Principles of Public Health: A Simple Text Book on Hygiene, Presenting the Principles Fundamental to the Conservation of Individual and Community HealthTuttle, Thomas Dyer
Science
Principles of Public Health: A Simple Text Book on Hygiene, Presenting the Principles Fundamental to the Conservation of Individual and Community Health
Tuttle, Thomas Dyer
Public health
=Remember.= 1. Each part of the body is important to the welfare
of the whole body. 2. Each part of the body is made up of very
small particles that we call cells; each cell in the body is
alive and has a certain work to perform. 3. Cells are very easily
weakened and killed. 4. There are five principal ways by which
we kill the cells in our bodies: by too much heat or cold; by not
giving them the proper kinds of foods; by not giving them enough
fresh air; by giving them too much work to do; and by poisoning
them.
CHAPTER III
HOW CLOTHING AFFECTS HEALTH
[Illustration: FIG. 5. Warm, dry clothing necessary for health.]
[Sidenote: Why the body should be equally covered]
The body should always be kept at as nearly uniform a temperature
as possible. In order to do this we wear clothing. Clothing keeps
out the heat on a hot day, just as it keeps the heat in and the
cold out on a cold day. The clothing should be equally heavy on
all parts of the body. It is not right to wear a thick dress over
your chest and leave your shoulders and arms bare, or nearly so.
People who do this are killing a great many cells by letting part
of their bodies become chilled while the rest is warm, probably too
warm.
[Sidenote: Why clothing should not be too heavy]
The clothing should be just heavy enough to keep the body warm.
If you wear such heavy clothing indoors that you are constantly
perspiring, your underclothes become damp, and when you go out,
even though you put on your overcoat, your body becomes chilled. If
you begin to sneeze, that is Nature's way of telling you that you
are killing many of your cells by too much cold.
People sometimes get warm from exercising, and then take off their
coats. They should have removed their coats before they began to
exercise. If you take off your coat after you are too warm, your
body becomes chilled. Baseball pitchers know this, and if you watch
a good pitcher, you will see that he always puts on his sweater as
soon as he stops pitching, even though he is very warm. He knows
that if he cools off too quickly, he will become stiff and sore and
cannot pitch good ball.
[Sidenote: When a draft is dangerous]
Sometimes a person sits in a warm room until he begins to perspire
freely. Then he opens a window and sits in the draft. Under
ordinary conditions, the cool wind alone would chill the body, but
now the rapid drying of the perspiration makes the body cool still
more quickly. The sudden chill causes the person to take cold,
which is simply another way of saying that he has killed many cells
and caused others to fall sick, so that they cannot perform their
work. We cannot get too much fresh air. Drafts do not hurt us if
we are thoroughly wrapped up; but it is very dangerous to allow
the wind to strike the body when it is not well protected, and
especially when it is damp with perspiration.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. Properly prepared for wet weather.]
[Sidenote: Why damp clothing is dangerous]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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