the intermission of a single pulsation for loo years or 
 more. At every beat it propels two ounces of blood 
 through its structure. At 75 pulsations per minute, 
 nine pounds of blood is sucked in and pumped out. 
 Every hour, 540 pounds; every day, 12,960 pounds; 
 every year, 4,730,400 pounds; every 100 years, 473,- 
 040,000 pounds. Verily a good organ and all per- 
 formed without one moment's rest. 
 
 The Heart's Neighbor. — Now, the heart has the 
 meanest and most contemptible neighbor that ever an 
 organ had, namely, the stomach ; a drunkard, a glutton, 
 a trespasser, and almost everything else that is bad. 
 Verily, it ought to be walled in and compelled to keep 
 on its own grounds. 
 
 The stomach lies directly under the heart, with 
 only the diaphragm between, and when it fills with gas 
 it is like a small balloon, and lifts up till it interferes 
 directly with the heart's action. The stomach never 
 
166 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 generates gas, but when filled with undigested food 
 fermentation takes place and gas is formed, and the 
 interference depends upon the amount of gas in the 
 stomach. To overcome this construction the heart has 
 to exert itself in proportion to the interference, more 
 blood is sent to the brain, and the following symptoms 
 are the result : A dizzy head, a flushed face, a loss of 
 sight, spots or blurs before the eyes, flashes of light, 
 zigzag lines or chains, etc., often followed by the most 
 severe headache. These symptoms are usually relieved 
 when the gas is expelled from the stomach. 
 
 Now, when this upward pressure upon the heart 
 becomes excessive, more dangerous symptoms super- 
 vene, a larger quantity of blood is sent to the brain, 
 some vessel ruptures and a blood clot in the brain is the 
 result, and the patient dies of apoplexy, or, if he lives, 
 is a cripple for lif 
 
 When a sick person, or an old one, or one with 
 feeble digestion sleeps, digestion is nearly or quite sus- 
 pended, but fermentation goes on, and gas is generated 
 as before stated. 
 
 A man is found dead in bed, and the medical at- 
 tendant pronounces it the result of heart failure, and 
 such is the certificate of burial given. Now, the man 
 was out, partook of a late supper, and ate roast beef, 
 turkey, chicken, lobsters, oysters, mince pie, plum 
 pudding, ice cream, cake, an orange, nuts and raisins, 
 three or four cups of coffee, etc., went home at mid- 
 night, retires and dies of heart failure before nine 
 o'clock the next morning. What did the heart fail to do ? 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 167 
 
 House Cleaning. 
 
 Should Include Unseen Places. — ^When hot 
 weather is suddenly coming upon us, is the time to see 
 that refuse substances be removed ; if they have been 
 allowed to accumulate in cellar, garret, back yard, or 
 anywhere else. The civilization and sanitary condition 
 of a household are not to be adjudged by the surface 
 and front door and yard appearance, but by what is 
 behind and underneath. The German proverb, oben 
 Hut tend unten Ffui^ is too often applicable to the state 
 of modern fashionable society. Too often it is show 
 rather than use. The front rooms and parlors are but 
 little occupied, kept for show only. The best bed room 
 is kept in scrupulously neat condition to be occupied 
 once in six months, while the room where the children 
 sleep and which is most in use, is left to take care of 
 itself The parlor is closed as carefully as a prison, 
 barred doors and shutters, and not a ray of light, nor a 
 breath of fresh air permitted tp enter from Monday 
 morning till Saturday night. Costly fences are put up 
 along the street. Everything is in * ' apple pie ' ' order 
 where no member of the family is ever allowed to enter, 
 but the premises where they spend ninety nine one- 
 hundredths of their time when at home, is often liter- 
 ally unfit for occupancy by human beings. Back lots 
 
168 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 have beeii neglecteu for years, where masses of reeking 
 filth give out emanations as noxious as any sewer gas. 
 Yet right around these lots many people live day and 
 night, — in summer time with doors and windows open, 
 breathing the air thus fouled all the time. In many 
 instances these premises, from long continued neglect, 
 have become so foul that no ordinary surface scavenger 
 will avail. The soil is saturated with filth to the depth 
 often or twelve inches, and should be removed bodily, 
 or else thoroughly disinfected. 
 
 Very often, however, great improvement can be 
 made by removing rubbish, garbage, and other surface 
 accumulations. All this work should be done at once. 
 Thus when the hot weather sets in, nothing more will 
 be needed than daily care in preventing daily accumula- 
 tions. 
 
 Always and everywhere at this beautiful season 
 must be urged the supreme importance of cleanliness, 
 and the beneficial influence of fresh air and sunshine all 
 in and around our living and sleeping rooms. God has 
 given us a paradise. Too often we make it a pest- 
 house. 
 
 I/OOk to the Cellars. — Not one cellar in fifty is as 
 clean and dry as it should be. Old barrels, boxes, 
 casks, bottles, ashes, remnants of wilted and rotting po- 
 tatoes, turnips and other vegetables are found therein. 
 The gases arising from these, which, sometimes can be 
 recognized by their bad smell through the entire house 
 and even in the yard and street, but when most danger- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES 169 
 
 ous are odorless, cause the worst forms of typhoid and 
 other malignant fevers. These gases which always rise 
 from the cellar, penetrate the crevices of the flooring, 
 and are confined in the unventilated, unaired parlors 
 and chambers, especially the sleeping rooms on the 
 highest floors. From these considerations the cellar 
 should be the cleanest apartment of every house. On 
 these beautiful May days when all nature is attired in 
 her best, sweetest and cleanest, every cellar should be 
 thoroughly cleaned and sweetened. Every avenue of 
 grating, door and window should be left open day and 
 night for at least a week. The doors, walls, ceilings 
 or joists should be swept several times ; the walls and 
 ceilings whitewashed with two or three coats ; the floor 
 well washed and rinsed with water, and unslacked lime 
 or powdered charcoal liberally scattered, so as to absorb 
 all odors arising from moist or dark places. 
 
 Kitchens. — The sun should shine into the kitchen 
 the greatest part of the day, and into the back-yard or 
 rear of the kitchen, nine hours of every twelve of day- 
 light, every day, at this time of the year. There should 
 be no spot about the house to receive or hold standing 
 water, whether it be the rain from the sky, the contents 
 of the wash-basin, the slop-bowl, or the water pail, nor 
 should any of these, or any other vessels containing 
 liquids, be emptied into the yard. No civilized person 
 should ever be found guilty of doing such acts. The 
 kitchen sinks, and places where dishes are washed and 
 cooking is done,- should be scrupulously and conscien- 
 
170 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 tiously cleaned, scrubbed, dried and deodorized with 
 fine charcoal, daily. Health, comfort and a relishing 
 appetite depend largely on these things. 
 
 Dining-room carpets receive a great deal in the 
 debris of food. It is carried about in the air, and 
 in combination with vapor, attaches itself to woolen 
 and cotton textures of every kind, to paper hangings, 
 to whatever will absorb moisture. A house whose 
 entry smells musty is dangerous. Avoid it. Don*t 
 live in it. Keep your children out of it. 
 
 Back Yards. — Diseases of various kinds no 
 doubt, frequently arise from filth and dirt which is 
 permitted to accumulate in back yards. The slops 
 of the kitchen are poured out into the yard breeding 
 malaria, fever and diphtheria.. Besides if there is 
 a well within fifty feet of the spot, where these 
 slops and refuse matter are thrown, the poison will 
 eventually permeate the ground and defile the water, 
 proving a fruitful source of typhoid fever. 
 
 Children and young people should be taught 
 to be cleanly, as cleanliness is promotive of health 
 and morality. To keep the front yard clean, and 
 allow the back yard to be filthy and unpresentable, 
 is to encourage deception and hypocrisy, two of the 
 worst forms of immorality. Even down to the 
 blacking of shoes, children should be taught, that 
 to blacken only the front and neglect the back part 
 of the shoe, is Phariseeism and destructive of honesty. 
 
 Therefore, from the heel of the shoe to the back 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 171 
 
 yard of the house, insist on cleanliness, neatness and 
 healthfulness. 
 
 Have a hogshead or large box fitted np in one 
 corner of the yard, and make it a rule to throw 
 into this old cans, boots broken dishes, and all such 
 rubbish, and when there is a great accumulation, to 
 bury or burn it. Do not allow anything to be 
 thrown about. Have drains made to convey all slops 
 entirely away from the house. 
 
 An ounce of prevention is better than a ton of 
 cure. It is vastly easier to avoid sickness than to 
 cure disease after it has invaded the household, and 
 infinitely cheaper. Do your duty in attending to 
 the principles of hygiene. Do not saddle your faults 
 indiscretions, neglects and sins on Providence. Trust 
 in God but also keep your powder dry. 
 
 To purify gutters, sinks, hog pens etc., use 
 one pound of copperas, (sulphate of iron or green 
 vitriol) in four gallons of water, poured over three 
 or four times. It will remove all unpleasant odors. 
 
172 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Health. 
 
 Why Some are not Healthy. — In our inter- 
 course with different classes of people, following 
 different occupations, we find that those who are subject 
 to ailments and complaints are the rule, while those 
 who are entirely healthy are the exceptions. Why 
 should this be so, and is it necessarily so ? Why people 
 are unhealthy may in very many instances be explained. 
 Some are unhealthy because they choose to follow occu- 
 pations which are injurious to their health. In our 
 travels through the West recently, we found that it was 
 almost impossible to hire female help. This is to a 
 certain extent also the case in the East. Many girls 
 have imbibed the false notion that it is degrading to do 
 house and kitchen work, and others conceive the idea 
 that factory work pays better. Both are delusions. It 
 should require no argument to show that house work is 
 honorable. It does not pay better to engage in factory 
 work, tailoring, cigarmaking, etc. House and kitchen 
 work, and such outdoor exercise as belongs to it are 
 healthful, and for this reason it pays best. Doctor bills 
 and a broken down constitution do not pay. We pass 
 dozens of pale-paced, crooked-spined girls on their way 
 to and from the factories every day, when going to our 
 office. Fifty per cent, of these girls will be in their 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 173 
 
 graves, the victims of consumption, in less than twenty- 
 years, before they have half outlived the days assigned 
 to them by their great Creator. Fifty per cent, of those 
 who may not die an untimely death will turn thin, 
 haggard, crabbed old maids, whom nobody will want to 
 marry, or if married they will become peevish, painy, 
 sickly wives, who can never fulfil their great Creator's 
 design. Does it pay to lose health and beauty, in this 
 way, when the remedy is at hand ? 
 
 Again, farmers and their wives and daughters are 
 often unhealthy. It should not be so, for farming is a 
 most healthful occupation, yet how few farmers does 
 one meet who do not have their aches and complaints. 
 The young farmer's wife is not enjoying good health, 
 even the girls and boys have constant ailments, so that 
 it is difficult to find a farmer's house where some one 
 not is complaining. 
 
 Farmer^ s Health and Overwork. — Much of this 
 ill health of farmer's families is attributable to over- 
 work; Farmer's families do not sleep enough. Eight 
 hours sleep is not too much for a hard worker. The 
 eight hour law is a dead letter with the farmer. He 
 works fourteen. This is too much. He allows him- 
 self no rest, nor recreation during the week, and 
 even works on Sunday in the busy season. This is 
 enough to break down the strongest man. The young 
 wife of the farmer is out at sunrise, and by the time her 
 day's work is done it is ten o'clock at night. No 
 woman can continue to do this with impunity. She 
 
174 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 invariably breaks down, and becomes miserable for life. 
 There is a constant strain, no let oflf. Wreck and ruin 
 are the result. 
 
 Bat What they CanH Sell. — Besides, farmers 
 and other workers do not feed well enough. They have 
 plenty to eat, but they stint themselves constantly. 
 They raise poultry, but they sell it. They have plenty 
 or milk, but it brings two cents a quart. They sell it, 
 and do not allow themselves nor their children a mouth- 
 ful. They live on salty bacon, rancid butter and 
 innutritions diet. They do not allow themselves any 
 good fruit as long as there is a market for it. They 
 stint themselves in their abundance, and, while they do 
 so, they imperil their health and that of their children. 
 
 Good beefsteak, fresh eggs, good bread, plenty of 
 rich milk, not the skimmed article, which even contains 
 no nourishment for hogs, healthy fruit, an occasional 
 chicken dinner, eight hours sound sleep, not over 
 twelve hours work a day, an occasional holiday, an en- 
 tire Sunday's rest, a few weeks oflf in the woods, or to 
 some cheap summer resort, the best room in the house 
 for the parents to sleep in, instead of reserving it for 
 strangers, to be occupied once or twice a year, a little 
 fun and pleasure at home, an ice cream party occasion- 
 ally, to which the neighbors are invited ; these are as 
 necessary for the farmer as for the king, the merchant, 
 the preacher, the banker, and they can be enjoyed by 
 him just as well. It is cheaper for him to have them 
 than to pay doctor bills, and eke out a miserable exist- 
 ence through life's later years. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 1 75 
 
 How Health is Ruined. — A young man comes to 
 town from the farm, or a young lady, too, for that mat- 
 ter, with high health, high hopes, and a high ambition, 
 backed by a good family, a good education and good 
 moral principles. Within six months health is often 
 broken down, and how? They are employed in a 
 damp basement, in a counting room, keeping books, 
 writing letters, etc. , or, they stand behind a counter, in 
 an insufficiently lighted, illy ventilated room, from 
 seven in the morning to nine in the evening. The few 
 moments given to ' ' swallowing ' ' dinner and supper 
 are entirely insufficient for masticating the food, and 
 the mind is all the time jaded, with the thought that 
 they must hurry back, at the earliest possible moment. 
 When they return, the coat, sack and hat are thrown 
 off and chilling takes place. Sometimes for hours, also, 
 when engaged in store, the urgent calls of nature are 
 deferred, a dull headache is the immediate, while pain 
 and suffering may be the remote and life-long result. 
 
 Another illustration. The farmer, or the farmer's 
 wife, very frequently have a number of ailments, suf- 
 fering from colds, rheumatic pains, pains in the stom- 
 ach, aches and pains from top to toe. The appetite is 
 good, only there is a weakness, work goes hard, all 
 they can do is to grunt and eat. Eat sodden bread, 
 greasy cakes, pie, preserves, doughnuts, eat at regular 
 meals, and between times. Is it a wonder that such 
 people are complaining ? They live and act as if they 
 had no brains. They can not fail to ruin their health. 
 
176 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 What is the next resort? Medicines are taken to 
 stimulate, but the stimulus is only that of the lash ap- 
 plied to the back of an exhausted donkey. It either 
 kills, or induces an unnatural eflfort, which can only be 
 exerted temporarily. But, *4t seemed to do good for 
 awhile. " So it did, yet the reaction is alwa3^s equal, 
 not only to the action, but leaves the already over-tired, 
 broken-down body, a little feebler, more exhausted, at 
 every such unnatural effort, and expenditure of vital 
 forces. Ere long the entire breakdown will come, the 
 ruin to body, soul and estate. 
 
 What is the remedy ? Nothing short of an entire 
 change of the practices of life, both in work, diet and 
 recreation, a building up of the system from below. 
 An entire physical conversion is the only salvation. 
 
 Popular Errors Concerning Health. — It was 
 formerly said that it is injurious to health to eat at 
 night, especially before retiring, that a person should 
 retire on an empty stomach. Good scientists and phy- 
 sicians now say that a person should never go to bed 
 with an empty stomach, that doing so is an injury to 
 the digestive organs, subjecting them to an unnatural 
 strain. 
 
 Professor George H. Rohe, of the College of Phy- 
 sicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, in a recent lecture on 
 **Some Popular Errors Concerning Health and its 
 Preservation,'* quoted the saying : '^One man's meat is 
 another's poison," and showed that, while idiosyncrasies 
 with regard to certain articles of food or medicines do 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. \11 
 
 exist, they are far less frequent than is generally 
 believed. Articles of food which ordinarily disagree 
 may be better borne if differently cooked. A more 
 serious error is that one should rise from the table hun- 
 gry. The sensation of hunger is a cry of the tissues 
 for food, and should always be appeased. Much of the 
 ill-health of brain workers is due to a lack of sufficient 
 food. It is impossible to lay down hard rules as to the 
 quantity of food one should eat, but the remarks of the 
 old country doctor who had lived in good health, doing 
 hard work until four-score and ten, might be taken as 
 examples : ''I have always :aten when I wanted to eat, 
 as much as I wanted, and the best food I could get." 
 
 Health in Youth. — Late hours, irregular habits, 
 and want of attention to diet, are common errors with 
 most young men, and they gradually, but at first imper- 
 ceptibly, undermine the health and lay the foundation 
 for various forms of disease in after life. It is very dif- 
 ficult to make young persons comprehend this. They 
 frequently sit up as late as twelve, one or two o'clock, 
 without experiencing any ill eflfects ; they go without a 
 meal to-day, and to-morrow eat to repletion, with only 
 temporary inconvenience ; one night they will sleep 
 three or four hours, and the next nine or ten ; or one 
 night, 'in their eagerness to get away into some agree- 
 able company, they will take no food at all, and the 
 next, perhaps, will eat a hearty supper, and go to bed 
 upon it. Indeed, nearly all the shattered constitutions 
 with which too many are cursed, are a result of a disre- 
 gard of the plainest precepts of health in early life. 
 
178 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Better than to Pay the Doctor^ it is to take care 
 of health. Better to eat healthful food, to pay the 
 miller and the butcher, than the doctor, though the 
 doctor may not say so. 
 
 Liver Complaints. 
 
 Heat and Fatty Diet.— Summer is always fa- 
 vorable to the production of liver complaints, especi- 
 ally if too much fatty diet is consumed and exercise 
 is not proportionate. The bile is composed mainly 
 of those waste portions of the human machine, which, 
 having subserved their purpose, are no longer needed, 
 but require to be removed from the body; and in the 
 wonderful wisdom and economy of the the great 
 Architect of our frame, and of all worlds, the very 
 passing out of this waste, is made to answer a pur- 
 pose fundamentally essential to all human health; for, 
 after having eaten a meal, the bile is conveyed into 
 the intestinal canal, drop by drop, causing an action 
 which results in the regular daily motion of the 
 bowels, without which there can never be good health 
 for forty-eight hours at a time; hence * 'constipation'* 
 shows that the liver is not working healthfully, and 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 179 
 
 remedies are required whicli "act upon the liver.'* 
 There are two safe unmedicinal modes of acting on 
 the liver, of starting the machinery of life, when it 
 tends to stand still; go to bed, wrap up " warm, 
 make hot applications to the feet, drink warm teas 
 abundantly, so as to cause profuse perspiration for 
 two or three hours. A better plan is, go to work in 
 the open air and keep at it, to the extent of exci- 
 ting a gentle perspiration, until tired or very hungry, 
 for whatever starts perspiration on the skin, starts 
 the wheel of the liver to working, and the person 
 gets well apace. 
 
 
180 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 Kidney Troubles. 
 
 This Deceptive Disease on the Increase. 
 
 Every one who has been at all observant must know 
 that kidney troubles have increased very much, 
 within the past quarter of a century. Many of our 
 best men in the different professions and particularly 
 business men, have died in recent years of Bright' s 
 disease. The disease is very deceptive, and its vic- 
 tims are frequently carried off quite suddenly. Phy- 
 sicians tell us of cases where persons suspected no 
 danger, felt comfortably well, and yet, it was found 
 on examination that they could live but a few months. 
 We have ourselves known instances where in less 
 than a week the fell destroyer did his work, though 
 disease had not been know^n to have invaded the 
 system. Not long ago we attended the funeral of a 
 young lady of less than twenty years, who felt strong 
 enough to go to church on Sunday, and yet by 
 Tuesday night she was a corpse. She had, it is true, 
 experienced some lassitude and had an inordinate 
 thirst, yet nothing was thought of this till she took 
 her bed, fell into a delirium and, in two short 
 days, had passed from the stage of life. 
 
 Over Mental Work. — Derangement of the kid- 
 neys is a common result of mental overwork. When 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 181 
 
 they fail to carry off the waste matter of the system 
 uric acid, that deadly poison, accumulates, and sneaks 
 through all the blood channels. The whole system 
 becomes a kind of cess-pool and every function is 
 impaired. Unless help is found, the ' 'general break- 
 ing up" soon follows. 
 
 The reason why so many professional men, par- 
 ticularly those of sedentary habits die of kidney disease, 
 is mental strain, and the want of bodily exercise. 
 They sit in their offices with their minds bent on 
 business, often worried, swallow their meals hurriedly, 
 eat bread finely bolted, often having alum mixed 
 with it; instead of walking home, or when they attend 
 to errands, they take the street cars, or have their own 
 carriages at hand to carry them to and fro, never 
 walking a step if they can avoid it, even passing to 
 and from the second and higher stories of buildings 
 on elevators, instead of walking up and down the stairs. 
 These are some of the reasons why those engaged 
 in business, professional men, and persons of leisure are 
 so much more subject to kidney ailments than those " 
 engaged in active out-door pursuits. 
 
182 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Lack of Exercise. 
 
 Both beast and bird, in a state of nature, are exempt 
 from disease except in rare cases. It is because the 
 unappeasable instinct of searching for their necessary 
 food impels them to ceaseless activities. Children, when 
 left to themselves, eat a great deal and have excellent 
 health, because they will be doing something all the 
 time, until they become so tired that they fall asleep, 
 and as soon as they wake they begin to run about again ; 
 thus their whole existence is spent in alternate eating 
 and sleeping and exercise that is interesting and pleas- 
 urable. The health of childhood would be enjoyed by 
 those of mature years if, like children, they would eat 
 only when they are hungry, stop when they have done, 
 take rest in sleep as soon as they are tired, and when not 
 eating or resting would spend the time diligently in such 
 muscular activities as would be interesting, agreeable, 
 and profitable. Exercise without mental elasticity, 
 without an enlivenment of the feeliugs and of the mind, 
 is of comparatively little value. 
 
