If manure heaps or piles of dirt cannot, for any reason, be carried
away as often as this, then they can be sprinkled with something that
is poisonous to flies, such as arsenic or kerosene. This will kill the
maggots. If we keep every kind of waste and scraps from the house, and
all the manure from the barn and the pig-pen and the hen-house
carefully cleaned up, or sprinkled with some poison, we shall get rid
of flies entirely and never need to use screens at the doors and
windows. Until we do this, it is best to put screens at the doors and
windows in the summer time, and particularly to screen carefully any
place where food is kept or cooked; for we know that a great many
cases of typhoid and of other diseases of the stomach and bowels, such
as _summer sickness_, or summer _diarrhea_, and _cholera morbus_, are
carried to our food by the dirty feet of flies.
Many of the germs of "catching" diseases--most of them, in fact--are
carried in the air, in scales that have rubbed off the skin of the
persons sick with them, or in spray that they have coughed into the
air, or in saliva that they have spit upon the floor.
There is one sickness of this kind that I ought to tell you about,
because it kills so many thousand people here in our own country every
year. We sometimes call it the "Great White Plague." Its common name
is _consumption_, and the doctors call it _tuberculosis_. I dare say
you have heard of it and wondered what it meant.
A few years ago people thought it could not be cured. They thought
that children had it because their parents had had it before them. But
now, the cheering thing about it is that we have found that Mother
Nature herself can cure it with fresh air and sunshine and wholesome
food. We have found, too, that people catch it from others who are
sick with it, and need not have it just because their parents did.
[Illustration: FRESH AIR AND SUNLIGHT ARE GOOD DOCTORS]
This means, then, that thousands of people who have it need not die,
but can be cured simply by living and sleeping out of doors and eating
plenty of milk, eggs, and meat, nuts and fruit. There are camps for
them in almost every state in the Union now. The fresh air gives them
such a big appetite that they can eat more than most healthy people,
and they soon get strong and well.
If all the people who now have consumption were taken out into the
country and cured, there would be no one left for the rest of us to
catch it from, and the disease would soon die. Some day our Boards of
Health will decide to do this, and then consumption will become as
rare as smallpox is now, and will kill only a few hundred people a
year in the United States instead of 150,000 every year, as it does
now.
People and governments are giving great sums of money, not only to
cure the people who now have consumption, but to do something towards
stopping the disease by keeping things so clean and people so strong
that no one will ever have it. Even little children can help to fight
and kill this "Great White Plague," and I'll tell you how.
We know that, when people have consumption in their lungs, what they
cough and spit out of their mouths and blow out of their noses (we
call it _sputum_) has the germs, or seeds, of the disease in it. So,
to keep other people from catching the disease, they must hold
something before the face when they cough, and they must catch the
sputum in paper (newspapers or paper napkins are very good for this)
and burn it, for burning kills the germs. Then, too, they must not
kiss other people on the mouth, and others must not kiss them. They
must use their own drinking-cups, and never lend or borrow a cup. You
see, you can look out for these things, yourselves. When grown people
kiss you, just turn your cheek to them, instead of your mouth. Your
cheek will not carry anything to your windpipe and lungs. And be sure
to carry your own drinking-cup, or, better still, make the one for
which you already have the pattern, every time you need one.
[Illustration: HIS OWN CUP AND TOWEL]
This sounds easy enough; and it is, too. But sometimes people don't
know when they have this "plague," and of course they do not feel that
they must be careful. What is to be done, then?
If people won't take care of themselves, then the government has to
make health laws to protect them, and the health officers have to see
that the laws are obeyed. In many of the states and cities, laws have
been made so that nobody is allowed to spit on the sidewalk or in the
cars or in any other public place; and common drinking-cups are
forbidden at all park fountains and at the water-coolers in schools
and trains and stations and other public places.
You ought to know about these things, because, as I have just said,
other sicknesses, too, are carried about in the nose and mouth.
