THE HYGIENE OF BONES, NERVES, AND MUSCLES
HOW TO GET AND KEEP A GOOD FIGURE
Erect Position is the Result of Vigorous Health. Naturally and
properly, an erect, graceful figure and a good carriage have always been
keenly desired; and much attention has been paid to the best means of
acquiring them; as we say, we try to "get the habit" of carrying
ourselves straight and well. But it must be remembered that an erect
figure and a good carriage are the results of health and vigor, rather
than the cause of them.
Stooping, round shoulders, sitting "all hunched up," or a shuffling
gait, are owing partly to bad habits, or "slouchiness," but chiefly to
weak muscles and a badly-fed nervous system, often due to a poor
digestion and a weak circulation. If a child is not healthy and
vigorous, then no amount of drilling or reminders to "sit straight" and
"stand erect" will make him do so.
It is of great importance that the child should take an erect and
correct position for reading and writing, and while sitting at his desk;
and that the desk and the seat should fit him. But it is more important
that he should not sit at his desk in a stuffy room long enough to be
harmed by a cramped position.
There are few children who will "hump over" at their desks, if the
muscles of their backs and necks are strong and vigorous, and their
brains well ventilated. Nor will many of them bore their noses into
their books, or sprawl all over their copy books when they write, unless
the light is poor, or they have some defect of the eyes which has not
been corrected by proper glasses. A bad position or a bad carriage in a
child is a sign of ill health, and should be treated by the removal of
its cause.
Curvatures--Their Cause and Cure. There are various forms of
curvatures, or bendings, of the spine which are supposed to be owing to
faulty positions of sitting or of carrying the body. There is wide
difference of opinions as to their cause; but this all are agreed on,
that they practically never occur in sturdy, well-grown, active
children; and the way that they are now corrected is by careful systems
of balancing, muscular exercise, open-air life, and abundant feeding,
instead of using steel braces, or jackets, or schoolroom drills.
[Illustration: THE POSITION OF THE BODY IS AN INDEX TO ITS HEALTH
Note the pupil in the second row who evidently needs eye glasses.]
Much the same is true of other deformities and defects of the body, as,
for instance, round shoulders, or "flat-foot," or even such serious ones
as "club-foot" and "bow-legs." Nearly all these are caused by the
weakness or wrong action of some muscle, or groups of muscles. If this
be long continued or neglected, the bones--which, you will remember,
were made by the muscles in the first place--will be warped out of
shape. When this has occurred, it is often necessary to bring back the
limb, or foot, into a nearly straight position by mechanical or surgical
means; but we now largely depend upon muscular exercises combined with
rubbing and massage with the hand, and on building up the general vigor
of the entire body, so that the muscles will pull the limb or the
backbone back into proper position. Take care of the muscles, and the
bones will take care of themselves! Make the body strong, vigorous, and
happy, and it will "hold" and "carry" itself.
OUR FEET
The Living Arches of the Foot. One of the most important things to
look after, if we wish to have an erect carriage and a swift, graceful
gait, is the shape and vigor of the feet. Each foot consists of two
springy, living arches of bone and sinew, which are also used as levers,
one running lengthwise from the heel to the ball of the toes, and the
other crosswise at the instep. These arches are built largely of bones,
but are given that springy, elastic curve on which their health and
comfort depend, and are kept in proper shape and position, solely by the
action of muscles--those of the lower part of the leg and calf.
[Illustration: IMPRINT OF (1) ARCHED FOOT AND (2) FLAT FOOT
The absence of impression on the inner border of the normal footprint at
_A_ is due to the elevation of the foot by the longitudinal arch. The
other arch lies across the foot in front of this.--After Schmidt.]
The purpose of these arches is to "give," or spring, like carriage
springs, and thus break the shock of each step and cause the body to
"ride" easily and comfortably. In order that a spring may "give," it
must expand, or spread. Far the commonest and most serious cause of a
poor, easily tired gait and a bad carriage is tight shoes, which, by
being too short, or too narrow, or both, prevent the arches of the foot
from "giving" and expanding. Not only does this produce corns, bunions,
and lame feet, but it makes both standing and walking painful and
feeble, and destroys the balance of the entire body, causing the back to
ache, the shoulders to droop forward, and the neck muscles to tire
themselves out trying to pull the head back so as to keep the face and
eyes erect. Thus one soon tires, and never really enjoys walking. If
this disturbance of balance is increased by high heels, thrust forward
under the middle of the foot, the result is very bad.
[Illustration: THE RESULT OF WEARING A FASHIONABLE SHOE
(1) A foot that has never worn a shoe (from a photograph); (2) A foot so
cramped and bent as to prevent firmness of step and gait.]