 Exercise is health-producing, because it worKS off 
 and out of the system its waste dead and effete matters ; 
 these are all converted into liquid form, called by some 
 ' * humors, ' ' which have exit from the body through the 
 * Spores" of the skin in the shape of perspiration. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 • 
 Exercise improves the health, because every step a 
 
 man takes tends to impart motion to the bowels. A 
 
 proper amount of exercise keeps them acting once in 
 
 every twenty-four hours. 
 
 Exercise is healthful, because the more we exer- 
 cise the faster we breathe. If we breathe faster we take 
 that much more air into the lungs ; but it is the air 
 we breathe which purifies the blood, and the more 
 air we take in, the more perfectly is that process per- 
 formed. 
 
 Observe the Requests of Nature. — No teacher 
 should ever refuse a child permission to go out when 
 asked, if he knows the request is an honost one. Even 
 when he doubts the necessity of the case, he should let 
 the child have the benefit of the doubt. Permanent 
 injury to the organs of the child, resulting in the ruin of 
 his health for life, may be the result, if nature's calls- 
 are postponed or disregarded. Nature is a faithful 
 monitor, even as much so as conscience. But, just as 
 conscience is weakened every time its warnings are 
 neglected, and it thus becomes so enfeebled that at 
 last its faithful warning voice is silenced ; so the 
 organs of the body lose the power to discharge their 
 duties, whenever their requests are denied, and the 
 result is pain, disease and suffering, often making life 
 a burden. The large number of kidney diseases, now 
 so common, originate from disobeying the requests of 
 nature. 
 
184 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Light. 
 
 Necessary for I/ife. — To the extent that a living 
 being is deprived of sunlight, to that extent it will be 
 deprived of life and the power requisite for develop- 
 ment, and the organization rendered susceptible to the 
 causes of disease and death. Men and animals will 
 develop to a certain extent, and may retain an imperfect 
 organization, for a time in the dark, owing to their 
 living on food, which has been already organized in the 
 vegetable and animal kingdoms ; but what little life 
 they have is mostly derived from other organizations. 
 They are not in direct communication with the great 
 fountain of life. Tlie sun's rays, requisite in organiz- 
 ing substantial structures are wanting ; the bones and 
 the muscles remain soft and delicate ; the. blood is 
 watery and thin, and the red globules are few ; the skin 
 is pale and lifeless, the brain is imperfectly developed, 
 and there is either sluggishness or great irritability of 
 the nerves, and peevishness of dis^DOsition. The Esqui- 
 maux, who live far to the north, and have but little 
 sunlight, are torpid in mind and body. The fashionable 
 lady, who has descended from cultivated and healthy 
 ancestors, but shuts herself up in dark parlors, by the 
 aid of blinds and curtains, and goes veiled, when she 
 ventures into the sun, is nervous, peevish and discon- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 185 
 
 tented. She, to gratify her vanity and ignorance of the 
 laws of health, is depriving herself of a large share of 
 that life which is her due, and which the sunlight alone 
 can give her, and she is suffering the consequences. 
 
 Sunlight Better than Medicine. — Such are the 
 combined influences of the three principles of light, 
 that sunlight becomes one of the most powerful agents 
 known in nature, for the restoration of the sick to 
 health. Dr. Dio lycwis, who is considered good author- 
 ity, said once in our hearing, that in many cases of 
 rheumatism, consumption and other chronic diseases, 
 he simply recommends the patient to expose himself 
 daily for several hours to the sunlight. He went so far 
 as to add, that he had recommended persons to strip 
 themselves and to lie down in a room where the rays of 
 the sun might have free access to all parts of the body, 
 and to turn around, from side to side, until every part 
 of the body had been exposed to the sun. The remedy 
 has a magical effect. It is worth more, in many 
 instances, than any other medicine that can be adminis- 
 tered. 
 
 If sunlight then has this influence, as a curative 
 agent of disease, must it not also be doubly effectual in 
 health? Most delicate and mysterious is the relation 
 w^hich our bodies sustain to sunlight. How our feel- 
 ings, and even our appearance changes with every 
 change of the sky ! When the sun shines, the blood 
 flows freely, and the spirit light and buoyant. When 
 gloom overspreads the heavens, dullness and sober 
 
186 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 thoughts possess the mind. The energy is greater, the 
 body is actually stronger, in the bright light of day, 
 while the health is manifestly promoted, digestion has- 
 tened, and the color made to play on the cheek, when 
 the rays of sunshine are allowed to sport freely among 
 us. There is something in darkness soothing, depress- 
 ive, quieting ; while light, on the contrary, excites and 
 arouses. It is common to see this socially illustrated — 
 a company assembled in an apartment dimly lighted 
 will be dull,' somnolent and stupid ; but let the room be 
 brightly illuminated and the spirits rise, thought is 
 enlivened, and conversation proceeds with increased 
 animation. 
 
 I/Ct There be I/ight. — Sunshine is an essential 
 element of human life, health and happiness. Shall 
 we do without it ? Shall we close our parlors, that no 
 ray of cheerful sunlight shall get in from January to 
 December? Shall we keep our sleeping apartments 
 darkened, during the day time, so that the damp vapors 
 of night cannot be evaporated? Shall we try to hide 
 ourselves from the sun's rays, so that our delicate, beau- 
 tiful, sallow and sickly countenances remain white and 
 ghostly, as though we came out of the sepulchre? 
 When we walk out, shall we ward ofif every ray of a 
 benignant Creator's smiling, cheerful sunlight, hy hold- 
 ing a parasol or umbrella above our heads ? Shall our 
 tiny fingers be gloved up for fear that they might be 
 tinged with those beautiful colors with which the 
 Almighty adorns his kingdom of nature ? Some per- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 187 
 
 sons love the domain of the sickly, the ghastly, the pale 
 realms of shade and of death, but we confess to have an 
 instinctive love of life, and cannot make up our mind 
 to walk about as one coming just freshly from the 
 grave, bound hand and foot, and our grave-clothes on. 
 We believe that if the good I^ord had intended us to 
 live in the dark. He never would have said: *' Let there 
 be light." He would not have created sunshine, if he 
 had intended us to grovel in darkness, or else would 
 put a blind, a shutter, or a curtain before the sun in the 
 heavens. 
 
 What shall we say to that parent who says : *%ook 
 at my little child, see how beautiful, how clear, how 
 almost transparent the complexion is ? " Alas ! how 
 sad. Do you expect to raise that child, and that he will 
 be a stay to you in your declining years? It is impos- 
 sible for you to succeed. With his impoverished blood 
 and irritable brain and nervous system, he is illy pre- 
 pared to resist the cause of the diseases of childhood. 
 You have every reason to fear that sooner or later one 
 of the eruptive fevers, bowel complaints, or inflamma- 
 tory affections, to which children are liable, will stretch 
 him upon his suffering and dying bed, and that you 
 will follow his lifeless remains to a premature grave. 
 Should he be so fortunate as to survive the dangers of 
 childhood,- he can become but a miserable effigy of a 
 man, and a lifetime of wretchedness and suffering is 
 before him. If you would save your child from all this, 
 there is but one course for you to pursue. You must 
 
188 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 care less for carpets, and his complexion and delicacy, 
 than you do for his health and life, and manifest 
 your love for him by turning him out of doors into 
 the sunshine, and by never, when the sun is shining, 
 allowing him to stay in a room where the air is not con- 
 stantly purified and made alive by the solar rays. 
 
 Teacher, a word to you. Do you teach in a dark, 
 dingy school-room ? As you value your life and health 
 and that of your pupils, have something done to your 
 school-room. Tear down every blind ; have every win- 
 dow opened, and invite God's own free sunlight to 
 come in. 
 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 189 
 
 How to Avoid Malarial Fevers. 
 
 Malaria, Means Bad Air, in common English; 
 Schlechte Luft, in German. It usually is generated in 
 low places, along streams, especially where the beds of 
 streams are exposed to the sun's rays. The cutting 
 away of our forests, which formerly shaded the streams, 
 and the streams becoming smaller, in consequence of 
 the country being denuded of wood, is the fruitful 
 cause of much of the malarial, intermittent fever, or 
 ague, with which we are now afflicted. Places which 
 formerly were exempt from the disease are now vis- 
 ited by it. It seems to become epidemic from year to 
 year. It is a terrible disease. It completely uses up a 
 fellow. Takes all the snap out of him. Unfits him 
 for everything and predisposes him to all kinds of dis- 
 eases, particularly typhoid fever. On the 9th inst 
 we buried a young girl, but twenty one years old, who, 
 though strong and robust, capable of resisting disease, 
 as far as it lies in human power to do so, in three 
 short weeks, passed from health to malarial fever, 
 typhoid fever and the grave, and that at Doylestown, 
 Pa., a place claiming to be among the healthiest on 
 the globe. 
 
 To i^scape It. — Now it pays to know how to 
 escape from the- clutches of this destroying angel, and 
 
190 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 if you will follow the advice wliicli we shall here give 
 you, you can feel comparatively safe from its ravages, 
 and, at least have done your duty. 
 
 Malaria prevails only where there is heat and 
 moisture. 
 
 There are three agencies which always will per- 
 fectly and safely antagonize all the ill effects of Miasm, 
 to wit: ist. A good warm meal; 2d. Heat: 3d. Cold. 
 It is curious to note how each of these acts differently. 
 Cold only paralyzes miasm, for, like the frozen adder, 
 it comes to life to destroy as soon as it is warmed. 
 Heat, continuously applied, sends the miasm to the 
 clouds; hence its inocuousness in the heat of the day 
 everywhere: while a hearty, warm breakfast or supper 
 makes the system impervious to its effects, makes it 
 invulnerable, repels its deadly onslaught. A pint of 
 hot coffee, tea, milk, or hot water, with a thimbleful 
 of cayenne pepper in it, will also, but a regular 
 meal is better. Kindling a brisk fire in the sitting- 
 room, to burn for the hour, including sunrise and 
 sunset, will protect any family from malaria. These 
 simple remedies cost nothing, require no doctor, 
 no medicine, no constitution-destroying quinine, and 
 will never fail as a preventive. The doctors may tell 
 you that this is a humbug. Do not believe them, 
 take the preventive rather than the cure. 
 
 Biliousness, the Precursor of Malaria, is indi- 
 cated by a bad taste in the mouth in the morning, a 
 poor appetite, and a feeling of general discomfort, often 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 191 
 
 accompanied by headache and cold feet. The best cure 
 is to work moderately, take but two meals a day, and 
 these of the simplest kind of food, and always a cup of 
 strong coffee and some hot food, before leaving the 
 house in the morning. Eat plentifully of raw tomatoes. 
 
 The Nose. 
 
 The Nose is for Breathing. — Man has lived 6000 
 years on this globe, and isjust beginning to learn how to 
 breathe, or the fact that the nose is for breathing. Children 
 should be taught this and should have breathing exerci- 
 ses at school. We were asked by a teacher at Butler, how 
 to cure a boy fourteen years old of ' 'speaking through 
 the nose' ' , or rather speaking with the nostrils contract- 
 ed or closed, and thus uttering unpleasant nasal sounds. 
 We advised the teacher to have breathing exercises, 
 and thus to teach this pupil, and all others, to breathe 
 through the nose. To say nothing of the advantage of 
 the pure tone, which breathing through the nose produ- 
 ces, ever}^ child should be taught to shut the mouth when 
 breathing, for hygienic reasons. The Indians are much 
 wiser than we in this respect. They tie a band around 
 the heads of children when they put them to sleep, in 
 order to keep the mouth closed and to accustom them 
 
]92 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 to breathe through the nose. Besides, this prevents 
 snoring. Persons snore only when they sleep with the 
 mouth open. Athletes, professional trainers, hunters, 
 mountaineers, all physically strong and perfect men, 
 habitually breathe through the nostrils. One may 
 breathe mephitic gases, or the smoke of a burning 
 building, for a short time through the nose, if the lips 
 be kept tightly closed, when he would quickly suffo- 
 cate if he attempted to breathe through the open mouth. 
 Sense of Smell a Secondary Use. — The function 
 or sense of smell, which is commonly considered the 
 chief end of a man's nose is really a very subsidiary 
 part of its business. Through the nose the air is 
 purified, tempered, and moistened, before it reaches the 
 sensitive larynx and lungs. Foreign and irritating par- 
 ticles are arrested in their passage through the nasal 
 cavities; the temperature of the air is raised to that 
 of the body, while it is moistened by the secretions of 
 the membrane which lines its labyrinths and the 
 glands which it lodges. 
 
 The dust which loads the city's atmosphere — filth is 
 an impalpable powder — finds ready access to the upper 
 portion of the air-tubes and gullet through the mouth, 
 but is almost entirely deposited on the moist mucous 
 surfaces of the winding, shell-like nasal passages in 
 proper breathing. 
 
 Nose Breathing Necessary to Health. — The 
 usual effect of the first mouthful of cold air in a sharp 
 winter atmosphere is to provoke a cough, and a prompt 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 193 
 
 closure of the lips to guard the sensitive structures of 
 the lar}'nx and vicinity, and there are few that have not 
 awakened in the morning with a dry, harsh tongue, 
 throat and palate, when from any cause, nasal respiration 
 has been impeded during sleep, the secretion of the 
 mouth being neither suitable nor sufficient to keep 
 the surfaces moist under such circumstances. Catarrh 
 and throat affections are much less common among those 
 who keep the mouth shut and habitually breathe 
 through the nostrils. This of itself, where the diseases 
 are so prevalent, as a result of our climatic conditions, 
 should lead to the general adoption of a practice which 
 has many other and obvious advantages. We had the 
 pleasure of listening to a very interesting lecture by 
 Dr. C. Seller, of the University of Pennsylvania, on 
 nasal catarrh. Among other important things which 
 we learned, was the necessity of cleaning the nose every 
 morning. The doctor argued, that, during the day and 
 night, dust and dirt settles in the nose, and that it is 
 just as necessary to clean the nose in the morning, as the 
 teeth. He recommended that a teaspoonful of salt be 
 dissolved in a tumbler full of water, and this thrown 
 up into the nose and again expelled. Water without 
 the salt will be apt to injure the mucous membrane. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Home Medicines. 
 
 Don't Meddle with Medicines. — It is safe to 
 say, that those people who oftenest prescribe medicines 
 for themselves really know the least about them. It is 
 he who is ignorant — generally so in all matters — who 
 is constantly deluging himself with drugs. Generally 
 the injury done does not follow immediately so that it 
 may be traced directly from cause to effect ; but some- 
 times it does, as in the following instance : In one of 
 the poorer localities here a woman had the toothache, 
 and a druggist told her to put into the cavity a piece of 
 cotton wet with creosote, of which he gave her a small 
 bottle. The effect v/as excellent, and the pain soon sub- 
 sided. One of the woman's daughters shortly after that 
 had the earache. Reasoning that if creosote was good 
 for toothache, it surely ought to be good for earache, she 
 dropped a little in the painful ear, and the victim barely 
 escaped with her life, while, of course, on the affected 
 side she was "stone deaf " ever afterward. Just -such 
 stupidity as that is constantly being exhibited by some 
 one, and it is not by anv means confined to the humblest 
 classes. 
 
 About Bitters. — There is another curious condi- 
 tion of things. Very many drugs are dispensed in the 
 form of tinctures, which are made from alcohol ; that is 
 
COMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 195 
 
 the base of almost all "bitters" and "tonics." There 
 are very many people so rigid in their views they deem 
 it a sin to drink even a glass of lager beer, and yet 
 no small number of these same people always keep 
 their favorite "bitters" in the house, which they take 
 regularly, as they reason, to keep themselves well. 
 Such people are steady tipplers, and if they made it a 
 rule to drink whiskey or brandy as often as they take 
 their "medicine" they would be exactly as temperate. 
 Tinctures are Dang-erous. — There suggests itself 
 another point of v/hich non-professionals are almost 
 always ignorant. Drugs are made not only into tinct- 
 ures but also into what are known as fluid extracts. 
 Now a dose of the former may be six or eight drops, 
 while the latter made of the same drug, is only one 
 drop. There is certainly a chance to make a grave mis- 
 take. Then, too, all medicines made with alcohol, as 
 tinctures and fluid extracts, unless they are very carefully 
 kept, become stronger on account of evaporation. A 
 dose of laudanum today just obtained from the druggist, 
 may be twenty drops for an adult, and yet a few months 
 from nov/, if as many drops were taken poisoning would 
 result. Doubtless thousands of children are every year 
 sent out of the world by medicines, the same being given 
 in overdoses. A mother has a cough, aud obtains a 
 mixture of some friendly druggist, who directs that she 
 take it in teaspoonful doses. She is soon well, and con- 
 siders that the medicine "did the work." A little of it 
 is left on hand, and v/hen her baby is taken sick with a 
 
196 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 cold, she, assuming that what was good for her must 
 certainly benefit her child, calls the "cough drops'* again 
 into service. She is just as likely to give from one-third 
 to one-half a teaspoonful as she is to give the correct 
 dose, which may be, under no condition, more than two 
 or three drops. The overdose kills it: but the chances 
 are she does not recognize that fact, and is ready to do 
 the same thing over again with her next baby. 
 
 Do not Trifle with the I/ife of the Child.— 
 In the poorer neighborhoods are to be found any number 
 of old women who "know more about doctoring than 
 any doctor does. " They base their pretentions on the 
 fact of having had large families. Question one of them 
 and it will very generally be found that they have lost 
 their credentials ; in other words most of their children 
 have died. A physician before a sick child is often a 
 good deal like a man on the sidewalk, before a house 
 tr>dng to tell,. from the appearance of the outside, who 
 is on the inside. He watches this door and that door, 
 this window and that window, and listens to every 
 sound. Every faculty has been sharpened by his train- 
 ing, his work is "second nature," and nothing escapes 
 him. On the alert, he studies the patient, noting this 
 and that symptom as it appears, and finally a complete 
 picture of the disease is before him. But even then he 
 is not ready to institute treatment: there is yet much tq 
 be considered ere he can do that. Often the peculiarities 
 of the parents will influence him ; he must know all 
 about the food and its effects, bring out the error in the 
 
COBIMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 197 
 
 mother's management, etc. In the treatment, as a 
 rule, nursing will have the first place, and the giving of 
 medicine will be of the least importance. Taking in 
 every detail, not one of which can be neglected without 
 endangering the child's life can any person with a 
 grain of sense believe that the work of the physician 
 can be safely assumed by one who has not had his 
 training? Certainly no conscientious person, who holds 
 life at the least value, will ever undertake it in any case. 
 
 To know what is the matter, what is needed, and 
 what will answer the purpose are the important requi- 
 sites, where there is sickness or ailment. Good common 
 sense, careful observation and sound judgment are nec- 
 essary. Persons who are not physicians, and yet possess 
 these, are often more useful than physicians who are 
 lacking in them. 
 
 Specifics. — A few agents have been employed from 
 time immemorial, such as sulphur, in case of itch, and 
 cutaneous disease. 
 
 Spirits ' ' act on ' ' the brain ; fumes on the lungs ; 
 ipecac, on the stomach ; rhubarb on the upper bowels ; 
 aloes on the lower ; mercury on the liver ; watermelons 
 on the kidneys ; strychnine on nerves ; ergot on the 
 womb. 
 
 Brandy makes a man as funny as a fool. Opium 
 makes him as stupid as an ass. A hop infusion will put 
 him to sleep. Tea keeps him wide awake. It is on 
 these facts and principles that the whole science of med- 
 icine is founded. 
 
198 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Anodynes cause sleep, as opium, hops. 
 
 Astringents bind, close up, contract, as vinegar and 
 persimmons. 
 
 Cathartics empty the bowels by purging, as salts 
 and castor oil. 
 
 Diaphoretics cause perspiration, as hot herb tea. 
 
 Emetics empty the stomach, as tartar, ipecac, to- 
 bacco, etc. 
 
 Expectorants loosen the phlegm in the lungs. 
 
 Irrita7its draw the blood to the part away from the 
 painful spot, and thus relieve, as a mustard plaster ; 
 thus giving thef ailing part time to heal. 
 
 Liniments are irritants in a liquid form. 
 
 Lotions are washes to cleanse or soothe. 
 
 Refrigerants are to cool in fevers, as acids, lemon- 
 ades, etc. 
 
 Tonics are intended to give strength, as bitters, 
 made of vegetable remedies. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 19D 
 
 Poison Medicines. 
 
 Most Medicines are Poisons, and should there- 
 fore, if given, be administered by the most skilful phy- 
 sicians. Patent medicines all contain poison and 
 should, therefore never be taken by any one unless he 
 has a special knowledge of the human body, and the 
 effects which poisons may have on it. Tvlany people try 
 medicines, and if one does not produce the desired 
 effect, they take another and another. They give them 
 to children to make them sleep, to stop their crying, to 
 ease their pains, to cure them when they complain, to 
 * 'sharpen" their appetites, to cure their colds. All 
 this is done by thousands of ignorant parents ; ignorant 
 of the laws of health, and of the cause of disease. While 
 they are doing this they are pouring poison down 
 the throats of innocent little ones, and often hastening 
 their death. 
 
 Be Careful of **Drops/^ — A young mother re- 
 marked to us recently that her babe had been quite 
 restless at first, but now she ahvays gave it "drops" and 
 this made it rest. This mother, with thousands of 
 others, is making the sad mistake of putting her child 
 to rest by drugging ic. The ''drops" of which she 
 speaks, contain opium, in one or the other oi its various 
 shapes, and thus a stupor is induced in the child, which 
 
200 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 may dull its natural brightness for life, possibly mak- 
 ing it a half idiot. I^ittle children seldom cry unless 
 they have pain. They get pain by being fed to excess. 
 The normal, common sense method of relieving the 
 pain, and stopping the crying, is not by drugging the 
 child, and dulling or destroying its sensibility, but by 
 feeding it less at a time and more frequently. 
 
 Most patent medicines are composed largely of 
 poor alcohol, and yet temperance people often use these 
 poisons in large quantities. 
 
 Physicians use but little medicine in their families, 
 because they know that they are poisons. They use 
 no patent medicines, because they are the worst poi- 
 sons. The best physicians use but little medicine. The 
 better the physician, the less medicine he uses, the 
 more instruction he gives relative to the nature of 
 the disease, and about foods, drinks, temperature, heat, 
 cold, air, water, rest, sleep, posture and exercise. 
 
