982. Pure air is essential to the full enjoyment of health. The impure air of unventilated rooms may be breathed, and the effect be so gradual as not to arrest attention; yet it is a violation of the physical laws, and, sooner or later, we pay the penalty in disease and suffering.
979. Why is it incumbent on every person to learn the laws of health? 980. Give a law of the muscles. 981. In preserving the health, is it necessary to give attention to the food which is eaten? Why? 982. What beside food is essential to the full enjoyment of health? What is said of the impure air of unventilated rooms? 983. What should be observed in regard to sleep?
983. The body also requires sleep; and if it is not taken at the right time, or with regularity, we do not feel full refreshment 426 from “tired nature’s sweet restorer.” Let youth be taught that “early to bed and early to rise” gives him health and its attendant blessings. The brain, like other organs of the body, should be called into action at proper times.
984. From the extent of the surface of the skin, and the close sympathy that exists between it and those organs whose office is, to remove the waste particles of matter from the body, it therefore becomes very important in the preservation of the health, that the functions of this membrane be properly maintained.
985. The function of the circulatory and secretory organs, together with the operations of absorption and nutrition, should be steadily maintained, as vitality and the generation of animal heat are intimately connected with these processes. In the proper performance of these functions, very much depends on the observance of the laws of the muscular, digestive respiratory, dermoid, and nervous apparatuses.
REMOVAL OF DISEASE.
986. It is seldom that a physician is called in the first stages of disease. At this important period, the treatment adopted should be proper and judicious, or the sufferings of the patient are increased, and life, to a greater or less degree, is jeopardized. Hence the utility of knowing what should be done, and what should not be done, in order that the health may be rapidly regained.
987. In all instances of acute disease, it is proper to rest, not only the body, but the mind. To effect this, the patient should cease from physical exertion, and also withdraw his 427 thoughts from study and business operations. This should be done, even if the person is but slightly indisposed.
984. Why should the functions of the skin be properly maintained? 985. Show the necessity of maintaining properly other functions of the system. 986. What is important in the first stages of disease? 987. What is proper in all instances of acute disease? How can it be effected?
988. Select a room for a sick person that is exposed to as little external noise as possible, as impressions made on the organ of hearing greatly influence the nervous system. Likewise select a spacious, well-ventilated apartment, that has no superfluous furniture. The practice of placing a sick person in a small, ill-arranged sleeping-room, when a more spacious room can be used, is poor economy, not to say unkind.