Self-control is one of the highest functions of the brain, and the racial power which results to a people as a consequence of the individual practice of self-control cannot be too highly estimated. Therefore, children are trained as far as possible to control their emotions and actions. Alcohol diminishes and breaks down this power of acquired self-control, undoing the work of parents and educationalists. Quite small doses are often responsible for reckless and self-pleasing actions, which are far reaching in their results in loss of moral tone and self-respect. The ideals of duty are lost sight of, and, at best, leave the individual in a laissez-faire attitude. Among the depressant effects of alcohol are intellectual lethargy and a sense of fatigue, which, combined with the other factors, lessen the capacity for genuine enjoyment and pleasure.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Compiled from Tibbles’ “Dietetics, or Food in Health and Disease.”
CHAPTER V
THE RESPIRATORY AND CIRCULATORY SYSTEMS: THE KIDNEYS
The Mechanics of Circulation and Respiration; the Circulatory Apparatus; the Lungs; Hygiene of the Lungs and Its Relation to the General Health; Relation of Respiration to Body Heat; the Respiratory Functions of the Abdominal Muscles; the Importance of Good Chest Development; Proper Relation Between the Height, Weight, and Chest Measurements; Chemical Properties of Air; Town and Country Air; Dust and Its Relations to Disease; Rôle Played by Bacteria; Ventilation; the Injurious Effects of Overheated Air; the Proper Degree of Moisture for the Air of the House; Ventilation of Bed-rooms.
Care of the Nose, Throat, and Ears; Impediments to Respiration; Ventilation of the Lungs and Breathing Exercises; Cure of Chronic Bronchitis by Deep Breathing Exercises; Relation of Colds to Pneumonia and Tuberculosis, and Their Prevention.
The Kidneys and Their Function; the Physiology of the Female Pelvic Organs.
It is said that diseases of the lungs are the cause of four-fifths of all indispositions, ill health, and actual disease among civilized people, and that, between the age of fifteen and twenty-five, almost one-half of the mortality is due to pulmonary tuberculosis.
This almost universal weakness of the lungs, as it may be styled, is a product of modern civilization, and is caused by our unhygienic mode of life. Too little importance is attached to physical development, and well-developed lungs can only be found in a well-developed chest; too little time is spent in outdoor exercise; and private houses, public conveyances, and public assembly rooms are not properly ventilated.
Good development of the chest and lungs, and thorough and systematic ventilation of the lungs, are essential to a strong heart, a vigorous circulation, and power of the tissues to resist disease.