 We say to everybody, the less poison, the more 
 good air, good food and good exercise, the better. 
 Avoid medicine poisons. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 201 
 
 Patent fledicines. 
 
 The quantity of patent medicines swallowed by the 
 Americans is enormous. What a change since the days 
 of our fathers. Then they had peppermint, golden- 
 tincture, Bateman's drops, tincture of life, and the vari- 
 ous herb teas. Now the names of the nostrums and 
 cure-alls offered to the public are legion. Open the 
 newspaper or even the religious paper and your eye 
 is greeted with the advertisements of patent medicines. 
 
 Patent Medicines Not a Necessity. — Both art 
 and nature are impressed into the service of advertising 
 patent medicines. Scarcely a barn, stable, shed, bridge, 
 rock, tree, telegraph post, or other object in the air, 
 earth, or under the earth, that is not decorated (?) with 
 inscriptions. Men, women and children are thus 
 forced into the belief that those medicines are necessar}'- 
 for regaining and retaining health. The vender calls 
 on them and, by his persuasive eloquence, gets them 
 to buy and try. The street corner and the public 
 square re-echoes with the yell of the agent, and he 
 never fails to command an audience of willing, unso- 
 phisticated dupes. There is no town exempt therefrom. 
 The very rocks by the road side are besmeared with 
 these vile advertisements of these body-and-soul-destroy- 
 ing nostrums. It is a fearful delusion of the devil 
 
202 COMBION SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 that health can be bought. Preserve it while you 
 have it, and, if lost or impaired, do not attempt to 
 restore it with the medicine bottle. Nature's own recu- 
 perative and restoring powers must do it, if it is ever 
 done. Let this solemn, eternal truth be impressed in 
 every school room and family in the land. 
 
 Human Nature is Weak. — It is deemed so much 
 easier to cure an ill than to avoid it. ''To take some- 
 thing" is so common and so easy, particularly if it comes 
 in sugar-coated pills, soothing sirups, perfumed pastilles 
 and sweetened lozenges, that the millions vastly prefer 
 it to exercising a little precaution or taking the 
 ounce of prevention. That this is the case is proved 
 by the fact that these medicines are sold in sufficient 
 quantities, a thousand different kinds, to pay for all the 
 advertising and enrich the manufacturer. Some of them 
 have become millionaires, and who has paid for their 
 humbugs? Poor, suffering, sick, drugged, dying 
 humanity. What is the fact that should be impressed 
 on the minds of the young especially, both 'in family 
 and in school, and, for that matter, on the old, too ? 
 
 That remedies are not capable of imparting vital 
 power or activity. This is one of the first and all-im- 
 portant lessons in physiology. 
 
 That medicines are not food. That they contain 
 none of the essential engredients of food. That they do 
 not furnish food, nor a substitute for it. 
 
 That what makes a person /^^/ better is no evidence 
 of benefit to him. The judgment based on the report 
 of the nerves of sensation is a product of delusion. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 203 
 
 That a remedy develops the energies of the vital 
 system. Exercise does this, healthful food, ditto, rest 
 may do it, medicine, alcohol and stimulants never. 
 
 Every neighborhood has examples of medicine- 
 wrecks. These are the dyspeptics, the hypochondriacs, 
 the miserables, the physically incapable of both sexes, 
 who are ever taking medicine. These are your 
 OBJECT LESSONS. Hold them up to the young, as 
 crows and hawks and birds of prey in general, are 
 nailed against trees when shot, as warnings to others. 
 Flee for your lives. Patent medicines kill body, mind 
 and soul. 
 
 Good Rules. — Work is good medicine. 
 
 Society says one thing, nature another; follow 
 nature. 
 
 Sleep eight hours out of the twenty four, eat 
 three meals a day, and walk on the sunny side of the 
 way. 
 
 If a healthy baby is properly taken care of it 
 ought in its early months of life to pass fully eighteen 
 hours in sleep. 
 
 The most violent poisons are vegetable, and yet 
 many people will fool with vegetable substances as if 
 they were harmless. Beware of medicines marked 
 ''purely vegetable." 
 
 The physician of the future will be employed to 
 prevent, more than to cure disease. He will call once 
 a week and give the family advice hov/ to preserve 
 health. 
 
204 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 These are all-important health lessons, which should 
 be constantly impressed on the young. Activity and 
 work are the only proper medicines. 
 
 Posture. 
 
 Erect Position Necessary to Health. — Many of 
 
 the young ladies and gentlemen of the present day are 
 round-shouldered, and consequently predisposed to con- 
 sumption. It is impossible for a stooped person to enjoy 
 good health. His breathing is imperfect, the lungs are 
 not inflated, the organs can not perform their functions, 
 and disease, suffering and premature decay and death 
 are the result. 
 
 Parents, teachers, and those who have the supervi- 
 sion of the young can not be too careful to see thereto 
 the children maintain an erect posture at all times, and 
 if they have fallen into the pernicious habit of stooping, 
 to take the most active measures to correct it. 
 
 The back bone, spinal column, is composed of 
 twenty-four alternate layers is a soft gristle, resembling 
 rubber. The weight of the body rests on these elastic 
 cushions, when we walk, work or stand. The conse- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 205 
 
 quence is that a person is fully half an inch shorter in 
 stature in the evening, than he was in the morning. 
 
 Spinal Disease.— If persons fall into the habit of 
 leaning to one side, sitting bowed forward, as children 
 frequently do in school, the pressure on the elastic cush- 
 ions will tend to make these cushions thinner, on the 
 side towards which there is a leaning. The pressure and 
 absorption will also become less on that side, and the 
 cushion will become wedge-shaped. Sometimes the 
 whole cushion will be absorbed. This is spinal disease. 
 
 The cure must be commenced before the bones meet, 
 or the case is hopeless. To effect this there must be a 
 straightening up, bending the other way. To make this 
 effective a person must take plentiful out-door exercise, 
 and while sitting or standing constantly straighten up. 
 While sitting, reading, writing and sewing, it is almost 
 impossible to attain the erect position, though teachers, pa- 
 rents and employers should constantly urge on the young 
 to sit as erect as possible. But the out-door exercise, with 
 erect posture is the best panacea. Walking with the head 
 downward, or sitting thus also affect the health, by com- 
 pressing the lungs. It diminishes the capacity of receiv- 
 ing an adequate quantity of pure air, the blood becomes 
 more impure, until the entire mass beconies diseased. 
 
 The pernicious habit of sleeping with the head rest- 
 ing on high pillows should be discarded. The head should 
 be almost on a level with the body, or only slightly rais- 
 ed. Sitting half upright in bed is very inj urious to health. 
 Give frequent exercises in breathing. The members of 
 
£3G COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 the class should be required to stand firmly on the floor, 
 throw the head and shoulders back and inhale till one 
 hundred is counted, than exhale in the same way. 
 
 Sensible Rules. — The following rules should be 
 observed by every one, and parents and teachers should 
 imj)ress them constantly on the young: 
 
 Walk with the chest thrown outv/ard. 
 
 Walk with the chin raised above a horizontal line, 
 as if looking at the top of a carriage. 
 
 Walk frequently with the hands on the back. 
 
 If an effort of the mind is made to throw the should- 
 ers back, a feeling of tiredness and awkv/ardness is soon 
 experienced, or it is forgotten. The use of braces to hold 
 up the body is necessarily pernicious; for there can be no 
 brace which does not press upon some part of the person 
 more than is natural, hence cannot fail to impede injur- 
 iously the circulation of that part. But were there none 
 of these objections, the brace would soon adapt itself to 
 the bodily position, like a hat or shoe or new garment, 
 and would cease to be a brace. 
 
 To Cure Stoop Shoulder. — There is one good v/ay 
 to cure it. Shoulder braces will not help. One needs 
 not an artificial substitute, but some means to develop 
 the muscles whose duty it is to hold the head and should- 
 ers erect. I know of but one bull's-eye shot. It is to 
 carry a weight on the head. A sheep-skin or other strong 
 bag filled with twenty or thirty pounds of sand is a good 
 weight. When engaged in your morning studies, either 
 before or after breakfast, put the bag of sand on your 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 207 
 
 head, hold your head erect, draw your chin close to your 
 neck, and walk slowly about the room, coming back, if 
 you please, every minute or two to your book, or carry- 
 ing the book as you walk. The muscles whose duty it 
 is to hold the head and shoulders erect are hit, not with 
 scattering shot, out with a rifle ball. The bones of the 
 spine and the intervertebral substance will soon accom- 
 modate themselves to the new attitude. One year of daily 
 practice with the bag, half an hour morning and evening, 
 will give you a noble carriage, without interfering a 
 moment with your studies. 
 
 It is a sad thing to see, as one passes along the 
 street, so many young ladies walk stoop-shouldered, with 
 crooked spines, thus digging for themselves prem^ature 
 graves, all of which is easily avoidable. 
 
 Waikingf I^rectly. — Not only adds to manliness of 
 appearance, but dev^elops the chest and promotes the gen- 
 eral health in a high degree, because the lungs being re- 
 lieved of the pressure made by having the head down- 
 ward and bending the chest in, admit the air freely and 
 fully down to the very bottom of the lungs. To derive 
 the highest benefit from walking, hold up the head, keep 
 the mouth closed, and move briskly. 
 
m COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Pneumonia. 
 
 A Terrible Disease. — Pneumonia is a Greek word 
 having the same derivation as pneumatics, and means 
 breath. It is an inflammation of the lungs. It is a dis- 
 ease to which the feeble and strong are alike subject. It 
 very frequently carries off the most rugged in four or 
 five days. 
 
 Pneumonia is a terrible disease. It strikes young 
 and old, the weekly and the robust alike, and is com- 
 mon to all seasons of the year and to all sections of the 
 country. Its ravages are felt from Canada to the Gulf. 
 Great and sudden changes of temperature, however, 
 are most favorable to it. 
 
 Worse than Yellow Fever. — Yellow fever is a 
 much dreaded disease, and yet pneumonia is more dan- 
 gerous. Those who recover from yellow fever are 
 stronger afterwards than they were before, while those 
 who get over pneumonia are often only spared to live a 
 life of suffering. Mrs. Bernd, a German lady, atVidal- 
 in, Louisiana, who with her daughter entertained us, 
 and made us feel at home in her house, though we 
 were strangers in a strange land, told us that she 
 had passed through yellow fever, and by careful 
 nursing had brought her family through the scourge so 
 that all were stronger after the recovery than before. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 209 
 
 A few years later, however, her daughter, who was 
 the picture of health, were carried off to the grave, 
 after a few days suffering from pneumonia. Similar 
 experiences have been made by thousands. Pneumonia 
 is a most dangerous and treacherous disease, and yet it 
 is avoidable. 
 
 School children, in the fall and spring seasons, are 
 specially subject to this disease. They may contract it 
 by becoming over-heated on the play-ground, and sud- 
 denly cooling off, by sitting down on the damp ground, 
 by divesting themselves of extra clothing when warm, 
 by sitting in a draught, and in a hundred different ways. 
 
 Parents and teachers cannot be too careful in 
 watching children, yea, everybody should exercise the 
 greatest care, that colds may not be contracted, for colds 
 easily terminate in pneumonia, and pneumonia not 
 uncommonly terminates in death, or if not fatally, it 
 leaves results, such as pulmonary diseases, which remain 
 incurable fqr life. 
 
 How to tell Pneumonia. — A clear understanding 
 of this disease is denied the non-professional. It is even 
 impossible for him, no matter how well-informed, to de- 
 termine positively, from any knowledge which he may 
 possess, when a case of pneumonia is before him. 
 There are, however, some symptoms which it will be 
 well to describe, for when they appear in children 
 they should at least excite a suspicion that pneumonia 
 exists. 
 
 The disease may begin abruptly or in a gradual 
 
210 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 way, preceded and associated with broncliitis. As a 
 rule, pneumonia follows broncliitis in children under 
 three years of age. Among the earliest signs of the 
 disease is the change in the respiration. The breathing 
 is hurried and labored. The air does not appear to 
 enter deeply into the lungs, and, as it is expelled a 
 moaning sound is emitted. This expiratory moan is 
 strong, but not conclusive evidence of pneumonia, as it 
 is sometimes heard in painful affections of the stomach 
 and abdomen. 
 
 Cough is also an early symptom. It is dry, hack- 
 ing and painful; some have described it as a *' short, 
 stuffy cough." Crying, says one writer, during an 
 attack of coughing, or for a brief time afterward, and 
 attended with distortion of the features, indicates 
 pneumonia. 
 
 That a child with that disease suffers from pain is 
 evinced in the expression of the face, which is flushed 
 and anxious. There so often appears a deep crimson 
 spot on one or both cheeks of pneumonia patients, it is 
 assumed by many physicians to be an important sign. 
 
 A significant symptom of the disease in question is 
 the dilation and falling of the nostrils as the little one 
 breathes. 
 
 There is a loss of appetite, thirst, and restlessness. 
 If the patient is an infant, its nursing is seriously inter- 
 fered with on account of the shortness of the breath, 
 and although it makes repeated efforts, it is unable to 
 satisfy its wants. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 211 
 
 The blood vessels of the neck stand out promi- 
 nently and throb preceptibly. In the earliest stage, 
 headache is quite constant ; older children complain of 
 it, while those too young to speak present exidence that 
 it exists. They often lie with eyes shut, "apparently 
 a half conscious state, and are fretful when spoken to or 
 aroused. ' ' 
 
 Fever is invariably present, and quite high, especi- 
 ally in the first stage. The tongue is moist, and 
 covered with slight coating. The bowels are almost 
 always constipated. The initial symptoms already de- 
 scribed are quite sufficient to occasion a mother alarm 
 when they appear in her child. Her duty is then clear; 
 she should send for a physician without delay. 
 
 How Avoided. — Children and grown people 
 should always take the following precautions. Teachers 
 and parents should regard it their duty to impress them 
 on the young : Avoid checking perspiration rapidly, or 
 slowly, by remaining still until the body is chilled. 
 Always have plenty of fresh cool air in your room. 
 Shut your mouth when you pass from a cold to hot, or 
 from a hot to a cold atmosphere. Asleep or awake, keep 
 the mouth shut when breathing. Keep the tempera- 
 ture of your rooms, churches, and school rooms rather 
 below than above sixty-five Fahrenheit. Keep the feet 
 warm and dry, — if damp change stockings at once. 
 Spend a few hours in the open air. Wear thick soled 
 shoes. Wear plenty of underclothing, especially 
 flannels next to the skin. 
 
212 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Never sleep with the head in the draft of an open 
 window. Never sit in a draft. Always throw a shawl 
 or an over- coat over the back when you feel cool. Never 
 stand still out of doors, especially at street corners, after 
 having walked even a short distance. If compelled to 
 face a bitter cold wind, throw a silk handkerchief over 
 the face. Never take off a single article of clothing when 
 overheated by exercise. Never sit for more than five 
 minutes at a time with the back towards the fire or stove. 
 Never ride in a vehicle after you have become warm by 
 walking. 
 
 Avoidable Causes. — A person sits up at night, the 
 fire goes down, he feels chilly, but being anxious to 
 finish a letter, or some work, continues and is chilled 
 through. He gets an attack of pneumonia from the ef- 
 fects of which he may never recover. He dies eventual- 
 ly of consumption, after protracted suffering. 
 
 A young lady remains at a ball till two in the 
 morning. She is overheated from the dance, goes out 
 into the cold air, perhaps rides home, has an attack of 
 pneumonia, and never experiences a day in her life any- 
 more that she feels well. 
 
 An audience is dismissed from a hot, crowded hall. 
 People rush out into the cold, raw, damp air, with mouths 
 wide open, and perhaps walk briskly against a cold wind. 
 In less than a fortnight several of them are sick and have 
 died of pneumonia. 
 
 Some one calls at a neighbor's house, and on leav- 
 ing is accompanied to the door by the kind lady of the 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 213 
 
 house. She stands there talking, and forgets herself, till 
 she feels thoroughly chilled. She goes back and dies of 
 pneumonia within a week. 
 
 Persons protect the chest by means of scarfs and 
 other articles of wear, but never think of throwing a 
 shawl over their shoulders, to protect the lungs, that 
 most delicate organ, fastened between the shoulders near 
 the back. The consequence is that they feel a chilling 
 sensation in the back, the lungs unprotected become in- 
 flamed, and pneumonia is the result. 
 
 Some families are keept in doors during cold weather. 
 
 The children are never allowed to have a breath of cold 
 
 air blow over them. They thus become feeble, easily 
 
 take cold, have cold all the time, and when they once 
 
 get out, have an attack of pneumonia. On the other 
 
 hand persons who camp out at night, even the tramps 
 
 who build a fire and sleep around it, seldom take cold. 
 
 Hence, be as much afraid of pneumonia, and take as 
 
 g^eat a precaution against it as you would against yellow 
 
 fever. 
 
 1 
 
214 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 The Pulse. 
 
 study the Pulse.— The pulse of a healthy grown 
 person beats 70 times in a minute ; there may be good 
 health down to sixty ; but if the pulse always exceeds 
 70, there is disease ; the machine is working too fast ; 
 is wearing itself out ; there is fever or inflammation 
 somewhere, and the body is feeding on itself, as in con- 
 sumption, where the pulse is always quick, that is, over 
 seventy, gradually increasing with decreasing chances 
 of cure, until it reaches no or 120, when death comes 
 before many days. When the pulse is all the time over 
 70 for months, and there is even a slight cough, the 
 lungs are affected. 
 
 Every intelligent person owes it to himself to learn 
 from his family physician how to ascertain the pulse in 
 health ; then, by comparing it with what it is when 
 ailing, he may have some idea of the urgency of his 
 own case, and it will be an important guide to the 
 physician. Parents ought to know the healthy pulse 
 of each child ; as, now and then, a person is born with 
 a peculiarly slow or fast pulse, and the very case in 
 hand may be that peculiarity. An infant's pulse is 
 130 ; a child's of seven years about 80 ; from 20 to 60 
 years, it is 70 beats a minute, declining to sixty, at 
 fourscore. 
 
 How the Pulse Feels. — There are pulses all over 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 215 
 
 Ihe body, but where there is only skin and bone, and at 
 the temples, it is more easily felt ; the wrist is the most 
 convenient point. The feebleness or strength of the 
 beats is not material, being modified by the finger's 
 pressure. Comparative rapidity is the great point ; near 
 death it is 140 and over. A healthy pulse imparts to 
 4?he finger a feeling as cf a woolen string ; in fever, it 
 feels harder, like a silk thread ; if there is inflammation 
 which is always dangerous, it beats fast, spiteful and 
 hard, as if a fine wire was throbbing against the finger. 
 When the pulse beats irregularly, as if it lost a beat, 
 then hurried to make it up, there is something the 
 matter with the heart. But, however unnatural you 
 may think the pulse is, do not worry about it, take 
 nothing, do nothing except by the advice of an intelli- 
 gent physician. 
 
216 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 
 
 f 
 
 Rheumatism. 
 
 Causes of Rheumatism. — The constant cool damp 
 weather is productive of rheumatic affections of various 
 kinds, in old and young. Care, great care must be ex- 
 ercised in keeping the body sufficiently warm and dry, 
 to avoid exposure, and never to go from home without 
 rubber over-shoes, and umbrellas, when the indications 
 even are for continued fair weather, to say nothing of 
 rainy damp days. 
 
 A garment wetted by perspiration or rain about a 
 joint, and allowed to dry, when a person is in a state of 
 rest, is the most common way of causing rheumatism. 
 The very moment a garment is wetted, change it, or 
 keep in motion sufficient to maintain a slight perspira- 
 tion till the clothing is perfectly dried. Flannel worn 
 next the skin, warmth and a light and cooling diet are 
 the great preventives and remedies. Many a case of con- 
 sumption has had its origin from sleeping in cold, camp 
 beds. Many cases of serious visceral disorders have 
 originated in this manner. Rheumatism quite common- 
 ly follows, and proves a lifelong source of suffering and 
 danger, and itself an early cause of death. Summer as 
 well as winter days are full of moisture, and at nights as 
 the temperature falls, the beds become veritable death 
 traps. From warm clothing and with bodies aglow 
 with a vigorous circulation, or bathed with perspiration 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 217 
 
 from active exercise, the cold, clammy bed and its damp 
 sheets enfold the form in deadly grip, and we wonder 
 why our children pale and sicken, when we look after 
 them perhaps in every other respect so carefully. 
 
 Be sure to take off all of the underclothing worn by 
 the child during the day upon going to bed. The night 
 flannel should be of lighter material than that in daily 
 use. Underclothing should be spread out upon chairs 
 or hung up for a good airing every night, and if possi- 
 ble, in some other than the bed-chamber. 
 
 There is nothing that so promptly cuts short con- 
 gestion of the lungs, sore throat or rheumatism as hot 
 water when applied promptly and thoroughly. 
 
 Rubbing: as a Treatment for Rheumatism. — 
 People w^ho rub their arms or legs for rheumatism should 
 remember that the secret of the benefit derived from 
 massage is that the operator always rubs up — that is in 
 the direction of the heart. The reason is found in the 
 fact that the valves of the veins and capillaries all open 
 towards the heart, and by rubbing in that direction the 
 action of these vessels is assisted, the vessels themselves 
 are enlarged, and circulation is more freely promoted. 
 Rubbing down — that is, away from the heart — does 
 harm, for it clogs the veins and capillaries by impeding 
 the circulation without in the least assisting the action 
 of the arteries, which lie too deep to be affected by ex- 
 ternal friction, even if it could do them any good. 
 
218 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Pains. 
 
