Calcutta"? Give other illustrations of the dangers of bad air. Describe
the need of ventilation. Will a single breath pollute the air?
86-95. How can we detect the floating impurities in the air? What is the
influence of a fire or a light? Of a hot stove? When is the ventilation
perfect? What diseases are largely owing to bad air? Should the windows
and doors be tightly closed, if we have no other means of ventilation? Is
not a draught of air dangerous? How can we prevent this, and yet secure
fresh air? What is the general principle of ventilation? Must pure air
necessarily be cold air? Are schoolrooms always properly ventilated? What
is the effect? Are churches? Are our bedrooms? Should children or delicate
people sleep in cold rooms? Can we, at night, breathe anything but night
air? Is the night air out of doors ever injurious? _Ans_. In times
and places of malaria, and also in very damp weather, it should be
avoided, even at the risk of bad air in doors. Describe some of the
wonders of respiration.
96. How is constriction of the lungs produced? When may clothing be
considered tight? What are the dangers of tight lacing? Which would make
the stronger, more vigorous, and longer-lived person, the form shown in
_A_ or _B_, Fig. 33? Is it safe to run any risk in this
dangerous direction?
97. What is Bronchitis? Pleurisy? Pneumonia? Consumption? What is one
great cause of Consumption? How may a constitutional tendency to this
disease be warded off in youth? _Ans_. Besides plenty of fresh air
and exercise, care should be taken in the diet. Rich pastry, unripe fruit,
salted meat, and acid drinks should be avoided, and a certain quantity of
fat should be eaten at each meal.--BENNETT. What is asphyxia? Describe the
process for restoring such a person. (See p. 264.)
98. What is diphtheria? Its peculiarities? Danger? The croup? Its
characteristics? Remedy? (See p. 260.) Causes of stammering? How cured?
297. How does the singing voice differ from the speaking voice? How can
you prove the effect of duration of sound in speaking and singing? How do
the intonations of the voice affect the meaning of words?
298. Give illustrations of speech in persons without a tongue. What is the
effect of alcohol and tobacco on the throat? Do they have an influence on
the voice? Does the excessive use of tea and coffee ever affect the voice?
How? To what is the hoarse tone of an inebriate due?
299, 300. What was Adelina Patti's advice with regard to stimulants and
late hours? Does the respiration of woman differ from that of man? Give
experiments with Indian women. What lessons do we draw from these facts?
What rule should be observed in regard to the size of a bodice? What are
bacteria or microbes? How is their existence revealed? What does the Germ
Theory of Disease teach in regard to microbes?
301. What can you say about the microbe of putrefaction? How can you
obtain it for examination? What office in Nature do bacteria seem to
serve? Give the theory in regard to propagation of special disease germs.
Do they always cause disease when taken into the body? [Footnote: Of the
immense number and variety of microorganisms found in Nature, only very
few are disease producing. Dr. Austin Flint says in _The Forum_, for
December, 1888: "It is probable that future investigations into the
physiology of digestion, will show that bacteria play an important part in
this function. Pasteur has recently isolated no less than seventeen
different microorganisms in the mouth, which were not destroyed by the
gastric juice. Some of these dissolved albumen, gluten, and caseine, and
some transformed starch into sugar. Bacteria normally exist in great
number and variety in the intestines, although the part which they take in
intestinal digestion has not been accurately determined."--The number of
spores introduced into the human system by respiration, when the health is
perfectly sound, has been estimated at three hundred thousand a day.]
302. State some conditions which favor the growth of disease germs. Which
prevent or retard their growth. Relate the effect of vaccination,
according to the germ theory.
303. 304. If a drop of an infusion charged with bacteria be put in the
extract of beef or mutton, what is the result? What would be the effect
upon an open wound? Give Dr. Tyndall's personal experience. Name some
efficient antidote against the bacteria of putrefaction. _Ans_.
Carbolic acid solution is extensively used for this purpose. How are
disease germs often disseminated? State the necessity of disinfection in
regard to soiled clothing.
305. Illustrate how disease has been communicated by clothing. What is the
first necessary condition to a sanitary home? What is the meaning of the
word malaria? What are three active agents in the production of malaria? A
fourth? Describe a typical malarious locality. How does newly broken
ground induce malaria?
