Health: Five Lay Sermons to Working-PeopleBrown, John
Science
Health: Five Lay Sermons to Working-People
Brown, John
Child rearing; Health; Hygiene; Physician and patient
I had a word about _Teeth_. Don't get young children's teeth drawn. At
least, let this be the rule. Bad teeth come of bad health and bad and
hot food, and much sugar. I can't say I am a great advocate for the
common people going in for tooth-brushes. No, they are not necessary in
full health. The healthy man's teeth clean themselves, and so does his
skin. A good dose of Gregory often puts away the toothache. It is a
great thing, however, to get them early stuffed, if they need it; that
really keeps them and your temper whole. For appearance' sake merely, I
hate false teeth, as I hate a wig. But this is not a matter to dogmatize
about. I never was, I think, deceived by either false hair, or false
teeth, or false eyes, or false cheeks, for there are in the high--I
don't call it the great--world, plumpers for making the cheeks round, as
well as a certain dust for making them bloom. But you and I don't enjoy
such advantages.
_Rheumatism_ is peculiarly a disease of the workingman. One old
physician said its only cure was patience and flannel. Another said six
weeks. But I think good flannel and no drunkenness (observe, I don't say
no drinking, though very nearly so) are its best preventives. It is a
curious thing, the way in which cold gives rheumatism. Suppose a man is
heated and gets cooled, and being very well at any rate, and is sitting
or sleeping in a draught; the exposed part is chilled; the pores of its
skin, which are always exuding and exhaling waste from the body,
contract and shut in this bad stuff; it--this is my theory--not getting
out is taken up by a blunder of the deluded absorbents, who are always
prowling about for something, and it is returned back to the centre, and
finds its way into the blood, and poisons it, affecting the heart, and
carrying bad money, bad change, bad fat, bad capital all over the body,
making nerves, lungs, everything unhappy and angry. This vitiated blood
arrives by and by at the origin of its mischief, the chilled shoulder,
and here it wreaks its vengeance, and in doing so, does some general
good at local expense. It gives pain; it produces a certain inflammation
of its own, and if it is not got rid of by the skin and other ways, it
may possibly kill by the rage the body gets in, and the heat; or it may
inflame the ill-used heart itself, and then either kill, or give the
patient a life of suffering and peril. The medicines we give act not
only by detecting this poison of blood, which, like yeast, leavens all
in its neighborhood, but by sending it out of the body like a culprit.
_Vaccination._--One word for this. Never neglect it; get it done within
two months after birth, and see that it is well done; and get all your
neighbors to do it.
_Infectious Diseases._--Keep out of their way; kill them by fresh air
and cleanliness; defy them by cheerfulness, good food (_better_ food
than usual, in such epidemics as cholera), good sleep, and a good
conscience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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