 What Causes Pain ? — Pain is a blessing. It is 
 the great life preserver. It is nature's warning voice. 
 Your summer indiscretions might have destroyed your 
 life in frequent instances, had it not been for this silent 
 monitor. Pain is the result of pressure on or against a 
 nerve. Of this you can easily convince yourself, if you 
 have a hollow tooth, in which the nerve is exposed, and 
 any object is pressed on it. When any part of the body 
 receives extra pressure, by the blood vessels being ex- 
 tended, pain is felt, because the nerves are pressed on 
 by these blood vessels. This causes disquiet or pain. 
 This is called "inflammation." If a person eats too 
 much, or becomes constipated, or makes his blood im- 
 pure, so that it becomes thickened, or clogged in its 
 channels, the veins are distended and press on the 
 nerves, which causes dull pain, headache, etc. Rheu- 
 matism is one of the most painful afflictions to which 
 human flesh is heir. It is the result' of the body, or 
 certain parts of it, having been exposed or aflfected by 
 injury, over- work, etc., and consequently causing an 
 over pressure of blood or inflammation, a pressure on 
 the nerves, a toothache or headache converted into a. 
 bodyache. 
 
 Distinguish Between Kinds. — It would be a great 
 help to mothers, and would save not only much need- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 219 
 
 less anxiety, but also many a doctor's bill and some- 
 times even a life, if the distinction between a slight and 
 a serious ailment were more generally understood. 
 Overcaution and not undercaution is apt to be the pre- 
 vailing tendency. A child or young person complains 
 of severe pain in the chest and the mother at once 
 fancies it is pneumonia ; or, if the trouble is in the 
 bowels, peritonitis is the dreaded enemy, and so on. 
 * * Pain without fever, ' ' said a well-known physician, 
 **may be very severe and may cause much suffering, 
 but in acute attacks it is not dangerous. If you had 
 this amount of pain that you complain of," he said to 
 the patient who had hastily summoned him, ' ' in any 
 inflammatory disease, you would be in a raging fever ; 
 if you have no fever, you need never worry." Most 
 serious illnesses are preceded by a chill. This is a 
 symptom that should never be disregarded, and it is 
 always safe to put a child to bed and stop his food. 
 Warmth and dieting will be found to be the best remedy 
 for any ordinary indisposition, while for the beginning 
 of serious trouble it is often the only thing that can be 
 done until the disease declares itself. 
 
 How Pain is Cured. — By removing the cause. 
 If you have pain in the stomach, it is caused by an 
 extra pressure there, most likely by eating too much. 
 What is the remedy which nature suggests? Eat 
 nothing and rest. In all cases where there is pain the 
 alternative is to diminish the quantity of blood, either 
 at the point of ailment or in the body in general, A 
 
220 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 mustard-plaster applied near a painful spot, by with- 
 drawing the blood to itself, gives relief, opening a vein 
 will do the same, so will a purgative medicine, or a 
 * ' good sweat, ' ' or rubbing a part of the body. The 
 rubbing reddens the skin, that is it causes the blood to 
 flow toward and circulate in that part of the body which 
 is rubbed, and consequently, abstracts it from the pain 
 spot, where there is too much blood. 
 
 How to Avert Pain. — It is always better to avert 
 pain than to drive it away after it has been caused. 
 The ounce of prevention is better than the pound of 
 cure. If your shoe pinches and causes you pain, get a 
 pair of larger ones, and lay the tighter ones aside till 
 cooler weather comes on, when there will be less expan- 
 sion of the blood vessels, your feet will be smaller, and 
 then you can wear them again. If you have pain in 
 the stomach and gripings of the bowels, eat less, and 
 avoid stimulants. Use a lighter diet. Fruits, rice, 
 vegetables should be eaten more, meats and fatty sub- 
 stances less. Pepper, salt, spices, and condiments and 
 stimulants, in general, act like the rubbing of the body, 
 they cause extra friction, and hence pressure of the 
 blood vessels in certain parts of the body, resulting in 
 inflammation of those parts, therefore produce thirst, 
 pain, etc. They should be avoided in warm weather. 
 The bowels should be kept regular in their daily action. 
 One action a day is indispensable to bodily health, vigor 
 and endurance, and the avoidance of pain and summer 
 sickness. This action is promoted, when there is a 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 221 
 
 tendency to constipation, by stirring a table-spoonful of 
 com meal in a glass of water, and drinking it, on rising 
 in the morning. 
 
 School Hygiene. 
 
 Why Children Die Young. — ^While it is known to 
 sanitarians that nearly every child born into the world 
 can be reared to years of manhood or womanhood, yet 
 the fact is that in the nineteenth century, from one- 
 fourth to one-fifth of all the children born die before 
 reaching ten years of age. What a murder of innocents! 
 And in a Christian country! 
 
 But why this state of things? Mainly on account 
 of ignorance and indifference on the part of parents. 
 These unfortunate little ones, who received the blessing 
 of the Great Teacher, are born of parents who them- 
 selves, and their ancestors before them, have violated 
 nearly every law which governs their physical existence. 
 They come into homes where no welcome awaits them. 
 They are improperly fed, improperly dressed, without 
 proper attention as to sleep, fresh air or cleanliness. It 
 is not alone the children of the poor and ignorant who 
 suffer in these respects, but in a very large degree also 
 
222 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 the children of the well-to-do, whose mothers, from 
 improper and deficient education, as we believe, com- 
 mit their helpless ofispring to the tender mercies of 
 ignorant nurses, while they, the mothers, are active in 
 temperance, missionary, church, charitable, or society 
 duties. Shame, shame, that this is true, and yet it is. 
 As an illustration, I was told a few days ago of an edu- 
 cated woman, of a neighboring town, most active and 
 eflficient in temperance work, whose own boys are grow- 
 ing up in the streets while she devotes her time to others. 
 
 Schools Should Teach Hygiene. — But what has 
 this to do with school hygiene? This. To call the 
 attention of teachers to the great need of educating the 
 children, and parents, too, to the need of knowledge on 
 these subjects. Sanitary science is a matter of first im- 
 portance. It is not a branch, for which in school, '*we 
 have no time," as a principal told me a few years ago. 
 It is imperative. We owe it to every child to teach 
 him the plain errors of living which bring disease and 
 death. 
 
 But people are beginning to appreciate these things. 
 But a few days ago a matron of culture remarked in my 
 presence: *'It is no longer fashionable to have delicate 
 children about the home." The words show that the 
 teachings of sanitarians are beginning to bear fruit. 
 
 When in home and school the known principles of 
 sanitary science are intelligently applied, we may expect 
 a great diminution of sickness, suffering and premature 
 deaths, and a corresponding increase of longevity and 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 223 
 
 physical happiness. Contrary to the popular opinion, 
 studious habits, even hard study, are not injurious to 
 the general health. Rather, in well-regulated schools, 
 the average health of the students will be found to be 
 above that of those of the same age out of school. This 
 is true of both young men and women. The statement 
 applies to private schools where the whole time of the 
 pupils is controlled, rather than to public day schools. 
 
 Irregular habits, irregular eating and drinking, loss 
 of sleep, lack of physical exercise, overwork, excitement 
 are the causes of failure of physical power in students 
 as in other persons. 
 
 Pupils Need Good Food — I once remarked that 
 the young ladies of a female seminary made very little 
 progress in their studies, when the answer quickly came, 
 * 'what more could you expect, remembering what they 
 have to eat?" I suspect this evil is a general one in 
 homes and schools. Bread and coffee are not enough to 
 start the day upon if much work is to be done. 
 
 School children do not have enough sleep as a rule. 
 For children under twelve or thirteen years, ten hours 
 out of each twenty- four should be spent in sleep, and 
 all other students should have at least eight hours of 
 sound sleep each night. This is most important. 
 
 School hours are for young children entirely too 
 long. Not over three hours for children under thirteen, 
 and five hours for all others. 
 
 One of the modern innovations most to be con- 
 demned is the abolition of recess. A prominent teacher 
 
224 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 of a neighboring county in defending this movement 
 remarked that *'if factory children can do without a 
 recess, certainly school children can do without it." 
 
 Examination and Study Hours, 
 
 At this time the foundations of nervous diseases, 
 prostration of physical powers, injury to the eyesight, 
 that will necessitate wearing glasses, and a general break 
 down of the constitution are laid. 
 
 Long hours of study in close and crowded rooms 
 are not only permitted but encouraged. Girls between 
 the ages of twevle and sixteen should not be allowed to 
 study for more than five hours a day. But the general 
 rule is that the pupils reach school at eight in the morn- 
 ing, remain there till twelve, returning at one, and 
 leaving at four. The evening is then spent in prepar- 
 ing the lessons for the next day. This goes on from 
 Monday morning till Friday night. The tired girls 
 stoop and crouch over their books, and seek relief in 
 attitudes that would horrify the physiologist. The re- 
 sult is that shoulders grow out, spines incline to curve, 
 chests contract instead of expanding, and backs grow 
 round instead of flat and erect. Mothers are too much 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 225 
 
 inclined to neglect the physical training of their young 
 daughters, naturally enough rating intellectual acquire- 
 ments above bodily powers. They need reminding that 
 a healthy body, such as is produced by gentle, easy 
 modes of muscular training, is absolutely necessary to 
 the full development of the mental powers. But a small 
 minority of teachers comprehend the subtle relation be- 
 tween brain and muscle ; and not until this is the case 
 will education proceed as it ought to do, the physical 
 and the mental marching hand-in-hand, each perhaps 
 stopping a little now and then to wait for the other as 
 good comrades should. The girls should acquire an 
 easy carriage, erect and graceful, and be released during 
 class hours at least, from the pressure of the corset. 
 Girls should be taught to abandon this much meledicted 
 article of attire, and they will very jertainly emerge 
 from its thraldom with fine physique and a grace of gait 
 and contour, to which no mental or intellectual quality 
 will have been sacrificed. 
 
 Avoid Night Study. — Parents should see to it 
 that their girls are not driven too hard during their years 
 of development into womanhood. They should take 
 care that both boys and girls should not study too hard 
 at certain diurnal periods, for instance immediately be- 
 fore bedtime. It is well known that hard study imme- 
 diately before retiring to r^st will do much towards in- 
 juring the health and preventing sleep. Great mental 
 application, continued until too near the time of retir- 
 ing, or beyond the usual hour, keeps the blood within 
 the head at the time when it should leave it. 
 
226 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 If examinations and graduation mean, as is so often 
 tlie case, a sacrifice of health, strength, eyesight, the 
 sweet rest of the night, and a general break down, the 
 results of which are perceptible, if not throughout life, 
 at least for years, then the sooner they are abandoned 
 the better. 
 
 Normal School Health. — Normal school students, 
 as a rule, confine themselves too closely to their studies 
 and do not take sufficient exercise. The consequence 
 is that some of the most promising students break down 
 in health before they teach two years. They do not 
 sleep enough. Some allow themselves only six hours 
 sleep. Nobody can deprive himself of sleep with im- 
 punity. Young persons must have eight hours sleep. 
 Normal students frequently eat too rapidly. They 
 swallow their food without proper mastication, and even, 
 frequently without chew^ing it properly. They take up 
 too many studies, and experience by the end of the term 
 that they have gained a mere smattering of the 
 branches. I^et the rule be 7io7i miUta^ sed multa. 
 
 Plants in the Sleeping Room. 
 
 The prejudice prevails that plants in the sleeping 
 room are injurious because they are constantly throwing 
 off carbonic acid. Recent investigations have shown 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 227 
 
 that ill effects are altogether too slight to deserve con- 
 sideration. If a room is properly ventilated, plants can 
 do no harm, and even if it is not, the quantity of car- 
 bonic acid exhaled by them will not materially affect the 
 purity of the air. 
 
 Hints on Hygiene for Children. 
 
 To Parents or Guardians. — See to it that the 
 child goes to school in a proper condition. This means, 
 first of all, cleanliness all over. A child not washed all 
 over at least each week, with v/arm or cool water, is not 
 fit for school. Some will need a bath oftener. Child- 
 ren need to wash the face and hands, and to comb and 
 brush out the hair at night as well as morning. Let 
 the mouth be rinsed with water, morning and eve- 
 ning, or the teeth be brushed, so as to have a pure 
 breath. 
 
 Have clean, thin flannel for clothing, next to the 
 skin, with such additional outside garments as may be 
 necessary for warmth, and shoes and stockings that will 
 protect the feet from dampness. A dry pair of socks and 
 a clean handkerchief are not amiss in the satchel. I^et 
 no child start for school with damp clothing. When 
 active, we can bear dampness awhile, but to sit in wet 
 
228 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 clothing is always taking a risk. Tell the child, if 
 damp or chilly, to let the teacher know it. 
 
 A good, plain unhurried breakfast is always impor- 
 tant to the school child. The young are better off with- 
 out coffee or tea ; but some may need a warm drink for 
 breakfast in cold weather, such as sweetened water, 
 sugar and milk, and water or milk flavored with cocoa. 
 
 See that the child gets plenty of good sleep, in a 
 well-aired room, and does not go to bed just from the 
 book, so as to be tired and anxious about a lesson. 
 
 When the child is really unwell, do not send him 
 to school just for the name of being punctual. The pa- 
 rent should judge and decide wisely, mindful that head- 
 ache, pain or weariness in a child always requires rest. 
 If your child is sick, or if there is sickness in the family 
 have the judgment of your doctor as to the time of 
 staying at home. 
 
 To the Child. — You must learn how to take care 
 of your own health. Others may tell you, but exper- 
 ience and advice should early lead you to feel how im- 
 portant it is not to abuse the body. Help your parents 
 and teachers to keep you clean and neat. Be clean in 
 person, in thought, in word, in action. A child that 
 has clean feet, clean hands, clean nails, clean ears, and 
 combed hair, is generally clean and neat. 
 
 To get peevish or worried over a lesson is not 
 wholesome. Get, if need be, a part of your lesson 
 at home. The load is often too heavy, because we try 
 to carry too much of it at once, or in too short a time. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 229 
 
 In sitting, do not lean over too much or too con- 
 stantly. While standing, stand erect. Neither fold the 
 arms in front nor put them behind, but let them hang 
 naturally and easily at the side. In studying, try to have 
 enough light without a glare ; if light or print troubles 
 you, tell the teacher. If you are really unwell, let him 
 know it ; a headache that may not require you to go 
 home may be a reason for change of position, or rest from 
 study ; only be upright, and do not pretend. In all 
 things seek to take good care of your health, since your 
 happiness and usefulness so much depend upon it. 
 
 To the Teacher. — Children must not hang damp 
 or soiled over-clothing in a close, unaired room, against 
 other damp or wet garments. Each child's clothing 
 should be kept by itself 
 
 Walls often need whitewashing, kalsomining or 
 painting, and all wood-work should be frequently and 
 thoroughly washed. Sweeping carefully under the desks 
 and dusting are important. The condition of the rooms, 
 the distribution of desks according to size of persons, 
 light, variation in study and position, exercise, airing of ^ 
 rooms while empty, moderation of competition, assort- 
 ment of work to the capacity of the child, and quickness 
 to perceive the occasion for temporary variations and 
 adjustments, are essential in the skilled oversight of the 
 teacher ; he must feel that he has this charge to keep. 
 
 School Room Hygiene. — The great importance of 
 keeping the school room and the family sitting room suf- 
 ficiently warm and dry, can not be dwelt upon too often 
 
230 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 or too long. A tliermometer should be suspended on the 
 wall, not higher than three feet above the floor. A 
 thermometer suspended near the ceiling may indicate a 
 temperature of 68, while near the floor, owing to cold 
 drafts and the rising of warm air, the temperature may 
 be under 60. This is entirely too low to sit still by six 
 hours, or even one. The temperature should not fall 
 below 60 at the floor, which presupposes about 70 at our 
 heads when standing. The school room and the family 
 sitting room should have this temperature in the morning, 
 and not a freezing ice-house temperature at 9 o'clock, 
 and a torrid zone at 11, and then, perhaps, again a de- 
 crease toward evening. Colds will certainly be caught 
 where such changes occur. A warm room presupposes 
 a dry one, though not always. The room should be dry, 
 and the children's clothing in damp, slushy weather 
 particularly so. If they come to school with damp 
 clothes, and wet feet, lose no moment in getting them 
 dry. There should be a shed, or roof of some kind, 
 under which the children can play in damp weather. 
 
 I/ight. — Get a piece of sensitized paper from a pho- 
 tographer. Hold it in the light, and see how soon it 
 turns dark. The sunlight has a similar effect on the 
 human body, wherever it is exposed. A dark brown 
 color is much sought after by city people, and, hence, 
 they resort to the country and the seashore, and are proud 
 to return with browned faces and hands. Clerks employed 
 in factories, and other persons, who spend most of the 
 time in the house, soon turn, like potato vines in the 
 
CO HON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 281 
 
 cellar, pale, emaciated and sickly. School children do 
 the same, when the sunlight is but imperfectly admitted 
 into the house. So do older people if they live in houses 
 from which the sun's rays are excluded, by blinds, cur- 
 tains and shutters. In other words if they remain long 
 in dark rooms. Such a state of affairs should be avoided, 
 and God's sunlight given free access to our apartments. 
 What a wonderful influence, yea, healing power the sun- 
 light has when allowed to fall on us and our children, as 
 God designs that it should, and as he has made it to do, 
 if we do not interpose obstacles and thus interfere with 
 his plans. Open shutter and blinds and roll up the cur- 
 tains, so that the light can fall on you and yours. It 
 will pay you in the health which 3^ou receive thereby. 
 We must, of course, avoid the other extreme, and not 
 injure our eyesight by facing the sun, sitting with our 
 faces turned tov/ard the brilliant sunlight, as it pierces 
 through the windows. School desks should always be 
 placed so that the light falls on the backs of the pupils, 
 and that they sit facing a blank wall. 
 
 Fresh Air. — Get a plentiful supply of this all im- 
 portant agent. Remember, you inhale enough air, if 
 you are alone in an ordinary room, to contaminate what- 
 ever air there is in the room, in less than thirty minutes, 
 if there is no provision made for a fresh supply. In a 
 school room, .where from 20 to 30 children are assembled, 
 the air becomes surcharged v/ith poisonous carbonic acid 
 gas, in a few minutes. ' This can be proved by a simple 
 Experimeiit. Place a lighted candle in a deep jar and 
 
233 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 breathe into it. In a few moments the flame expires. 
 Such air is unfit, dangerous to inhale. Throw doors 
 and windows wide open occasionally, to admit a plentiful 
 supply of fresh air. But especially have arrangements 
 provided for ventilating your school room, sitting room, 
 bed room, etc. 
 
 See that your school room is kept sweet and clean 
 with plenty of fresh air. Keep the supply of oxygen 
 abundant. It will help your pupils' brain work vastly. 
 2,000 cubic feet of fresh air are required every hour for 
 each pupil for proper ventilation. See that they have it. 
 
 At every expiration about 200 cu. c. m. of air is ex- 
 pelled, over 4 per cent, of which is carbonic dioxide 
 which is unfit to breathe. Do not allow your pupils to 
 sit in the room for hours with no Iresh air, breathing 
 the foul exhalations from twenty lungs. 
 
 School Ventilation Very Poor. — Do we wonder 
 that children grow restless or languid, complain of head- 
 aches and backaches and dullness when they are impri- 
 soned in rooms whose atmospheric condition would not 
 compare unfavorably with the Black Hole of Calcutta? 
 If your school house is not ventilated with modern ap- 
 paratus, and if it is, it is most likely good for nothing 
 — d'jvise a plan yourself ; at all events give the matter 
 your attention. 
 
 Dr. R. Harvey Reed, in a paper read at a society 
 meeting in Denver recently, bore heavily upon the ter- 
 rible fault of insufficient ventilation in schools. He said 
 that from the moment they are born until they draw the 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 233 
 
 shroud around them for their last sleep the great army 
 of people who live indoors are breathing impure air. 
 They send their children to school where they breathe 
 and rebreathe the air over and over again. Nay more, 
 the putrid breath of the syphilitic and tuberculous child 
 is inhaled by the child with rosy cheeks and a sound 
 constitution from the beginning to the end of the school 
 year. You would scorn the idea of having but one hand- 
 kerchief, tooth brush or toothpick for each school room, 
 and having your children all compelled to use them daily 
 in common with the rest of the scholars, but you sit with 
 folded hands and peaceful conscience while your children 
 violate sanitary laws a thousand times worse by the in- 
 halation of millions of cubic feet of foul and even putrid 
 air from their diseased classmates or daily associates each 
 school year. 
 
 How to remedy the matter is, however a most im- 
 portant question. The lowering or raising of windows 
 is the most convenient and generally resorted to plan. 
 The remedy, however, is often worse than the disease. 
 Colds, resulting in serious diseases, and even in death, 
 may be contracted in consequence. A draught of cold 
 air, descending on the head or back is more injurious 
 than even the foulest air, 
 
 Windows should never be lowered or raised so as to 
 admit cold air on a person. If a current of air can be 
 forced through a portion of a room, where it does not 
 strike the inmates, or if a current can be made to pass 
 around, from the top to the bottom of the window, by 
 
234 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 lowering the upper and raising the lower sash, so that 
 no one is struck by this current, a room may be partially 
 ventilated in this way. 
 
 Opening doors and windows at recess, when no one 
 is in the room, will answer the purpose of ventilation for 
 a short time, and furnish at least a temporary supply of 
 fresh air. 
 
 An Excellent Method. — The following method 
 of ventilation has frequently been published, in books 
 and school journals. It is a very excellent one. 
 
 Open a hole under the stove, and be certain that it 
 communicates with pure air out of doors. A tight wooden 
 box, about six inches square, can open directly under 
 the stove, and halfway to the eaves outside. The ends 
 should be closed by sliding doors. At the opening of 
 school both ends of this duct should be closed, but as the 
 room becomes heated, and foul air accumulates, open 
 doors enough to admit a sufficient quantity of fresh air. 
 With this arrangement no window should be opened ex- 
 cept in case of smoke or dust. 
 
 To Get Foul Air Out of the School Room.— - 
 Open a door in the ceiling, and be certain that it com- 
 municates with pure air. If the ceiling is directly under 
 the roof, it will be sufficient to let the heated air escape 
 into the space under the shingles, but if another room 
 is above, care must be taken to be certain that the door 
 communicates with out-doors. This is essential, or open- 
 ing the door will be of no account. Several small open- 
 ings in diffisrent parts of the ceiling, closed by sliding 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 235 
 
 doors, are better than large ones. How large these open- 
 ings in the ceiling are made, depends upon the difference 
 of temperature between in-doors and out-doors. 
 
