HOW TO LIVE
A MANUAL OF HYGIENE
_FOR USE IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS_
BY
ADELINE KNAPP
AUTHOR OF “THE STORY OF THE PHILIPPINES”
ILLUSTRATED
[Illustration]
SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1902,
BY SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE HUMAN BODY 7
II. THE STORY OF WATER 19
III. ABOUT FOOD 30
IV. ALL AROUND THE HOUSE 44
V. OUR OWN SELVES 63
VI. PUBLIC HYGIENE 81
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
THE SKULL, CHEST, AND ABDOMEN 8
THE CIRCULATION 11
THE WRONG WAY TO CARRY A BABY 16
GOVERNOR-GENERAL CARRIEDO 19
PUMPING STATION, MANILA WATERWORKS 20
THE WRONG PLACE FOR A WELL 23
A BADLY ARRANGED MARKET 31
A MARKET AS IT SHOULD BE 36
AN UNHEALTHFUL STREET 46
CLOTHES DRYING ON THE GROUND 59
THE BEST WAY TO DRY CLOTHES 60
THE SKIN MAGNIFIED 66
THE EAR 77
GATE COVERED WITH UNHEALTHFUL MOLD 84
HOW TO LIVE.
CHAPTER I.
THE HUMAN BODY.
In America, where they make the best locomotive engines in the world,
they say that the life of an engine is about twenty years. That is, when
they build an engine, they know about how much work it will have to do
and what usage it is likely to have. They know that the engine is strong
enough to do such work and stand such usage for twenty years. So they
say that the length of the engine’s life is twenty years.
Now, a man’s body is, in its way, a machine. It is made to do certain
work, and if it has the right sort of care, it ought to be healthy and
do the work required of it, to the end of the man’s life. It is
estimated that the natural life of a man is seventy years. This little
book is intended to tell us how to live and something about caring for
our bodies so that they shall last as long as possible, and be ready and
able to do their work in the world.
[Illustration:
THE SKULL, CHEST, AND ABDOMEN.
]
In a general way, we may compare the human body to three closed boxes,
one above another. These boxes are the skull, the chest, and the
abdomen. Each one has its own special contents, formed to do a special
work for the body. The skull is a hard, bony case made to contain the
brain. This is where the mind lives, and it is part of the work of the
mind to take care of the body and direct its movements. The brain
maintains a sort of telegraph station within itself. Wires, which we
call nerves, branch out from it to all parts of the body, and the brain
is constantly receiving messages over these wires and sending others
telling the muscles what to do. For instance, if the hand comes in
contact with something hot, a message instantly goes to the brain,
telling this fact. The brain sends back word to take the hand away, and
the hand is withdrawn. But all this is done so quickly that the hand
seems to be withdrawn the very instant that it comes in contact with the
fire. The skull is supported by the backbone, which connects it with the
second closed box.
This second cavity is the chest, which is really a sort of cage formed
by the ribs, the backbone, and the breastbone. In the chest are the
heart and the lungs. The heart is an engine. Put your hand over it and
you can feel the steady throb of its beat, day and night. It is working
all the time, whether you are awake or asleep. The business of the heart
is to send blood to all parts of the body. It does this by driving the
blood through tubes, called arteries and veins, that go all over the
body. The arteries are deep down among the muscles, but some of the
veins are close to the surface. We can see blue veins at the temples and
on the backs of our hands. All the blood goes to every part of the body
once in two minutes.
The food which a person eats is acted upon by the digestive fluids in
the body and is turned over and dissolved until it becomes fluid itself.
It is then taken up by the blood and carried to different parts of the
body, so that each organ and muscle gets what it needs. We shall learn,
a little later, just how the food gets into the blood. We have seen that
the heart sends the blood out through vessels, which are called
arteries. This blood starts from the heart bright red, full of fresh air
and food for the body. As it goes on its journey, each tissue takes from
it what is needed to keep that part healthy, and at last the blood has
given out all the good things with which it was loaded. It no longer
carries food and fresh air, but is full of the impurities taken in on
its journey. If something were not done to cleanse it, the man would
die.
[Illustration:
THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.
The blood is forced by the heart through the arteries (black lines),
and returns to it through the veins (dotted lines).
]
The impure blood flows from the arteries into the veins through tiny
canals. The veins are tubes something like the arteries, and they
usually lie beside the arteries. They and the arteries are like the two
tracks of a great railway line, one going from the main station, the
heart, the other coming back.
But the blood in the veins is not like that in the arteries. Instead of
being bright red, and healthy-looking, it is dark colored. It flows more
slowly, and it is full of impurities which it is carrying away from the
body. The veins carry this blood to the right side of the heart, and the
heart sends it to the lungs. There are many blood vessels in the lungs,
and they are divided into branches running in every direction through
the lung tissue. When we draw in a deep breath, we fill the lungs with
fresh air. This is at once taken up by the impure blood in the branching
blood vessels. The impurities are breathed out with the air that leaves
our lungs, and the blood once more becomes bright red and full of new
life. In this way the blood is purified. Then it is sent back to the
heart, all ready to start out again through the body. The whole journey
is made every two minutes.
