SOME DON’TS
Don’t think because you hear so much about the dangerous germs to be
found everywhere, that you are certain to catch some horrible disease.
True, there is great danger in ignorantly living around these germs,
but the danger is mostly in ignorance and not in the fact that the
disease microbes are always with us.
The old idea that such germs as those of scarlet fever, typhoid,
smallpox, etc., could be carried from the ill to the well on clothing,
books, toys and other similar articles is not strictly true. Equally
true is it that these kinds of germs do not stay long upon walls of
rooms, floors or ceilings. They will stay and breed diseases in such
places if they are allowed to thrive under moist and dark conditions.
Sunlight and fresh air are deadly enemies to all germs except those
of venereal origin. If a smallpox patient has been confined to a room
and after being taken away the room is fumigated and then closed, the
chances are that the smallpox germs――some of them――will remain and
increase. Hence, to again occupy this room would be dangerous. But if,
instead of fumigating the room, if all the windows were open; if every
corner and floor could receive the rays of the sun for many days; the
last germ in the room would have to give up the ghost.
Don’t think that fumigating and washing clothes or other articles which
have come in contact with a diseased person make for absolute safety.
But do remember that SUNLIGHT and fresh air are deadly enemies to most
disease germs.
There are certain diseases which are carried around by persons in whom
you would never suspect danger. Typhoid germs, for example, may be
carried around in the intestines of a person who is in apparent health.
Now everywhere this person lives, or uses the toilet, the germs are
deposited, and if they happen to get into the drinking water――wells or
streams――or are carried by the flies’ legs to the food or milk, you run
great risks of getting typhoid fever.
Those germs of two horrible diseases which are to be found upon public
toilet articles, public drinking cups, upon the leaves of common
books――in fact everywhere man or woman is to be found, are _not_ killed
by sunlight or fresh air. This subject should be thoroughly understood
by every young woman, but it is of too great importance to be dealt
with here in a few paragraphs.
The breath of a consumptive patient will not carry directly the germs
of consumption to another person. Oh, I know that is what many of you
have been taught, but we are dealing with the facts as they are known
up to this very year of 1911. It has long been the general idea that
disease germs were carried from one person or thing to another person
or thing. Now this is not strictly true. All germs increase and thrive
in moist and dark conditions. The throat of a consumptive patient is
one of these conditions. The germs are sent out into the air of the
room in surrounding moisture. They land somewhere; on the tablecloth,
in the carpet, or hide in a dark corner. In these places they dry and
become dust――germ-laden dust. Now stir up this dust and then you have
the germs free to rush into the healthy lungs around them, and then a
person runs great risk of contracting consumption.
Don’t stir up a room by dusting if that room has been occupied by a
diseased person. Don’t wash the walls or floor of such a room and then
close it, unless you want to go into the business of breeding germs.
Knock out the windows of such a room――open it up for the sun’s rays to
penetrate and kill off the enemy. Take all carpets out and put them
where nothing but DRY air and sunshine can get at them. Do the same
thing with every movable object in the room.
Don’t do anything but just this with rooms where scarlet fever,
diphtheria, measles, whooping cough and other contagious diseases have
been running their courses.
I spoke to you about the hands being the greatest carriers of
infection. They even carry around the germs of typhoid fever. They have
been found on the cleanliest person’s hands after using public toilets.
On the fingers, especially.
You are safer in kissing a person who has consumption, than you are
in wetting your finger to turn over the pages of a book that has been
thumbed by scores of other persons. A person may have the cleanest
habits possible yet be a menace to others as well as to herself.
I watched the other day a pair of young schoolgirls trying on each
other’s gloves. Up to the lips would go a finger or two, then these
moist fingers would clasp the glove fingers and in this way work
the glove onto the hand. You all know the process better than I can
describe it to you. Now supposing that the girl who owned the glove
had rang the bell or turned the knob at the residence of a friend who
was ill with, say, consumption, to inquire how the friend was. Don’t
you see that it was more than probable that nurse, maid or mother had
conveyed moist germs of the disease to the knob or bell push, that the
germs dried but had not been long enough in the sun to be killed, and
this girl’s glove picked these germs up and then you transferred them
to your lips? Dried germs which only wanted the moisture of your lips
to become virulently active.
Don’t wet your fingers in trying on gloves――new or old.
Don’t hang on to car straps with ungloved hands. The same don’t applies
to water closet chains, handles and many other germ holders you will
call to your mind.
In studying the peculiar habits of girls I watched a group in the
“Ladies’ Hat Rooms” at a theater. They took off their hats after much
pulling of big daggers――beg pardon, I mean pins――out of hair and hats.
These dag――pins, were all promiscuously laid upon a dressing table
covered with germ-laden dust, only to be taken up again and held in
the mouth. The same process was gone through with when they again put
on their hats. Pin after pin was taken from the germ cloth and put in
their mouths while they adjusted the angle of their hats.