306. State the different ways in which running water can be contaminated.
What care should be taken in regard to the level of building site?
307. Give some of the results of a wet foundation. What rules should be
observed in regard to shade? What is the effect of too dense foliage about
a dwelling? In building a house, what precautions should be taken against
dampness? What about the cellar? Sewerage? Plumbing? Ventilation?
Fireplaces? Piazzas and balconies? Sleeping rooms?
308. What general purpose does a house serve? What care should be taken in
regard to the dust or ash heap? What is the effect if liquids or table
refuse be thrown upon it? Where should it be situated? How often should
refuse be carted away? If its frequent removal be inexpedient, what
precaution should be used? What are the best of all deodorizers? How
should the back premises be cared for? What is the best way to dispose of
household garbage?
309. How can this be done? With what additional advantage? Give Dr.
Derby's remarks in regard to sewers, their condition, and the results. How
should traps and drains be cared for? How should bad smells be treated? Is
a foul smell always the most dangerous? How do poisonous gases often find
entrance to a house? What rule should be observed in regard to ventilating
and soil pipes?
310. What precautions should be observed in digging about a dwelling? How
do waste pipes often become closed? How may they be cleared? What dangers
arise from unventilated waste pipes? How are washbasin pipes contaminated?
Tell what came from a neighbor's cesspool. Can you name similar instances
which have come under your own observation?
311, 312. Describe the condition and effects of a neglected cellar. Tell
what came from a crack in a cellar wall.
313. What effect have brick and mortar in keeping out gases? How do bed
coverings take the place of day garments? What kind of bed covering is
desirable? Is a comfortable bed necessary to perfect health? How often and
for how long time should a bed be ventilated?
THE CIRCULATION.
105. Name the organs of the circulation. Does the blood permeate all parts
of the body? What is the average amount in each person? Its composition?
The plasma? The red corpuscles? The white?
106. What is the size of a red cell? Are the shape and size uniform? Value
of this? Illustrate. Are the disks permanent? What substances are
contained in the plasma? What is fibrin?
107. In what sense is the blood "liquid flesh"? What is the use of the red
disks? What is the office of the oxygen in the body? Where is the blood
purified?
108. What is transfusion? Is it of value?
109. Give some illustrations. What is the cause of coagulation of the
blood? Value of this property? Has the fibrin any other use?
110. What organ propels the blood? What is the location of the heart? How
large is it? Put your hand over it. What is the pericardium? Describe the
systole.
111. The diastole. How many chambers in the heart? What is their average
size? What is meant by the right and left heart? What are the auricles?
Why so called? The ventricles?
112. What is the use of the auricles? The ventricles? Which are made the
stronger? Show the need of valves in the ventricles. Why are there no
valves in the auricles? Draw on the board the form of the valves. Name
them.
113. Describe the tricuspid valve. The bicuspid. How are these valves
strengthened?
114. What peculiarity in the attachment of these cords? Describe the
semilunar valves. What are the arteries? Why so named? What is their use?
Their structure? How does their elasticity act? What is meant by a
"collateral circulation"?
115. How are the arteries protected? Where are they located? Give a
general description of the arterial system. What is the aorta? What is the
pulse? On which arteries can we best feel it? What is the average number
of beats per minute? How and why does this vary?
116. Why does a physician feel a patient's pulse? What are the veins? What
blood do they carry? Describe the venous system. What vein does not lead
toward the heart? Describe the valves of the veins. What valves of the
heart do they resemble? What are varicose veins?
117. Where and how can we see the operation of these valves? What are the
capillaries? What is the function of the capillaries? [Footnote: The
distinctive function of the capillaries is to offer peripheral resistance
to the circulation of the blood. This insures "blood pressure," a
condition indispensable to the "heart beat," and also causes leakage
(transudation). This leakage brings the nutriment in contact with the
tissue cells, whereby they are renewed. In the same way the air passes
from the blood to the cells.] What changes take place in this system?
118. Describe the circulation of the blood as seen in the web of a frog's
foot.
