HYGIENE.
HYGIENE.
It is proposed in this chapter to outline, very briefly, a few simple
rules of hygiene, the observance of which will tend to bring the young
man into the highest possible state of physical development. Assuming
that he wishes to lead a continent life, the observance of these rules
will make that much desired condition more easily attainable.
1. DIET.
a. =Choice of Food.=--The young man who is boarding at a restaurant or
in a boarding club can modify his diet only within the range of the
menu provided. Fortunately, the young man can observe the most
important rule of diet, i.e., _to eat abstemiously_. Wherever one is
boarding he can eat temperately; he can avoid highly spiced foods, tea
and coffee. The observance of these simple rules will go a long way
towards simplifying his sexual problem. It has been discovered by the
study of the influence of diet upon sexual appetite, that the heavy
eating of rich and highly spiced foods, indulgence in stimulants and
narcotics, all tend to excite the sexual desires.
The author presents a menu that would be looked upon as a temperate
one for a student:
Breakfast.
Fruit
Well cooked cereal breakfast food with cream or a slice of bacon, an
egg, with bread and butter
Glass of milk, cocoa or cereal coffee
Dinner.
Soup
Meat, potatoes and gravy
One vegetable
Dessert:
(Custards, tapioca pudding, rice pudding, gelatin pudding or bread
pudding)
Water
Supper.
Creamed potatoes
Salmon or sardines
Bread and butter
Canned or stewed fruit
Cocoa or milk
If lunch is served at noon and dinner at night, the supper and dinner
as given above would correspond with lunch and dinner when dinner is
served at night.
If the young man is training heavily for foot ball or other heavy
athletics in which a training table is provided, he may eat a much
heavier diet than the one above outlined, having either eggs or meat
three times a day instead of once or twice and larger portions of each
food. However, even the man in athletic training needs less food than
is customary for men in training to take. If the foot ball teams would
eat somewhat less than they do and a smaller proportion of meat, they
would be much less likely to "train stale."
b. =Stimulants and Narcotics.=--It will be noted that no provision is
made for coffee or tea in the above menu. The general conditions of
life in a student community serve as a sufficient stimulation. Tea and
coffee are stimulants, and on general principles, it is not wise to
use stimulants unless one needs them. The college student does not
need any other stimulant than is afforded by the conditions in a
college community.
It may be fairly said that stimulants never benefit anybody who does
not need them. On the other hand, they may easily injure a person who
does not need them. Coffee for example, or tea, not only does not
assist digestion but actually retards it. All stimulants produce a
quickening of brain activity which is uniformly followed by a reaction
in which the brain activity is either slowed or confused. The coffee
drinker is almost certain to experience within an hour after a cup of
strong coffee an exhilaration, with heightened brain activity. If one
could experience this stimulation without any reaction, it might be
advisable, especially for those who need just such stimulation at
just such a time. However, when one considers that he cannot
experience stimulation without experiencing a compensatory depression,
he will see that it certainly does not pay to get the one at the
expense of the other, except under unusual conditions.
Now the question may naturally arise: What occasion would justify the
drinking of a strong cup of coffee? Suppose that one were due in an
examination and that he had only one examination in a day; suppose it
came at 8 o'clock. Let the student retire early the night before, rise
early, take a walk before breakfast and eat a very light breakfast. He
may take a cup of strong unsweetened black coffee with the breakfast.
He will find that this coffee proves a strong stimulant, particularly
if he has not been using it regularly, and that it produces the
stimulation just when he wants it. He will find that he is better able
to marshal his thoughts and to recall the various facts that he may
need to use in formulating his answers to the examination questions.
Under such conditions the author believes that it is justifiable for a
student to use coffee. But we must not forget that the coffee is a
drug; used for its drug action; used to produce a physiological effect
at a definite time. Having produced that effect, one may expect the
depression to follow after the examination.
Now the natural tendency, and a tendency which causes many people to
pass step by step into an excessive use of this stimulation, is to
relieve the depression which follows the first cup of coffee by taking
another cup and so on, taking coffee at each meal and perhaps
occasionally between meals. While some people of phlegmatic
temperament can stand such a drug habit for years without being very
seriously injured, it is certainly a habit to be strongly discouraged.