“Say, Mame, lend me a pin, will you? I’ve lost one.” So out of Mame’s
mouth came a pin, which was immediately put between the lips of the
borrowing girl.
Nasty? Of course. Dangerous? Frightfully so.
Don’t put pencils, pins, string and other articles of the kind in your
mouths. Why does a girl think her mouth is a receptacle for every
little thing she wants to use temporarily?
I have seen girls and women step up to a box office and as soon as the
ticket seller had shoved, with his bare hands, a ticket or two through
the window, immediately grab up those dangerous pieces of pasteboard
and place them between their lips and hold them there until they passed
down the line and into the theater.
And probably, shortly after, this same girl or woman will wonder why
she has pimples, blotches or sore lips. Then she goes to the druggist
for a “face balm” which temporarily hides the real trouble. Finally she
has to go to the doctor, who finds it is too late to repair all the
damage done through ignorance, foolishness and the drug.
Don’t use arsenic in any form for your complexion or to give your face
a plump appearance. Some of you will tell me of a girl you know who has
a nice plump face from the use of arsenic wafers. “She used ‘to be a
fright’; skinny in the face and deep lines.” Certainly, and now she
looks to be in good health.
But she is not; she is in a dangerous state, and if she keeps up the
arsenic poisoning she will discover this fact.
In the girl, arsenic will produce a certain amount of fat――unnatural of
course――in hollows or pits which full growth will attend to if the girl
will have patience. Poisoning herself with arsenic makes fat in the
undeveloped tissues of the face. This gives her a plump appearance. So
will plenty of whisky, and in about the same manner. But if the fatness
was confined only to the cheeks the harm would not be so great, but
like whisky again, it puts fat around delicate internal tissues. A girl
who has plump cheeks from the use of arsenic has also a “plumpness”
around her kidneys, fat over her growing ovaries and inmeshing the tiny
cells of the liver. Fatty degeneration of these organs takes place for
which there is no remedy.
All headache medicines, such as antipyrine, are not only dangerous, but
will ruin a complexion; bring out pimples as certain as the sun shines.
The habitual taking of any kind of bromide, bromo seltzer, bromo
quinine, and all the other kinds of advertised “sedatives,” will cause
a peculiar rash not only upon the face, but upon the body. I frequently
see girls in shops, stores and even in the high schools, whose faces
tell the story of some kind of drug-store “treatment.”
Lately there has come to the surface another kind of patent medicine
fake which is apt to fool the most open-eyed. This is one you all know
of but not about. It is that kind of advertisement which has nothing to
sell. It purports to be the outpouring of some philanthropist’s heart
who wishes to do something for his suffering fellow man――or generally
woman. You see he has nothing to sell――don’t want your money, simply
spend thousands of dollars every week to tell you how to get rid of
“that uncomfortable feeling.” No matter what is the trouble――house
care, worry over your studies or “who sent me THAT valentine”――liver,
womb or rheumatism――it is all the same; just go to your druggist and
get these simple remedies and take as directed.
Then follows the prescription. At first glance, yes, at the second, you
or your mother read the simple home remedies such as tinct. rhubarb,
olive oil, simple syrup, extract of quassia, etc., and think that such
a recipe must be harmless and certainly good. The advertisement tells
you just to get your druggist to fill the recipe. Well, how can there
be anything wrong with such harmless and free advice? But you will see
inserted among all these harmless and simple and well known remedies,
some such direction as “two ounces of badum” or “tinct. of fulum,
original package.” Now you see the nigger in the woodpile. The whole
scheme is to get you to purchase the fake “badum.” This is distributed
among the druggists and when you go to pay the bill you find that the
simple prescription is an expensive one. The druggist tells you that
the “badum” is a very expensive ingredient. It probably costs the
fakers a few cents and is simply sugar of milk or some equally harmless
and legally allowed drug.
Don’t kiss anyone but your mother and father.
Don’t forget that flies are the most dangerous germ carriers we have,
and don’t buy or eat anything which has been exposed to flies and
street dust.
Don’t have any pity for the flies or insects――kill them.
Don’t be a giggling girl. The practice of giggling will certainly
develop those tiny skin muscles in a way to make your face show some
kind of distortion.
I remember a young girl who was brought to me for her constant habit
of giggling. It had grown into a habit and really looked like a case
of hysteria. But because I told her mother it was a form of hysteria
and should be treated as such, she became offended and took the girl
elsewhere. I saw the girl, or rather woman, when she was twenty-four
years of age, and recognized her by the peculiar conformation of her
face. It was the face of a girl giggler. Her facial muscles had become
so developed by her uncontrolled girlish habit that nothing could be
done for her. I felt sorry for the young woman, for she had grown to be
a very charming and estimable one, who was constantly embarrassed by an
expression of contempt.
Good laughter, a hilariousness which has for its cause a real sense
of humor, is beneficial to everyone. Such expression of humor gives
motility to the face and develops a pleasing appearance.
Don’t swagger around in public nor attempt to thrust yourself forward.