119. Who discovered the circulation of the blood? How was the discovery
received? What remark did Harvey make? What does that show? Name the two
divisions of the circulation. Describe the route of the blood by the
diagram. 1. The lesser circulation. 2. The greater circulation.
120. What is the velocity of the blood? How long does it require for all
the blood to pass through the heart? How long does it take the blood to
make the tour of the body? What is the average temperature of the body?
How much does this vary in health? _Ans_. Not more than 2°, even in
the greatest extremes of temperature.--FLINT.
121. How and where is the heat of the body generated? How is it
distributed? In what diseases is the variation of temperature marked? How
is the temperature of the body regulated?
122. In what way does life exist through death? Is not this as true in the
moral as in the physical world? What does it teach? How rapidly do our
bodies change? What are the three vital organs?
123. Name some of the wonders of the heart.
124-126. What is the lymphatic circulation? What is the thoracic duct? The
lymph? The glands? What is the office of the lymphatics? What are the
lacteals? Give some illustrations of the action of the lymphatics of the
different organs. Should we use care in selecting wall paper? What is
meant by the subcutaneous insertion of morphine? How do hibernating
animals live during the winter? What is a congestion? Its cause?
127. What is blushing? Why does terror cause one to grow cold and pale?
How is an inflammation caused? Name its four characteristics.
128. How may severe bleeding be stopped? How can you tell whether the
blood comes from an artery or a vein? Why should you know this? What is
the scrofula? What are "kernels"?
129, 130. How may a scrofulous tendency of the system be counteracted?
What kinds of food stimulate this disease? What is the cause of a "cold"?
Why does exposure sometimes cause a cold in the head, sometimes on the
lungs, and at others bring on a rheumatic attack? Why is a cold dangerous?
_Ans_. It weakens the system and paves the way for other diseases.
What is the theory of treating a cold? Describe the method. What is
catarrh? Cause?
131, 132. How is alcohol produced? Is alcohol present in domestic wines
and home-brewed ales? Are they, then, harmless drinks? What is a ferment?
(See also pp. 300, 301.) What is the difference between ferments,
bacteria, microbes, and fungi? _Ans_. A few investigators still look
upon the microorganisms known as bacteria and microbes as animal
existences, but the larger part now concede them to be vegetable.
133. What is the effect of fermentation? What can you say concerning
yeast?
134. Explain the process of making beer. Wine. What is distillation?
135, 136. Is there more than one kind of alcohol? What can you say of
methyl alcohol? Amyl? Ethyl? Which is the ordinary alcohol of commerce?
What is the peculiar effect of fusel oil? Is it often found in wines and
spirits? Has alcohol any beneficial properties?
137, 138. Describe one of the striking effects of alcohol. What is the
effect of alcohol on plant and animal life?
139, 140. What is the difference between the alcohol present in beer and
cider, and that in gin and whiskey? Name another dangerous effect of
alcoholic drinks. What business consideration should deter young men from
liquor drinking?
141-143. Illustrate the general effect of alcohol upon the circulation.
Upon the heart. Is alcohol a stimulant or a narcotic? Describe how alcohol
becomes the "Genius of Degeneration." Explain what is meant by "Vascular
Enlargement."
144, 145. Describe the effect of alcohol upon the membranes. Upon the
blood. Does it render the blood thin or heavy? What is the difference
between pure and alcoholized blood?
145-147. Describe the effect of alcohol upon the lungs. What form of
consumption does it induce? Are liquor drinkers more or less liable to
epidemic diseases?
314. How does the pulse felt by the finger correspond with the beat of the
heart? Name some agencies that influence the pulse beat? Which part of the
body has the most varied form of pulsation?
315. Compare the pulses of the wrist and brain in the sleeping and the
waking states. How do catarrhal colds generally arise? How are they best
cured?
316. What is said of the vitality of catarrh germs? What is a popular
fallacy with regard to the care of sick rooms? Give Dr. Austin Flint's
remarks in this connection.
DIGESTION AND FOOD.
151. Why do we need food? Why will a person starve without food? Are the
current stories of people who live without food to be relied upon? How
much food is needed per day by an adult in active exercise?
152. How much in a year? How does this amount vary? Describe the body as a
mold. As an eddy. What does food do for us? What does food contain?
