Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

Thorough mastication or chewing of the food is only a little less important than the character of the food itself. Rapid swallowing without chewing in childhood lays the foundation for many of the digestive diseases of later life. If food be thoroughly masticated much that would otherwise be hard to digest can be eaten without bad results. One of the best known examples of this is meat, which, while full of nourishment, sets up in the large intestine a condition known as "auto-intoxication," a species of digestive poison. If meat be eaten slowly and chewed thoroughly, this condition is almost entirely absent.

Pure drinking water is almost as necessary as pure food. We take water into the body for three principal purposes: first, it is needed to dissolve and dilute various substances and carry them from one part of the body to another; second, it forms a large part of the blood and other important fluids of the body, and is a part of many substances formed in the body; third, it serves to carry from the body the worn-out and useless tissues, the waste products of the body.

These are extremely poisonous and must be promptly disposed of to prevent sickness. This can not be done except by an ample supply of water. Few persons, especially grown persons, drink enough water. Ten glasses of pure water are needed properly to supply the body. "Insufficient water drinking is perhaps the commonest cause of the interruption of the normal life processes," says Doctor Theron C. Stearns.

But the common drinking cup in public places probably causes far more disease than the drinking itself prevents.

Particles of dead skin and disease-germs are left in the cup by each drinker. Some of the most serious diseases may be carried in this way. A cup made of heavy waterproof paper, cheap enough to be thrown away after being used once, is a recent invention that is highly recommended for use by school children and those who are obliged to drink away from home. The water in a public drinking-fountain should come out in a small steady stream so that those who have no cups may drink from the stream itself as it rises. Many school-houses are so equipped.

Sleep is a necessary part of good hygiene. It promotes health and prevents disease. It is largely in sleep that the system renews itself, that growth takes place, that waste products are thrown off, and the body repairs its wastes. No less than eight hours for grown persons and ten for children should be employed in sleep. Late hours and sleepless nights are the frequent cause of nervousness, eye strain, nervous prostration, and the beginning of brain troubles and insanity.

Bathing is also necessary to good health. The pores of the skin play a large part in carrying off the wastes of the body, through the perspiration, and if these become clogged, this poisonous material remains in the system. We have all noticed how a bath refreshes and gives tone to the entire body by opening the pores.

The skin is composed of minute scales, arranged in layers like fish scales. The tiny crevices between these form a lodging place for dirt and germs. If these remain, our own bodies are constantly exposed to their infection, if they drop off, as some are constantly doing, we may spread the contagion to others. This is strikingly illustrated by scarlet fever, smallpox, and similar diseases where these minute scales are the sole source of contagion.

Exercise is another necessity of health. Regular physical culture in a gymnasium will develop any muscle or part of the body almost at will, but if this be not possible much can be accomplished in developing the body by simple work. Gladstone found health in chopping wood, Roosevelt in a daily tennis game, and President Taft in golf. Many find it in gardening or farming. These all help to develop vigorous bodies.

Anything which brings into moderate play any set of muscles, which increases the circulation, or stimulates the secretion is beneficial. House-work, which, in its various forms, brings into use all the muscles of the body, is a wholesome exercise for women. Those who do no house-work seldom substitute for it any other active exercise, and many diseases which are caused by deposits of waste tissues that are not thrown off by the body, are the result.