Rural Hygiene

by Henry N. Ogden

The removal of adenoids is a simple operation, lasting not over a minute, and the result of the operation is in some cases almost miraculous. The medical inspectors of the New York City schools consider the removal of adenoids as a most important part of their work, and groups of children are regularly taken from the schools by the principal to the clinic at the hospital, where one after another tonsils are cut off or adenoids are removed, all fright and commotion being avoided by the gift of five cents as a reward.

Eyes.

Another evidence of advancing knowledge in matters pertaining to sanitary hygiene is shown in the greater attention given to the eyes, particularly of children. Such incidental troubles as headache, sleeplessness, or biliousness are frequently due to weak or strained eyes, and in the case of school children a great deal of the alleged insubordination, backwardness, and truancy of the children is caused by their being unable to see written instructions or explanations.

It is not likely that this increased difficulty with the eyes is a new thing, but rather that both physicians and laymen are more careful as well as more expert in diagnosing the trouble. The New York State Board of Health in the fall of 1907 sent out cards for testing the eyes of school children to 446 incorporated towns. The results of using these cards in 415 schools were returned and showed clearly that nearly half the children of school age in the state had optical defects. A similar test in Massachusetts recently discovered 22 per cent of the school children with defective vision, and this knowledge in itself is an advance inasmuch as it suggests to each individual or to all parents that deficient vision is common and that good eyesight is not a thing to be assumed.

In the country it is more difficult, perhaps, to realize these deficiencies, because the constant outdoor life acts as an offset to the strain during the time when close work is required, and perhaps the distance from a competent oculist serves to postpone the time of consultation, but no greater folly can be indulged in than to suffer inflamed eyes, persistent headache, and imperfect vision, if it is possible in any way to secure the services of an oculist.

Never is it worth while to buy from a jeweler, a grocer, or a hardware store a pair of spectacles, much less to buy them from an itinerant peddler, since an oculist, with his particular apparatus, can measure the seeing ability of each eye and fit each eye with the necessary lens to restore normal vision. It is better to have no glasses than to have glasses that are wrong.

Teeth.

A curious result of the recent studies among school children with defective eyes and ears has been the discovery that bad teeth were quite as important in their relation to general health as either bad eyes or ears. One eye specialist went so far as to say that the teeth of school children should be attended to first, because thus many of the eye troubles would disappear.

As has already been pointed out, the first, step in digestion is taken in the mouth, and careful chewing is not less important than the other parts of the digestive process. If one's teeth are not adapted to chewing, if they are bunched, crowded, loose, or isolated, the appearance of the teeth is the least objectionable feature. The real importance comes from the fact that with such teeth perfect mastication is impossible. The teeth themselves harbor germs which actually infect the food and favor its putrefaction. With decayed teeth, infectious diseases find a ready entrance to the lungs, nostrils, stomach, glands, ears, nose, and membranes. At every act of swallowing, germs are carried into the stomach. Mouth breathers cannot get one breath of uncontaminated air, and dental clinics, organized and conducted in the interests of the health of school children, have been altogether too little inaugurated. The use of a toothbrush should be encouraged in children as soon as they are four years old, and its habitual use twice a day is most desirable for every one.

Only regular examination by the dentist can keep the teeth in good condition, and periodic visits at least once a year to a dentist's office, not to the kind advertised by Indians where they are willing to extract teeth without pain, free, but where a regularly qualified dentist practices, should be the habit. Armenian children, who prize and covet beautiful teeth, are taught to clean their teeth always after eating, if only an apple or a piece of bread between meals, and while probably our American customs would hardly make this possible, there is no question but that a persistent and frequent use of the toothbrush will help much in reducing dentist bills.