A person who does not use coffee or tea regularly, but wishes on rare
occasions to get a stimulation, can resort to it to produce that
effect, but after having gotten the effect let him get over the
depression as best he can, and not relieve it by taking a second cup.
If he has a week of examinations, it might be permissible to follow
such a regime as suggested above throughout the week. On the whole,
however, the use of these stimulants is to be discouraged.
=Narcotics= are those drugs which cause narcosis or a dulling of the
senses and a decreased activity of both the muscular and nervous
system.
One of the most common and typical narcotics is opium. Derived from
opium is morphine. Cocaine belongs also to the narcotics as do the
anæsthetics, such as chloroform, ether and common alcohol.
It is hardly necessary to say anything about the use of alcohol to
intelligent college men. Very seldom do college and university
students resort to alcoholic drinks, either for their drug effect or
in a spirit of conviviality.
The intelligent people of the country realize the dangers that follow
the use of alcoholic beverages. It is very rare that educated people
use any alcohol and when used it is only in most moderate quantities,
and usually, on special occasions.
It is only comparatively recently that the absolute truth of the Bible
dictum that, "Wine is a mocker" has been realized.
Brandy and whiskey were taken for generations to make one warm on a
cold day because it gave one temporarily a flush of warm blood to the
skin, only to cool down the temperature of the body later, so that
instead of raising the temperature of the body, alcohol actually
lowers the temperature of the body.
Many people took alcohol when excessively hot to cool the body, but if
the temperature of the outside air is higher than the temperature of
the body, as is the case on excessively hot days in summer, the rush
of blood to the surface would only have the effect desired in the
first few minutes of the action of the alcohol. The skin would tend to
become dry, the temperature of the blood to rise, subject to the
influence of the hot air. This heated blood striking the vital organs
accounts for the fact that on those excessively hot days, when there
are many sunstrokes, most of them are among men who not only
habitually take alcohol, but who are under the influence of alcohol at
the time.
Many people have taken alcohol to improve digestion, but scientific
observations on digestion under the influence of alcohol have shown
that the digestion is actually retarded.
Many people have taken alcohol to make their muscles strong, and one
does actually imagine that he is stronger after a moderate dose of
alcohol, but many careful experiments on the part of numerous
observers have shown that the muscles are really less strong and can
do progressively less work the larger the dose of alcohol.
Many thought that alcohol would stimulate the action of the brain and
have taken it for that purpose; but experiments have shown that while
there is temporarily a greater activity of the brain, this activity is
less under control of the higher brain centers. The after dinner
champagne may loosen the tongue of the post-prandial speaker but he
may say many things which the judgment would not commend.
So, in all those applications that men have made of alcohol through
the ages, we find on careful examination, that in every case the
alcohol actually has an effect opposite to that which has been
attributed to it. How true then are the words of the Bible: "Wine is
a mocker."
If an alcoholic beverage actually helped the muscles, the brain or the
glands, one would find it seriously commended by athletic trainers and
coaches for preparation in athletic contests; one would find it
commended by the trainers of prize fighters to help them in their
preparation and in the final encounter; one would find it recommended
by mountain climbers and by Arctic explorers, to stimulate the muscles
for the exhausting ordeal of mountain climbing or to protect the
system from the penetrating cold of the northern latitudes; alcoholic
beverages are, however, not only not advised by these men for these
purposes, but on the other hand, all participants in these activities
are positively forbidden to use any alcoholic beverages, even in the
smallest quantities.
