William H. Elson and Christine Keck - "Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four."

Orison Swett Marden - "How to Succeed"

Andreas Gottlieb Hoffmann (Translator / Editor) - "Das Buch Henoch"

Procopius - "Procopius"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

A Handbook of Health

W >> Woods Hutchinson >> A Handbook of Health




[Illustration: A REPORT-FORM FROM A HEALTH DEPARTMENT LABORATORY

In a suspected case, the physician sends a specimen of the sputum to the
Laboratory to be tested, and receives a reply according to the result of
the test. The form is filled in with the name of the patient and signed
by the Director of the Laboratory.]

The next best safeguard is plenty of fresh air and sunlight in every
room of the house. These things are doubly helpful, both because they
increase the vigor and resisting power of those who occupy the rooms and
might catch the disease, and because direct sunlight, and even bright
daylight, will rapidly kill the bacilli when it can get directly at
them.

How great is the actual risk of infection in crowded, ill-ventilated
houses is well shown by the reports of the tuberculosis dispensaries of
New York and other large cities. Whenever a patient comes in with
tuberculosis, they send a visiting nurse to his home, to show him how
best to ventilate his rooms, and to bring in all the other members of
the family to the dispensary for examination. No less than from
_one-fourth to one-half_ of the children in these families are found to
be already infected with tuberculosis. The places where we look for our
new cases of tuberculosis now are in the same rooms or houses with old
ones. A careful consumptive is no source of danger; but alas, not more
than one in three are of that character.

[Illustration: A SIGN THAT OUGHT NOT TO BE NECESSARY

But, being necessary, it should be strictly respected and obeyed.]

It has been estimated that any city or county could provide proper
camps, or sanatoria, to accommodate all its consumptives and cure
two-thirds of them in the process, support their families meanwhile, and
stop the spread of the disease, at an expense not to exceed five dollars
each per annum for five years, rapidly diminishing after that. If this
were done, within thirty years consumption would probably become as rare
as smallpox is now. Some day, when the community is ready to spend the
money, this will be done, but in the mean time, we must attack the
disease by slower and less certain methods.

[Illustration: A COMPARATIVE DEATH-RATE OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASES

Note the number of deaths from tuberculosis to one from smallpox; yet
smallpox before the days of vaccination and quarantine, was the
universal scourge. Similarly, by preventive measures, we are controlling
the other diseases. Why not also tuberculosis? (Statistics for greater
New York, 1908; total number of deaths from all causes, 73,072.)]

Why the Fear and Danger of Consumption have been Lessened. Terrible
and deadly as consumption is, we no longer go about in dread of it, as
people did twenty-five years ago, before we knew what caused it; for we
know now that it is preventable and that two-thirds of the cases can be
cured after they develop. The word consumption is no longer equivalent
to a sentence of death. The deaths from tuberculosis each year have
diminished almost one-half in the last forty years, in nearly every
civilized country in the world; and this decrease is still going on.

The methods which have brought about this splendid progress, and which
will continue it, if we have the intelligence and the determination to
stick to them, are:--First, the great improvements in food supply,
housing, ventilation, drainage, and conditions of life in general, due
to the progress of modern civilization and science, combined with a
marked increase in wages in the great working two-thirds of the
community. Second, the discovery that consumption is caused by a
bacillus, and by that alone, and is spread by the scattering of that
bacillus into the air, or upon food, drink, or clothing, to be breathed
in or eaten by other victims. Third, increase of medical skill and
improved methods of recognizing the disease at a very early stage. A
case of consumption discovered early means a case cured, eight times out
of ten.

Its Cure and Prevention. Fortunately, the same methods which will cure
the disease will also prevent it. The best preventatives are food, fresh
air, and sunshine. Eat plenty of nourishing food three times a day,
especially of milk, eggs, and meat. Sit or work in a gentle current of
air, keep away from those who have the disease, sleep with your windows
open, take plenty of exercise in the open air, and you need have little
fear of consumption.

