The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 3 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better BabiesHague, W. Grant (William Grant)
Science
The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 3 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies
Hague, W. Grant (William Grant)
Eugenics; Hygiene; Marriage
It is the duty of every person to take an active personal interest in
this crusade of education and emancipation. We appreciate and concede
that a large number of those afflicted with consumption do not willfully
spit, knowing that others may be affected as a consequence. They do it
in ignorance. Our aim is to educate the victim to an understanding of
the true condition. The knowledge must be carried into every home, and
the story must be told in a simple, convincing way, to attain results.
The mothers of the country can aid to a very considerable degree, in
this commendable work. Every mother can tell her children the story of
how disease is caught. She can tell them that the danger spots of
infection are where people congregate together, in church, school,
theater, street-cars, and railroad trains. She can teach them to breathe
through their nostrils, especially when in these public places, because
the nostrils are so constructed that they act as a sieve or strainer,
they clean the air we breathe, and when we blow the nose after being in
one of these places we blow out thousands of germs and other impurities
which would have gone straight into the lungs if we had breathed through
the mouth. She can teach them the value of deep breathing when in the
open air, and of standing and walking erect so as to get all the lung
space possible. By constantly reminding children of these little points
you will be amazed at the progressive improvement which goes on both in
their bodies and in their minds. They will become little missionaries,
they will tell the story to others, and a real good can be accomplished
in this simple way, that will grow in strength and vigor as the years
roll round.
The next suggestive feature in the reading of "How we catch disease," is
the significant emphasis which is put upon sunlight and fresh air in the
treatment of consumption. Sunlight, as already stated, is the great
enemy of microbes and germs of all kinds. Where sunlight is, germs do
not want to be. How wrong, therefore, is the habit of lowering the
shades, when the sun shines into your home, because it "spoils the
carpet." Let it spoil the carpet; it is much cheaper to buy a new carpet
than to pay for a funeral. Let the sunlight stream into your rooms for
the few hours it can every day. Germs love the dark, sunless corners
where the dust is. Housewives should, therefore, go into the dark
corners with a moist duster, and wipe them clean, then boil the duster
and hang it in the sunlight to dry until needed again. If you choose to
use a feather duster instead, as the lazy woman does, you only chase the
dust and the germs from one corner to another, and in doing so you
afford yourself the opportunity of swallowing a few germs in the
passing. One may, therefore, be punished in an unexpected way for being
lazy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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