_Grippe_, _pneumonia_ or lung fever, and what we call _colds_ are
caught in exactly the same way. We used to think we caught them by
being chilled; but we are much more likely to take them by being shut
up in a hot, stuffy room with other people who already have them.
Mother Nature never gave us such things in her beautiful, clean
outdoors. We must wear clothes enough to keep us warm when we go out,
and have bedclothes enough to keep us warm while we sleep; but we need
not be afraid of catching any sickness from the clean outside air,
either by day or by night. Drafts are not dangerous, except when our
blood is already full of poisons and germs from foul air.
Of course it is foolish even for strong, healthy people to run any
risks that can be avoided, and there is one other thing that you
should keep on the watch against doing; and that is, touching or
kissing or playing with other children who may be sick. It is better
not even to sit in the same room with them if you can avoid it.
Many of the infectious diseases--and nearly three fourths of all the
diseases that children have are infectious--are caught, as we have
seen, from germs that are carried in the air. That is one reason why
so many infectious diseases are likely to begin with running at the
nose, or sneezing, or cold in the head, or sore throat. The germs,
having been breathed in with the air, catch on the sides of the
nostrils or at the back of the throat, and start inflammation and
soreness wherever they land. This is just the way that _measles_,
_scarlet fever_, _chicken pox_, _whooping cough_, and _diphtheria_
begin. Nearly all colds in the head, and sore throats with coughing,
are infectious; so the best thing to do whenever you have a bad cold
in the head, or a sore throat, is to keep out in the open air as much
as you can, until it is better. Of course, a cold is not such a
serious thing in itself; but, if it is neglected, it may lead to some
very dangerous troubles, particularly to inflammation of the lungs,
and sometimes even of the kidneys or the liver or the heart. Several
of these infectious diseases--measles, chicken pox, and scarlet fever,
for instance--have a rash, or breaking-out, called an _eruption_, upon
the skin. This is another thing easy to look out for; and if you see
anyone with a rash upon his face and hands, it is a good thing to keep
away from him and not let him touch you. Even if he should not have
measles or scarlet fever or chicken pox, but only a disease of the
skin itself, he still might spread the infection of that; for most
diseases that cause a breaking-out upon the surface of the skin are
infectious.
Some of these infectious diseases are so common among children that
they are called _Children's Diseases_, or the _Diseases of Infancy_,
just as if it were natural for you to have them while you are
children, and as if they were something that you have to have as a
matter of course, before you grow up.
But it isn't necessary at all to have them, if you will take care of
yourselves and help your doctors and the Board of Health of your
county or town or city to prevent their spreading. These diseases,
although usually very mild, never do anyone any good whatever, and may
do serious harm; for their poisons may stay in the blood and injure
the heart or the kidneys or the nerves.
One thing I should like to urge you to do if you happen to get one of
these "children's diseases"; and that is, to stay in bed or out of
school or away from work just as long as your doctor tells you to.
This is important, because it is very dangerous indeed to become
over-tired or overheated or chilled, or to get your feet wet or romp
too hard or sit up too late, before you have fully recovered; and you
will not have fully recovered until at least three or four weeks after
you are able to be out of bed. But if you take good care of yourselves
for three or four weeks after measles or chicken pox or whooping cough
or a very bad cold, you will avoid almost all danger of their poisons
injuring your heart or kidneys or nerves, and causing chronic
diseases, like Bright's disease or heart disease, later in life.
Perhaps now I have told you enough about poisons and sickness. You
must not be frightened about them. I have told you these things so
that you may understand why you must bathe, and brush your teeth, and
wash your face and hands, and wear clean clothes, and breathe fresh
air, and keep your windows open, and play out of doors--in fact, keep
your bodies clean inside and out. I know you will be glad enough to do
these things, troublesome though some of them may be, if you know the
reason why. The best of it is that when you keep perfectly clean and
healthy, not even the "Great White Plague" and cold seeds, or germs,
can hurt you, even though they get into your mouth or nose; for Mother
Nature gives healthy bodies the power to kill germs, and quite without
our knowing it.
[Illustration: ENJOYING "ALL OUTDOORS"