QUESTIONS.
What sort of site should be chosen to build a home upon?
How should the foundation be prepared?
Why is it unhealthful to live near the ground in the tropics?
Why is it unwise to keep animals under the houses?
What is the best sort of roof in this country?
How should the kitchen be located?
Why should no one be allowed to sleep in the kitchen?
Why is it not healthful to sleep on the floor?
How should the body be protected during sleep?
How do mosquitoes cause malaria?
How does the use of kerosene oil keep them away?
Why should consumptives never sleep in the room with healthy persons?
How should refuse matter be disposed of?
What are some of the best cheap disinfectants?
How should clothes be washed?
How should they be dried?
CHAPTER V.
OUR OWN SELVES.
A human being is very wonderful. Even the smallest baby is entirely separate from all the rest of the world. He is a part of the great whole, but he has his own life and separate being, just as much as the greatest man in the world. If everybody in the world did just what was right excepting one man, both that man and the rest of the world would suffer because of his doing wrong. If all the rest of the world were healthy and clean and he was not, the cleanliness and health of all the others would not save him from being dirty and unhealthy. Each one of us must do all that he can to help the rest of the world to be good and healthy and clean. Now, the first and greatest thing that any one of us can do toward this, is to do right and be healthy and clean himself.
The human being is not only very wonderful, but he lives in a wonderful body. This body can do much and endure much. It is very perfectly adapted to its use. If man had not his reason to help him; if he did not walk upright when all other creatures crawl or go on all fours; if he did not differ from the lower animals in any other way than by having a thumb on each hand, he would still be superior to them. All the other large creatures are stronger than man, but his skillful hands, with their thumbs, make him master of them. These help him to grasp and to hold, to make things for his own use. He makes clothing to wear, houses to shelter himself, and weapons with which to defend himself.
Hundreds of years ago there lived a great doctor, named Galen. He wrote one of the first books ever written about the human body, and he has left it on record that he was obliged to believe that God lives; for none but divine power could have made so wonderful a thing as the joint that turns the human hand at the wrist. Yet this joint is only one of the many wonderful things in the body.
Now, to each of us is intrusted one of these bodies to take care of, that it may do our work for us. Our work is not just to live for ourselves, but to do something useful in the world; to help it all to be better because we are here. So you see how very much worth while it is that we should keep these useful bodies of ours as well and strong as we can.
Besides the outer garments in which we clothe it, the body has a garment of its own. This garment is never laid aside; and though it is in constant use, it never wears out. We call it the skin. The skin is meant to protect the body. Lying close under it are many nerve ends, delicate blood vessels, oil glands, sweat glands, and other tiny organs that are too small to be seen without a microscope, but which are needed to keep the body in good order. In the pictures which are shown on this page, you will see how these tiny organs look when they are many times magnified.
The Skin Magnified
Fig. 1. Surface showing openings of pores.
Fig. 2. Side view of sweat glands and pores.
Now, like our outer clothing, this garment of the body needs to be kept very clean. You know that in this country when we take exercise, or, during the heat of the day, even without our taking exercise, the surface of the skin gets moist, little drops of water stand on it, and even run down our faces or make our hands wet. We call this moisture perspiration, and say that we are sweating or perspiring with the heat. The drops of water come from openings in the skin, which we call pores. These are little tubes connecting with sweat glands below the skin. You will see in the picture how these sweat glands look, and how the pores come to the surface.
The perspiration is not pure, clean water; it contains many impurities which the lungs, kidneys, and other organs have not cast out from the body. It is the work of the skin to help carry off these impurities, and it does this by means of sweat glands and pores. If the perspiration dries on the skin, the impurities remain; they stop up the pores and make the body unhealthy. It is to prevent all this that we bathe often. Bathing keeps the pores of the skin open and the skin itself in a healthy condition. We use soap because the skin secretes oil as well as perspiration. This oil is to keep it soft and smooth, but it is needful that the excess of it should be washed off with soap, in order that the oil glands may not become clogged.
We should be very careful not to become chilled when in a perspiration. We should not plunge into cold water at this time. Neglect of this rule often causes bowel trouble, and is a great cause of the catarrh and bronchitis so common among the Filipino people. To keep it perfectly clean, the body should be washed with soap once a day. Just before noon is the best time to bathe, or else about four o’clock in the afternoon. One should never bathe right after eating. If one takes a sponge bath with water alone, immediately on rising, one feels better all day, but, in this climate, the bath with soap is needed as well. Babies and very little children should be bathed with soap and water without being plunged into the bath. They are delicate, and unable to withstand the chill that might result. Chills are very dangerous, and a person should be careful in the rainy season not to get drenched.