 The foul air in a heated room is near the ceiling. 
 
 The foul air in a cold room is near the floor. 
 
 Hot air is not necessarily foul air. 
 
 Spring Health Notes. 
 
 At this season, when warm weather comes on, a 
 person is apt to feel languid and drowsy after dinner. 
 Do not let your laziness overpower you. Shake off the 
 giant from your shoulders by keeping active. Don' t eat 
 much salad. It is one of the poppy plants and contains 
 opium, which makes you stupid. If you want to sleep 
 well at night, avoid sleeping a moment during daylight. 
 
 Don't Diminisli the Clothing too Soon. — Serious 
 and even fatal sickness is often caused by a change of 
 clothing, — not, indeed, by putting on more or warmer 
 clothing, but by diminishing it inconsiderately. It is 
 very unsafe to lessen the amount of clothing sooner than 
 the first of May, though some of our readers, and many 
 other persons will be foolhardy enough again this year, 
 as often before, to do so in April. It should be borne in 
 
236 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 mind, and especially impressed on children, that such a 
 thing as changing even from a heavier to a lighter 
 quality of clothing, when the first pleasant days of spring 
 come on, is very imprudent. At no season are overshoes 
 so important as just at this. In Winter, when the ground 
 is frozen, or even when the earth is covered with snow, 
 rubbers are not as necessary, as in the slush and mud of 
 April. 
 
 Wear Woolen Clothing. — ^When a change of cloth- 
 ing is made, it should be only, however, to lighter 
 material, from yarn socks to worsted; from a thick, knit- 
 ted flannel shirt to one of common woolen flannel. Woolen 
 flannels next the skin should be the rule all the year 
 round. Silk shirts next the skin, with their electric in- 
 fluences, are a humbug. 
 
 Woolens keep the natural heat about the body, be- 
 cause wool is a poor conductor of heat. It is, therefore^ 
 best to v/ear woolens next the skin in cool weather. Wool 
 absorbs the moisture of perspiration very rapidly, and 
 keeps the skin measurably dry. It is, therefore, best to 
 wear woolens next the skin in warm weather. Hence, 
 woolens should be worn all the year. In the night, espe- 
 cially when there is a debilitated condition of the system, 
 a woolen flannel night dress should be worn, to prevent 
 that sepulchral dampness and chilliness which annoys 
 many persons. 
 
 The warm under-flannel is too often left off" or is re- 
 placed by a cotton garment, and the overcoat or woolen 
 shawl or wrap is thrown aside. Suddenly there comes a 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 237 
 
 rapid fall in the temperature and a biting east wind. The 
 penalty is the infliction of recurrent disease in those who 
 have been recovering from winter illness, and the prostra- 
 tion of many who throughout the winter have held on 
 free of all disease, other than that sense of a deficient 
 vital power which the long treat of winter cold inflicts 
 even on the most robust. 
 
 Do not be a fool and take off your under-clothes 
 when the first few warm Spring days come. 
 
 More injury results to health, in the Spring of the 
 year, from this practice than from all others combined. 
 In a changeable climate like ours it is not safe to discard 
 flannels till June, nor to go away from home without an 
 overcoat. Many of the Texas people wear flannels the 
 whole year. The British soldiers in India are required 
 to wear flannel all the year. Many of the colds and other 
 diseases of Spring can be warded off by wearing flannels 
 next the skin. Children should not be allowed to dis- 
 pense with stockings, nor to go barefoot before the raw, 
 damp weather of Spring is entirely over. It is a mistake 
 to suppose that children can be hardened by baring their 
 skin. They may be sickened and killed, but not made 
 healthy in this way. 
 
 Chang-es Should be Made in the Morning.— 
 If you change your clothing, from thick to thinner, or 
 by laying off the underclothes at this season, do it in the 
 morning. If you make the change after dinner, the 
 cool and dampness of the evening will soon overtake you, 
 a chilliness will run oyer you, you have taken cold, and 
 
238 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 it will settle in your eyes, cause your nose to run, create 
 a tickling in the throat, and produce pleurisy, pneu- 
 monia, bronchitis, or diarrhea which may cause your 
 death in a few days. 
 
 Teachers and parents can not place too much stress 
 upon the necessity of children wearing their heavier flan- 
 nels and clothes, until constant warm weather has set in, 
 even then not to be too hasty in making a change, from 
 heavier to lighter. 
 
 Exercise in the Spring. — That is the weather 
 that causes us to neglect out-door exercise. But it 
 should not. Promptly at three o'clock the notary goes 
 to the bank, through sleet and storm, and howling 
 winds, and the thermometer 20 below zero, and writes 
 ** protested" on all notes, which have not been met. 
 The weather is no excuse to him, nor to the bank ; even 
 death is no apology for the failure to meet a bank en- 
 gagement. Business is business, rain or shine. 
 
 Bxercise is highly necessary, and, yet in the way it 
 is frequently taken is the sheerest nonsense. Students, 
 clerks, persons of sedentary habits and employments 
 know that exersise is essential to their health. Con- 
 vinced of this and feeling dullness and lassitude, induced 
 in the system by the sudden warm weather of spring, 
 the thermometer up in the nineties, they go about exer- 
 cising with a spasmodic desperation, as if they expected 
 to take enough in an hour to last them a week or a month. 
 They rush out with a rake, axe, spade, hoe, or some 
 other article, as if they were going to take everything 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 239 
 
 by storm. In an hour or two their strength is exhaus- 
 ted, they feel as '"''weak as a cat^^'' as ''^limber as a dish 
 toweV The whole body is "in a stew," the clothes 
 soaked with perspiration, they are weary, worn out, 
 overheated, and make for the house. Hat, coat or 
 shawl are flung aside, down they go on the sofa to cool, 
 off. They fall asleep, or take an early supper and go to 
 bed. They wake up haggard, sickish, "stiff as an old 
 horse," sore in the joint, limb and muscle. They feel 
 more dead than alive for days ; exercise does not agree 
 with them, and no wonder. All this, because they did 
 not use any common sense in what they did. Nonsense. 
 Exercise must be Moderate and of short dura- 
 tion at first, increasing from day to day. The moment 
 you stop exercising put on extra garments, sit down by 
 a fire and wait fifteen minutes, before you take off your 
 hat or extra garments, then wash your face and hands 
 in tepid water, eat a light supper, and retire to bed at 
 the usual hour. You will enjoy a sound sleep, have a 
 keen appetite in the morning, never felt better in your 
 life, your common sense exercise has given you a fresh- 
 ness and vigor that is surprising. 
 
 If you take a walk for exercise, do not ' ' rush like 
 a fool " as if you were running for a wager, your 
 thoughts all the time on your studies and employments. 
 Lay aside and forget all these, take a fevv^ pleasant com- 
 panions with you, have a rollicking time, jump Jim 
 Crow, sing, ' ' cut up all kinds of monkey shines, ' ' and 
 you will be surprised at the results. 
 
240 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Never, when in perspiration, permit the clothing to 
 dry on you. If you are caught in a shower and drenched 
 do not permit the clothing to dry on you. The process 
 of drying wet or damp clothing requires so much heat 
 from the body, that deprived of this heat, it will cool 
 down below the proper temperature. You will be 
 chilled, take a cold, become a sufferer, a consumptive, 
 and may die in consequence. Always keep in active 
 motion, exercise vigorously till your clothes are perfectly 
 dry, or hurr' home and change your wet clothes at 
 once. 
 
 Springf Diet. — Banish meat and grease from your 
 breakfast and supper tables. At dinner eat lean meat 
 only, if any. Use eggs, celery, spinach, hominy, and 
 stewed fruit, something that contains acid. Canned 
 goods are very cheap and very wholesome, especially 
 tomatoes. Keep the body clean. Spend as much time 
 as possible out of doors snuffing in spring air. Have a 
 good fire to come and sit by, with all your garments on, 
 for eight or ten minutes after all forms of exercise, 
 otherwise your exercise will do you more harm than 
 good. 
 
 Surroundings of Buildings and Premises. — 
 Warmth develops and sets free noxious gases from the 
 surface of the earth. Poisonous effluvia are set free, in 
 the vicinity of buildings and from damp cellars, which 
 form the fruitful source of dire and deadly diseases. 
 Scarlet fever, diphtheria, malarial fevers, smallpox and 
 other maladies are bred in this way. Cold weather may 
 
COMBION SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 241 
 
 whitewash miasm, but does not destroy it. As the 
 snow melts and ice and frost come out of the ground, 
 miasm is warmed into life. The refuse matter that has 
 been thrown about buildings, greasy water poured out, 
 decaying animal and vegetable matter, lying about the 
 house or filling the cellar, in the shape of half-rotten 
 potatoes, apples, turnips and whatever of this sort has 
 been stored away for winter use, now begin to emit an 
 unpleasant odor, warning the occupants of the house of 
 danger. More frequently, however, the poison is so 
 attenuated that it produces no perceptible odor, and is 
 thus but the source of greater mischief. Imperceptibly 
 but surely the dangerous and deadly work goes on, and 
 many a precious life is offered as a sacrifice, while others, 
 amid great suffering, are brought to death's door, and 
 only escape from death to endure that which is perhaps 
 worse than death, a life of suffering and misery, wrecked 
 physically and mentally. 
 
 Should be Cleaned from Cellar to Attic— 
 How important and necessary that at this season, build- 
 ings should be cleaned from cellar to attic, that the sur- 
 roundings of houses, school-houses and out-buildings 
 should be made and kept scrupulously clean and sweet ! 
 The cellars should be emptied of all decaying substances, 
 v/ashed and fumigated. K\\ refuse matter should be 
 removed from yards and the immediate neighborhood of 
 the buildings. Sinks and privies should be cleaned. 
 Chloride of lime should' be scattered several times a 
 week around the house and in the cellar, as long as 
 
242 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 -damp weather continues. One pound of copperas dis- 
 solved in two gallons of water should be kept at hand, 
 and the liquid poured by the tin-cup full, every few days 
 into water closets and sinks. Thus, will poisonous gases 
 be neutralized and set free, and prevented from breeding 
 diseases and death. 
 
 Teacher, parent, everybody, as you value your and 
 your children's life and health, attend to this matter. 
 It may require a little attention and labor, but it will 
 pay you, this wet damp spring, a hundred-fold, if you 
 do so. 
 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. ^43 
 
 A Strange Fever. 
 
 spring Fever and Common Sense.— It is neither 
 typhoid nor bilious fever nor yet the grip. It is the 
 fever that attacks the boy, and causes him to skip school, 
 or shirk work. Sometimes older people are affected by 
 it also. It is the fever that inclines people to throw 
 aside underwear and heavier clothing, and, after some 
 exertion, to sit down on the ground and ^' catch cold.'* 
 
 The only cure for it is strong will power, determi- 
 nation to stick to school and work, and feel the better 
 afterwards for having done our duty. Keep on wearing 
 your flannels, or, if you must do so, change for lighter 
 ones, but do not allow yourself to become fool enough 
 to throw aside all underwear, and then, in a few days, 
 when a cooler wave strikes us to be caught by a heavy 
 cold. 
 
 Nellie Burns makes the following sensible remarks, 
 on another kind of Spring Fever, in the Plowmait. It 
 contains much good common sense : 
 
 Another kind of Spring Fever. — When a house- 
 keeper finds herself so overburdened with hard work, 
 her first step would be to subdue her energy. Some- 
 times one will do very imprudent things at such a time 
 through an excess of energy and ambition. For in- 
 stance, a housekeeper fired with enthusiasm over her 
 house-cleaning, will commence her work on a most 
 
244 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 elaborate scale. The house is torn up all through. 
 Every room is thrown into a disagreeable confusion, and 
 in order to get the house restored to a living condition 
 as soon as possible, she is compelled to work far beyond 
 her strength. By the time she gets through her strength 
 is gone, her patience is gone, her good humor is gone, 
 her nerves are unstrung ; and a wife and mother in such 
 a condition is not one of nature's most attractive objects, 
 you know. 
 
 It is a much wiser plan for the housekeeper to 
 moderate her ambition to accord with her physical pow- 
 ers, even though she is much longer in accomplishing 
 her task. In house-cleaning it is a good method to 
 clean only one room at a time. The house-keeper 
 should then rest for a day or two, engaging herself in 
 light work only, then another room can be undertaken. 
 In this way she is not overv/orked, the home is not 
 thrown in disorder, the husband and children are spared 
 the painful sight and sound of an over- tired, nervous, 
 irritable wife and mother. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 245 
 
 Sleep. 
 
 Sleep the Best Medicine. — ^'Nature's sweet res- 
 torer, balmy sleep. " "If he sleepeth he doeth well.'' 
 Numerous passages like these can be quoted, both from 
 inspired and uninspired writings, on the importance of 
 good, sound sleep. 
 
 Eight hours of healthful sleep, each night, are ne- 
 cessary for all ordinary mortals. A few exceptional 
 cases, such as that of Alexander Von Humboldt, may be 
 quoted, where individuals slept only four hours, and lived 
 to the age of ninety. Hundreds of examples of men, 
 great and useful as Humboldt, can be adduced, who tried 
 to cheat nature out of its required rest, reducing their 
 hours for sleep to the minimum, and, thereby, un- 
 questionably shortened their lives by many years. Sleep 
 is the best medicine, the surest restorative, worth more 
 than all the nostrums, specifics, and curatives, allopathic 
 and homeopathic. ^ 
 
 ]^arly Rising is positively injurious to health, un- 
 less it is preceded by early retiring. Retire at nine and 
 rise at five, or retire at ten and rise at six. This gives 
 nature enough for sleep, provided not more than half an 
 hour is lost in falling asleep, otherwise make the time 
 for rising half an hour later. 
 
 Let us not be misunderstood, we do not find fault 
 with early rising. It is heartily recommended, especially 
 
246 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 at the season, when the sun rises before five. O, what 
 a grand spectacle to go out into the great temple of nature, 
 and hear the concert of the birds, as they warble their 
 sweet notes, in praise of the great Creator ! But early 
 rising must be preceded by early retiring, or it is a crime 
 against the body. 
 
 Never rise immediately on wakening. It is too 
 severe a strain on the system. Never force or drag a 
 child out of bed, the moment he is awakened. Never 
 rouse him out of a sound sleep, the nervous system may 
 be wrecked for life thereby. 
 
 Always ease your nerves by pleasant reading or 
 conversation before retiring, so that you may fall 
 asleep as soon as you reach the bed. Don't sleep 
 under heavy cover. It will interfere with the circulation 
 of your blood, and cause you unpleasant dreams. Two 
 comfortables, or a comfortable and a blanket are entirely 
 sufficient. If not warm enough under these place a few 
 newspapers pasted together at the edges between them. 
 Always have plenty of fresh air in your bed room. Even 
 in the coldest weather the sash of a window may be low- 
 ered a few inches, to admit fresh air. The temperature 
 of the bed room should not be above 65 degrees. 
 
 No Sleep Bring-s Death in nineteen days. Crazy 
 people can not sleep. A thin yankee, so keen for money 
 making, that his eye penetrates you, goes to bed at mid- 
 night, and is ready to drive a sharp bargain, by five in 
 the morning. He will be dried up, shriveled like a mum- 
 my, the skin clinging to his bones, by the time he is 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 247 
 
 forty. He evaporates before he is aware of it. A fat, 
 lazy, beer drinking Dutchman, who never was fairly 
 awake yet, since his birth, and is as brown as a ham, 
 smoking his long-stemmed tobacco pipe, lives to see the 
 third and the fourth generation. 
 
 One of the very best men of this century, while at 
 college, retired at midnight and arose at six. He should 
 have had at least eight hours sound sleep, in every twency- 
 four. When he should have been in his best days, he 
 was misanthropic, crabbed, spleenic, morose, silly, chur- 
 lish and sinfully despondent. He said so himself. He 
 did not reach threescore years. 
 
 Insufficient sleep, every physician will tell you, lays 
 the foundation to premature death. Every one knows 
 what disagreeable feelings a single sleepless night will 
 produce. 
 
 The Young Man in the plenitude of his youthful 
 power is apt to disregard the necessity for the rest that 
 nature demands. Released perhaps but recently from 
 the supervision of prudent parents, he glories in disdain- 
 ing the oft-repeated precept of "early to bed," declares 
 that time was made for slaves, and that he "wont go 
 home till morning." Such young men make a declara- 
 tion of independence, but a sorry show of wisdom. How- 
 ever robust of constitution, the young man who abridges 
 the hours of rest that nature demands will find that he 
 cannot trespass upon her laws with impunity; that he has 
 encouraged a habit of sleeplessness which he cannot throw 
 of as middle life approaches; that the natural growth and 
 
248 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 nutrition of the body is interfered with; and that neither 
 the pleasure nor the work of the day is entered into with 
 customary zest and energy. 
 
 The Man Wlio Puts in 20 Hours. — The business 
 man, the literary, or the professional man in the pursuit 
 of fame or fortune, endowed with good health and spurred 
 on by ambition, is jealous of time not spent in effecting 
 his special aim, and neglects to give to sleep and restora- 
 tion their proper dues. For some time, perhaps, he boast-, 
 fully congratulates himself on his ability to disdain na- 
 ture's laws with impunity, but his delusion is short-lived; 
 such a man, soon finds that his capacity for work is 
 limited, his thoughts are not so ready at hand, his per- 
 ceptions are blurred, his judgment less shrewd; and most 
 fortunate is he if, when he finds he is in desperate need 
 of sleep, he can successfully woo her. 
 
 Take Plenty of Nature* s Sweet Restorer.— 
 There are many persons in the world to-day who are un- 
 availingly taking medicine for that relief which they fail 
 to secure, when all they want is 7nore sleep. We were 
 recently consulted about a bright and active young busi- 
 ness man who, after a full day of business, would spend 
 the evening until midnight in temperate social pleasures, 
 then two hours would be passed with the latest new book, 
 none of which ever missed, while he is always up and 
 dressed by 7 a. va. Gradually he is growing thin and 
 thinner, and, while not really sick, it is noted by friends 
 that his appetite and relish for food are gradually grow- 
 ing less, day by day. This 3'oung man is on the ^^CoU" 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 249 
 
 sumption Turnpike^^^ and no medicine will halt his 
 course ; what he wants, and what all like him require, 
 is more sleep. We can take it, as a rule, that anyone 
 who habitually sits up until after midnight, getting up 
 early in the morning, is killing himself; we mean what 
 we say. Take plenty of sleep. 
 
 One of the greatest teachers of the land advised his 
 students, always to carry a book in the pocket, and to 
 take it out and read it, while waiting for an appointment 
 or for sitting down to a dinner. He believed in his 
 theor}^, put it in practice, died early, — and demented. 
 The brain must have rest. 
 
 Words of Our Savior. — Our Lord and Savior said 
 of Lazarus, ''if he sleepeth he doeth well." There is no 
 better medicine for a sick person than sleep, and to a well 
 person sleep is the greatest preventive of sickness. Stu- 
 dents, women and nervous persons need all the sleep they 
 can possibly get ; so do the melancholy and those who 
 are in trouble. If those who go to church to sleep during 
 serv^ices, would take more sleep of a Sunday morning, or, 
 better still, retire earlier on Saturday night, they would 
 be able to keep wide awake under the sermon. 
 
 Children and Sleep. — Require your children to be 
 in bed by the time the clock strikes nine, summer and 
 winter, except on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, 
 and occasionally at other times, in case of parties, wed- 
 dings, and the like, for amusements and diversions are 
 essential to the well-being of children ; besides, it is not 
 well to bring them up to inflexible rules, as if they were 
 
250 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES 
 
 machines, or to bring them under the tyranny of Medo- 
 Persian laws, which admit of no repeal or change. This 
 early retiring will do much toward preventing the early 
 ruin of the e3'es, by artificial light, and will also secure 
 that liberally abundant sleep and rest to the brain, es- 
 sential to bodily health and mental integrity. It is an 
 undeniable and often-observed fact, that a failure to get 
 abundant sleep lays many a promising child in an early 
 grave, by inflammation of the brain. Too little exercise 
 and too continuous study do the same thing ; and when 
 lack of sleep, lack of exercise, lack of out-door, are com- 
 bined with insufferable drillings at school, and impossible 
 lessons at home, wx can not wonder at the multitude of 
 deaths of children from convulsions, nervous and brain 
 diseases, from debility and wasting away. Let it be re- 
 membered that the more sleep a child can get during the 
 night-time, the more quickly and readily and easily will 
 all the studies be comprehended ; and to this end, if the 
 child is put to bed at a regular, early hour, the rule should 
 be imperative that it should never be waked up in the 
 morning. Nature will always do that with unerring cer- 
 tainty, just as soon as sufficient sleep has been had to 
 repair the wastes of the preceding day, and provide a 
 stock of strength to be drawn upon for the day to come. 
 This is a beautiful law of our nature, and ought not to 
 be contravened, for it can never be interfered with, with 
 impunity, especially as to the young. 
 
 Children should not be permitted to cover the head 
 with bedclothes ; such a habit is harmful and results in 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 251 
 
 "unrefreshing sleep, since they are thus deprived of pure 
 air, and rebreathe that already laden with the carbonic 
 acid of their own exhalations. The child from earliest 
 infancy should sleep alone. Nothing is more subversive 
 of good habits in sleeping and nursing than for the infant 
 to occupy the same bed with the mother ; the custom so 
 often followed invariably results in restless, unrefreshing 
 nights to both. The child is easily influenced by habit, 
 and the judicious mother, with a slight hardening of her 
 own heart for a few nights, can readily teach her little 
 one to expect to be put in the crib and to go to sleep 
 without such unnecessary aid as rocking or singing. 
 Much harm has been done by giving to wakeful infants 
 laudanum or morphine under the specious name of ' 'sooth- 
 ing syrups. ' ' A well child is not fretful at night, and 
 if sick it needs other treatment. 
 
