Produced by Stephen Hope, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
CHILD'S HEALTH PRIMER.
[Illustration: WASTING MONEY. (See p. 123.)]
PATHFINDER PHYSIOLOGY No. 1
CHILD'S
HEALTH PRIMER
FOR PRIMARY CLASSES
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS,
STIMULANTS, AND NARCOTICS UPON THE HUMAN SYSTEM
INDORSED BY THE
SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT OF THE
WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION
OF THE
UNITED STATES
COPYRIGHT, 1885
A. S. BARNES & COMPANY
NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
PATHFINDER SERIES
OF TEXT BOOKS ON
ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, AND HYGIENE.
With Special Reference to the Influence of Alcoholic
Drinks and Narcotics on the Human System.
INDORSED BY THE SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT OF THE
WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF THE UNITED
STATES.
I.
FOR PRIMARY GRADES.
THE CHILD'S HEALTH PRIMER.
12mo. Cloth.
An introduction to the study of the science, suited to
pupils of the ordinary third reader grade.
Full of lively description and embellished by many apt
illustrations.
II.
FOR INTERMEDIATE CLASSES.
HYGIENE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.
12mo. Cloth. Beautifully illustrated.
Suited to pupils able to read any fourth reader.
An admirable elementary treatise upon the subject.
The principles of the science more fully announced
and illustrated.
III.
FOR HIGH SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES.
HYGIENIC PHYSIOLOGY.
12mo. Beautifully illustrated.
A MORE ELABORATE TREATISE.
Prepared for the instruction of youth in the principles which
underlie the preservation of health and the
formation of correct physical habits.
PREFACE
As this little book goes to press, Massachusetts, by an act of its
legislature, is made the fourteenth state in this country that requires
the pupils in the primary, as well as in the higher grades of public
schools, to be taught the effects of alcoholics and other narcotics upon
the human system, in connection with other facts of physiology and
hygiene.
The object of all this legislation is, not that the future citizen may
know the technical names of bones, nerves, and muscles, but that he may
have a _=timely=_ and _=forewarning=_ knowledge of the effects of
alcohol and other popular poisons upon the human body, and therefore
upon life and character.
With every reason in favor of such education, and the law requiring it,
its practical tests in the school-room will result in failure, unless
there shall be ready for teacher and scholar, a well-arranged, simple,
and practical book, bringing these truths down to the capacity of the
child.
A few years hence, when the results of this study in our Normal Schools
shall be realized in the preparation of the teacher, we can depend upon
her adapting oral lessons from advanced works on this theme, but now,
the average primary teacher brings to this study no experience, and
limited previous study.
To meet this need, this work has been prepared. Technical terms have
been avoided, and only such facts of physiology developed as are
necessary to the treatment of the effects of alcohol, tobacco, opium,
and other truths of hygiene.
To the children in the Primary Schools of this country, for whom it was
prepared, this work is dedicated.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
FRONTISPIECE 2
TITLE-PAGE 3
PREFACE 5
CONTENTS 7
I.--JOINTS AND BONES 9
II.--MUSCLES 19
III.--NERVES 25
IV.--WHAT IS ALCOHOL? 37
V.--BEER 43
VI.--DISTILLING 47
VII.--ALCOHOL 50
VIII.--TOBACCO 53
IX.--OPIUM 59
X.--WHAT ARE ORGANS? 61
XI.--WHAT DOES THE BODY NEED FOR FOOD? 71
XII.--HOW FOOD BECOMES PART OF THE BODY 79
XIII.--STRENGTH 85
XIV.--THE HEART 93
XV.--THE LUNGS 97
XVI.--THE SKIN 103
XVII.--THE SENSES 109
XVIII.--HEAT AND COLD 115
XIX.--WASTED MONEY 122
CHAPTER I.
JOINTS AND BONES.
[Illustration: L]ITTLE girls like a jointed doll to play with, because
they can bend such a doll in eight or ten places, make it stand or sit,
or can even play that it is walking.
[Illustration: _Jointed dolls._]
As you study your own bodies to-day, you will find that you each have
better joints than any dolls that can be bought at a toy shop.
HINGE-JOINTS.
Some of your joints work like the hinges of a door, and these are called
hinge-joints.
You can find them in your elbows, knees, fingers, and toes.
How many hinge-joints can you find?
Think how many hinges must be used by the boy who takes off his hat and
makes a polite bow to his teacher, when she meets him on the street.
How many hinges do you use in running up-stairs, opening the door,
buttoning your coat or your boots, playing ball or digging in your
garden?
You see that we use these hinges nearly all the time. We could not do
without them.
BALL AND SOCKET JOINTS.
All our joints are not hinge-joints.
Your shoulder has a joint that lets your arm swing round and round, as
well as move up and down.
Your hip has another that lets your leg move in much the same way.
[Illustration: _The hip-joint._]
This kind of joint is the round end or ball of a long bone, which moves
in a hole, called a socket.
Your joints do not creak or get out of order, as those of doors and
gates sometimes do. A soft, smooth fluid, much like the white of an egg,
keeps them moist and makes them work easily.
BONES.
What parts of our bodies are jointed together so nicely? Our bones.
How many bones have we?
If you should count all your bones, you would find that each of you has
about two hundred.
Some are large; and some, very small.
There are long-hones in your legs and arms, and many short ones in your
fingers and toes. The backbone is called the spine.
[Illustration: _Backbone of a fish._]
If you look at the backbone of a fish, you can see that it is made up-of
many little bones. Your own spine is formed in much the same way, of
twenty-four small bones. An elastic cushion of gristle (gr[)i]s'l) fits
nicely in between each little bone and the next.
When you bend, these cushions are pressed together on one side and
stretched on the other. They settle back into their first shape, as
soon as you stand straight again.
