Progress and Achievements of the Colored People / Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success

by Kelly Miller; Joseph R. Gay

REGULARITY OF HABITS

The importance of regularity and punctuality in every circumstance of daily life is not sufficiently realized. The more often and regularly any act is performed the more automatic it tends to become, and the less effort, whether mental or physical, attends its performance. This is a matter of daily experience and observation, and is true not only of mental work and manual or mechanical exercises, but of the organic functions of the body. Quite apart from the harm done by too frequent eating or too prolonged periods between meals or want of rest, the brain finds itself ready for sleep, the stomach for digestion and the bowels for action at the same hour every day, when these acts are performed with unbroken punctuality, and the strain upon the system to adjust itself to new conditions is therefore reduced to a minimum.

GENERAL HEALTH CONDITIONS
Guard Your Water Supply—How Diseases Are Classified—How to Prevent Contagion—Care of the Sick Room—Disinfection, Its Importance and Its Methods—Period of Isolation or Quarantine—Duty of All Households Where Sickness Has Invaded, to Guard Others Against Its Spread.

Man cannot preserve his health entirely by his own caution as to his food and personal habits. His surroundings enter into the matter at all times. By this is meant the house in which he lives, its situation and conditions, as well as the community itself. Fortunately, in this country we have not yet become so overcrowded as to forbid ordinary care in the matters of drainage, light, ventilation and other requisites. Americans should congratulate themselves that their ample country and general prosperity enable them to regulate their food, their habits and the conditions around them in high degree. At the same time the fact that these things are so generally within our control places upon us the obligation to do what we can for the community to maintain the general health.

Let us note now, briefly, some points of primary importance in the conditions that assure general health. Air, warmth and light must be provided for the dwelling. In cities we cannot always choose, but in smaller communities and in the country we can in large degree control such things for ourselves. Some things require only to be suggested to be clearly understood. A house should stand where the character of the soil and the contour of the surface will provide the best drainage. Hollows should be avoided. When a house is built on a hillside the ground should not be dug out so that a cliff rises immediately behind. Trees may afford valuable shelter, not only from cold winds, but from fogs. But it is not generally wise to have them close around a dwelling, at least in large numbers, since they impede the free circulation of the surrounding air, and retain dampness beneath their shade. In the country a house may be sheltered from cold winds on the side from which they prevail, by trees. Exposure of each side of a house in succession to the rays of the sun helps to keep the outer walls dry, to warm it in winter and to aid ventilation in the summer. The north wall may be made with advantage a dead wall, and ventilating pipes and soil pipes may be carried up through it, but chimneys carried up through a north wall, being warmed with difficulty and apt to smoke, should not project but be built inside the house. Attics with slanting ceilings and dormer windows are cold in winter and hot in summer.

Once occupied, the most important thing in the house is fresh air. The most common impurity in the atmosphere of rooms is carbonic acid gas, which is thrown off by the lungs of the occupants, and must be disposed of by ventilation in order that health shall be assured. The lamps or gas lights used in the room likewise give off carbonic acid, which is formed at the expense of the oxygen of the air, the vital element, which we require to breathe. Crowded rooms, or any rooms improperly ventilated, become tainted in this manner, and the headaches and faintness which we experience under such circumstances are direct and natural results of carbonic acid poisoning. School rooms are particularly trying upon pupils and teachers, unless their ventilation is especially guarded. It is considered that the proper degree of purity in the air of a room can be maintained only by introducing at least 2,500 cubic feet of pure air per hour for each person, this being a virtual minimum. In mines it has been noticed that the men require not less than 6,000 cubic feet per hour, and that when the quantity falls to 4,000 cubic feet there is a serious falling off in the work done. Manifestly the better and tighter the building the more need there is for special means of ventilation.

In the days when open fireplaces were almost the only means of heating houses they were of great value in aiding ventilation. Nowadays our stoves, radiators and furnaces do not help us in this matter, and we must take additional pains to see that ventilation is provided in some other way. Of course the simplest and most perfect method is to permit the free passage of the wind through open doors and windows. Every room should have its air thus completely renewed at least once a day. The mere renewal is done in a few minutes, but a longer time is required to dislodge the organic vapors and other impurities that lurk in the corners and behind furniture. In schools and work shops this should be done during the intervals for meals, and in churches between services. But in our climate it is not possible to have windows and doors open during all the time a room is occupied, except in very warm weather. It is seldom, however, that the window of a bedroom cannot be opened for a few inches all night without direct benefit to the occupant of the room. His bed, of course, must not be immediately in the draught. Curved pipes, ventilating shafts and slides under the windows are substitutes easy to use when windows cannot be actually opened.