Laws of Health for the Brain and Nerves.
Healthful food, a clean skin, and daily exercise in the open air, are indispensable. Take seven or eight hours of sleep by night, and not by day; and when taxed by great care, labor, or sorrow, sleep as much as you can, for thus the brain and nerves recover strength.
Always have some time each day devoted to some amusement, and this out-of-doors if practicable. Laughter is a very healthful exercise.
Have system and order in your employments, and let there be variety, so that no one set of nerves be wearied and another set unemployed.
Let the intellect and feelings be engaged in safe and worthy objects, and so exercise all the faculties as to secure a well-balanced mind in a healthful body. In all cases of disease, trust more to obedience to these rules than to medicines, which should be rarely used.
Laws of Health for the Teeth, Eyes, and Hair.
Never sleep till the teeth are cleaned with pure water, a brush, and a piece of thread or a tooth-pick to remove what lodges between the teeth. It would be well to do this after each meal. Avoid very hot food as causing decayed teeth. No tooth-powder is needed if these directions are obeyed.
Accustom the eyes gradually to as much light as they can bear without pain. Light is healthful, especially to the eyes, and dark rooms make weak eyes. If the eyes are weak from excessive use, continue to use them, but only a little at a time, with intervals of rest; for eyes, like all the rest of the body, grow weak by disuse. Always shade weak eyes from brilliant lights, especially when reading. For inflamed eyes or eyelids, do not use what others recommend, but consult a physician; as a remedy for one may be injurious for another case. Gentle rubbing around and over the eyes draws the blood there, and tends to increase strength. Do it only for two minutes at a time, three or four times a day. Bathing the eyes in cold water strengthens their nerves.
Never use hair mixtures until some chemist has tested them and assures you there is no lead in them. Many persons have had paralysis and other evils by using hair mixtures containing lead to restore the color. Brushing and washing the skin of the hair, and thus bringing the blood to nourish its roots, is a safe and sure method, and those mixtures that seem to do good are efficacious chiefly because the directions always require rubbing and cleansing the skin of the hair.
Remember that these laws of health are laws of God, and that when you disobey them you sin against your heavenly Father, who loves you, and is grieved when you injure your own soul and body. Therefore pray to be enabled to obey yourselves, and to teach these his laws to all under your care, both by precept and example.