Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

An aptitude to take cold grows with each repetition of the attack and the prolonged duration of the acute catarrhal symptoms. And for that reason persons grow into the habit of taking cold upon the slightest exposure or change of temperature. At this stage of catarrh there is an abnormal sensitiveness of the mucous membrane and skin, in which the slightest draught of air or even passing from one room to another occasions an attack of sneezing or a chill and other symptoms that will indispose the patient for several days.

The great majority of individuals have a natural predisposition to certain diseases.

In anatomy the body has been divided into systems. A system is an assemblage of organs composed of the same tissues and intended for similar functions, as the circulatory system, the nervous system, the muscular system, the cutaneous system, etc.; these systems are all liable to particular diseases. In one person the mucous membrane of the respiratory system is the most sensitive part of the body, while in another, and especially in women, it is the mucous membrane of the genito-urinary system. In other words, one person will take a cold and it will settle in the head or on the bronchial tubes, while another from the same exposure will get a catarrhal inflammation of the bladder or womb; this is only explained on the theory of natural predispositions, and, perhaps, hereditary taints.

If a person once knows the weak or vulnerable points, he can outgrow them, by employing such rules of hygiene as experience has taught to be useful. There is much more benefit to be derived in an educational treatment directed to the prevention of disease, for this is also in the nature of a cure, than in a blind obedient faith in the treatment or remedy of a physician who may be ignorant, and generally is, of the laws of health or the science of hygiene.

To promote health and to antagonize disease is greatly within one’s own power, because there is no doubt that most diseases are the result of imprudence that cannot be attributed to ignorance, because persons commit these errors with a full knowledge of their evil effects.

A healthy habitation, that has all the advantages of pure air and sunshine, is an essential feature in regaining health and encouraging a cure. There are hundreds of persons who have been sick and miserable for years, and who have made the rounds of all the doctors they ever heard of, without the least benefit to themselves, because they were never told how to live, and their living rooms are dark and sunless and poorly ventilated.

The even and equable temperature of all the rooms of a house should be kept in constant view, so that sudden and extreme changes of temperature are avoided.

Warming a dwelling artificially should be one of the important features in the construction of a completely-furnished residence. This subject has been neglected, owing to the temperate climate of California, yet the moisture of the air, and the closeness with which dwellings are built in cities, exclude the rays of the sun and make houses too cold for health and comfort. In our climate we become more sensitive to the cold air than those who live in drier regions.

In shaded houses and rooms, especially in damp weather, we need artificial heating as much as they do in colder climates, so that architects should make it a study to introduce a system of heating that will insure an equable temperature throughout the entire building, at a minimum of expense.

The fireplace or open hearth, which has become so popular with us as the pleasantest and healthiest mode of heating and also insuring ventilation, should be discarded for something much better. The fact that the fire is directly beneath the chimney flue explains the fact that eighty-seven per cent of the total heat yielded by coal or coke and ninety-four per cent of that yielded by wood escapes through the chimney. This enormous loss of temperature arises from the current of air necessary for combustion, carrying with it a large quantity of the heat produced which is lost in the atmosphere. This of course is a means of ventilation, but a little reflection will convince almost anyone that it cannot be the most practical, and in this State where coal is very high it is equally expensive. The smoke, soot, and ashes that are inseparable from the open fireplace make it troublesome and dirty, not to say anything of the coal gas, which poisons the atmosphere of a room, and I have often noticed its noxious influence on infants.