So the young man who would develop a clear thinking brain and a sound
body must leave alcoholic beverages alone. Further, the young man who
would have absolute control of his sexual desires, must leave alcohol
alone, for the first thing that alcohol does is to throw down the
lines of control. It is under the influence of alcohol that the young
man is almost sure to make his first visit to the house of
prostitution. If a girl lose her virtue, it takes place in a majority
of cases when she is under the influence of alcohol; but for this
influence lessening her control, she could not be seduced. _Hence one
of the requirements of continence is_ TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
Under the head of narcotics must be classed also tobacco, though
tobacco has several other effects than the narcotic one. It exerts
upon the mucous membranes an irritation and that is the reason why the
mucous glands of the mouth secrete so freely when one chews or smokes,
but the influence upon the nervous system is distinctly of a narcotic
character, and while tobacco is a mild narcotic, and while it can be
used by the adult moderately without serious results; this is certain,
that no man has ever been benefited by the use of tobacco. And while
many men have been injured, even by the moderate use, all men are
injured by the excessive use. Furthermore, boys and young men who have
not attained the full stature of their physical development are very
seriously injured and retarded in their development through even the
moderate use of tobacco. There is not an educator in America who will
not testify to the fact that the use of tobacco in any form by young
boys, retards both the physical and mental growth.
So tobacco certainly is another thing that is altogether proper to
leave alone, and its use at the very best cannot be defended on any
grounds other than that it is a sense gratification. And while it
must be admitted that it may serve as a sense gratification in the
case of the individual who participates in it, it must also be
remembered that tobacco smoke or the smell of tobacco is, in a very
high degree distasteful if not actually loathsome, to a large
proportion of society, and the young man who gratifies sense at the
expense of his neighbors, certainly is on the defensive.
In so far as tobacco is a narcotic, in just so far does it disarm and
put to sleep those aesthetic and moral impulses which are so helpful
in the maintenance of the continent life.
c. =The Dietetic Control of the Bowels.=--A most important hygienic
rule is to maintain a strict regularity of the bowels. By regularity
of the bowels we mean, a free, normal passage of the bowels at least
once in twenty-four hours. Two or three passages in twenty-four hours
are not too many.
A tendency towards constipation may be hereditary. The writer finds
that at least one case in four of persistent chronic constipation
among college men seems to be due to a hereditary tendency.
Those individuals who have from early infancy and throughout their
whole life suffered from a tendency to constipation and perhaps from
actual chronic constipation, find it exceedingly difficult to produce
normal regular daily movements of the bowels. Whether constipation is
chronic or occasional or whether it is hereditary or acquired, in any
case, it should be corrected if possible through modification of the
diet, and of daily habits.
First of all, one must remember in this connection that the lower
bowel or rectum is subject to education, and not by any means the
least important factor in overcoming a tendency to constipation, is
the regular morning visit to the water closet.
The author would discourage the habit which some have of "straining at
stool." This act of straining at stool together with the pressure
which the hard fecal masses make on the blood vessels, increases the
blood pressure in the veins of the rectum to such a high degree that
it is likely to cause hemorrhoids or piles. But if the position
favorable to the passage of the bowels be taken regularly, every
morning, and a reasonable time spent in that position, and if the
daily passage is brought about at that time, the muscles of the rectum
will be educated to the point of contracting upon its contents at that
time and under those conditions regularly, and this will be a strong
factor towards regulating the movements of the bowels.
But the most important thing to consider in this condition is the
dietetic regulation of the bowels. There are some foods that tend to
constipate while others act as a laxative.
Such foods for example, as contain a considerable portion of tannin,
are always constipating. Strong teas have a constipating effect,
particularly such as the bitter English Breakfast teas, in which there
is a very large proportion of tannin. This large percentage of tannin
accounts for the prevalence of constipation among female tea drinkers.
Unripe fruits contain a high percentage of tannin which, in the
ripening processes of the fruit, becomes changed into cellulose and
sugar. Any fruit that quickly turns brown after a cut surface is
exposed to the air and that stains a steel-bladed knife black quickly
when the fruit is cut, possesses a high percentage of tannin, and is
not in a wholesome condition to eat. Unripe peaches and apples possess
this characteristic. These fruits should be eaten only when ripe.
If one's diet contains too small a percentage of cellulose or pulp
material, a tendency to constipation will be noticed. It has been
found from investigation of this subject that the cellulose or
undigested material of the cereals, vegetables and fruits, is an
absolute essential to good bowel action. The cellulose makes bulk in
the bowels and the simple presence of this bulk of undigested material
stimulates the muscular contractions.
