A Handbook of Health | Page 3

171
RESULTS OF TIGHT CLOTHING 181
A COMFORTABLE DRESS FOR OUTDOOR STUDY IN COLD WEATHER 183
AS A TONIC, SWIMMING IS THE BEST FORM OF BATHING 185
THE URINARY SYSTEM 200
THE MUSCLE-SHEET 205
USE OF MUSCLES IN BOWLING 206
USE OF MUSCLES IN FOOTBALL 207
PATELLA AND MUSCLE 207
THE HUMAN SKELETON 211
THE SPINAL COLUMN 212
A BALL-AND-SOCKET JOINT 213
A HINGE JOINT 213
LENGTHWISE SECTION OF BONE 214
CROSS SECTION OF BONE 214
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 218
THE POSITION OF THE BODY IS AN INDEX TO ITS HEALTH 229
IMPRINT OF (1) ARCHED FOOT AND (2) FLAT FOOT 230
THE RESULT OF WEARING A FASHIONABLE SHOE 231
CALLUS FORMED AROUND A FRACTURE 234
A TRAINED BODY 242
TUG OF WAR 245
THE GIANT STRIDE 246
SCHOOL GARDENING 248
A WASTED CHANCE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 249
AN OBSTACLE RACE 250
THE HIGH JUMP 251
ADENOIDS 256
MOUTH-BREATHERS 257
THE APPARATUS OF VISION 260
A SCHOOL EYE-TEST 263
DISINFECTING A BABY'S EYES AT BIRTH 265
THE APPARATUS OF HEARING 267
THE VOCAL CORDS 272
TEETH--A QUESTION OF CARE 278
A TOOTH 279
THE REPLACING OF THE MILK TEETH 282
A TOOTH-BRUSH DRILL 284
THE WINNING FIGHT 290
DEATH-RATE FROM MEASLES 291
DEATH-RATE FROM DIPHTHERIA AND CROUP 294
BILL OF HEALTH 298
GERMS OF MALARIA 301
CULEX 302
ANOPHELES 302
OILING A BREEDING GROUND OF MOSQUITOES 304
AN EDUCATIONAL FLY POSTER 310
A BREEDING PLACE OF FLIES AND FILTH 311
A TOURNIQUET 321
POISON IVY 325
THE NEW METHOD OF ARTIFICIAL BREATHING 328
PLATES IN COLOR
DIAGRAM OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM facing 110
DIAGRAM SHOWING GENERAL PLAN AND POSITION OF BODY-MACHINERY facing 198

A HANDBOOK OF HEALTH
CHAPTER I
RUNNING THE HUMAN AUTOMOBILE
The Body-Automobile. If you were to start to-morrow morning on a long-distance ride in an automobile, the first thing that you would do would be to find out just how that automobile was built; how often it must have fresh gasoline; how its different speed gears were worked; what its tires were made of; how to mend them; and how to cure engine troubles. To attempt to run an automobile, for even a ten-mile ride, with less information than this, would be regarded as foolhardy.
Yet most of us are willing to set out upon the journey of life in the most complicated, most ingenious, and most delicate machine ever made--our body--with no more knowledge of its structure than can be gained from gazing in the looking-glass; or of its needs, than a preference for filling up its fuel tank three times a day. More knowledge than this is often regarded as both unnecessary and unpleasant. Yet there are few things more important, more vital to our health, our happiness, and our success in life, than to know how to steer and how to road-repair our body-automobile. This we can learn only from physiology and hygiene.
The General Plan of the Human Automobile is Simple. Complicated as our body-automobile looks to be, there are certain things about the plan and general build of it which are plain enough. It has a head end, where fuel supplies are taken in and where its lamps and other look-out apparatus are carried; a body in which the fuel is stored and turned into work or speed, and into which air is drawn to help combustion and to cool the engine pipes. It has a pair of fore-wheels (the arms) and a pair of hind-wheels (the legs), though these have been reduced to only one spoke each, and swing only about a quarter of the way around and back again when running, instead of round and round. It has a steering gear (the brain), just back of the headlights, and a system of nerve electric wires connecting all parts of it. It gets warm when it runs, and stops if it is not fed.
[Illustration: TO ATTEMPT TO RUN AN AUTOMOBILE WITHOUT KNOWING HOW WOULD BE REGARDED AS FOOLHARDY]
There is not an unnecessary part, or unreasonable "cog," anywhere in the whole of our bodies. It is true that there are a few little remnants which are not quite so useful as they once were, and which sometimes cause trouble. But for the most part, all we have to do is to look long and carefully enough at any organ or part of our bodies, to be able to puzzle out just what it is or was intended to do, and why it has the shape and size it has.
Why the Study of Physiology is Easy. There is one thing that helps to make the study of physiology quite easy. It is that you already know a good deal about your body, because you have had to live with it for a number of years past, and you can hardly have helped becoming somewhat acquainted with it during this time.
You have, also, another advantage, which will help you in this study. While your ideas of how to take care of your body are rather vague, and some of them wrong, most of them are in the main right, or at least lead you in the right direction. You all know enough to