153. How is this force set free? What force is this? How can it be turned
into muscular motion, mental vigor, etc.? Do we then draw all our power
from nature? What becomes of these forces when we are done with them? Do
we destroy the force we use? _Ans_. No matter has been destroyed, so
far as we know, since the creation, and force is equally indestructible.
Compare our food to a tense spring.
154. What three kinds of food do we need? What is nitrogenous food? Name
the common forms. What is the characteristic of nitrogenous food? Why
called albuminous? What is carbonaceous food? Its two kinds? Constituents
of sugar? Where are starch and gum ranked? Why? Use of carbonaceous food?
What becomes of this heat? Composition of fat? How does fat compare with
sugar in producing heat?
155. Name the other uses of carbonaceous food. From what kind of food does
the body derive the greatest strength? Name the mineral matters which
should be contained in our food. What can you say of the abundance and
necessity of water? Ought we not to exercise great care in selecting the
water we drink? [Footnote: Water which has passed through lead pipes is
apt to contain salts of that metal, and is therefore open to suspicion.
Metallic lined ice pitchers, galvanized-iron reservoirs, and many soda-
water fountains, are liable to the same objection. (See pp. 317, 318.)]
Does the character of our food influence the quantity of water we need?
156. What are the uses of the different minerals contained in food?
Illustrate the importance of salt. Could a person live on one kind of food
alone? Illustrate.
157. Describe the effect of living on lean meat. Show the necessity of a
mixed diet. Illustrate. Show the need of digestion. Illustrate.
158. What is assimilation? Describe the general plan of digestion. What
did Berzelius call digestion? Why? What amount of liquid is daily secreted
by the alimentary canal? What is the alimentary canal? How is it lined?
How does the amba digest its food?
159. The hydra? Define secretion. Describe the saliva. How is it secreted?
What is the amount? Its organic principle? Its use? How soon does it act?
How long? What tends to check or increase the flow of saliva?
160. Describe the process of swallowing. The stomach. Its size. Its
construction. What is the peristaltic movement?
162. What is the pylorus? For what does this open? What is the gastric
juice? How abundant is it? To what is its acidity due? What organic
principle does it contain? How is pepsin prepared? How is the flow of
gastric juice influenced?
163. What is its use? Appearance of the food as it passes through the
pylorus? Why is not the stomach itself digested? What is the construction
of the intestines? How are the intestines divided? What is the duodenum?
Why so called? What juices are secreted here?
164. What is the bile? Describe the liver. What is its weight? Its
construction? _Ans_. It consists of a mass of polyhedral cells only
1/100 to 1/2000 of an inch in diameter, filling a mesh of capillaries. The
capillaries carry the blood to and fro, and the cells secrete the bile.
What is the cyst? What does the liver secrete from the blood besides the
bile? Is the bile necessary to life? Illustrate. What is its use?
165. What is the pancreatic juice? Its organic principle? Its use?
Appearance of the food when it leaves the duodenum? Describe the small
intestine. What is absorption? In what two ways is the food absorbed?
166. Where does the process commence? How long does it last? Describe the
lacteals. Of what general system do they form a part? What do the veins
absorb? Where do they carry the food? How is it modified?
167. What is glycogen? Describe the complexity of the process of
digestion. What length of time is required for digestion in the stomach?
168. May not food which requires little time in the stomach need more in
the other organs, and _vice versa_? Tell the story of Alexis St.
Martin. What time was required to digest an ordinary meal? Apples? Eggs,
raw and cooked? Roast beef? Pork? Which is the king of the meats? What is
the nutritive value of mutton? Lamb? How should it be cooked? Objection to
pork? What is the trichina?
169. Should ham ever be eaten raw? Value of fish? Oysters? Milk? Cheese?
Eggs? Bread? Brown bread? Are warm biscuit and bread healthful? Nutritive
value of corn?
170. Of the potato? Of ripe fruits? Of coffee? To what is its stimulating
property due? Its influence on the system? When should it be discarded?
Should children use any stimulants?
171. Effects of tea? Influence of strong tea? What is the active principle
of tea? Nutritive value of chocolate? What is its active principle? Story
of Linnæus? How should tea be made? What is the effect of cooking food?
