A text-book on hygiene and pediatrics from a chiropractic standpoint

by J. H. Craven

Posture of the workman is not without its effect upon the health and its bearing upon industrial hygiene is very important. There are many conditions that have their beginning in the occupation, such as faulty development of different parts of the body, curvatures of the spine, and especially those which are adaptative. Many subluxations are produced by posture assumed during long hours of work. In analyzing such cases chiropractically, the history of the occupation and the posture assumed should be carefully considered so that in adjusting the subluxated vertebrae there may be no opposition to the adaptative processes of Innate Intelligence in her endeavor to compensate for the faulty posture.

Sedentary occupations such as typing, bookkeeping, shoe-making, engraving and tailoring result in lack of muscular activity and produce characteristic occupational disorders and deformities. It is not natural for an individual to remain in any one posture for the greater part of the day. Innate needs to have the body more or less active so that the proper adaptative processes can be carried on within the body.

Sitting constantly at a desk will create a tendency to stooped shoulders and thus cramp the respiratory organs. The result will be a lack of proper oxygenation of the blood which will have its effect upon the metabolic processes of the body. There will be a sluggishness of the liver and other vital organs, and a tendency to anemia, constipation, general lack of muscular tone and low vitality.

Active occupations exercise the natural processes of the body and create a necessity for the action of Innate in all parts of the body. Activity keeps the muscles in tone and makes the processes of elimination more active. Activity is one of Nature’s laws and is essential in the vital expressions of life in the body. This is shown by the provisions Nature has made for such activity. Especially are the active occupations to be preferred over the sedentary for young people and for those up to the age of forty-five or fifty. After this age the sedentary occupations are not so detrimental.

Fatigue

Fatigue comes as a result of overwork and is a purely personal factor since the amount of work that may be performed before producing fatigue will vary in different individuals. Fatigue is produced by an accumulation of toxines and waste material in the body when katabolism is greater than anabolism. This may be brought on by overtaxing the body to the point where it is impossible for Innate Intelligence to rebuild the tissues as rapidly as they are being torn down. It can readily be seen that if there should be an accumulation of waste material from faulty metabolism due to interference with transmission, fatigue would be produced sooner and with less work than in the individual normally excreting the poisons.

If one part of the body or one set of muscles is overworked fatigue neurosis will be produced. There may be loss of motor function due, not to interference with transmission of motor mental impulses, but to the fact that the organ, usually a muscle, becomes an unfit medium for the expression of the mental impulses. A good illustration of this is writer’s cramp, and cramps among typesetters and telegraphers. In these cases, however, there are usually local subluxations that should be adjusted.

HYGIENE AND SANITATION OF INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS

Space Per Individual

In some states the legislatures have established a minimum of 400 cubic feet of space for each individual, but this is not sufficient in some occupations and under some conditions. The amount of space per workman must of necessity be governed by several factors: namely, character of the work performed, character of the building, the hygienic conditions of same, the type of ventilation used, whether natural or mechanical, and the methods of heating and lighting. In some trades and under certain conditions 1000 cubic feet space per workman would not be excessive.