If one were to choose for example, a diet of meat, eggs, nuts, corn
starch, tapioca, sugar, fats and oils, i.e., diets which will be
almost completely digested and absorbed, leaving a very small amount
of undigested material in the intestines, the bulk of the material in
the intestines would be so small that they would not be stimulated to
contract. Therefore this small bulk of material, together with certain
excretions from the liver and other organs, would be retained in the
bowel and undergo fermentation there. Injurious substances which
result from the fermentation would be absorbed, causing what is known
as autointoxication, complicated with constipation. If one, however,
mixes with the condensed foods named above a good proportion of
cereals, fruits and vegetables, all of which possess a considerable
percentage of undigestible material, the presence of this undigestible
material in the intestines leads to strong peristaltic movements,
causing the passage of this material along the intestinal tract to the
rectum, which will be periodically evacuated. In such cereal foods as
the coarser meals (like oatmeal, various wheat preparations and corn
meal), the proportion of bran substance serves as a local stimulation
to the intestinal activity. The little bran scales being
sharp-cornered and rough, serve as a local irritant or mechanical
stimulation.
What has just been said regarding the advisability of eating some
coarser cereals must not be taken to mean that white bread is not
wholesome. On the other hand, white bread made from the roller process
flour is in a high degree nutritious and wholesome, and may well make
an important part of any dietary.
It is not hygienic to eat white bread or biscuits hot out of the oven.
These hot breads tend to form doughy masses which are almost
completely impervious to the digestive juices, and while they are
eventually digested, it takes a very much longer time to do so than
would be the case with stale bread, which is so readily masticated
into a creamy consistency. If one is subjected to conditions where he
must either eat hot biscuits or perhaps embarrass a most hospitable
hostess, there is only one thing for him to do, i.e., to eat the
biscuits.
It is possible, though difficult, to masticate hot bread so perfectly
that it is reduced to a smooth, creamy consistency, and no one should
ever swallow any bread which has not been so masticated.
Among the fruits, figs, prunes and apples seem to have the most
clearly marked laxative effect, though all ripe fruits generally, and
especially those that are taken uncooked, have a moderate laxative
effect. Belonging to this class of foods is rhubarb which, though not
a fruit, is usually served as a fruit either stewed or in puddings or
pies. There is no doubt that it exerts its laxative effect better if
taken stewed rather than with pastry.
If one then who is annoyed by a tendency to constipation wishes to
correct it, a rational change of diet would be, _to eat freely of
cereals and coarse breads and of various fruits, particularly apples,
figs and prunes_.
The most effective way to use these laxative fruits is to eat freely
of them just before retiring. The apples and figs may be eaten just as
they are received from the market. Prunes may be soaked in cold water
for twenty-four hours, then taken directly from the cold water and
eaten.
If this is not effective a supplementary regime may be adopted that is
only in part dietetic, i.e., _to rise_ ONE HOUR BEFORE BREAKFAST,
_drink two glasses of cold water and take a brisk walk of fifteen to
thirty minutes_. The cold water has a tonic effect upon the stomach,
preparing it for a rapid digestion of the breakfast. It also washes
out the accumulation of mucus in the stomach, which may easily equal a
pint in volume. This pint of mucous plus the pint of water, making a
quart of liquid altogether, pours through the pylorus, and during the
rapid walk, works its way rapidly down through the alimentary tract,
washing the whole tract and preparing it to receive and rapidly to
digest the next meal. This slimy water, having washed out the stomach
and small intestine, then passes into the large intestine, moistening
and lubricating its contents and causing it to move gradually towards
the rectum, where it stimulates a normal free passage of the bowels
after breakfast.
Any usual case of constipation will yield to this treatment. Such a
treatment is incomparably more rational than the taking of medicines.
d. =The Dietetic Control of Sleep.=--Most students study evenings. If
their heavy meal is a dinner at 5:30 or 6 p.m. they are likely to feel
very drowsy by 7:30 or 8 o'clock. This is a perfectly natural
experience, all animals manifesting a drowsiness after a heavy meal.