What precaution in boiling meat? In roasting? Object of this high
temperature? What precaution in making soup? Why is frying an unhealthful
mode of cooking?
172. State the five evil results of rapid eating. What disease grows out
of it? If one is compelled to eat a meal rapidly, as at a railroad
station, what should he take? Why? Why does a child need more food
proportionately than an old person? State the relation of waste to repair
in youth, in middle, and in old age. What kind and quantity of food does a
sedentary occupation require? What caution should students who have been
accustomed to manual labor observe? Must a student starve himself?
173. Is there not danger of overeating? Would not an occasional abstinence
from a meal be beneficial? Do not most people eat more than is for their
good? How should the season regulate our diet? The climate? Illustrate.
What does a natural appetite indicate? How are we to judge between a
natural and an artificial longing? What does the craving of childhood for
sugar indicate? [Footnote: It does not follow from this, however, that the
free use of sugar in its separate form is desirable. The ordinary articles
of vegetable food contain sugar (or starch, which in the body is converted
into sugar), in large proportion; and there is good reason to believe that
in its naturally combined form it is both more easily digested, and more
available for the purposes of nutrition, than when crystallized. The
ordinary sugar of commerce, moreover, derived from the sugar cane, is not
capable of being directly applied to physiological purposes. Cane sugar is
converted within the body into another kind of sugar, identical with that
derived from the grape, before it can enter into the circuit of the vital
changes.]
174. What is the effect upon the circulation of taking food? Should we
labor or study just before or after a meal? Why not? What time should
intervene between our meals? Is "lunching" a healthful practice? Eating
heartily just before retiring? Is it never wise to eat at this time? (See
p. 337.) Why should care be banished from the table? Will a regular
routine of food be beneficial?
175, 176. Describe some of the wonders of digestion. What are the
principal causes of dyspepsia? How may we avoid that disease?
177. What are the mumps? What care should be taken? Is alcohol a food?
Illustrate.
178-187. Compare the action of alcohol with that of water. Is the alcohol
taken into the stomach eliminated unchanged? Does alcohol contain any
element needed by the body? What is the effect of alcohol upon the
digestion? Will pepsin act in the presence of alcohol? What is the effect
of alcohol upon the liver? What is "Fatty Degeneration"? What is the
effect of alcohol upon the kidneys? Does alcohol impart heat to the body?
Does it confer strength? What does Dr. Kane say? Describe Richardson's
experiments. Tell what peculiar influence alcohol exerts. What is
alcoholism? What is heredity?
317. What characteristics should good drinking water possess? Are these
always proof of its purity? Will filters remove all danger of
contamination? How may a river infect the entire population of a town?
State how well water may become a dangerous drink.
318. Relate how cases of fever have been caused by carelessness in
dairies. How should suspected water be treated? Describe a convenient
portable filter. Tell how water is affected by foul air.
319. Tell how ice may breed disease. What caution should be observed in
engaging ice for our summer supply? Illustrate the structure of the
glandular coat of the stomach.
320. What is the office of the cells? Describe the life history of a cell.
How does the stomach weep, and what is the character of its tears?
321. What is tyrotoxicon? Give Dr. Vaughan's experiments with cheese,
milk, and ice cream. Tell how milk may be poisoned.
322. Compare the vigor of exclusively fish-eating with flesh-eating
people. What is the peculiar value of fish as a diet? To what class of
people is it best suited? Name examples. Describe the principles contained
in coffee. What is the effect of caffeone? Of caffeine? Give some of the
specific effects of coffee. How does tea differ from coffee? Describe the
injurious effects of excessive tea drinking.
324. Compare theine and cocaine. Should children drink tea and coffee?
325. Give some causes of indigestion. Why are nervous people prone to
dyspepsia? Give the comparative digestibility of various meats.
326. Describe how our food sustains our bodies. Illustrate the energy
contained in one gramme of beef fat. Why is there danger in a "high-
pressure" style of living? Illustrate.
327. State the effects of gluttony. Why is it unkindness to indulge
inordinate appetites in children? What should be the rule in regard to
their food? What effects would follow its observance?
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.