(This outline may be introduced with Plant Biology, or,
better, may come as application of the work in Second-term
Biology.)
THE ENVIRONMENT. Changes for betterment under control. How a city boy may
improve his environment: by proper clothing, proper food and preparation of
food, by care in home life; by sanitary conditions in neighborhood and in
home.
REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES OF CELL. Irritability, food taking, assimilation,
oxidation, excretion, reproduction. Similarity of functions of plant and
animal cells. All cells perform these functions. Some cells perform
functions especially well, _e.g._ contracting muscle cells. All cells need
food and oxygen. Some must have this carried to them. A system of tubes
carries blood which carries food and oxygen. Food must be prepared to get
into the blood. Digestive system: mouth, teeth, stomach, intestines,
glands, and digestive juices. Uses of above in preparing food to pass into
the blood. Absorption of food into the blood. How oxygen gets to the cells.
Nose, throat, windpipe, lungs; blood goes to lungs and carries away oxygen.
Excretion. Cells give up wastes to blood and these wastes taken out of
blood by kidneys and other glands and passed out of body. Sweat, urine,
carbon dioxide.
CERTAIN KINDS OF WORK PERFORMED BY CERTAIN KINDS OF CELLS. Advantage of
this. Cells of movement. Muscles, tissues. Bones as levers necessary for
some movements. This especially true for legs and arms. Skeleton also
necessary for protection of internal organs and support of body. Making of
special things in the body, _e.g._ digestive juices given to certain cells
called gland cells. Working together or coordination of different organs
provided for by nervous system. This is composed of cells which are highly
irritable or sensitive. Collections of these nerve cells give us the power
of feeling or sensation and of thinking.
DIETETICS. Diet influenced by age, weight, occupation, temperature or
climate, cheapness of food, digestibility.
NUTRIENTS. List of nutrients found in seeds and fruits, also other common
foods. Need of nutrients for human body. Nitrogenous foods, examples. A
mixed diet best.
DIGESTION AND INDIGESTION. What is digestion? Where does it take place?
_Causes of indigestion._ Eating too rapidly and not chewing food. Eating
foods hard to digest. Overeating. Eating between meals. Hard exercise
immediately before or after eating.
CONSTIPATION. A condition in which the bowels do not move at least once
every day. Dangers of constipation. Poisonous materials may be absorbed,
causing lack of inclination to work, headache. Importance of regular habits
of emptying the bowels. Each one must try to get at the cause of
constipation in his own case. _Causes of constipation._ Lack of exercise,
improper food, not drinking enough water, lack of laxative food, as fruits;
lack of sleep, lack of regular habits. _Remedies._ Avoid use of drugs. Half
hour before breakfast a glass of hot water, exercise of abdominal muscles,
laxative foods, form habit of moving bowels after breakfast.
HYGIENE OF CIRCULATION AND ABSORPTION. How digested foods get to the cells.
Absorption. Definition. The passing of the digested food into the blood.
How accomplished. Blood vessels. In walls of stomach and food tube.
Membrane of cells separating food from blood. Food passes by osmosis
through the membrane and by osmosis through the thin walls of the blood
vessels.
CIRCULATION OF FOODS. Blood contains foods, oxygen, and waste materials.
Heart pumps the blood, blood vessels subdivide until very small and thin,
so food, etc., passes from them to cells. Hygiene of the heart.
TRANSPIRATION AND EXCRETION. Skin, function in excretion. Bathing. Care of
skin. Hot baths. Bathe at least twice a week. Cold baths, how taken.
Bathtub not a necessity. Effect of latter on educating skin to react.
Relation to catching cold.
CARE OF SCALP AND NAILS. Scalp should be washed weekly. If dandruff
present, wash often enough to keep clean. Baldness often results from
dandruff. Finger nails cut even with end of fingers and cleaned daily with
scrub brush.
HYGIENE OF RESPIRATION. Definition of respiration. Object of respiration.
(Connection between circulation and respiration.) Necessity of oxygen.
Organs of respiration. Lungs most important. Deep breath, function.
Ventilation, reasons for. Mouth breathing. Results. Lessened mental power,
nasal catarrh, colds easily caught.
PLANTS HARMFUL TO MAN. Poison ivy and mushrooms. Treatment. Poisoning. Send
for physician. Cause vomiting by (1) finger, (2) mustard and water. (NOTE.
An unconscious person should not be given anything by the mouth unless he
can swallow.) Relation of yeasts and bacteria to man. Fermentation a cause
of indigestion. Relation to candy, sirups, sour stomach, formation of gas
causes pain.
BACTERIA OF MOUTH AND ALIMENTARY CANAL. Entrance of bacteria by mouth and
nose. Nose: "cold in the head," grippe, catarrh. Mouth: decay of teeth,
tonsillitis, diphtheria. Germs pass from one person to another, no one
originates germs in himself. Precautions against receiving and transferring
germs. Common drinking cups, towels, coins, lead pencils, moistening
fingers to turn pages in book or to count roll of bills. Tuberculosis
germs. Entrance by mouth, lungs favorite place, may be any part of body.
Dust of air, sweeping streets, watering a necessity. Spitting in streets
and in public buildings. Germs of typhoid fever. Entrance: water, milk,
fresh uncooked vegetables, oysters. Thrive in small intestines.
Preventable. Typhoid epidemics, methods of prevention of typhoid.
Conditions favorable for growth of specific disease germs. Work of Boards
of Health.
Home sanitary conditions, sunlight, air, curtains and blinds, open windows.
Live out of doors as much as possible. Cleanliness. Bare walls well
scrubbed better than carpets and rugs. Lace curtains, iron bedsteads, one
thickness of paper on walls. Open plumbing, dry cellars, all garbage
promptly removed.
This outline is largely the work of Dr. L. J. Mason and Dr. C. H. Morse of
the department of biology of the De Witt Clinton High School.