In the camps, or sanatoria, for the cure of consumption, these methods
are simply carried a little further, to make up for previous neglect.
The patients sit or lie out of doors all day long, usually in reclining
chairs, in summer under the trees, and in winter on porches, with just
enough roof to protect them from rain or snow. They sleep in tents, or
in shacks, which are closed in only on three sides, leaving the front
open to the south. They dress and undress in a warm room, or the
curtains of the tent are dropped, or the shutters of the shack closed
night and morning until the room is warmed up. In cold climates they
dress day and night almost as if they were going on an arctic relief
expedition, and spend twenty-four hours out of the twenty-four in the
open air.

[Illustration: A TUBERCULOSIS TENT COLONY IN WINTER]

They eat three square meals a day, consisting of everything that is
appetizing, nutritious, and wholesome, with plenty of butter, or other
fats; and in addition, drink from one to three pints of new milk and
swallow from six to twelve raw eggs a day. You would think they would
burst on such a diet, but they don't; they simply gain from two to four
pounds a week, lose their fever and their cough, get rid of their night
sweats, and usually in from two to five weeks are able to be up and
about the camp, taking light exercise. When they have reached their
full, normal, or healthy weight for their height and age, their amount
of food is reduced, but still kept at what would be considered full
diet for a healthy man at hard work. If sick people can be made well by
this open air treatment, those of us that are well ought not be afraid
to have a window open all night.

Two-thirds of the treatment that would cure you of consumption will
prevent your ever having it. While tuberculosis chiefly attacks the
lungs, it is really a disease of the entire body, or system, and cannot
attack you if you will keep yourself strong, vigorous, and clean in
every sense of the word.

How to Recognize the Disease in its Early Stages. To recognize the
disease early is, of course, work for the doctor; but he must be helped
by the intelligence of the patient, or the patient's family, or he may
not see the case until it is so far advanced as to have lost its best
chance of cure. We can now recognize consumption before the lungs are
seriously diseased. Among the most useful methods with children is the
rubbing or scratching of a few drops of the toxin of the tubercle
bacillus, tailed _tuberculin_, into the skin. If the children are
healthy, this will leave no mark, or reddening, at all; but if they have
tuberculosis, in two-thirds of the cases it will make a little reddening
and swelling like a very mild vaccination. But in order to get any good
from this, cases must be brought to a doctor, early, without waiting for
a bad cough, or for night sweats.

Signs of Consumption. The signs that ought to make us suspicious of a
possible beginning of tuberculosis are first, loss of weight without
apparent cause; fever, or flushing of the cheeks, with or without
headache, every afternoon or evening; and a tendency to become easily
tired and exhausted without unusual exertion. Whenever these three signs
are present, without some clear cause, such as a cold, or unusual
overwork or strain, especially if they be accompanied by a rapid pulse
and a tendency to get out of breath readily in running upstairs, they
should make us suspect tuberculosis; and if they keep up, it is
advisable to go at once and have the lungs thoroughly examined. Nine
cases out of ten, seen at this stage, are curable--many of them in a few
months.

Even if we should not have the disease, if we have these symptoms we
need to have our health improved; and a course of life in the open air,
good feeding, and rest, which would cure us if we had tuberculosis, will
build us up and prevent us from developing it.

[Illustration: AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM FOR TUBERCULOUS CHILDREN

The roof and the side awnings are the only obstructions to the outer
air.]


PNEUMONIA

Its Cause and Prevention. The other great disease of the lungs is
_pneumonia_, formerly known as inflammation of the lungs. This is rapid
and sudden, instead of slow and chronic like tuberculosis, but kills
almost as many people; and unfortunately, unlike tuberculosis, is not
decreasing. In fact in some of our large cities, it is rapidly
increasing. Although we know it is due to a germ, we don't yet know
exactly how that germ is conveyed from one victim to another. One thing,
however, of great practical importance we do know, and that is that
pneumonia is a disease of overcrowding and foul air, like tuberculosis;
that it occurs most frequently at that time of the year--late winter and
early spring--when people have been longest crowded together in houses
and tenements; and that it falls most severely upon those who are
weakened by overcrowding, under-feeding, or the excessive use of
alcohol. How strikingly this is true may be seen from the fact that,
while the death-rate of the disease among the rich and those in
comfortable circumstances, who are well-fed and live in good houses, is
only about five per cent,--that is, one in twenty,--among the poor,
especially in the crowded districts of our large cities, the death-rate
rises to twenty per cent, or one in five; while among the tramp and
roustabout classes, who have used alcohol freely, and among chronic
alcoholics, it reaches forty per cent. The same steps should be taken to
prevent its spread as in tuberculosis--destroying the sputum, keeping
the patient by himself, and thoroughly ventilating and airing all rooms.
As the disease runs a very rapid course, usually lasting only from one
to three weeks, this is a comparatively easy thing to do.