Our Shoes, an Important Factor in Health. Few more ingenious
instruments of crippling and torture have ever been invented than
fashionable tight shoes with high heels.
Kipling never said a shrewder or truer thing than when he made Mulvaney,
the old Irish drill-sergeant, tell the new recruit, "Remimber, me son, a
soljer on the marrch is no betther than his feet!" and this applies
largely to the march of life as well.
Every shoe should be at least three-quarters of an inch longer, and from
half to three-quarters of an inch wider, than the foot at rest, to allow
proper expansion of these great "carriage-spring" arches. If children
run free in the open air, either barefoot, or with light, loose,
well-ventilated shoes, or sandals, they will have little trouble, not
only with bunions, corns, "flat-foot," or lameness, but also with their
backs, their gait, and their carriage. Easily half of our backaches, and
inability to walk far or run fast in later life, to say nothing of
over-fatness and dyspepsia, are caused by tight shoes.
SLEEP AND REST
Why We Need Rest. A most important element in a life of healthful
exercise, study, and play is rest. Even when we are hard at work, we
need frequent breathing spells and changes of occupation and amusement
to keep one part of our muscles, or our brains, from poisoning itself.
But after a time, in even the strongest and toughest of us, there comes
a period when no change of occupation, no mere sitting still, will rest
us; we begin to feel drowsy and want to go to sleep. This means partly
that the fatigue poisons, in spite of fresh air and change, have piled
up faster than we can burn them, so that we need sleep to restore the
body.
All day long we are making more carbon dioxid than the oxygen we breathe
in can take care of; while we sleep, the situation is reversed--the
oxygen is gaining on the carbon dioxid. This is why the air in our
bedrooms ought to be kept especially pure and fresh.
But the need goes deeper than this: sleeping and waking are simply parts
of the great rhythm in which all life beats--a period of work followed
by a period of rest. Continuous, never-ceasing activity for any living
thing quickly means death. While externally the body appears to be at
rest, the processes of growth and upbuilding probably go on more rapidly
when we are asleep than when we are awake. The benefits of exercise are
made permanent and built into the body during the sleep that follows it.
The more rapidly young animals are growing, the more hours out of the
twenty-four they spend in sleep. When you sleep, you are not stopping
all the useful activities of your body and mind, you are simply giving
some of the most useful and most important of them a chance to work. The
only likeness between sleep and death is that in both the body is quiet
and the eyes are closed. Really we are never more alive and growing than
when asleep.
It is of the utmost importance that young children especially have all
the sleep they need, and that is precisely all that they can be induced
to take. The best rule for you, then, to follow, is to go to bed when
you feel sleepy, and to get up when you wake rested. Every child under
twelve should have at least ten hours of sleep, and every grown person
eight, or better still, nine hours. Time spent in sound, refreshing
sleep, is time well spent. If you cannot sleep well, it is a signal that
something is wrong with your health, or your habits--a danger signal of
great importance, which should be attended to at once. The best and only
safe sleep-producer is exercise in the open air.
DISORDERS OF MUSCLES AND BONES
The Muscles and Bones Have Few Diseases. Considering how complex it
is, and the never-ceasing strain upon it, this moving apparatus of ours,
the nerve-bone-muscle-machine, is surprisingly free from disease. The
muscles, though they form nearly half our bulk, have scarcely a single
disease peculiar to them, or chiefly beginning in them, unless fatigue
and its consequences might be so regarded. They may become weakened and
wasted by either lack or excess of exercise, by under-feeding, or by
loss of sleep; but most of their disturbances are due to poisons which
have got into the blood pumped through them, or to paralysis or other
injuries to the nerves that supply them.
The muscles of an arm, for instance, which has been lashed to a splint,
or shut tightly in a cast for a long time, waste away and shrink until
the arm becomes, as we say, "just skin and bone"; and the same thing
will happen if the nerve supplying a muscle, or a limb, is cut or
paralyzed.
The bones have more diseases than the muscles, but really comparatively
few, considering their great number and size, and the constant strain to
which they are subjected in supporting the body, and driving it forward
and doing its work under the handling and leverage of the muscles. Most
of their diseases are, like those of the muscles, the after-effects of
general diseases, particularly the infections and fevers, which begin
elsewhere in the body; and the best treatment of such bone diseases is
the cure and removal of the disease that caused them.
[Illustration: CALLUS FORMED AROUND A FRACTURE
An aluminum splint holds the parts of the bone together.]