If one could lie down and sleep for an hour while his dinner is
digesting, he could probably rise at 9 o'clock and put in two or three
hours of good hard work. He would find himself at 11 or 12 o'clock so
thoroughly awake, however, that he might have difficulty in getting to
sleep if he retired at that hour. If, on the other hand, one has his
dinner in the middle of the day and a light supper at night, he is
able to begin studying within an hour after supper and keep it up
until he is ready to retire. In this case also, he is likely to be so
wide awake at the time of retiring that he may have difficulty in
getting to sleep. In either of these cases, it is altogether proper
and advisable to take a light lunch before retiring. A double purpose
can be served by this lunch. In the first place, the taking of
anything into the stomach that requires digestion tends to deplete the
circulation from other organs (brain in this case) to the stomach. In
the second place, the food may be so chosen as to exert a definite
_somnolent_ effect. Such foods are, _celery_, _lettuce_, _onions_,
_warm milk_. It may not be convenient to get warm milk at midnight,
but it would hardly be inconvenient to provide one's self with two or
three graham crackers and a stalk of celery. These with a drink of
water and a little brisk exercise before an open window ought so far
to divert the circulation from the brain as to enable one to fall
asleep quickly.
e. =The Dietetic Control of the Kidneys and Skin.=--The stimulation of
excretion through the kidneys and skin may be an exceedingly important
thing, particularly if one has just caught a cold and wishes to
establish free excretion. The food which has a most clearly marked
effect upon both kidneys and skin is the juice of the citrus fruits.
These fruits, as they appear in our markets, are _lemons_, _oranges_
and _grape fruit_. All of these fruits are in a high degree wholesome
as an addition to the dietary. Lemon juice is far more wholesome than
vinegar in salads. The juices of lemons and oranges make most
refreshing and deliciously cooling drinks in summer, and on occasions
where one wishes _to get a strong stimulation of the kidneys and skin,
he has only to drink large quantities of hot lemonade_.
f. =The Dietetic Method of Curing a Cold.=--A whole _quart of hot
lemonade_ may be taken on retiring after one has caught cold. The
effect in such a case would be to cause a free sweating and copious
urination. Both the action of the kidneys and the skin would tend to
carry away from the system the effete materials that have been
retained as a result of the cold.
It is hardly necessary to add in this connection that care should be
taken that during the sweating or immediately following it, the _body
should not be exposed to catch more cold_. In this method of treating
a cold, one should _take a strong cathartic_ such as two or three
teaspoonfuls of castor oil, and should remain in bed twenty-four
hours. During this twenty-four hours _no other food than a little
light broth should be taken_. This treatment usually completely breaks
up a cold and one is able, in two or three days, to make good the loss
of the twenty-four hours, during which time he was confined to his
room.
This dietetic method of caring for an acute catarrhal cold is
incomparably wiser and more economical than to drag around, hoping to
"wear out the cold," only to be worn out by it.
2. BATHS.
a. =The Bath for Cleanliness.=--Little need be said regarding the bath
for cleanliness except that it should be taken at least once in a week
during the colder portion of the year and perhaps as frequently as
once a day during that portion of the year when there is free
perspiration.
Where one is bathing for cleanliness he may well use soap and warm
water over the whole surface of the body. If he takes this bath just
before retiring, it is not necessary to take a cold shower or sponge
at the end of the bath. If, however, one takes a warm soap bath in the
morning the relaxing effect of the bath upon the skin makes it
necessary to take a cold shower or a cold sponge after the warm bath
in order to secure the tonic effect upon the skin and fortify one
against catching cold.
During the hot weather when one may bathe daily for cleanliness he
should guard against an excessive use of soap, as a daily soap bath
may have a tendency to remove the oils from the skin so completely as
to make the skin rough. With the daily bath for cleanliness it is
possible that warm water and soap need not be used more frequently
than once or twice a week and that a laving of the whole surface with
cold water followed by a vigorous rub down with a coarse towel may
serve the double purpose of insuring absolute cleanliness, and at the
same time serving as a skin tonic.
