Civics and HealthAllen, William H. (WIlliam Harvey)
Science
Civics and Health
Allen, William H. (WIlliam Harvey)
Hygiene; Public health
6. Examination by a competent physician whenever any disorder
cannot be satisfactorily explained by violation of the daily
routine or by interruption of business or domestic routine.
Health habits do not become instinctive until a continued, conscious
effort is made to accustom the body to them. When this is once done,
however, the body not only attends to its primary health needs
automatically, but it rebels at their omission, as surely as does the
stomach at the omission of dinner. Witness the discomfort of the
consumptive, trained to fresh air at a sanatorium, when he returns to
his overheated and underventilated home, or the actual pain experienced
in readjusting our own healthy bodies to the stuffy workroom or
schoolroom after a summer vacation out of doors. I heard a consumptive
say that he left a sanatorium for a day class after trying for three
nights to sleep in an unventilated ward. For many people the regular
morning bath is at first a trial, then a pleasure, and finally a need;
if omitted, the body feels thirsty and dissatisfied, the eyes sleepy,
and the spirit flags early in the day.
[Illustration: IMPROVISED SEASIDE HOSPITAL FOR NONPULMONARY
TUBERCULOSIS AT SEA BREEZE TEACHES PASSERS-BY THE FRESH-AIR
GOSPEL]
Cold baths are not essential or even good for everybody. The same diet
or the same amount of food or time for eating is not of equal value for
all. The temperature of bath water, the kind and quality of food, are
influenced by one's work and one's cook. Set rules about these things
do more harm than good. Such questions must be decided for each
individual,--by his experience or by the advice of a physician,--but
they must be decided and the decisions converted into health habits if
he would attain the highest efficiency of which he is capable. Here
again our old contrast between "doing things" and "getting things done"
applies. Get your body to attend to the essential needs for you, and
get it to remind you when you let the exigencies of life interfere.
Don't burden your mind every day with work that your body will do for
you if properly trained.
[Illustration: CRIPPLED CHILDREN LEAVING SEA BREEZE HOSPITAL FOR
BONE TUBERCULOSIS FIND STALE AIR OFFENSIVE BY NIGHT OR BY DAY]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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