A person who has any kind of skin trouble should be very careful not to give it to any one else. He owes it to all others to take pains about this. If he does not, he is not a good citizen. He should be careful not to use the towels that any one else is likely to use, and his soiled clothing, when taken off, should be disinfected before being sent to the laundry.
The custom of going barefoot is a dangerous one. The sole of the foot is a very delicate surface; a great many nerves and blood vessels center in the instep, and any injury to these may produce the disease called lockjaw, which usually results fatally. Even if nothing so serious as this happens, the foot is often injured by bruising or by other hurts. The feet are susceptible to chill, especially in the rainy season, when they should be kept dry and warm. Disease is often taken through the feet, especially such diseases as the bubonic plague, and the different kinds of itch which are known in the tropics. Aside from all these reasons why we should dress the feet, it is an untidy practice to go barefoot. The low shoes without fastenings, into which so many Filipinos thrust their feet, give people who wear them an awkward, shuffling walk. A shoe which fits the foot well and is fastened upon it so that it does not flap at the heel is the only one that should be worn out-of-doors, and no shoes should be worn without stockings.
Every boy or girl who wants to be well must take exercise. If we do not use our muscles, they become weak and small. The brain suffers as well. When we exercise we not only strengthen our muscles, but we set the blood in quicker circulation. The heart must work faster; the lungs must expand more; the food digests better and the brain is clearer. The best sort of exercise is useful work out-of-doors or about the house, but boys and girls need to play as well as work. All games that take them out-of-doors and make them move about actively are good for them.
Many Filipino boys and girls do one thing that is very hurtful; that is, they smoke. The use of tobacco injures growing young people. It stunts the growth, so that even when grown they are small and weak. Boys who smoke do not grow so fast or so large as those who do not. Smoking injures the memory and makes people heavy and stupid; it makes them less inclined to take exercise, and so the muscles become weak; it hurts the digestion and makes the stomach weak. Besides these things, it induces the constant spitting so common in this country; and we have seen how hurtful this waste of the saliva is.
Chewing betel nut is even worse than smoking. If all of the betel juice is not spit out, some of it will be swallowed, and this is very bad indeed, as the betel acts like a poison on the system. So the betel chewer must waste all the saliva that comes into his mouth while he is chewing the nut. More than this, he stains the sidewalks and floors with the filthy stuff, and makes himself ugly to look at, as well as offensive to cleanliness. It is to be hoped that the boys and girls who study this book will never take up such a disgusting habit.
Still another thing which is very bad for the health in this country is the use of alcohol. Alcohol is bad for the system; it irritates the delicate lining of the food canal, and hurts the liver and the kidneys.
We have said that tuba, the juice from the cocoanut tree, is good and refreshing to drink when just drawn from the tree; but in a few hours after it is drawn changes begin to take place in it. The greatest of these changes we call fermentation; it is caused by tiny vegetable growths, called ferments. These are too small to be seen unless magnified, but they float about in the air. They get into the tuba, and, because there is something there which they like and thrive upon, they grow and increase in numbers very fast. They separate the sugar of the tuba into the parts that make up sugar, and take from it the part which they like. What is left forms two other things. One is a poisonous gas, called carbonic acid gas.
At one stage in the fermenting process, there is a great deal of this carbonic acid gas in the tuba, and that is what gives it its dreadful taste when it first begins to work or ferment. The other thing found in the tuba is alcohol. If this were not distilled, the tuba would simply go on working until all the sugar was gone; then it would be as sour as vinegar and disagreeable to drink. But distillers heat it until it boils; the alcohol rises and passes off into a vessel especially prepared to receive it, and becomes the drink called bino. This drink is really an active poison to most people. If a man drinks much of it he becomes crazy, his actions are dangerous to society, and at last he has to be kept in confinement. Often he does terrible mischief under the influence of bino.
It is very fortunate for this country that Filipinos know how dangerous it is to drink this stuff. Still, there are some weak and foolish people who think that they can stand it, and who drink it until they form a habit which holds them in bondage.
