"The discovery of the germ origin of diphtheria and of the typhoid forms of fever, has led to great changes in thousands of households. Our houses are constructed with far more attention to ventilation and proper heating. We shall finally get rid of drunkenness and intemperance of other sorts, on sanitary grounds mainly. Alcohol has been considered as at least valuable in moderation. It has been looked upon as a medicine. That its value as a stimulant hangs on the previous abuse of health is now understood, and its value purely as a very temporary bridging of weakness alone is conceded. That the drink habit is in any sense, however moderate, of sanitary value, is disproved. Few doctors prescribe any form of alcohol for habitual use. The saloon is unsanitary in all its effects. The temperance issue rests at that point. Animals to which spirits have been given in their food digest nearly one-half less than other animals of the kind. The nutrition of the human body demands the abolition of stimulants and narcotics. The saloon will go ultimately as a nuisance to health. We have not yet reached a condition when public morals can rest on any other basis than health. It is doubtful if there can be a higher basis. What is unwholesome is wrong; what is promotive of health and completeness for the individual and for the community is right.
"Sanity is dependent on sanitary living. They both are derived etymologically from sanitus, and that from sanus, the Latin for sound or whole. Insanity has come to have the limited meaning of unsoundness of brain. * * * Insanity is on the increase in the United States, but not more so than nervous disorders in general. This indicates a tendency to a break-down of the national type of organism, and cannot be considered with indifference. The fact exists as a consequence of the overwork and high pressure of modern life, but in this country is at its maximum, because, for several generations, we have been at white heat, subjecting a continent to our domestic purposes.
"The vast unfolding of means of wealth has also acted as a stimulant, compared to which alcohol is insignificant. Our lunatic asylums multiply, but are all full. The percentage of failure is greatest in California, where speculation has been most intense. It is impossible to avoid the problem. How shall we reverse this tendency, and begin the construction of an American type of full, robust, conservative, and reserved energy? The underlying problem of all problems is to secure a constitution. A nation that lives and works in such a manner as to grow weaker in brain endurance and nerve power, and yet so lives that the demands on brain and nerves are increased, is doomed. The intensity of modern life is something we cannot reverse. We must adapt ourselves to it by securing larger and more systematic means of recuperation. Brain-workers must learn to use the first half of the day for work, and sacredly give the last half to rest and play. Night must be given back entirely to sleep. Withal it is clear that we must understand the close relation between sanity and sanitation. Our people can no longer eat and drink as grossly as our fathers did. The stomach gets not half the time it formerly did for digestion. It must, therefore, be delivered of half its toil. The introduction of stoves and modern conveniences must be accompanied by more rational ventilation. Active brains require a vast and regular supply of oxygen. It is not for the lungs alone that we need pure air, but for the brain. This is specifically an American problem, the readjustment of society, so that the mind shall be relieved of strain and consequent enfeeblement."
Individual, municipal, and national cleanliness by enactment of law are among the first steps that should be taken. The churches and schools should teach it as a prerequisite before godliness, or education in general; then with perfect ventilation, sanitation, and regularity of all the virtues, there will be no vices, and godliness and education will be contagious, just as though they were real diseases.
The first thing to undertake if you are desirous of freeing yourself of any disease, ache, or pain, is to stop the cause. Act on the same principle you would if you had a barrel that had leaked its contents and you desired to refill it,—first stop the leak. It is absolutely necessary that you study cause as well as effect, if you would know yourself.
The Secret of Sound Health.—"Half the secret of life," says MacMillan's Magazine, "we are persuaded, is to know when we are grown old; and it is the half most hardly learned. It is more hardly learned, moreover, in the matter of exercise than in the matter of diet. There is no advice so commonly given to the ailing man of middle age as the advice to take more exercise, and there is perhaps none which leads him into so many pitfalls. This is particularly the case with the brain workers. The man who labors his brain must spare his body. He cannot burn the candle at both ends, and the attempt to do so will almost inevitably result in his lighting it in the middle to boot. Most men who use their brains much soon learn for themselves that the sense of physical exaltation, the glow of exuberant health which comes from a body strung to its full powers by continuous and severe exercise, is not favorable to study. The exercise such men need is the exercise that rests, not that which tires. They need to wash their brains with the fresh air of heaven, to bring into gentle play the muscles that have been lying idle while the head worked. Nor is it only to this class of laboring humanity that the advice to take exercise needs reservations. The time of violent delights soon passes, and the effort to protract it beyond its natural span is as dangerous as it is ridiculous. Some men, through nature or the accident of fortune, will, of course, be able to keep touch of it longer than others; but when once the touch has been lost, the struggle to regain it can add but sorrow to the labor. Of this our doctor makes a cardinal point; but, pertinent as his warning may be to the old, for whom, indeed, he has primarily compounded his elixir vitæ, it is yet more pertinent to men of middle age, and probably it is more necessary. It is in the latter period that most of the mischief is done. The old are commonly resigned to their lot; but few men will consent without a struggle to own that they are no longer young. All things are not good to all men, and all things are not always good to the same man. The man who confines his studies within one unchanging groove will hardly find his intellectual condition so light and nimble, so free of play, so capable of giving and receiving, as he who varies them according to his mood, for the mind needs rest and recreation no less than the body; it is not well to keep either always at high pressure. One fixed, unswerving system of diet, without regard to needs and seasons, or even to fancy, is not wise. The great secret of existence after all is to be the master and not the slave of both mind and body, and that is best done by giving both free rein within certain limits, which, as the old sages were universally agreed, each man must discover for himself. Happy are the words of Addison, and happily quoted: "A continual anxiety for life vitiates all the relishes of it, and casts a gloom over the whole face of nature, as it is impossible that we should take delight in anything that we are every moment afraid of losing. "One of the best methods of avoiding that pitiful anxiety is to learn within what limits we may safely indulge our desire for change, and then freely indulge it within them."
PART II - CHAPTER II.
We shall now take up a practical list of subjects, arranged in alphabetical order. Without any attempt at egotism, we claim that there are few nontechnical books extant that contain a superior selection of preventatives and remedies. Read carefully and judge for yourself. There are very few common or occasional afflictions which are not considered to some extent. Why always seek a doctor when you seem to be somewhat off your physical equilibrium? You will generally at each visit spend more money than this book will cost. Learn to provide against constant medical attention.
Accidents.—In sudden emergencies, either of accident or sickness, the first great requisite is presence of mind. Be calm. Endeavor, if possible, to grasp the situation, and do what is to be done promptly and quietly, until the arrival of the physician. All hurried and distracted motions, and all exciting noises, confuse the attendants and needlessly alarm the sufferer. In many cases, the course of immediate action is suggested by the circumstances; but where you do not know what aid to render, it is best to do nothing, except to make the patient as comfortable, for the time being, as possible. For all ordinary emergencies, ample directions are:—