 Children Should Not Sleep With Older Persons. 
 — A habit which is considerably prevalent m almost 
 every family of allowing children to sleep with older 
 persons, has ruined the nervous vivacity and physical 
 energy of many a promising child. Every parent who 
 loves his child, and wishes to preserve to him a sound 
 nervous system, with which to buffet successfully the 
 cares, sorrows, and labors of life, must see to it that his 
 nervous vitality is not absorbed by some diseased or aged 
 relative. 
 
 Children, compared with adults, are electrically in 
 a positive condition. The rapid changes which are go- 
 ing on in their little^bodies, abundantly generate and 
 
252 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 as extensively work up vital nervo-electric fluids. But 
 when, by contact for long nights with elder and negative 
 persons, the vitalizing electricity of their tender organi- 
 zations is absorbed, they soon pine, grow pale, languid, 
 and dull, while their bed companions feel a correspond- 
 ing invigoration. 
 
 Examples. — It was sought in the olden time to 
 invigorate King David, the psalmist, by causing a 
 young and vigorous and healthy person to sleep with 
 him. Although it failed of the desired effect, it proved 
 that there was a popular impression that healthy influ- 
 ences were absorbed by one party. Be that as it may, it 
 is undeniable that healthy influences are lost, and to a 
 fatal extent sometimes. 
 
 A woman was prostrated with incurable consump- 
 tion. Her infant occupied the same bed with her almost 
 constantly day and night. The mother lingered for 
 months on the verge of the grave — her demise being 
 hourly expected. Still she lingered on disproving the 
 predictions of her medical attendants. The child, mean- 
 while, pined without any apparent disease. Its once fat 
 little cheeks fell away with singular rapidity till every 
 bone it its face was visible. Finally it had imparted to 
 the mother its last spark of vitality, and simultaneously 
 both died. 
 
 Sleeping Rooms Must be Ventilated. — Perhaps 
 the case is that of a young man or woman. An eight 
 by ten bed room, with every door, and window, and 
 avenue for the access of fresh air closed, is the sleeping 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 253 
 
 room. Sleep to this individual is not "kind nature's 
 sweet restorer. ' ' The night is miserably spent in tossing 
 from side to side awaking from unpleasant dreams, 
 with headache and nausea every hour of the night, and 
 yet with too much of a sleepy sensation to get up even 
 in the morning, when the sun is already in the heavens. 
 The parents call "Hallo ! John, get up! Sallie, 
 get the breakfast ! These are answered by a drawling, 
 drowsy, "yes! yes! I'm coming," and then a turn in 
 the bed, sleep again overtakes the person, and soon he 
 is gone to the land of Nod. Again in a few more 
 minutes the call is repeated, ' 'Why don' t you get up ?' ' 
 and again answered the same as before. At last, after 
 a desperate effort he rises but oh ! how he feels ; he 
 never felt more sleepy, the bed never felt better, and he 
 less for rising. Why is this ? After six or eight hours 
 sleep, and with the morning sun shining in at the bed 
 room window — everything propitious for rising, why, 
 oh ! why this worst of all feelings, and no refreshing 
 sleep enjoyed ? This sensation is experienced by thous- 
 ands. What is it ? It is death that has a hold of the 
 individual. Nothing more certain. He is half dead 
 already, almost asphyxiated by that poisonous substance 
 carbonic acid gas. If a person experienced this sensa- 
 tion from an overdose of laudanum, or from going down 
 into an old well, how every one would hurry to have 
 something done for his restoration ! But here is an 
 instance of just as certain death, though the process may 
 be somewhat slower, and yet it is none the less sure 
 
254 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 of producing the same terrible consequences, and yet 
 no one takes notice of it. Yes, death is even hugged 
 and invited by the unhappy victim. 
 
 About one pint of air is inhaled at a breath. A 
 person breathes about r8 times a minute during sleep, 
 or two and a quarter hogsheads in an hour, or i8 hogs- 
 heads in a night. Every particle of air is used up in a 
 room where there is no ventilation, in eight hours, and 
 the air becomes so vitiated, that it is no longer fit for 
 breathing in an hour or two. Hence the great import- 
 ance of ventilation if refreshing sleep is to be enjoyed. 
 
 The bed chamber should be on the second or third 
 floor, and its windows should face the east or south, so 
 as to have the drying and purifying influences of sun- 
 light. There should be no curtains to the bed or win- 
 dows, nor garments hanging on the wall. 
 
 Cautions. — Have no heavy covering on the body, 
 but cover the feet and lower extremities abundantly, so 
 that the blood is withdrawn from the head and dreaming 
 prevented. 
 
 Never go to bed with cold or damp feet. Retire at 
 a regular hour, not later than ten, and rise as soon as 
 you wake in the morning. 
 
 Franklin's remedy for restlessness at night was to 
 get up, give the bedding an airing, and with the hand 
 to give the whole body a good rubbing. 
 
 Restless nights, as to persons in apparent good 
 health, arise chiefly from, first an overloaded stomach ; 
 second, from worldly care ; third, from want of muscu- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 255 
 
 lar activities proportioned to the needs of the system. 
 It is better to eat something before retiring, than to go 
 to bed on an empty stomach. But care must be taken 
 not to overload the stomach, if sound rest is expected. 
 
 Worldly care. For those who cannot sleep from 
 the unsatisfactory condition of their affairs ; who feel as 
 if they were going behindhand ; or that they are about 
 to encounter great losses, whether from their own remiss- 
 ness, the perfidy of friends, or unavoidable circum- 
 stances, we have a deep and sincere sympathy. To 
 such we say, live hopefully for better days ahead, and 
 meanwhile strive diligently, persistently, and with a 
 brave heart to that end. 
 
 But the more common cause of restless nights is, 
 that exercise has not been taken to make the body tired 
 enough to demand sleep. Few will fail to sleep soundly 
 if the whole of daylight, or as much thereof as will pro- 
 duce moderate fatigue, is spent in steady work in the 
 open air, or on horseback, or on foot. Many spoil all 
 their .sleep by attempting to force more on nature than 
 she requires. Few persons will fail to sleep soundly, 
 while they do sleep, if they avoid sleeping in the day- 
 time, will go to bed at a regular hour, and heroically 
 resolve to get up the moment they wake, whether it is 
 at two, four, or six o'clock in the morning. 
 
 Methods of Inducing: Sleep.— Nearly all the 
 methods for inducing sleep are such as tend to withdraw 
 blood from the brain to the skin and abdominal organs. 
 A hot foot-bath, for instance, is one of the best of the 
 
256 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 simple sedatives ; a ligbt meal on retiring, or a cracker 
 eaten in the early morning hours when sleep has fled 
 and is wooed in vain, often transfers the seat of activity 
 from the brain to the stomach and brings the former 
 organ into a state conducive to rest. In most cases, 
 however, late suppers should be avoided. During sleep 
 all the functions of the body are in abeyance, the respi- 
 ration is slower, the heart beats less rapidly, and diges- 
 tion is delayed ; food therefore, taken just previous to 
 sleep is apt to be undigested, fermentation results, nox- 
 ious principles are absorbed, and an unfreshing, dis- 
 turbed sleep during the night and dulled faculties in 
 the morning are the result. Light sleepers will gener- 
 ally find a position on the right side the most comfort- 
 able and less provocative of unpleasant dreams. 
 
 Do Not Use Drugs.— Nervous irritability from 
 overwork of the brain is common cause for sleepless- 
 ness. The student who robs himself of sleep to gain 
 the prize of scholarship ; the professional man whose 
 ambition spurs him on to the ignore the rest v/hich 
 nature demands ; the business man who, in the pursuit 
 of wealth, pays little heed to the plain indications of 
 nature, toss restlessly from side to side, and weary hours 
 drag by before they can cure the approach of tired na- 
 ture's 'sweet restorer. In these cases there is the great- 
 est temptation to resort to drugs to compel the rest so 
 vainly sought, to bury care in the oblivion induced by 
 the use of powerful narcotics, to seek solace in the sleep 
 which opium or chloral may bring. Once allured, again 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 257 
 
 and again is the hazardous expedient resorted to, until 
 soon the unfortunate subject is under the sway of a 
 despot whose rule is ruin. Such men should heed at 
 once the ominous warning so plainly given, and instead 
 of resorting to drugs, the effects of which are but tem- 
 porary^ and baneful, should realize that a radical change 
 of life is imperiously demanded as the only alternative 
 to a nervous bankruptcy, from which no future care, all 
 too late, can extricate them. A long vacation in the 
 country, or by the sea is needed. A protracted sea voy- 
 age in a sailing vessel is the most efficient means of 
 securing absolute rest in such cases, and in the time so 
 spent, which is apt in advance to be looked upon as 
 wasted, a new life springs up. 
 
 Do not sleep on the back, it produces night mare. 
 No one who sleeps on the side ever gets nightmare. 
 Lying on the right side favors the passage of the food 
 from the stomach. If you wake up with a hacking 
 cough, immediately cover your entire body except the 
 head. 
 
 Always induce an action of the bowels in the morn- 
 ing, so that you are not disturbed in your sleep thereby. 
 If you find that the ordinary means of securing a good, 
 healthful sleep will not avail, consult an educated, hon- 
 orable physician. 
 
258 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Our Beds. 
 
 Must be Renovated Often. — We spend nearly 
 one third of our life in the bed. This being the case it 
 is vitally important that we have the right kind of beds, 
 and also that they be kept properly. To say nothing of 
 the old-fashioned spare bed, which has probably killed 
 as many persons, as typhoid fever or small pox, the 
 modern bed often, also, has its dangers. 
 
 Of the seven pounds which a man eats and drinks 
 in a day, it is thought that not less than two pounds 
 leave his body through the skin. And of these two 
 pounds a considerable percentage escapes during the 
 night while he is in bed. The larger part of this is 
 water, but in addition there is much effete and pois- 
 onous matter. This being in great part gaseous 
 in form, permeates every part of the bed. Thus, all 
 par^ts of the bed^ mattress^ blankets^ as well as sheets^ 
 soon become foul and need purification. The mattress 
 needs this renovation quite as much as the sheets. 
 To allow the sheets to be used without washing or 
 changing, three or six months, would be regarded as 
 bad house-keeping; but if a thin sheet can absorb enough 
 of the poisonous excretions of the body to make it 
 unfit for use in a few days, a thick mattress, which can 
 absorb and retain a thousand times as much of these 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 259 
 
 poisonous excretions, needs to be purified as often cer- 
 tainly as once in three months. 
 
 A sheet can be washed. A mattress cannot be ren- 
 ovated in this way. Indeed, there is no other way of 
 cleansing a mattress but by steaming it, or picking it to 
 pieces, and thus, in fragments, exposing it to the di- 
 rect rays of the sun. As these processes are scarcely 
 practicable with any of the ordinary mattresses, the 
 good old-fashioned straw bed, which can every three 
 months, be changed for fresh straw and the tick washed, 
 is the sweetest and healthiest of beds. 
 
 If, in the winter season, the porousness oi the straw 
 bed makes it a little uncomfortable, spread over it a 
 comforter, or two woollen blankets, which should be 
 washed as often as every two weeks. With this arrange- 
 ment, if you wash all the bed covering as often as once 
 in two or three weeks, you will have a pleasant, healthy 
 bed. 
 
 Now if you leave the bed to air with open windows 
 during the day, and not make it up for the night before 
 evening, you will have added greatly to the sweetness 
 of your rest, and in consequence, to the tone of your 
 health. 
 
 Bed Covering. — In sleep we require an amount of 
 covering that during the day would be burdensome, 
 since in that state, there being no voluntary muscular 
 action, and the functions of respiration and digestion 
 being sluggish, there is less combustion of tissue and 
 consequently less heat. To invite sleep the body should 
 
260 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 be equably warm. The brain during rest is supplied 
 with less blood than in the hours of activity ; the effect 
 of cold on the body and extremities is to contract the 
 blood vessels of these parts, and to promote a fullness 
 of those of the head, thus disturbing sleep and causing 
 dreams. 
 
 Special to Parents. — If you are a father or mother, 
 never send your child to bed crying, or angered or un- 
 der punishment, without giving him a kiss. Remember 
 it may be the last night on earth, or a burning fever, 
 diphtheria or croup may deprive him of reason, and you 
 will never again be able to make amends for your cruelty 
 and devilishness, or to ask his forgiveness. 
 
 Be persuaded to make a habitual and systematic 
 arrangement by which each child shall retire to its little 
 bed with a feeling of affectionate lovingness toward you; 
 that no harsh word, or look, or inconsiderate act ot 
 yours shall ruffle its little heart, and cause it to turn its 
 face to the wall against you. Your indifferent, stereo- 
 typed, matter-of-course kiss is a cruel hypocrisy. The 
 little creatures perceive it by instinct, and they lie down 
 with an undefined unsatisfaction. If you do not feel a 
 kiss, do not commit the atrocity of a mere form, but go 
 and pray God to give you a new heart. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 261 
 
 Sudden Deaths. 
 
 ' Sudden Deaths Very Common. — Of late years 
 the number of sudden deaths has increased, at a fearful 
 rate. This is particularly the case among men who 
 occupy prominent positions. There is no doubt, that in 
 most cases they are caused by the excitement, rush, 
 strain and high pressure system of the age. We live too 
 fast. We do everything in a hurry. We are overwork- 
 ing ourselves. We live in constant excitement. We 
 put off everything to the last moment, and then exert 
 our powers beyond all measure to accomplish our work. 
 We rush to the train, or run up stairs, or get excited, so 
 that the blood rushes to the brain ; we take so little time 
 to eat our meals, that we swallow our food only half 
 masticated, or which is worse, force our food into our 
 excited stomachs, or drink ice cold water in large 
 draughts, or are guilty of numerous other indiscretions. 
 We do this, not only once, for that would not be so dan- 
 gerous, but we keep up the action of the heart under 
 continued excitement, the heart flutters and beats per- 
 ceptibly, we get almost out of breath, and pant and 
 breathe heavily, and this a dozen times a day. We keep 
 up this strain to the very hour of retiring, which is fre- 
 quently much later than it should be, and then fall 
 asleep under excitement, when our rest is disturbed by 
 dreams. We are living under continual mental strain 
 
262 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 and anxiety, either of study, business or cares. These 
 are the fruitful causes of sudden death, for which there 
 is no remedy, but there are preventives. 
 
 Valuable Preventatives. — Cultivate an equable 
 temper. Nothing is so apt to produce sudden death as 
 mental excitement. Cultivate a pleasant disposition. 
 
 Be regular in your habits. Take your meals at 
 regular hours, and do not hurry in going to the table, 
 or while eating, or in leaving the table. Do all these 
 things moderately, and take a rest, mental and physical, 
 after the meal. So in sleeping. Keep good hours for 
 retiring and take plenty of sleep. Do not go to bed 
 under mental excitement. 
 
 Work always by the day, and not by the job. 
 When you do mental work, never do it as if you were 
 working by the job, or under a high pressure system. 
 Alyays stop before you are fagged out. 
 
 Never cross a bridge, before you come to it. 
 
 Never run to meet a train, nor attempt to board it 
 while it is in motion. Do not run up stairs. Do not 
 hurry and rush unduly, so that you get out of breath, 
 particularly not if you are past middle age. 
 
 A sudden death, by the way, is not undesirable, 
 when once the time of our departure has come. To be 
 suddenly translated, when prepared for the event, as 
 Enoch and Elijah were, and as all the saints shall be, at 
 the glorious parousia of our blessed I^ord, is a consum- 
 mation devoutly to be desired, but do not hasten that 
 day unnecessarily. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 262 
 
 Summer. 
 
 Summer Vacation. — With some, July is the busy 
 season, with others it is the slack month, and with oth- 
 ers, again, it is vacation time. The farmer is in the 
 midst of wheat, hay and oats harvest, — this is his busi- 
 est season. The merchant and the manufacturer has a 
 slack time, and the clerk, teacher and professional men, 
 in general, have vacation. 
 
 The time is at hand when many hard workers seek 
 for a little rest and recreation, these hot summer days 
 and nights. The clerk and the merchant need a change 
 from the close confinement of the store, the mechanic 
 needs a few days off from his shop; the teacher, freed 
 from the schoolroom, must get out to the open air; even 
 the farmer, though not confined to the house, ought to 
 have rest for his weary limbs, after the hard work of his 
 hay, wheat and oat harvest; his wife, yea, all wives 
 should, by all means, have a ''let off" from the drudg- 
 ery of household duties, the continued bending over the 
 hot kitchen stove and the worriment of her work. 
 
 Thousands are under the ground now, the names of 
 whom you can recall, whose string of life snapped asun- 
 der, just because there was such a constant tension, no 
 relaxation in ten, twenty, thirty years. Kind, burden- 
 some nature is long suffering, but the camel's back will 
 break at last. 
 
264 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 Rest is Needed. — It is change that is needed by 
 the mind as well as the body, recreation is re-creatio7i^ 
 and there is nothing better to re-create body, mind and 
 soul than an entire change, this is the new creation. No 
 person will ever lose, in the long run, by taking recrea- 
 ation; he will not lose in time, nor in money, nor in a 
 dying hour, nor in the eternal future. 
 
 A change, a change of scenery, entire rest from all 
 anxieties and worriment, a dismissal of cares, laying 
 aside and having a free and easy, *'go as you please " 
 time, is what ever^^body needs. 
 
 A few days of real, rollicking recreation, in July or 
 August, will be of great service to every one. Take 
 your few days off, tired, well nigh exhausted brother and 
 sister. 
 
 Where shall it be had? Go away from home to do 
 it. Your crops are housed, your books balanced, your 
 school term has expired, and, now, off for the woods, 
 the mountain, the shore, or some secluded spot, where 
 no fiends torment or thirst for gold, where no collector 
 of bills can find you, where there is no cooking and 
 washing of dishes, where, entirely freed from all work 
 and care, you have nothing to do but sleep, fish, play 
 and do as you please. Go, reader, where you can dress 
 in your commonest clothing; and you, poor overworked 
 wife, don't take that everlasting ''sewing" along with 
 you; resolve not to take a single stitch during your en- 
 tire absence; let your only " sewing apparatus " consist 
 of a ball of yarn, a skein of silk and two needles; leave 
 
CO HON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 265 
 
 your thimble at home; if you sew on all the buttons and 
 keep the stockings darned, that will be quite enough. 
 
 lycave Your Cares Behind. — The President of 
 the United States has set us a good example, recently, 
 by taking recreation in the mountains, and ' ' roughing 
 it. ' ' This is the kind of recreation we all need. Away 
 from dust and dirt, and smoke, and excitement. Leave 
 all your cares behind you. Sleep till ten o'clock, if you 
 wish, dress but once in 24 hours, scale fences, climb 
 trees, catch fish, gather berries and wild flowers, build 
 mud dams, wander over brook, and branch, and hillside, 
 and mountain top, by the public road or the seaside, 
 row a boat, ride a horse, skip about in the clear moon- 
 light of summer, anything whatever that gives you a 
 change. If you are in town go to the country, if in the 
 country go to the seashore or the mountains, or huckle- 
 berrying, or fishing, swimming or botanizing; or with 
 hammer and microscope study the rocks and read the 
 histories of the localities from ages before the flood, as 
 you can do; climb mountains, explore caves; in short, 
 do anything and everything which will entertain, in- 
 struct or gratify yourself or others, from breakfast until 
 noon, and from dinner to sundov^n; so that when you 
 come home to dinner, you will be as hungry as a bear, 
 and bacon, cabbage and corn-bread will taste sweet to 
 you; After dinner go again, that when you come home 
 at sundown you will sigh for the bed, hardly taking 
 time to have a dry cracker and a cup of tea, all that you 
 ought to have, and ali that night you will sleep like a 
 
9M COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 
 
 baby, and next morning you will feel hungry enough to 
 eat your wife and children, and so happy and good- 
 natured that life will have new charms for you. 
 
 Always get plenty of sleep. Insufficient sleep is 
 followed by a day of yawning, discomfort and drowsi- 
 ness. The first step toward insanity is insufficiency of 
 sleep. Better go without food for ten days than without 
 sleep for two. Nature can not be cheated. No rest 
 will recuperate unless there is plenty of healthful sleep. 
 
 There is divine authority for such rest. The Cre- 
 ator Himself took a vacation at the close of His six days' 
 work. Our Lord and Savior took His vacation. He 
 frequently withdrew from the busy scenes of life to the 
 woods and desert places, where the multitude could not 
 find Him, where, in retirement and seclusion, he could 
 rest and expatiate. 
 
 There is rest in heaven, it is true, but in order to 
 perform the work of life, while we sojourn in the flesh, 
 we must have our period of rest in this world. The 
 gospel of Christ teaches us the necessity of rest and rec- 
 reation, and health, both by the examples which it fur- 
 nishes and the precepts it inculcates. Obey this Gospel, 
 and serve God by your mid-summer vacation, so as to 
 strengthen body and mind for more efficient service 
 hereafter. 
 
 Change is rest, re-invigoration, recreation; re-cre- 
 ation. 
 
 Summer Rules. — Keep as cool as possible. Be 
 temperate. Avoid alcoholic drinks. Beware of a costive 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 267 
 
 condition of body. Bathe often. Do not work harder 
 than necessity compels. Should dizziness or nausea be 
 felt stop work at once, douse the head and shoulders with 
 water — ice water, if possible — and lie down in a cool 
 place. In case of sunstroke rub the body with ice and 
 apply ice to the wrists, temples and back of the ears. If 
 the skin be cold instead of hot, it is heat exhaustion and 
 not sunstroke, and the treatment should be with hot 
 baths and alcoholic stimulants. 
 
 These things are not hard to understand or remember, 
 while their observance may save life. It is necessary to 
 remember them, because this is a time when it is in order 
 to take extraordinary precautions to save not only the 
 health but the life. 
 
 Select Food with Care. — Care must be had of what 
 we eat and drink, if we would preserve health at this 
 season. Coffee, tea, cold water, lemonade, and other 
 acids and ice cream are healthful. Acids promote the 
 secretion of bile, prevent fevers, and keep the system 
 free ; hence the advantages of fruits, berries, cold slaw, 
 salads, pickles, sour milk, etc. Sweet milk, ale, beer, 
 alcohol, etc., create bile, constipate, induce head-ache, 
 cold feet, neuralgia and want of appetite. Eat three 
 times a day and nothing between meals, and do not in- 
 dulge in luxuries. 
 