In this connection the author would emphasize the importance of
insuring absolute cleanliness of the sexual apparatus. In primeval
conditions less attention was necessary as these organs were more or
less exposed, but the present method of dress is such as to permit the
accumulation of the skin secretions. While these may in part be
removed by the friction against the clothing, it is advisable to wash
the external genitals and all neighboring surfaces as a regular part
of the daily toilet.
b. =The Tonic Bath.=--In warm weather when one takes a daily bath to
insure cleanliness, at least five of these baths each week may be in
cold water, sufficiently cold to secure the tonic effect as described
above. In cold weather, when one takes not more than one or two warm
soap baths a week, the cold tonic bath can be made to serve a most
important purpose in the hygiene.
Some have followed the custom of immersing the body completely in a
tub of cold water. This method of taking the cold bath is not to be
recommended except for those who are in the most robust health, and in
these cases, so vigorous a treatment is not necessary nor particularly
beneficial. The author has seen many people who were injured by this
method of taking the tonic bath.
There are two methods to be recommended: Those who have access to a
cold shower may stand for a moment, and for a moment only, under the
cold shower, then step at once upon a warm rug and rub the whole
surface of the body vigorously with a dry crash towel until the whole
surface of the body glows with the warmth of the reaction. If one does
not have access to the cold shower, he may take a most effective
tonic bath in his room, using cold water, the coldest obtainable, and
a bath sponge, or even a wash cloth, dipping the sponge into the cold
water, then pressing out enough of the water so that there will be no
excess of water to run over the surface of the body from the sponge.
Begin by sponging face, neck, shoulders, arms and chest, then wipe
these parts dry, subject them to vigorous friction with the crash
towel until the arms, shoulders and chest particularly glow with the
warmth of the reaction. While the upper half of the body is receiving
its bath the lower half may be kept covered, and conversely.
This tonic bath should be taken immediately upon arising in the
morning, and as a part of the morning toilet.
If one takes such a tonic bath on arising, then dresses hurriedly and
takes a brisk walk of fifteen or thirty minutes, the regime quickly
brings his body into the most vigorous and robust state of health;
unless there is something wrong with his digestion or his excretion,
and even moderate derangements of these will be very likely to be
corrected by the regime just suggested.
3. EXERCISE.
Incident to the above topic mention has been made of the brisk morning
walk before breakfast. This has a most salutary tonic effect besides
the influence that it exerts upon the bowel movements. Not the least
important result of this morning exercise depends on the fact that the
lungs are repeatedly and completely inflated with the pure out-of-door
air. This naturally exerts a most valuable influence upon the
development of the lungs in the youth or the maintenance of their
vigor in middle age.
The increased heart action is also advantageous as it leads to
hastened circulation through the muscles, glands and brain. This
hurrying blood current not only carries nutriment to these organs, but
carries away their accumulations of effete material to the excretory
glands.
The student must be cautioned not to overdo this early morning
exercise. The mile run, the mile row or any other strenuous exercise
is strongly to be discouraged at this time of the day. If one overdoes
morning exercise, he is likely to feel somewhat depleted and fatigued,
throughout the remainder of the forenoon, and his ability to do a high
grade of mental work is decreased rather than increased.
Besides the morning exercise, every person who wishes to live a
vigorous physical life should have from one to two hours of heavier
exercise during the latter part of the day or evening. This exercise
may take any one of many forms. It may be golf, tennis, foot-ball,
base-ball, cricket, rowing, lacrosse, basket-ball, cross country
running, track or gymnasium work, etc., etc. The immediate results of
this exercise should be largely to increase lung and heart action and
to cause a sufficient fatigue of the muscular system so that rest is
sought and may be followed by dreamless, recuperative sleep.
It might at first seem paradoxical that to build up strong muscles we
must first fatigue them, but that seems to be Nature's plan. The only
way to build up a strong physique is to use that physique and use it
to its maximum capacity.
If one exercises thus freely and eats abstemiously he ought not to lay
on fat. If he does lay on fat, he may know that he is eating more than
he needs and he should make his diet more temperate. The youth of
eighteen or nineteen who is tall and rather spare, and whose muscular
system has not reached its full development would, of course, increase
his weight incident to the growth of his muscular system. This
increase in weight must not be confused with increase of weight
through fat deposit. The latter should be avoided--the former should
be encouraged.
Not by any means the least important thing accomplished by physical
exercise is the association with his fellows incident to his exercise.