None of the alcohol made in this country is refined; therefore it is full of impurities and very poisonous. Those who know the climate agree that the less alcohol of any sort one uses here, the better. Those soldiers and others who let it quite alone are the ones who best withstand the bad effects of the tropics and keep well and strong. Alcohol weakens the brain sooner than it does any other part of the body. A person cannot think clearly when he has had too much; he cannot walk straight, and often a man does things under its influence which he never would do if he had not been drinking it.
There are five different ways in which a person can tell something of what is going on around him. He can see, he can hear, smell, or touch some things, and some he can also taste. We call these five faculties of man the special senses. Each of these special senses has its own home in the body, its own organ to do its work. For instance, the eyes see, the ears hear, the organs of taste are in the mouth, those of the smell in the nose, while the sense of touch is everywhere in the body where there are any nerves.
In this country the organs of the special senses need great care. There are a great many blind people here, who have become blind because they have not understood how to take care of the eyes. The lids and the eyelashes are meant to protect the eyes and keep out dust, to prevent insects, etc., from getting into them.
Nature has taken wonderful pains to protect our eyes, but we must do all we can to help her. She has prepared a fluid which washes the balls, but the outside of the eyes as well should be carefully washed once or twice a day, and wiped dry. We should be very particular to wipe them on a clean cloth. We should never use a towel that is used by any one who has any trouble with the eyes or who has any skin disease. The eyes should never be rubbed with the fingers. When any foreign matters, as specks of dust, or cinders, get into them, we should go at once to some skillful physician to have them removed. We should shade the eyes from the direct rays of the sun. If we walk out in the middle of the day, we should carry an umbrella or wear a broad hat. We should not strain the eyes, or use them when they are tired or when the light is bad.
Alcohol is very bad for the eyes; it makes them weak. The eyes of a hard drinker become red and watery. Such a person may often become blind. Tobacco, too, causes dimness of sight, and has been known to produce blindness.
Strange as it may seem, the ears are even more delicate than the eyes, and more readily injured; and when hurt, there is less that science can do for them. The outer ear only catches sound and turns it inward. The parts of the ear that really hear are deep in the head, where they can be well protected. The little canal leading into the ear secretes wax, which hinders insects from crawling in. Sometimes they do get in, despite the wax. In some parts of this country, there are leeches that get into the ear. When they do this they cause great pain and often produce deafness. We should never try to pick or lift anything of this sort out of the ear. The best way, when anything alive gets into the ear, is to pour in a little quantity of oil. This nearly always causes the creature which has gotten in to back out, in order to escape the oil. If, instead of coming out, it is drowned, it must be removed by some skillful physician.
The Ear.
Showing the drum and bones.
Nothing should ever be inserted in the ear for the purpose of cleaning it except the little finger. The ear should be washed very carefully with soap and water and dried thoroughly. Sometimes, when swimming, people get water into their ears. They should shake it out at once, or the ears may ache. Sometimes water that gets in this way causes inflammation and cold, which hurt the sense of hearing. No one should ever strike another on the ear, even in play. It is likely to cause deafness. What is called the drum of the ear is a very delicate membrane which receives the sound. This is what really hears, and a blow on the side of the head may rupture this membrane and destroy the hearing.
The sense of smell is high up in the nose. It is a very useful sense and warns us of danger. We can often detect bad air by its odor. We know whether food is good or whether it is spoiled, by its smell.
We taste things with the tongue. Substances which do not dissolve in water have no taste. Even our food would have no taste if it were dry. The saliva must dissolve it before we can taste it. We can hurt the sense of taste by eating too fast, or by seasoning our food too strongly with pepper and other hot spices. Chewing the betel nut helps to destroy the sense of taste, and so does much use of alcohol. We need the sense of taste to tell us whether food is good or bad. Food which has a pleasant taste is more easily digested than that which we do not like.
The sense of touch tells us whether things are hard or soft; it tells us when we are hurt. It does this by the feeling which we call pain. If we did not feel pain when we were being injured, we might be killed before we could know of our danger and protect ourselves from it.
So we see how true it is that our bodies are wonderful machines. But they are something besides machines,—they are houses in which the soul dwells, and as such they are worthy of great care and honor. We must keep them clean. It is our duty to feed them right and guard them from injury. We should be careful, too, never to injure them ourselves by putting them to uses not clean and pure, or by making them accustomed to things which are bad for them. When we do any of these things, we hurt the soul, as well as the body, and bring shame upon ourselves and sorrow to others.