 If God had intended that we should guzzle down 
 glass after glass of ice water, he would have created the 
 water with the ice in. But he did not, and, hence, com- 
 mon sense admonishes us to drink ice cold water with 
 great moderation on hot days, if we drink it at all. 
 
i 
 268 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 If God had intended that we should drink alcohol, 
 he would have prepared it for us in the drinking water. 
 He did not thus prepare it, and, hence, common sense 
 teaches us to let it alone. 
 
 Animal Sense. — Cows, pigs, dogs and other antmais 
 can not be said to have common sense, but they have 
 cow, horse, pig and dog sense. They do not force food 
 or drink into their stomachs, when they have no appetite 
 for it. Why should a human being, endowed, if not with 
 common sense, at least with more than cow, horse or pig 
 sense, force himself to eat when not hungry, when nature 
 does not deserve food or drink ? 
 
 Some persons imagine that living on pure country 
 milk, when they get into the country in summer, will do 
 wonders for them. Common sense teaches that milk is 
 the food for babies and kittens. Grown persons who use 
 a great deal of milk become bilious and constipated, un- 
 less they work steadily and hard in the open air. 
 
 Natural sense teaches animals to go into water fre- 
 quently in summer ; common sense should teach us to 
 keep the body clean by frequent bathing in hot weather. 
 
 Experience, which is a good common sense teacher, 
 teaches the Esquimau to eat whale blubber in the rigorous 
 climate of the far north ; but it also teaches the China- 
 man to eat jice and a vegetable diet in a hot climate. 
 No person, with common sense, will swallow blubber, 
 pork, bacon and fat in hot weather. 
 
 IvCSSons from Prof. I^en^. — Prof. Oscar I^enz, 
 who has crossed Africa almost entirely on foot, ascribes 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 269 
 
 his escape from all climatic dangers to his strict attention 
 to hygienic rules. He abstained from raw fruit and never 
 drank unboiled water. His usual food was rice, chicken 
 and tea. He never touched wine or spirits. He care- 
 fully avoided bathing in rivers and pools of clear, 
 cold water, so tempting to travelers, but so apt to give 
 fatal chills. He dressed in flannels and avoided exposure 
 to the night air. He thus passad unscathed through 
 districts reeking with marsh fevers, ague and small-pox. 
 Here is a lesson, taught in few words, which, if 
 observed, is worth not only money, but comfort, health 
 and life. What Prof. I,enz could do, by the help of the 
 Lord, and the Lord cares for those who take care of them- 
 selves, in Africa's dire and deadly climate, we should do, 
 under the African sun of the temperate zone. We be- 
 lieve in doing just what he did, with the exception of the 
 raw fruit, which, it may be necessary to avoid in Africa, 
 but which we should certainly recommend everywhere 
 in this climate, to eat in moderation, when fully ripe. 
 . There is not a more healthful diet, sanctioned by ex- 
 perience and sanitary rules, than strawberries, raspberries, 
 blackberries, dewberries, huckleberries, cherries, apricots, 
 peaches, apples, bananas, grapes, and even pears and 
 plums, when eaten cautiously. 
 
270 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 Summer Hints. 
 
 Seasonable Rules.— Seven hours of sleep are 
 enough in summer for most persons. A nap in the day- 
 time causes the night sleep to be disturbed and im- 
 perfect. 
 
 The less a person drinks in hot weather the better. 
 The more we drink the more we want to drink. The 
 longer yon can defer drinking cold water, on the morn- 
 ing of a hot day, the better you will feel at night. 
 
 If you find that you have eaten too much, do not 
 take anything to ' ' settle the stomach, ' ' and, thus, add a 
 greater load, but take moderate exercise till the skin 
 becomes moist, and do not stop till entirely relieved. 
 
 Eat regularly the fruits which nature provides for 
 warm weather, such as strawberries, currants, cherries, 
 gooseberries, peaches, water melons, etc. These when 
 in season are always healthful, if eaten moderately. 
 
 Nature craves something acid in warm weather. 
 The best, most cooling beverage is weak lemonade, not 
 too sweet. Give the children some every day when 
 thirsty. It should not be too sweet, or it will form an 
 acid in the stomach. 
 
 Cucumbers, cold slaw, salad, tomatoes sliced in 
 vinegar are healthful, if eaten with moderation. We all 
 eat them for the sake of the vinegar, and it makes but 
 little difference which we use. The superstitious notion 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 271 
 
 that cucumbers are cholera fodder is *' moonshine.'* 
 The vinegar in the cucumber is what the stomach 
 craves in warm weather. 
 
 Babies should be bathed every day, but for grown 
 persons to undergo such an operation is hurtful. It is 
 necessary, however, for the promotion of health, that at 
 least once a week there should be a thorough washing of 
 the whole body, with soap and soft water, at a tempera- 
 ture of about 80° Fahrenheit. The entire time should 
 not exceed 20 minutes. In warm dusty weather the 
 hands, face, neck, throat, arms and armpits should be 
 washed several times a day. 
 
 Mortality Among Children.— In the short period 
 of one week no less than 952 children died in the cities 
 of New York and Chicago alone. The mortality in 
 New York reached 683 children under 5 years, an in- 
 crease of 141 over the preceding week. The deaths in 
 Chicago numbered 269, of whom 199 were less than one 
 year old. These figures should remind parents that 
 they have reached that season of the year when infant 
 mortality is greatest, and that for six weeks or two 
 months the greatest care should be observed in the treat- 
 ment of the young. The lives of thousands of infants 
 are sacrificed annually through ignorance and inatten- 
 tion. Overfeeding is a prolific source of summer com- 
 plaints. Even foods that are wholesome and properly 
 prepared may be given in such quantities as to cause 
 sickness. When the stomach is gorged, fermentation, 
 instead of assimilation, is the result ; and when nature 
 
272 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 rebels against cramming very slight neglect on the part 
 of parents or nurses will be followed by a fatal fever or 
 diarrhoea. The use of unripe or unsound fruits and 
 vegetables is another source of danger which cannot be 
 too. carefully guarded against. Unceasing vigilance and 
 the exercise of good common sense in the treatment of 
 children are necessary to get them safely through the 
 summer months. They should be given light and nour- 
 ishing diet only, and in sparing quantities. They 
 should have plenty of fresh air and their bodies should 
 be bathed daily. Strict attention should be paid to the 
 matter of clothing, so that colds may be avoided as a 
 result of changes of temperature, especially in the even- 
 ing. When alarming symptoms are developed no time 
 should be lost in summoning a physician. It is always 
 dangerous to trifle with the deadly cholera infantum. 
 
 In intensely hot weather, acids are formed very 
 quickl}^ in the stomach. Fruits, not fully ripe, sweet 
 things, ice cream for example, and similar substances, 
 when eaten a little in excess, sour the stomach and pro- 
 duce nausea and sickness. Summer complaint, among 
 children, and looseness of bowels and dysenten^, dyspep- 
 sia, etc., in older people, are some of the consequences. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 273 
 
 Tobacco. 
 
 Cigarette Smoking. — The cigarette evil is grow- 
 ing and it is ruining many of the boys of our country, 
 both physically, mentally and morally. It is necessary, 
 not only that parents, and those who have charge of 
 boys (even some girls smoke them) take a determined 
 stand in the matter, and invoke the strong arm of the 
 law wherever it can be done. 
 
 The evidence from 200 doctors before the Michigan 
 Legislature is worth heeding. They each cited cases of 
 boys being dwarfed, made insane, killed or rendered in- 
 capable of speech. The professors of Michigan Univer- 
 sity also testified at length of the efiect on the students 
 who were made stupid by cigarettes. The fact is well 
 known that cigarette smoking is far more injurious to 
 the health of the smoker than the smoking of cigars. 
 In a cigarette there are five poisons ; in a good cigar one. 
 In a cigarette there is oil in the paper, the oil of saltpetre 
 to preserve the tobacco, and opium to make it mild, and 
 a couple of poisonous oils are used in the flavoring. 
 
 They are Vile. — One of the most effective argu- 
 ments is the proof that most of the cheap cigarettes are 
 made from the filthy butts of castaway cigars, gathered 
 from the gutters by Italian scavengers. Some of these 
 people make as high as-$io a week at this trade, selling 
 
274 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 these stumps to New York manufacturers of cheap cigar- 
 ettes. 
 
 One this subject Joe Howard says : If young people 
 could only see what cigarettes are made of, one would 
 think they would be the last things a self-respecting 
 youth would put in his mouth. As lor the women who 
 smoke cigarettes, I have nothing to say. There may be 
 men who enjoy the fragrance of a cigarette-drenched 
 woman. I am not one of them. The odor that comes 
 from the paper, the sickening oflfense that arises like a 
 ' cloud of miasmatic vapor, permeating their breath and 
 making noisome every pore in their body, may have at- 
 tractions for the purlieuistic denizens of the gutter, but 
 I always feel about them as the Scripture writer did about 
 the dog who returned to his vomit. A great deal of at- 
 tention is being directed to this subject of late, and the 
 Trenton State Gazette says : ** A short time ago a gen- 
 tleman of this city who has a natural antipathy to cigar- 
 ette smokers began clipping from the newspapers, as he 
 read them, notices of casualties caused by cigarette smok- 
 ing, and now presents them as a stronger argument 
 against the habit than any other line of reasoning. ' * A 
 few of these fatalities are here produced : 
 
 Ivaurence Murphy, aged 23, was found dead in his 
 bed at his home, Bridgeport, Conn. He was a victim of 
 the cigarette habit, and to this alone is his death at- 
 tributed. 
 
 Thomas Calt, a 12 year old, boy, violently insane as 
 the result of cigarette smoking, was taken to the New 
 Haven, Conn., almshouse. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 275 
 
 A 15 year-old son of John Huflf dropped dead at 
 Sommerville from heart disease, caused by the excessive 
 smoking of cigarettes. 
 
 The death of Fowler Simpson, at Newton, recently, 
 was due to cigarette smoking. 
 
 Frederick Long, aged 14, died at Lockport, N. Y., 
 from excessive cigarette smoking. 
 
 Carleton Harris, of New York, a nephew of Jay 
 Gould, died suddenly at Round Island, N. Y., where he 
 has been spending his vacation. The cause of his death 
 is supposed to be cigarette smoking. 
 
 Fifteen other similar cases are given by this gen- 
 tleman, all having occured within a few days. 
 
 They Dwarf Manhood. — To see boys eight and ten 
 years old, with cigarettes in their mouth, puffing away, 
 is, to put it mild, a most disgusting sight. Yet there are 
 plenty of them. We were obliged, quite recently, as a 
 school controller, to suspend, several boys from a primary 
 school whose offence was smoking on the school grounds. 
 Another, in one of our high grade schools, could not 
 continue his course of studies, because he smoked ex- 
 cessively. The Boston Journal of Health says very truth- 
 fully: 
 
 *'It is a fact which cannot be disputed, that boys 
 who are persistent cigarette smokers do not reach per- 
 fect maturity. Their growth, both physically and 
 intellectually, is retarded. Their nervous system is but 
 imperfectly developed ; digestion, sight and other im- 
 portant functions are seriously impaired. Irritability of 
 
276 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 the heart is one common consequence of the use of tobacco 
 in any form in early life. I^et all boys who use tobacco 
 understand this ; they can never hope to become men. 
 They will grow old, and prematurely old, but true, manly 
 development and vigor they can never attain ; and for 
 their chances of success as students and scholars, even 
 the mild use of tobacco impairs them, and the persistent 
 use wholly destroys them. Never before the age of 2 1 
 is reached should tobacco be indulged in, and its use 
 might more wisely be delayed until the body has become 
 fully and completely developed. Parents should see to 
 it, and, if necessary, laws should be enacted, that this 
 rule be strictly enforced. There is an awful responsibi- 
 lity here which all should feel, and do their utmost to 
 stay the degeneration of our youth, which is threatened 
 by this, one of the greatest curses known to us — the 
 tobacco habit in boys. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 277 
 
 Typhoid Fever. 
 
 Causes. — Cases of typhoid fever are most common 
 in autumn and early winter. It attacks the young and 
 old the rich and poor alike. The innocent suffer not 
 only with the guilty but frequently y^r the guilty. Ty- 
 phoid fever is no doubt traceable to causes, prominent 
 among which are impurities in the water and the air, 
 caused by refuse matter being thrown about indiscrimi- 
 nately, contaminations of water caused by pig stables, 
 water closets, imperfect sewerage, emanations rising into 
 the air from decomposed vegetable and animal 
 matter, etc. In a town, or even in the country, persons 
 may be guilty of causing typhoid fever by their indis- 
 cretions, while they themselves escape an attack from 
 the disease, and innocent persons, whose system may 
 be in condition to be affected, contract the disease and 
 pay the penalty with the sacrifice of their lives, which 
 others, who were guilty of producing, escape. 
 
 Families, schools and communities should exercise 
 the greatest most conscientious care, when there is 
 evidently a typhoid condition of the air, to prevent the 
 occurrence of this disease, not only for their own sakes 
 but for others, because they may by indifference, cause 
 the sacrifice of innocent, useful lives. 
 
 Ventilate your rooms, keep a good fire in your 
 
278 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 buildings. See that the draining, surface and under- 
 ground is perfect. Allow no decaying rubbish to lie 
 about the buildings or streets. Use disinfectants, drink 
 pure water, obtained from wells away from buildings, 
 or clean cistern water. 
 
 Description. — The word typhoid means like typhus, 
 and typhus means blind, stupid. Certain symptoms 
 precede the attack in a part of the cases, such as a sense 
 of weariness and general uneasiness, headache, especially 
 in the morning, dullness of intellect, flushes of heat or 
 chilliness, furred tongue, pulse accelerated, and a tend- 
 ency to diarrhoea. The above symptons may occur for 
 a few days, and occasionally for more than a week, when 
 the disease is ushered in by a chill followed by fever. 
 The pulse ranging from 90 to 120 per minute; but 
 usually is less than a hundred. There is a dull, heavy, 
 expression, pain in the head, back, and limbs, bleeding 
 from the nose, restlessness with a want of sleep, and 
 diarrhoea with yellow watery discharges, thirst and loss 
 of appetite. The urine is highly colored and diminished 
 in quantity. In severe cases the pulse rises above 120, 
 is feeble and irregular, the breath offensive, the breath- 
 ing hurried, the tongue dry and brown, or red and 
 glazed ; the lips cracked and parched ; great depression 
 and usually the abdomen is tender. These symptons be- 
 come aggravated each day. In eight or ten days rose 
 colored dots appear in most cases on the abdomen, and 
 remain for two or three days, when they disappear and 
 are usually replaced by a fresh crop. The second week 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 279 
 
 the following symptoms may occur : sleepiness followed 
 by slight delirium, which frequently becomes violent; 
 ringing of the ears of deafness, hiccough, pains in the 
 muscles, and great debility, etc. , etc. The mildest cases 
 cannot be looked upon as being free from danger, nor on 
 the other hand are the worst cases to be considered in- 
 evitably fatal. iVmong the most unfavorable symptoms 
 are deep sleep, stentorious breathing, rigidity of the limbs, 
 profuse diarrhoea, hemorrhage from the bowels, great 
 prostration. 
 
 Well Water a Great Cause. — During the heated 
 summer term water is drunk very freely, by almost 
 everybody. Well water, of course, comes in for its share, 
 and this is frequently so impure, that the result is typhoid 
 fever. Fortunately the wet seasons of the past years 
 have so diluted the poison of polluted wells, that there 
 has been less of this disease than the usual average. But 
 there always is danger, and particularly in summer, when 
 much water is used, and the wells run low. Prof. Wilbur, 
 of Rutger's College, says: 
 
 ' ' The average house owner certainly believes that 
 the water which he pumps clear and cool from his well 
 is pure and wholesome. He does not stop to think of 
 the impurities with which it may have come in contact 
 during its flow from the surface to the bottom ofhisv/ell. 
 This well may be sunk in the immediate vicinity of an 
 overflowing cess-pool or out-house ; the natural drainage 
 of his own or his neighbor's barn-yard or pig-sty may be 
 flowing over the soil through which is filtering the water 
 
280 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 that is to fill the underground cistern ; or its bottom may- 
 be in a porous stratum of soil or gravel that receives, at 
 a point higher than the bottom, the drainage from some 
 graveyard or other source of decaying organic matter ; 
 some neighboring tree may have thrust its rootlets 
 through the wall of the well and there they remain to 
 decay; or the top may not be tightly covered and strong, 
 toads and other vermin may tumble in to aid in the pol- 
 lution of the supply; but our well owner, not seeing, 
 smelling or tasting the results of these additions to the 
 underground reservoir, is not conscious of their existence. 
 A filth saturated condition of the soil exists in every old 
 and thickly settled community. Near every stable, ev- 
 ery out-house or cess-pool, with their porous walled (if 
 walled at all) vaults, every kitchen drain and sewer, is 
 furnishing its quota of organic impurities, all of which 
 supply matter for decomposition. The products of this 
 decomposition are carried, as we have seen, directly to 
 the wells, and they thus become suitable breeding places 
 for bacterial life — powder magazines, only needing the 
 spark of a typhoid or other deadly germ to furnish the 
 explosion of a scourge of disease. ' ' 
 
 Matter in Waters. — Nearly all natural waters 
 hold in solution or suspension a larger or smaller pro- 
 portion of organized matter, which determines to a cer- 
 tain extent, their impurity and unfitness for domestic 
 purposes. We shall divide the organic matter present 
 in water into the living and dead — both having their 
 origin in the animal or vegetable kingdoms. The dead 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 281 
 
 animal matter, among the natural causes of contamina- 
 tion, consists of the bodies of fish, insects, infusoria, etc. , 
 as also the soluble nitrogenized compounds dissolved out 
 of these by the water. The dead vegetable substances 
 are the remains of water plants, leaves of trees, etc., 
 which, particularly in autumn, are found in fever water 
 in considerable quantities. As the laws of vitality have 
 no longer any control over those substances, they become 
 decomposed and resolved into their component elements, 
 which combine, according to the laws of chemical in- 
 firmities, and yield products complex in their chemical 
 constitution, and of a more or less dangerous or unwhole- 
 some nature. 
 
 The living organisms of animal origin found in 
 water are fish, infusoria, insects, etc. ; of vegetable ori- 
 gin, water plants, and a variety of singularly organized 
 atoms, invisible to the naked eye, known by the popu- 
 lar name of microbes, which are certain colorless algse 
 belonging to the family bacteriacae. Inasmuch as the 
 living animal and vegetable productions are dependent 
 upon the the dead organic matter of the water for their 
 sustenance, it follows that wherever living beings are 
 found in water there must exist the requisite materials 
 for their nourishment. Pure distilled water can neither 
 sustain animal or vegetable life. The existence of liv- 
 ing organisms in water in larger or smaller quantities, is 
 an indication of the greater or less amount of soluble or- 
 ganic matter in the water in the water, is also of its 
 purity or impurity. When they exist in small quanti- 
 
282 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 ties it follows, other things being equal, that the water 
 be pure. These living beings, animal and vegetable, 
 act as depuratory, and we learn by their presence that 
 there must exist the requisite amount and proper sort of 
 food for their maintenance, hence their existence in 
 water denotes a certain amount of soluble organic prin- 
 ciples. We cannot but think, therefore, that the value 
 of the information derived from microscopical observa- 
 tion of the organic impurities in v/ater has not been here- 
 tofore sufficiently insisted on. 
 
 City Sewerage. — It is now agreed that the sewer- 
 age matters of towns, including excretal and household 
 wastes, however largely diluted, cannot with safety be 
 allowed to flow into any source of water supply used for 
 dietetic or culinary purposes. In order to carry off such 
 wastes a system of closed vessels or impermeable pipes 
 should be provided, distinct from the storm water drains, 
 to discharge the matter at a depot or outfall independent 
 of any river or stream, except for a practically pure efflu- 
 ent. The discharge, directly or indirectly, of crude sew- 
 age into any source of water supply, however remote, is 
 a constant concomitant of epidemic diseases, while a pro- 
 portionate exemption from such maladies will invariably 
 follow the removal of the pollution. A pure and abund- 
 ant supply of water is cheap at any price, and "millions'' 
 to secure it, would be better than "millions for defence." 
 I scarcely need add that all manufactories and trades 
 should be required to clean their own waste; not, of 
 course, to convert it 'into a chemically pure water, but 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 283 
 
 simply to deprive it of its power to become a nuisance to 
 others when discharged into a public water-way. 
 
 Typhoid is More Dangerous than Yellow Fever. 
 
 — This may be a somewhat startling assertion to many 
 of our readers, but it is nevertheless true. The statistics 
 prove that the mortality rate of typhoid is greater. 
 About one of eight cases of yellow fever have proved 
 fatal, even where it was epidemic, of typhoid the rate is 
 one in five or six. Yellow fever is confined to a limited 
 district, and a certain season, while typhoid has all sea- 
 sons for its own, and the boundless continent is its do- 
 main. Where yellow fever has slain its tens, typhoid 
 has claimed its victims by hundreds. 
 
 Typhoid fever is communicable, not like yellow 
 fever and small pox by contagion. The same causes 
 produce it under the same circumstances. Half a dozen 
 members of the same family, or that many persons in 
 the same neighborhood, make take it but not from con- 
 tagion. The same causes that produce it in one case 
 may be at work and will produce other cases. 
 
 Examples. — In 1859, we had typhoid fever in our 
 school, at Quakertown, Pa., no less than half a dozen 
 down at one time. It was one of our first experiences 
 in connection with the disease. We have studied it ever 
 since. It originated then in the impurities in the water 
 used from an old well. At Kutztown, in 1875, we had 
 it in school, resulting in several deaths. It was caused 
 by the bad water. At Mansfield, Pa., Normal School, 
 where it prevailed so terribly, in 1874, resulting in a 
 
284 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 score of deaths, and over sixty cases of sickness, at tlie 
 same time, we v\^arned the authorities, a year previous, 
 that their water closets and imperfect sewerage, under 
 the same roof, where the students ate and slept, would 
 cause a serious outbreak of typhoid, and we were, un- 
 fortunately, right, though our warnings were not heeded . 
 at the time. Our observations have, in hundreds of 
 cases, similar to these, borne us out in the conviction 
 that typhoid fever always has its cause, that, while it 
 may be neither contagious nor infectious, the same 
 causes that produce it in one case, in the same family, 
 school, town or community, will produce it in another. 
 