Though pneumonia is commonly believed to be due to exposure to cold or
wet, like colds, it has very little to do with these. You will not catch
pneumonia after breaking through the ice or getting lost in the snow,
unless you already have the germs of the disease in your mouth and
throat, and your constitution has already been run down by bad air,
under-feeding, overwork, or dissipation. Arctic explorers, for instance,
never catch pneumonia in the Frozen North.




CHAPTER XV

THE SKIN


OUR WONDERFUL COAT

What the Skin Is. The skin is the most wonderful and one of the most
important structures in the body. We are prone to think lightly of it
because it lies on the surface, and to speak of it as a mere coating, or
covering--a sort of body husk; but it is very much more than this. Not
only is it waterproof against wet, a fur overcoat against cold, and a
water jacket against heat, all in one, but it is also a very important
member of the "look-out department," being the principal organ of one of
our senses, that of touch.

The eyes in the beginning were simply little colored patches of the
skin, sunk into the head for the purpose of specializing on the
light-rays. The smelling areas of the nose also were pieces of the skin,
as were also the ears. Not only so, but--although it is a little hard
for you to understand how this could have happened--the whole brain and
nervous system is made up of folds of the skin tucked in from the
surface of the back; so that we can say that the skin, with the organs
that belong to it and have grown from it--the eyes, nose, ears, brain,
and nerves--forms the most wonderful part of the body. Everything that
we know of the world outside of us is told us by the skin and the
look-out organs that have grown out of it. The skin is not only the
surface part and coating of the body, far superior to any six different
kinds of clothing which have yet been invented, but it is related to,
and assists in, the work of nearly half the organs in the body. Not only
all that we learn by touch and pressure, but everything that we know of
heat and cold, of moisture and dryness, and most of pain, comes to us
through our skin, through the little bulbs on the ends of the nerve
twigs in it. It also helps the lungs to breathe, the kidneys to purify
the blood, and the heart to control the flow of blood through the body.

A healthy skin is of very great importance; and part of this health we
can secure directly, by washing and bathing, scrubbing and kneading and
rubbing, because the skin lies right on the surface, where we can
readily get at it. But, on the other hand, no amount of attention from
the outside alone will keep it healthy. All the organs inside the body
must be kept healthy if the skin is to be kept in good condition.
Although the external washing and cleaning are very important, the
greater part of the work of developing a healthy skin and a good
complexion must be done from the inside.

The Two Layers which Make Up the Skin. Like our "internal skin," the
mucous membrane, which lines our stomach and bowels, the skin is made up
of two layers--a deeper, or basement, sheet, woven out of tough strands
of fibrous stuff (_derma_); and a surface layer (_epidermis_) composed
of cells lying side by side like the bricks in a pavement, or the tiles
on a floor, and hence called "pavement" (_epithelial_) cells. These
pavement cells are fastened on the basement membrane much as the kernels
of corn grow on a cob; only, instead of there being but one layer, as on
a cob of corn, there are a dozen or fifteen of them, one above the
other, each one dovetailing into the row below it, as the corn kernels
do into the surface of the cob. As they grow up toward the surface from
the bottom, they become flatter and flatter, and drier, until the outer
surface layer becomes thin, fine, dry, slightly greasy scales, like
fish-scales, of about the thickness of the very finest and driest bran.

We are continually Shedding our Skin. One way in which the skin keeps
itself so wonderfully clean and fresh is by continually shedding from
its surface showers of these fine, dry, scaly cells, which drop, or are
rubbed off, as they dry. This is the reason why no mark, not even a
stain or dye, upon the skin, will stay there long; for no matter how
deeply it may have soaked into the layers of the pavement-cells, every
cell touched by it will ultimately grow up to the surface, dry up, and
fall off, carrying the stain with it.

