In teaching these things a golden opportunity is afforded for showing the folly and wickedness of tight-lacing, and every other practise that restricts vital action. An almost endless train of disease results from unhealthful modes of dress, and careful instruction on this point should be given. Impress upon the pupils the danger of allowing the clothing to weigh on the hips or to compress any organ of the body. The dress should be so arranged that a full respiration can be taken, and the arms be raised above the head without difficulty. The cramping of the lungs not only prevents their development, but hinders the processes of digestion and circulation, and thus weakens the whole body. All such practises lessen both physical and mental power, thus hindering the student’s advancement, and often preventing his success.
Cleanliness, Sunlight, Ventilation
In the study of hygiene the earnest teacher will improve every opportunity to show the necessity of perfect cleanliness both in personal habits and in all one’s surroundings. The value of the daily bath in promoting health and in stimulating mental action, should be emphasized. Attention should be given also to sunlight and ventilation, the hygiene of the sleeping-room and the kitchen. Teach the pupils that a healthful sleeping-room, a thoroughly clean kitchen, and a tastefully arranged, wholesomely supplied table, will go farther toward securing the happiness of the family and the regard of every sensible visitor than any amount of expensive furnishing in the drawing-room. That “the life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment,”[[323]] is a lesson no less needed now than when given by the divine Teacher eighteen hundred years ago.
Knowledge Put to Use
The student of physiology should be taught that the object of his study is not merely to gain a knowledge of facts and principles. This alone will prove of little benefit. He may understand the importance of ventilation; his room may be supplied with pure air; but unless he fills his lungs properly, he will suffer the results of imperfect respiration. So the necessity of cleanliness may be understood, and needful facilities may be supplied; but all will be without avail unless put to use. The great requisite in teaching these principles is to impress the pupil with their importance, so that he will conscientiously put them in practise.
The Body God’s Dwelling-place
By a most beautiful and impressive figure, God’s word shows the regard He places upon our physical organism, and the responsibility resting on us to preserve it in the best condition: “Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own.” “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”[[324]]
Let pupils be impressed with the thought that the body is a temple in which God desires to dwell; that it must be kept pure, the abiding-place of high and noble thoughts. As in the study of physiology they see that they are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made,”[[325]] they will be inspired with reverence. Instead of marring God’s handiwork, they will have an ambition to make all that is possible of themselves, in order to fulfil the Creator’s glorious plan. Thus they will come to regard obedience to the laws of health, not as a matter of sacrifice or self-denial, but as it really is, an inestimable privilege and blessing.
Temperance and Dietetics
“EVERY MAN THAT STRIVETH