 ' A writer in the Annals o^ Hygiene says, very cor- 
 rectly : 
 
 Typhoid Fever is a ** Filth Disease" — not some- 
 times, not generally, but always. And perhaps the next 
 in importance is that while the production of the disease 
 probably requires that the morbific agent shall be 
 brought into contact with the alimentary mucous mem- 
 brane, as in food of drink, it is possible for the salivary 
 fluids in the mouth and throat to absorb the poison from 
 the atmosphere and thus become the medium of its 
 transmission to the .stomach. There is also a third les- 
 son of no less value to us, viz : That various articles of 
 food, and especially milk, water and other fluid foods, 
 possess the same property of absorbing the fever poisons 
 from the atmosphere and thus becoming the vehicles of 
 its introduction into the system. 
 
 My own observations are fully in keeping with the 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 285 
 
 view that the absorption of the poisonous emanations by 
 the salivary secretions, and by food stored in pantries 
 and kitchens, but especially the latter, furnishes the ex- 
 planation of nearly all the so-called ''sporadic" cases of 
 true typhoid fever. In a large proportion of cases it will 
 be discovered on examination that odorous emanations 
 from kitchen drains, but more frequently from privy 
 vaults, are easily perceptible to the senses in the rooms 
 where food is stored and when it is prepared for the 
 table. In most of the observations I have made on the 
 subject, it has appeared to be the privy vault rather than 
 the drain that has been responsible for the evil. 
 
 Rain Water Best. — Avoid using suspicious water. 
 Pure cistern water is always the best. 
 
 Many springs also furnish impure water, especially 
 such as have their sources in localities where refuse mat- 
 ter is deposited, old grave yards, etc. 
 
 Rain water, fresh from the clouds, is always the 
 best. It has been distilled in nature's own retort, and is, 
 therefore, the purest. Have a good, tight, clean cistern, 
 and use its water for drinking and cooking purposes. 
 Where this kind of water can not be had drink no 
 water. Use coffee, tea, milk for drinking purposes. 
 
 How to Avoid Typhoid Fever.— "It may be re- 
 marked, can nothing be done to prevent typhoid fever? 
 And it must be answered that in our present condi- 
 tion of knowledge as to the causes of that disease but 
 little can be done .and that in a general way. Our farm- 
 ers would not, if they could, do away with the exu- 
 
286 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 berantriclinessof the virgin soil, nor diminisli the almost 
 tropical temperature of our summers, yet these are the 
 prime factors in the production of typhoid fever. Any 
 one wishing to avoid this fever should look to the 
 following points : 
 
 As to water, to see that it is as pure as possible If 
 from a cistern, to see that it is well-built and frequently 
 cleaned. If from a well, that it is walled up with brick 
 or stone, laid in cement, and is so situated that it gets 
 no surface or soil-water contamination ; that it has no 
 wooden curb to rot and furnish common cause of the fe- 
 ver, aqua malaria. 
 
 The house should be well ventilated, not built over 
 a marshy spot, or one with a clay subsoil. It should 
 have a cellar, either naturally dry or made so by effi- 
 cient drainage, and this cellar should never be used as a 
 store-room for vegetables, and if this is unavoidable, 
 that these should never be allowed to rot. 
 
 No slop-water, nor indeed any kind of water, 
 should be thrown upon the ground near the home. All 
 garbage, if not consumed by pigs, should be frequently 
 removed, or better still, especially in towns and villa- 
 ges, burned up in the kitchen nre. 
 
 If drains exist, and they are exceedingly necessary 
 to any well-ordered household, they should receive 
 constant care and attention, that they have no leaks nor 
 obstructions, and that they are as frequently and as 
 thoroughly flooded as the water supply of the place will 
 admit. Though faeces do not here play the important 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 287 
 
 part in the production of typhoid fever as it appears 
 to do in England, yet on general hygienic principles no 
 accumulation of it should be allowed to take place, but 
 where privies, and still worse, cess pools exist, they 
 should be kept from putrefaction by the abundant use of 
 that good and cheap disinfectant, copperas. This is 
 important at all seasons of the year, but is particularly 
 necessary in spring, when the increase in temperature, 
 as the weather grows warmer, is calculated to set free 
 the poisonous gases on the premises. 
 
 In case of sickness from typhoid fever in a family, 
 isolation of the patient, as far as possible, is to be 
 recommended, not from any fear of contagion, but to 
 afford that quiet, and that abundant supply of fresh air 
 so necessary in the treatment of all fevers. The stools 
 should be disinfected and deodorized as soon as passed, 
 not for fear of contagion, but upon the general principles 
 of decency and increased comfort to all the household. ' * 
 
 One tenth the attention given beforehand to the laws 
 of health, which a single typhoid patient requires after 
 the diseas,e has gained a foothold, will go far in prevent- 
 ing it. 
 
 We hope that every reader may consider himself a 
 self-constituted health officer, and, both for his own 
 good and that of his neighbor, do his utmost in dis- 
 pelling all causes of disease. 
 
 As to Remedies. — We have no remedies to pre- 
 scribe. Always consult a reliable physician and follow 
 his advice. But, remember, that an ounce of preven- 
 tion is better, etc. 
 
288 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 There are reasons, a dozen of tliem, why typhoid 
 fever does prevail to such an alarming extent, and there 
 is no time for moralizing and philosophizing. Action, 
 action, action. 
 
 Typhoid fever is one of those diseases for which we 
 are ourselves responsible. It is not a visitation of Prov- 
 idence, as that term is usually understood. Yes, 
 Providence does visit, and even the sins of fathers upon 
 the children to the third and fourth generation, but 
 through means, not as a direct visitation from heaven. 
 Our own sins and neglect of duty do entail upon us 
 visitations of Providence. We dare not hold Providence 
 responsible for our sins. We dare not saddle upon 
 Providence our own indiscretions and neglects. We 
 have no more right to believe God will remove the 
 causes of disease, than that he v/ill place the dishes and 
 food on our tables, or remove the same, when we sit 
 down to eat. We have our duties to perform. God 
 employs means for accomplishing purposes. 
 
 Use I/ittle Medicine. — There is no doubt that the 
 less medicine there is used with good treatment, care 
 and experienced nursing, the better. It is, indeed, a 
 question, whether nine-tenths of all patients would not 
 get along better if they did not take any medicine. 
 Watchful care, cleanliness, proper dieting, air, rest, 
 keeping intruders out of the sick room, especially 
 cranks, and removing the causes of disease, as far as can 
 be ascertained — these are powerful curative agents. 
 Besides this, there is no doubt that the j)rayer of faith 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES, 289 
 
 will save the sick. God has said, James V. 14, 15 : 
 **Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of 
 the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him 
 with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of 
 faith shall save the sick.'^'* This promise of God re- 
 mains forever, yea and amen. He has promised to 
 heal the sick in response to the prayer of faith. There 
 is no doubt that God will do just what he has promised. 
 We know he will. His word gives us the assurance, 
 and it can not lie. Our own personal experience is that 
 it will be done. We have seen it and known it to be 
 done wherever and whenever faith was properly exer- 
 cised. We can name cases where, in response to our 
 own feeble prayer, the promise of God has been most 
 clearly and signally verified. We are not fanatical on 
 this subject, but we do know whereof we affirm. 
 
590 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Teeth. 
 
 Value and Care of.— The first tooth appears in. 
 ^ix months, in the third year all are *'cut,'* between the 
 seventh and twenty-first year all the permanent teeth 
 have made their appearance ; the value of the latter 
 depends on the care taken of the first set ; and as the 
 looks, health and happiness are all materially modified 
 by good teeth, intelligent and affectionate parents will 
 look to the teeth of their children as early as the third 
 year, when, instead of being allowed to eat meat, they 
 should be mainly fed on fruits, vegetables and bread 
 made of wheat, corn or rye, ground coarsely, using the 
 entire product, bran and all, because in the bran, is 
 found almost exclusively, the solid material which is to 
 make the bone or body of the tooth and its covering, 
 called the enamel. 
 
 The child should be taught at five, to dampen the 
 brush in water every morning, rub it over a cake of castile 
 soap and then brush the teeth well, inside and out, front 
 and rear ; until, with the aid only of the saliva, the 
 mouth is full of soap-suds ; then rinse with tepid water, 
 twirling the brush sideways over the back part of the 
 tongue, so as to cleanse it fully of the soap and leave a 
 good taste ; after each meal, the mouth should be well 
 rinsed with tepid water, as also the last thing on retiring; 
 the mouth maintains a temperature of ninety-eight deg- 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 291 
 
 fees ; hence, if any food lodges about or between the 
 teeth, it begins to rot very soon, giving out an acid which 
 immediately begins to eat into the tooth, preparatory to 
 an early decay ; if solid particles are observed to lodge 
 between the teeth, the child should be taught to use a 
 very thin quill to dislodge it ; but not without, for the 
 more a quill is used the greater space between the teeth; 
 which is a misfortune, as it necessitates the use of a tooth- 
 pick for all after life, consuming a great deal of valuable 
 time. It is a wicked blunder to advise that a silk thread 
 should be sawed between the teeth after eating ; nature 
 intended the teeth to grow so close together that nothing 
 could get between them. It is a bad practice, except in 
 very rare cases, to remove the stump of the first teeth ; 
 let them be displaced by nature's own process. That 
 dentist is an ignoramus, who advises a sound tooth to be 
 drawn to '^give more room" fOr the others, thus prevent- 
 ing that natural expansion of the jaw, which gives ''char- 
 acter" to the face, and greater power of mastication, an 
 essential element of an easy and healthful digestion of 
 the food. A clean tooth does not decay. Acids, sour 
 fruits, always injure the teeth instantly ; sweets never 
 do ; without them, children would die, hence their in- 
 satiable instincts for sugar. If a tooth powder was never 
 used, the teeth would not be so white, but kept perfectly 
 clean, would last for life. 
 
 A towel folded several times and dipped in hot water, 
 and quickly wrung and applied over the toothache or 
 neuralgia, will generally afford prompt relief. 
 
292 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 
 
 The Throat. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that the throat must be 
 muffled in cold weather. The fur mufflers are throat 
 disease producers, so are scarfs and heavy neck-ties. 
 Some people are in the habit of bundling up their 
 throats with a feather bed, and these are the people who 
 will die of bronchial consumption. Exercise causes 
 perspiration of the throat, when it is kept too warm, 
 and, afterwards cooling off, will produce a chill, follow- 
 ing by a hacking cotigh, throat- ails and bronchitis. The 
 back, especially between the shoulders, should be pro- 
 tected. That is the region of the lungs, the most deli- 
 cate of all organs. Always throw a shawl, mantle or 
 overcoat over the shoulders, when leaving the room in 
 cold weather. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 293 
 
 The Spitting Habit. 
 
 Disgusting and Destructive.— No decent person 
 will deny that the prevalent habit of spitting here, there 
 and everywhere is, to say the least, disgusting. Now, 
 in the light of recent developments, it would appear 
 that this habit is not only disgusting, but absolutely and 
 definitely dangerous. Whether Koch's bacillus is the 
 cause of consumption or not, there is one fact upon 
 which we all agree, namely, that the sputa of a con- 
 sumptive contains the seeds of the disease. That con- 
 sumption is spread by the indiscriminate expectoration 
 of consumptives is a now well ascertained fact, but 
 probably, this fact has never been more conclusively 
 demonstrated than by the following occurrence: In a 
 certain business house in Paris twenty- two persons were 
 employed. Among these was a consumptive who 
 coughed and spit upon the floor for three years, and . 
 until within three months of his death. This was in 
 1878, and since that time fourteen out of the twenty-two 
 men have died with pulmonary consumption. 
 
 Spitting should not be allowed in the school room, 
 nor at home. Spittoons should be banished from the 
 home, and the inmates of the house, as well as visitors 
 be taught to dispense with spitting. Man is not a spit- 
 ting animal. ^ 
 
294 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES, 
 
 Winter. 
 
 Its Sickness and Cures. — This is a season of the 
 year when diphtheria, scarlet fever, pneumonia, typhoid 
 fever and kindred diseases are more than usually preva- 
 lent in all sections of the country. A word of caution, 
 therefore, and of advice may not come amiss. 
 
 Home cures, sometimes eflfective, and while they 
 have the recommendation of being harmless, should, 
 nevertheless, as a rule be given a wide berth. It is true, 
 these cures of our grandmothers sometimes seemed to do 
 us more good than the doctor's medicines. The herbs 
 strung on the garret rafters, sage, hoarhound, boneset, 
 etc., have medicinal virtues, and they relieved us of our 
 colds, sore throat and feverishness in childhood. But 
 while this much can be said of the house cures, it must 
 be admitted that by ' 'tinkering' ' with such apparently 
 simple and harmless remedies, sometimes the disease 
 gained a firm foothold on the system, which might have 
 been forestalled by more active measures employed by a 
 skillful physician, and serious consequences avoided. 
 
 Do not Experiment. — Experimentation is always 
 dangerous, when such important issues as health, life 
 and death are at stake. One person may have employed 
 a cure, some so-called specific, with success, while an- 
 other, differently constituted, may try the same, not only 
 without benefit but to his injury. The anecdote of the 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 295 
 
 two assess serves as an illustration here. The one laden 
 with salt, in crossing a stream found his burden greatly 
 diminished ; the other laden with wool, reasoned, ' ' what 
 is good for my companion, must also be good for me," 
 plunged into the stream, and before he was half way 
 over, his load became so heavy, that he sank beneath it, 
 and was drowned. 
 
 This is the folly committed by many persons. 
 Some one has used a remedy for a certain complaint or 
 disorder. It gave him relief. Another uses it, and is 
 not only not relieved, but precious time is lost in this 
 experimentation, the disease allowed to make inroads 
 upon him, and the folly discovered when too late. 
 There are no specifics, yes, we believe there is one, 
 namely, that sulphur cures itch, but this is the ne plus 
 ultra. Cures, specifics, patent medicines should never 
 be employed, where persons are threatened with diph- 
 theria, scarlet fever, pneumonia, typhoid, and the like. 
 Here, whatever thou doest, do quickly, now or never, 
 must be the motto. The loss of a single day may, in 
 these diseases, decide the matter. Take time by the 
 forelock. Send for a skillful, experienced physician. 
 Do not wait till night, and then, at the midnight hour, 
 rouse him out of his sleep. Make these diseases also a 
 study yourself. In diphtheria, particularly, it is of the 
 utmost importance, that every parent and school teacher 
 should understand the beginnings of the disease, its 
 earliest symptoms: Diphtheria has frequently fixed 
 itself on the child, before it complains of pain in the 
 
296 COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 
 
 throat. A certain languor or dullness creeps over the 
 child, it has not its usual vivacity, seems indifferent and 
 inactive on the play-ground. When these symptoms 
 are observed, no time should be lost in examining the 
 child and having it attended to. Damp houses and cel- 
 lars, crowded rooms, illy ventilated school rooms and 
 sleeping apartments are favorable to the development of 
 this disease, as well as of scarlet and typhoid fevers, 
 while damp feet, damp clothes, exposure to draughts, 
 becoming chilly after being over-heated, running out 
 from an over-heated room, into the cold raw air, with 
 mouth open, is productive of pneumonia. 
 
 Every parent and teacher who loves his children 
 should be particularly watchful of their health at this 
 season of the year. 
 
 Rules. — Do not let children sit close to a hot stove, 
 while there is a door open, or a draught of cold air strik- 
 ing them. 
 
 Do not let children sit one moment with wet stock- 
 ings on, or with damp feet. 
 
 Do not let children sit in the house Yn\h rubbers on 
 their feet. Do not let children run out into the cold or 
 wet, without protection to their feet and bodies. Do not 
 let children bundle up their throats, so that they perspire 
 when running out into the cold. 
 
 Do not let children go to bed with cold or damp 
 feet. 
 
 Teach children to keep their mouths shut when out 
 in the cold, especially when passing from a warm room 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 297 
 
 into the cold air, or when asleep. Do not refuse children 
 permission to leave the room when they ask to do so. 
 
 Do not allow your children to take ofifany article of 
 clothing when they are over heated, rather have them 
 put on more. Never allow them to sit down in the cold 
 or on the ground to cool off. 
 
 See that their backs are well protected when they 
 go out of doors, the protection of the chest is not so im- 
 portant. 
 
 Do not let them go into cold damp beds at night, 
 w^ith the expectation that they will get warm after they 
 fall asleep. Do not let them sleep under feather beds ; 
 give them woolen blankets. Do not let them go out of 
 the house in the morning, before they have had a good 
 warm breakfast. A little fresh air, introduced into the 
 sleeping apartments from the outside, by opening the 
 windows, if there is no draught over the bed, and the 
 cover is sufficiently warm, is infinitely better than to have 
 no ventilation and to inhale the foul air in the night. 
 
 These directions should be observed by older folks 
 as well, in fact by everybody. Attention has often been 
 called to them, but they require constant repetition. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 Many Modes of Suicide. 
 
 Wearing thin shoes and cotton stockings on damp 
 nights, and in cold, rainy weather. Wearing insuffi- 
 cient clothing, and especially upon the limbs and ex- 
 tremities. 
 
 lycading a life of enfeebling, stupid laziness and 
 keeping the mind in an unnatural state of excitement 
 by reading trashy novels. Going to the theatres, parties 
 and balls in all sorts of weather in the thinnest possible 
 dress. Dancing till in a complete state of perspiration, 
 and then going home without sufficient overgarment, 
 through the cool, damp air. 
 
 Sleeping in feather beds, in seven by nine bed- 
 rooms, without ventilation, and especially with two or 
 three persons in the same small, unventilated bedroom. 
 
 A surfeiting on hot and very stimulating dinners. 
 Eating in a hurry, without masticating the food, and 
 eating before going to bed every night, when the mind 
 and body are exhausted by the toils of the day and the 
 excitement of the evening. 
 
 Beginning in childhood on tea and coffee, and going 
 from one step to another, through chewing and smoking 
 tobacco, and drinking intoxicating liquors. By personal 
 abuse, and physical and mental exercises of every kind. 
 
 Marrying in haste and getting an uncongenial com- 
 panion, and living the remainder of the life in mental 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NOTES. 299 
 
 excitement. Cultivating jealousy and domestic broils, 
 and being always in mental ferment. 
 
 Keeping children quiet by giving paregoric and 
 cordials, by teaching them to suck candy, and by sup- 
 plying them with raisins, nuts and rich cake. When 
 they are sick, by giving mercury, tartar-emetic and arse- 
 nic, under the mistaken notion that they are medicines 
 and not irritant poisons. 
 
 Allowing the love of gain to absorb our minds so 
 as to have no time to attend to health. Following an 
 unhealthy occupation because money may be made by it. 
 
 Tempting the appetite with bitters and nicities, 
 when the stomach says no, and by forcing food into it 
 when nature does not demand and even rejects it. — 
 Gormandizing between meals. 
 
 Contriving to keep in a continual worry about 
 something or nothing. Giving way to fits of anger. 
 
 Being irregular in all our habits of eating and sleep- 
 ing. Going to bed at midnight and getting up at noon. 
 Eating too much, too many kinds of food, and that 
 which is too highly seasoned. 
 
 A Pleasant Room for the Girl. — The first thing 
 we must do is to get rid of the popular fallacy that any 
 closet or room will do for the servants to sleep in, so 
 that we are apt to give them such accommodation that 
 every spark of ambition, if it has ever been kindled, dies 
 at once with the first glance at the only place she can 
 call her own. In arranging the division of rooms in 
 
300 COMMON SENSE HEALTH NOTES. 
 
 your house, do, if possible, select some airy, attractive 
 place which may be converted into a pleasant living 
 room. I know the builders of houses are now giving far 
 more attention to servants' rooms than formerly, so 
 don't let old-fashioned ideas clash against progress. Don't 
 look into the neatly papered, painted and well ventilated 
 room and say '*too good," and set up the old, broken, 
 defaced furniture in a loft or closet, or tiny out-of-the- 
 way corner, which **can't be spoiled." Give the girls a 
 room in which they can take pride, and then try to 
 rouse in them a sense of delight in pleasant and orderly 
 surroundings. It may be dormant and slow in coming 
 to life, but in coaxing, as well as discipline, with a con- 
 tinued repetition of your demand for neatness, it will 
 come. 
 
 Don't Run Up Stairs.— It would seem that nature 
 may possibly have intended that cats and dogs should 
 run up-stairs, but she certainly does not want human 
 beings to so ascend. Yet, does there live a woman or 
 child that does not run up-stairs ? Men, probably, are 
 too lazy to so rapidly elevate themselves ; but whether 
 this be the reason or not, it is a fact that men are not 
 nearly so prone to run up-stairs as are women and chil- 
 dren. We would ask our male readers, whose wives 
 and children are sinners in this respect, to cultivate the 
 liabit of uttering a cautionary donH run upstairs^ when- 
 ever they are about to ascend. Reiteration of the cau- 
 tion will ultimately overcome the habit, which must be 
 regarded as a very pernicious one. 
 
COMMON SENSE HEAL TH NO TES. 301 
 
 Be Cheerful. — The man whose ha ! ha ! reaches 
 from one end of the street to the other may be the same 
 fellow who scolded his wife and spanked the baby before 
 he got his breakfast, but his laughter is only the crackle 
 of thorns under the pot The man who spreads his 
 laughter through his life — before a late breakfast, when 
 he misses the train, when his wife goes visiting and he 
 has to eat a cold supper ; the man who can laugh when 
 he finds a button off his coat ; when the furnace goes 
 out in the night, and both of the twins come down with 
 the measles at the same time — he's the fellow that's 
 needed. He never tells his neighbor to have faith. 
 Somehow he puts faith into him. 
 
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