Repair of Broken Bones. If bones are broken by a fall, or blow, they
display a remarkable power of repair. The "skin" covering them
(periosteum) pours out a quantity of living lime-cement, or
animal-mortar, around the two broken ends, which solders them together,
much as a plumber will make a joint between the ends of two pipes. This
repair substance is called _callus_. The most remarkable thing about the
process is that, when it has held the two broken ends together long
enough for them to "knit" firmly--that is, to connect their blood
vessels and marrow cavities properly--this handful of lime-cement, which
has piled up around the break, gradually melts away and disappears; so
that, if the ends of the bone have been brought accurately together, you
can hardly tell where the break was, except by a slight ridge or
thickening.
TROUBLES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
The Nervous System is not easily Damaged. The nervous system is
subject to a good many more diseases than are either the muscles or the
bones; but, considering how complex it is, it is not nearly so easily
damaged or thrown out of balance as we usually imagine, and has
astonishing powers of repair. Instead of being one of the first parts of
the body to be attacked by a disease, such as an infection or a fever,
it is one of the very last to feel the effects of disease, except in the
sense that it often gives early that invaluable danger signal, pain.
Headache. Next after fatigue the most valuable danger signal given us
by our nerves is that commonest of all pains, _headache_. Indeed, it is
not too much to say that headache is the most useful pain in the world.
It has little to do with the condition of the brain, but occurs in the
head chiefly because the nerves of the head and face are the most
sensitive of all those in the body, and the first ones, therefore, to
"cry out" when hurt.
Headache has been described as the cry of a poisoned or starved or
over-worked nerve, and is simply nature's signal that something is going
wrong. Toxins, or poisons, formed anywhere in the body, from any cause,
get into the blood, are carried to the sensitive nerves of the head and
face, and irritate them so that they ache. It is foolish to try to do
anything to the head itself for the relief of headache, although cold
cloths, or a hot-water bottle, may be soothing in mild cases. The thing
to do is to clear the poison out of the blood, and the only way is to
find what has caused it.
Nearly all the things that cause headache do so by poisoning the blood.
A very common cause of headache, for instance, is getting over-tired,
especially if at the same time you do not get enough sleep; and, as you
already know, tiredness, or fatigue, is a form of self-poisoning.
Another very common cause of headache is bad air--sitting or sleeping in
hot, stuffy rooms with the windows shut tight. If you do this, not only
are you not getting oxygen enough into your blood to burn up the waste
poisons that your own cells are making all the time, but also you are
breathing in the waste poisons from other people's lungs, and the germs
that are always in bad air.
Another very common cause of headache is _eye-strain_. Whenever you find
that, when you try to read, the letters begin to dance before your eyes,
and your head soon begins to ache, it is a sign that you need to have
your eyes examined and perhaps a pair of glasses fitted to enable you to
see properly.
Constipation and disturbances of digestion also very often cause
headache by poisoning the blood; and, as you know, the first sign of a
bad cold, or the beginning of a fever, or other illness, will often be a
bad headache.
In short, a headache always means that something is going wrong; and the
thing to do is to set to work at once to see if you can find out what
has caused it, and then to remove the cause. If you cannot find out the
cause, then go to a doctor and ask him to tell you what it is, and what
to do to get rid of it.
Above all things, don't swallow a dose of some kind of headache
medicine, and go on with your work, or your bad habits of eating, or
using your eyes; because, even though it may relieve the pain, it
doesn't do anything whatever to remove the cause and leaves you just as
badly off as you were before you took it. Besides, most of these
headache medicines, which for a time will relieve the pain of a
headache, are narcotics, or pain-deadeners; and in more than very
moderate doses they are poisons, and often dangerous ones. Those in
commonest use, known as the "coal tar" remedies, because the chemists
make them out of coal tar,[27] are likely to have a weakening effect
upon the heart; and, while not very dangerous in small doses, they are
very bad things to get into the habit of using.
The Exaggerated Claims of Patent Medicines. The same thing must be
said of the habit of dosing yourself every time you feel a pain or an
ache, with some sort of medicine, whether obtained at some previous time
from a doctor, or bought at a drug store. A large majority of the
medicines that are most widely advertised to cure all sorts of pains and
aches contain some form of narcotic--most commonly either alcohol or
opium. The reason for this is that no one medicine can possibly be a
cure for all sorts of diseases; and the only kind of medicine that will
make almost every one who takes it feel a little bit better for the time
being is a narcotic, because it has the power of deadening the nerves to
pain or discomfort.