The third box, which we call the abdominal cavity, is separated from the
chest by a broad, thin muscle, the diaphragm. The abdomen has a hard
floor of bone, but the walls are soft, being made up only of the muscles
and the lower ribs. In the abdomen are the stomach and intestines, the
liver, kidneys, and other organs of which we shall learn later.
Food is carried from the mouth to the stomach by the muscular tube which
passes through the chest just back of the breastbone. This tube is
called the esophagus. With the mouth, the stomach, and the bowels, it
forms what is called the food canal.
As soon as the food enters the mouth, it begins to turn from solid into
liquid form, so that the blood can take it up. We chew the food, so that
it may become mixed with the saliva in the mouth; then it is swallowed
and goes into the stomach. This is a kind of sack which holds about a
quart. Just as saliva is secreted in the mouth and acts upon the food,
so in the stomach there is a fluid called the gastric juice, which aids
digestion. The gastric juice mixes with the food, dissolves it, and
makes it soft, so that it can pass through the lower opening of the
stomach into the intestines. Here there are other juices which dissolve
still more of the food, until at last it is all liquid and looks like
milk.
Now it is taken up by the blood through tiny canals that reach down into
the intestines and absorb it. But it is not really a part of the blood
yet. It must be changed still further, so the blood carries it to the
liver. Here it is made a part of the blood, and is able to nourish all
parts of the body.
All the food that cannot be dissolved is indigestible, and the body must
get rid of it. Some of it passes off as solid matter, by way of the
bowels; some is got rid of through the urine; some goes out with the
breath, as we have seen; and a great deal goes off in the perspiration.
This is why we need to bathe our bodies and to wash our clothing. The
perspiration brings the bad matter to the surface, where it clings to
the skin and the clothing until it is removed by washing.
But this series of boxes, which we call the head and trunk of the body,
would be very helpless without the legs and arms to carry them about and
to wait upon them. Taken all together, the head, trunk, and limbs form
the body. The framework, which we call the skeleton, is made up of
bones. These bones are like the framework of a house,—they keep the body
upright and support the muscles. In young people the bones are soft and
elastic. A baby often has falls that would break the bones of a grown
person, but the baby’s bones are not broken because they are not yet
hardened. This is an advantage, for children get a great many more falls
than grown people do, and it would be hard for them if the bones were
broken as easily.
But if children’s bones do not break, they bend, and it is easy for them
to grow into bad shape. If children do not sit up straight they become
round-shouldered, and many children get into the habit of carrying one
shoulder higher than the other. Often, too, they are careless about
walking and sitting properly.
[Illustration:
THE WRONG WAY TO CARRY A BABY.
]
In this country, where nearly all weights are carried on the head, we
rarely see a man who does not carry his head and shoulders well. He
learns in childhood to keep his shoulders even and to hold his head up.
But there is one custom of the country which prevents the people from
walking well. This is the practice of carrying little children on the
hip. It is bad for the children, as it strains the muscles of the lower
part of the back, and bends the soft little bones so that they do not
grow straight as they naturally would. It is bad, too, for the person
who carries the child. The body is thrown to one side, the weight of the
child presses the soft organs of the abdomen downward, and the effect is
often serious. It is very bad indeed for one child to carry another this
way. Babies should be carried in the arms, as European children are.
When we walk, we should let the weight of the body rest on the soles of
the feet. We should lift the foot free from the ground and carry it
straight forward when we step. Some day, if you will study the
difference between the walk of a good horse and that of a carabao, you
will see how a man should walk. The horse lifts his hind foot, carries
it straight forward, and sets it down almost exactly in the print his
front foot made. The carabao lifts his hind foot, swings it outward in
an awkward curve, brings it back into line, and sets it down in much the
same way as the horse. But he loses a little time swinging it outward,
and he looks very clumsy, as well.
Now, some people, instead of walking like horses, walk like carabaos.
They scuffle along the street with dragging steps, rolling their hips,
and swinging their feet outward, just as these animals do. They look
lazy and clumsy, and as if they could hardly hold their bodies together.
People should learn to walk well while they are young.
The bones are covered with muscles, which are what we mean when we say
the _flesh_. There are a great many muscles in the body. They give it
shape and move it about. When we bend an arm or a finger, we do it by
the action of the muscles. The brain tells the muscles how to act, as we
have seen. It sends messages along the nerves, and the muscles obey. We
can make our muscles strong by exercise, but if we do not use them
enough, they will grow weak and soft.
QUESTIONS.
How does the brain send messages to the different parts of the body?
What does the heart do?
What does the blood take up from the body?
How does it get rid of impurities?
What becomes of food after it is swallowed?
How are the bones of a child different from those of a grown person?
How does it hurt the bones to sit or stand badly?
Why should we sit up straight?
How ought babies to be carried?
Why is it hurtful to carry them on the hip?
What do we call the muscles?
What are their uses?
How can we make our muscles strong?