The courage, nerve control, quick judgment, agility and strength
required on the foot-ball field make no small part of the young man's
equipment to fight the battles of life. The conditions of these games
give frequent opportunities for the young man to cultivate the spirit
of honesty and fair play--the spirit, without which, no man can reach
his highest success in the real contests of life.
4. THE HYGIENIC REQUIREMENTS OF SLEEP.
The personal hygiene of sleep is by no means an unimportant topic,
though it may be briefly treated.
The amount of sleep that each individual requires and should take can
only be determined by the individual. Some seem to require ten hours,
others eight, others six, while rarely individuals are found who seem
to thrive on even so little as five hours of sleep out of twenty-four.
The average requirement seems to be about eight hours. If one has by
experience or experiment determined the amount of sleep which he
requires, he should so plan his daily regime that he can secure that
amount of sleep. While a brief departure from this regime may be
without serious results, any prolonged departure from it will
certainly bring its natural retribution. So, the young man having
determined how much sleep he needs, should adopt a daily program that
will provide for just that many hours in bed, and he should early
establish the habit of going to sleep at once upon retiring, and of
arising at once upon awakening. Dallying in bed has led many a young
man to lapse into habits of thought and of action that are in a high
degree deleterious, morally and physically.
So far as one may choose the equipment of his sleeping apartment, he
should choose a hard bed and a cover as light as possible and yet be
comfortable.
One should never retire with cold feet. A most effective way to warm
the feet is to dip them for a moment in cold water and then rub them
vigorously with a coarse towel until they glow with warmth.
Furthermore, no more effective remedy for habitual cold feet could be
devised than this nightly tonic bath.
One will add greatly to his comfort and decrease largely the danger of
taking cold if he provides himself with a pair of warm bed room
slippers, which should always be worn during one's excursions to the
bath room, and during his tonic sponge bath.
As to posture in bed, the experience of men in general is, that the
most comfortable posture and the most hygienic one is to lie upon the
side. The right side is to be preferred to the left because in this
position, the heart being on the upper side, is not embarrassed in its
free movement by the superincumbent lung tissue. Furthermore, this
position facilitates the passage of digesting foods from the stomach.
To maintain comfortably this side position, requires that the knees
be at least moderately drawn up. This posture when asleep is
practically identical with that of nearly all higher animals, and is
unquestionably the most hygienic one for man. No animal but man ever
lies upon its back unless it is dead. Furthermore, the dorsal position
puts tendons, nerves and muscles on a stretch, while the flexed
lateral position puts these in a more or less relaxed position, which
is most favorable to rest.
It goes without saying that sleeping rooms should always be thoroughly
ventilated. The occupant should take care that he does not lie in a
direct draught from a window or door, because it has been found by
experience that one is less likely to catch cold if he sleeps out of
doors than he is if he sleeps in a direct draught from a window or
door. Just why this is has not been satisfactorily accounted for, but
the fact remains. So if you must sleep in the house, secure perfect
ventilation without direct draughts.
5. THE CONTROL OF THE THOUGHTS.
There is no more effective safeguard for the man who wishes to lead a
continent life than the control of the thoughts. It goes without
saying that the man who thinks about sexual matters, especially the
one whose imagination runs wild upon all kinds of sexually
stimulating images, is only inviting temptation to relax his
continence. If he controls his thoughts during those times when he is
less amenable to temptation, he is far more likely to be able to
control his acts at those times when his physical condition makes him
most amenable to temptation.
The most effective way to control the thoughts is so to plan one's
work as to insure the complete occupation of the mind with affairs
that are wholly independent of sexual experiences or considerations.
One should set a mark for himself so high above his present position
that he is compelled to put forth strenuous and unremitting efforts in
order to accomplish his aim. The old saying that, "Satan finds work
for idle hands to do" is all too true. Anyone may observe the
influence of idleness or even the influence of a partially occupied
program upon the habits of the youth and young man. Beard and
Rockwell, in their valuable work on this subject say: "Go to work;
develop your muscles and brain; resolve to become at least useful if
not famous. The activity which will be necessary in carrying out these
ambitions will divert the mind from imaginary evils, if they are
imaginary, and will be one of the best means to cure the real ones."