Careful analyses by boards of health and government chemists of a great
number of advertised medicines have shown that three-fourths of the
so-called tonics and "bitters" and "bracers" of all sorts contain
alcohol--some of them in such large amounts as to be stronger and more
intoxicating than whiskey. The same investigations have found that a
large majority of the "colic cures," "pain relievers," nearly all the
"soothing syrups" and "teething syrups," and most of the cough mixtures,
cough cures, and consumption cures contain opium, often in quite
dangerous amounts. The widely-advertised medicines and remedies
guaranteed to cure all sorts of diseases in a very short time are almost
certain to be one of two things: either out-and-out frauds, costing
about four cents a bottle and selling for fifty cents or a dollar, or
else dangerous poisons. All patent pain relievers are safe things to let
entirely alone.
Another risk in taking medicines wholesale, especially those that are
known as patent medicines, is that you never can be quite sure what you
are taking, as their composition is usually kept a strict secret. It may
happen to be something very good for your disease, it may be entirely
useless, and it may be something very harmful. There is no one drug, or
medicine, known to the medical profession, that will cure more than one
or two diseases, or relieve more than four or five disturbed and
uncomfortable conditions. As you not only do not know what you are
taking, but are not always quite sure what is the matter with you, the
chances of your getting the right remedy for your disease are not much
more than one in a hundred. If it isn't the right thing, you are
certainly wasting your money, and may be doing yourself a serious
injury.
We should not pour drugs of which we know little into a body of which we
know less. Doctors give scarcely a fourth as much medicine now as they
did fifty years ago. The best cures are food, exercise, sleep, and fresh
air.
The Effects of Disease. In the case of nearly all infectious diseases,
the effects on the nervous system are among the last to appear, and may
not occur until weeks, months, or even years after the main fever or
attack of sickness. This is one of the reasons why, when they do occur,
they are often hard to cure; the whole system has become saturated with
the poisons before they reach the nerves at all. So it happens that the
idea has grown up that nervous diseases are very hard to cure. When,
however, we know that two-thirds of them are a late result of some of
the preventable infectious diseases and fevers, we can realize that it
is perfectly possible to prevent them, and that prevention is the best
cure.
The poisons that attack the brain and nervous system may be formed in
the body by disease germs or brought in from without, as are alcohol,
tobacco, lead, or arsenic. Even such mild infections as measles, scarlet
fever, and influenza may poison certain nerves supplying the muscles of
an arm or a leg, causing temporary paralysis, or even permanent laming;
or they may attack the nerve of sight or of hearing and produce
blindness or deafness.
A great many of the cases of paralysis and insanity are caused by
alcohol. Alcohol in excess may attack the nerves supplying the arms and
legs, producing severe pain and partial paralysis. It may also, after
long-continued use, affect the cells of the brain itself, producing the
horrible condition known as delirium tremens--a form of acute insanity
with distressing delusions, in which the patient imagines that he sees
rats, snakes, and other reptiles and vermin crawling over him, or in his
room. Even in those who never use it to such excess as this, or indeed
in those who may never become intoxicated, the long-continued use of
alcohol may produce a slow poisoning and general breaking-down of the
whole nervous system, causing in time the hand to tremble, the eye to
become bleared and dim, the gait weak and unsteady, the memory
uncertain, and the judgment poor.
Are Nervous Diseases Increasing? The direct use of the brain and
nervous system has much less to do with the production of its diseases
or even its serious disturbances than is usually believed. Most of
these, as we have seen, are due either to the poisons of disease or
alcohol, or to the fatigue-poisons, or other poisons, produced in the
stomach, the liver, the muscles, or other parts of the body. The worst
results of brain-work are due to the extent to which it deprives us of
proper exercise and fresh air. Good, vigorous mental activity,--hard
brain work, in fact,--when you are in good condition, is, if not
overdone, as healthful and almost as invigorating as physical exercise
or hearty play. We often hear it said that the rush and hurry of our
modern strenuous life is increasing the number of mental diseases and
nervous breakdowns. But there is no evidence that the strain of
civilization upon our brains and nervous systems is damaging them, or
that either nervous diseases or insanity are more frequent now than they
used to be one hundred or five hundred years ago. In fact, all the
evidence that we have points in exactly the opposite direction; for, as
we have seen, most of these brain and nerve diseases are due to
infectious diseases, bad food, and bad living conditions generally, all
of which the progress of modern civilization is rapidly lessening and
preventing.
We are collecting our insane in modern hospitals and comfortable homes,
instead of letting them wander in rags about the country, and this makes
them live longer and seem more numerous. But the poorest and least
highly civilized classes and races have much more insanity among them
than those who live under more favorable conditions.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Some of these coal-tar remedies are _Acetanilid_, and _Antipyrin_,
and _Phenacetin_.