If you want to make a mark on the skin that will be permanent, you have
to prick the colors into it so deeply that they will go through the
basement layer and reach cells which will not grow toward the surface.
This "pricking-in" operation is known as _tattooing_; and it is as
foolish as it is painful, for blood-poisoning and other diseases may be
carried into the system in the process.

[Illustration: THE LAYERS OF THE SKIN

_E_, epidermis; _C_, capillaries; _D_, dermis; _F_, fat globules and
connecting fibres.]

Perhaps you will wonder why, if you are shedding these scales from all
over your surface every day, you don't see them. This is simply because
they are so exceedingly small, thin, and delicate, that you cannot see
them unless you get a large number of them together; and when you are
changing your clothing, bathing, etc., they are rubbed off and float
away. If a part of the body has been shut in--as when a broken arm, for
instance, is in a cast, which cannot be changed for several weeks--when
finally you take off the bandage, you will find inside it spoonfuls--I
had almost said handfuls--of fine scales, which have been shed from the
skin and held in by the wrappings.


THE GLANDS IN THE SKIN

Sweat Glands. Like all the pavement (epithelial) surfaces of the body,
inside and out, the skin has the power of making glands by dipping down
little pouches or pockets into the layers below. In the skin, these
little gland-pockets are of two kinds, the _sweat glands_ and the _hair
glands_.

The sweat glands are tiny tubes which go twisting down through the
different pavement layers, through the basement layer, and right into
the coat of fat, which lies just under the skin. The tube of the sweat
gland soaks, or picks, out of the blood some of the waste-stuff--just as
the kidney tube does in the kidney,--together with a good deal of water
and a small amount of delicate oil, and pours them out on the surface of
the body in the form of the "sweat," or _perspiration_.

As you will remember, when the muscles work hard and pour more waste
into the blood, then the heart pumps larger amounts of blood out into
the skin; and this causes it to redden. The sweat glands work harder to
purify this extra blood, and they pour out the waste and oil and water
on the surface. As soon as this water gets upon our hot skin, it begins
to evaporate and cool us off, as well as to carry off some of the waste
in the form of gas. The trace of oil in the perspiration helps to
lubricate the skin and keep it soft; but when too much of it is poured
out we have that greasy feeling, which we have all felt after perspiring
freely.

From all this cooling and breathing and blood-purifying work going on
upon the surface of our skin, you can easily see why it is so important
that all our clothing should be loose and porous and that next the skin
easily washed; else it will very soon become clogged up and greasy, and
shut off the breathing and blood-purifying work of the skin and make it
dirty and unhealthy. This continual mist of water, rising and bubbling
up through our skin like springs out of a hillside, is another of
nature's wonderful ways of cleansing the skin and of preventing any kind
of dirt from permanently sticking to or lodging in it. Remember, you do
not need to dig below the surface when you wash.

Hair Glands. The other kind of skin glands, the hair glands, are also
pouches growing out from the deepest part of the stem of the hair, known
as the root, or _hair bulb_.

[Illustration: THE GLANDS IN THE SKIN

_S_, sweat gland; _H_, hair bulb; _O_, oil gland; _T_, touch bulb at tip
of nerve.]

From the root of the hairs, two or three little bundles of muscle run up
toward the surface of the skin. When these contract, they pull the root
of the hair up toward the surface, causing the hair to stand erect, or
"bristle," as we say. This is what makes the hair on a dog's or a cat's
back stand up when he is angry; but the commonest use of the movement
is, when animals are cold, to make their coats stand out so as to hold
more air and retain the body-heat better. We have lost most of our hairy
coating, but whenever we get chilly, whether from cold or from fright,
these little muscles of our hair bulbs contract and pull the hair glands
of our skin up toward the surface, so that it looks all "pimply" or
"goose-skinned."