If you ever rode in a wheelbarrow, or a cart without springs, you know
what a jolting it gave you. These little spring cushions keep you from
being shaken even more severely every time you move.
Twenty-four ribs, twelve on each side, curve around from the spine to
the front, or breast, bone. (_See page 38._)
They are so covered with flesh that perhaps you can not feel and count
them; but they are there.
Then you have two flat shoulder-blades, and two collar-bones that almost
meet in front, just where your collar fastens.
Of what are the bones made?
Take two little bones, such as those from the legs or wings of a
chicken, put one of them into the fire, when it is not very hot, and
leave it there two or three hours. Soak the other bone in some weak
muriatic (m[=u] r[)i] [)a]t'[)i]k) acid. This acid can be bought of any
druggist.
You will have to be careful in taking the bone out of the fire, for it
is all ready to break. If you strike it a quick blow, it will crumble to
dust. This dust we call lime, and it is very much like the lime from
which the mason makes mortar.
[Illustration: _Bone tied to a knot._]
The acid has taken the lime from the other bone, so only the part which
is not lime is left. You will be surprised to see how easily it will
bend. You can twist it and tie it into a knot; but it will not easily
break.
You have seen gristle in meat. This soft part of the bone is gristle.
Children's bones have more gristle than those of older people; so
children's bones bend easily.
I know a lady who has one leg shorter than the other. This makes her
lame, and she has to wear a boot with iron supports three or four inches
high, in order to walk at all.
One day she told me how she became lame.
"I remember," she said, "when I was between three and four years old,
sitting one day in my high chair at the table, and twisting one foot
under the little step of the chair. The next morning I felt lame; but
nobody could tell what was the matter. At last, the doctors found out
that the trouble all came from that twist. It had gone too far to be
cured. Before I had this boot, I could only walk with a crutch."
CARE OF THE SPINE.
Because the spine is made of little bones with cushions between them, it
bends easily, and children sometimes bend it more than they ought.
If you lean over your book or your writing or any other work, the
elastic cushions may get so pressed on the inner edge that they do not
easily spring back into shape. In this way, you may grow
round-shouldered or hump-backed.
This bending over, also cramps the lungs, so that they do not have all
the room they need for breathing. While you are young, your bones are
easily bent. One shoulder or one hip gets higher than the other, if you
stand unevenly. This is more serious, because you are growing, and you
may grow crooked before you know it.
Now that you know how soft your bones are, and how easily they bend, you
will surely be careful to sit and stand erect. Do not twist your legs,
or arms, or shoulders; for you want to grow into straight and graceful
men and women, instead of being round-shouldered, or hump-backed, or
lame, all your lives.
When people are old, their bones contain more lime, and, therefore,
break more easily.
You should be kindly helpful to old people, so that they may not fall,
and possibly break their bones.
CARE OF THE FEET.
Healthy children are always out-growing their shoes, and sometimes
faster than they wear them out. Tight shoes cause corns and in-growing
nails and other sore places on the feet. All of these are very hard to
get rid of. No one should wear a shoe that pinches or hurts the foot.
OUGHT A BOY TO USE TOBACCO?
Perhaps some boy will say: "Grown people are always telling us, 'this
will do for men, but it is not good for boys.'"
Tobacco is not good for men; but there is a very good reason why it is
worse for boys.
If you were going to build a house, would it be wise for you to put into
the stone-work of the cellar something that would make it less strong?
Something into the brick-work or the mortar, the wood-work or the nails,
the walls or the chimneys, that would make them weak and tottering,
instead of strong and steady?
It would he had enough if you should repair your house with poor
materials; but surely it must be built in the first place with the best
you can get.
You will soon learn that boys and girls are building their bodies, day
after day, until at last they reach full size.
Afterward, they must be repaired as fast as they wear out.
It would be foolish to build any part in a way to make it weaker than
need be.
Wise doctors have said that the boy who uses tobacco while he is
growing, makes every part of his body less strong than it otherwise
would be. Even his bones will not grow so well.
Boys who smoke can not become such large, fine-looking men as they would
if they did not smoke.
Cigarettes are small, but they are very poisonous. Chewing tobacco is a
worse and more filthy habit even than smoking. The frequent spitting it
causes is disgusting to others and hurts the health of the chewer.
Tobacco in any form is a great enemy to youth. It stunts the growth,
hurts the mind, and cripples in every way the boy or girl who uses it.
Not that it does all this to every youth who smokes, but it is always
true that no boy of seven to fourteen can begin to smoke or chew and
have so fine a body and mind when he is twenty-one years old as he would
have had if he had never used tobacco. If you want to be strong and well
men and women, do not use tobacco in any form.
REVIEW QUESTIONS.
1. What two kinds of joints have you?
2. Describe each kind.
3. Find as many of each kind as you can.
4. How are the joints kept moist?
5. How many bones are there in your whole body?
6. Count the bones in your hand.
7. Of how many bones is your spine made?
8. Why could you not use it so well if it were all
in one piece?
9. What is the use of the little cushions between
the bones of the spine?
10. How many ribs have you?
11. Where are they?
12. Where are the shoulder-blades?
13. Where are the collar-bones?
14. What are bones made of?
15. How can we show this?
16. What is the difference between the bones of
children and the bones of old people?
17. Why do children's bones bend easily?
18. Tell the story of the lame lady.
19. What does this story teach you?
20. What happens if you lean over your desk or
work?
21. How will this position injure your lungs?
22. What other bones may be injured by wrong
positions?
23. Why do old people's bones break easily?
24. How should the feet be cared for?
25. How does tobacco affect the bones?
26. What do doctors say of its use?
27. What is said about cigarettes?
28. What about chewing tobacco?
29. To whom is tobacco a great enemy? Why?
30. What is always true of its use by youth?