A modest girl will not let herself become prominent in public places.
Dressing, acting or talking in any way to attract undue attention will
soon ruin a girl’s reputation.
Now a little about corsets and a good, supple and attractive figure.
I have no objections to corsets as corsets, but every physician knows
only too well that a growing girl is injured beyond repair if she, at
the developing stage of her life, compresses in any manner the internal
organs. Really, this is about all there is to this corset question.
If a woman has reached full development with lungs, ovaries, kidneys,
all the pelvic organs, having had full play and room for their growth,
the proper wearing of corsets will not do her harm; nay, they will do
more, they will be a source of comfort to her. Moreover, such a woman
will not lace too tightly because always having had full play of her
lungs and other internal organs, she will be distressed if they are too
tightly confined――their own needs and development send her warning when
she has gone too far.
But it is sadly different with the young girl who has from fourteen
years or even from sixteen years of age, worn corsets made for the
full-grown woman. Every inch of a girl’s waist, all the region of the
pelvis and the upper portion of her body, should be absolutely free
from any pressure. Just take a little growing twig and tie a string
around it. Next year you will see a deep constriction. The following
years you will notice that the twig does not grow well, that the sap
cannot run freely up, that when it does blossom, the blossoms are
poorly nourished and lack the luster of its unconstricted companions.
Dress so that there is no pressure upon the pelvis or around the
lungs. Try, when you have on one of these modern coats of armor now
made for the fat or thin woman, the deep breathing exercises I have
recommended. You cannot go through with the exercise.
Oh, but you say, we take off those corsets when we take the exercises.
Certainly, but when you gird yourself up again and squeeze, punch and
groan while getting into one of those “can’t sit down” things, you are
undoing all the good the exercises have done.
Let your clothes hang from the shoulders. Shoulders were made to carry
weights, the waist and the pelvis to carry and protect the greatest
force in nature――the power of motherhood.
If you knew that when you grew to full development you would have to be
a carrier of wood or water upon your shoulders, that this would have to
be your career, would you go to work and place some constriction or in
some way injure the growth of your shoulders――do something which would
prevent you from doing what you were born to do?
Of course not. Well then, take the best care of your pelvis and their
contents. Give them exercise, shape, health, beauty, by letting
them grow unrestricted. You may not know it; but the condition of a
woman’s pelvis tells in her face. Broad hips mean happy and painless
motherhood. Early constriction of the lungs and internal organs means a
miserable existence for a woman, married or single.
Early constriction of the body means lack of bust development. This
means that your little baby, so hungry for its mother’s milk, will have
to be artificially fed.
Don’t think that there is any other way of a complete bust development
than freedom of bodily action while growing. Those advertised things
are more than useless; they are positively injurious. You can never
have the ability to nurse your child if you fall into the hands of
these criminal advertisers of “bust developers.”
I have now outlined in a cursory manner the main facts in modern
physiology, which, if you allow to sink into your memory, will make
for a life of perfect health. Don’t think that life is all pleasure or
all misery. It is a happy combination. Happy because all our burdens
are for a purpose, and when these purposes are well understood, the
burdens cease to be real burdens, but tasks whose outcomes are seen to
be pleasure.
The real reasons for so much misery among girls and women is unhealth,
rather than ill health. Unhealth is avoidable; so is much ill health.
You all know how and why.
I have said little to you about morals because when a girl is in
perfect health she is moral. By this I mean, perfect mental health, as
well as purely physical.
Let me explain. A girl has good physical health, she is also in
good mental health, hence she is morally healthy. She has had good
home instruction――but not as thorough as is now needed――and has no
uncontrollable evil thoughts. Some of her companions tease her upon her
moral nicety. One day, with a party, she is persuaded to take a glass
of beer or champagne. She takes another. Well; she loses her chastity.
Bad girl, immoral girl? Not a bit of it. She fell because she was
not MENTALLY in good health. What injured her mentally? The beer and
champagne. They will do it every time.
Don’t touch them!
Don’t think that you know more than your mother about what is best for
you. You don’t.
_Sex Knowledge_
judiciously imparted is the greatest insurance toward the development
of sterling manhood and womanhood. It is the duty of every man and
woman to be informed upon the subject of sex and the care of the body.
It is a subject vitally important to every individual.
Dr. Howard presents facts as they are, and speaks from a knowledge
gained through years of study and experience in the great hospitals of
the world. He shuns no details and presents a clear cut analysis of the
wages of sin and ignorance.
A FULL LIST OF DR. HOWARD’S BOOKS
_Plain Facts on Sex Hygiene_
_Confidential Chats with Boys_
_Confidential Chats with Girls_
_:: Facts for the Married ::_
Price $1.00 Each, Descriptive Leaflets Free
[Illustration]
The author says, “I want to make clear to the world through
these books that right sex living is of as much, if not more,
importance, than right physical living; that sex laws must be
as well known and observed as those of eating, sleeping, and
the general rules for bodily health.”
EDWARD J. CLODE, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.