Each hair pouch has sprouted out from its sides a pair of tiny pouches,
which form _oil glands_ to lubricate the hair and keep it sleek and
flexible. It is hard to beat nature at her own game, and her method of
oiling the hair is far superior to any hair oil that can be put on from
the outside. Keep your hair well brushed and washed, and nature will oil
it for you much better than any hair oil or scalp reviver ever
invented.[19]


THE NAILS

How the Nails are Made. Another "trade," which our wonderful skin has
literally "at its fingers' ends," is that of making nails. Indeed, every
kind of scale, armor, fur, feather, and leather coating possessed by
bird, beast, or fish was made by, and out of, the skin. Nail-making,
however, is one of its simplest feats, as it is carried out merely by
turning a little patch, or area, of itself into a horn-like substance.
This, the skin of insects, of fishes, of crocodiles, etc., does all over
the surface of their bodies; but in animals and birds only a number of
little patches at the tips of the toes harden up in this way, to form
the claws or nails; and in birds, the beak; and in some animals, the
horns. So it is quite correct to call the substance of our nails
"horn-like."

In some animals and birds, these little horny patches at the ends of the
toes grow out into long, curved hooks, or broad, digging chisels and
scoops; but on our own fingers, they simply make a little mould over the
finger-tip. If, however, they are protected from being broken off, they
will grow four or five inches long; in fact, they are carefully trained
to do this by some of the upper classes in China, merely for the purpose
of showing that they have never been obliged to degrade themselves, as
they foolishly regard it, by working with their hands.

You can easily prove that the nails do grow constantly from the root or
base, out toward the tip, by watching, some time when you have pounded
one of your nails, how the black or discolored patch in it will grow
steadily outward toward the tip, where it will be broken off and shed.

You cannot see the softest and youngest row, or layer, of the nail cells
at the base, because a fold of skin, the _nail fold_, has been doubled,
or folded, over them to protect them while they are young and soft. It
is not best to push this fold of skin back too much, as, by so doing,
you may uncover the young nail cells while they are soft and tender, and
expose them to injury. The reason why there is a little whitish crescent
at the base of the nail is that the cells of the nail do not grow hard
and horn-like and transparent until they have grown out a quarter of an
inch or so from under the fold, but at first look whitish, or opaque,
like the rest of the skin.

Health Shown by the Color of the Nails. Your nails and your lips are
not really any redder, or pinker, than the rest of your skin; but the
cells forming them are clear and transparent and allow the red blood to
show through. This is why we often look at the nails and lips to see
what the color of the blood is like, and how well or badly it is
circulating. If the blood is _anemic_, or thin, then both lips and nails
are pale and dull. If the blood is healthy and the circulation good,
then the nails are pink, and the lips clear red. If, on the other hand,
the circulation is bad, as in some forms of lung disease and heart
disease, so that the blood is loaded with carbonic acid until it is
blue and dark, then the lips may become purplish or dark blue, and the
finger nails nearly the same color.


THE BLOOD-MESH OF THE SKIN

The Blood Vessels under the Skin. Not merely the nails and the lips,
but the whole surface of the skin is underlaid with a thick mat, or
network, of blood vessels. These vessels are all quite small, so that a
cut has to go down completely through the skin, and generally well down
into the muscles, before it will reach any blood vessel which will bleed
at a dangerous rate. But there are so many of them, and they cover such
a wide surface throughout the body, that they are actually capable of
holding, at one time, nearly one-tenth of all the blood in the body.

This "water-jacket" coat of tiny blood vessels all over our body has
some very important uses: It allows the heart to pump large amounts of
blood out to the surface to be purified by the sweat glands, and to
breathe out a little of its carbon dioxid and other gas-poisons.

The Skin as a Heat Regulator. Heat, as well as waste, is given off by
the blood when it is poured out to the surface; so another most
important use of the skin is as a heat regulator. As we have already
seen, every movement which we make with our muscles, whether of arms and
limbs, heart, or food tube, causes heat to be given off. We very well
know, when we work hard at anything, we are likely to "get warmed up."
Although a certain amount of this heat is necessary to our bodily
health, too much of it is very dangerous.

Just as it is best for the temperature, or heat, of a room to be at
about a certain level, somewhere from 60 deg. to 70 deg. F., so it is
best for the interior of our bodies to be kept at about a certain heat.
This, as we can show by putting a little glass thermometer under the
tongue, or in the armpit, and holding it there for a few minutes, is a
little over 98 deg. F. (98.4 deg. to be exact); and this we call "body
heat," or "blood heat," or "normal temperature." Our body cells are, in
one way, a very delicate and sensitive sort of hot-house plants, though
tough enough in other respects. Whenever our body heat goes down more
than five or six degrees, or up more than two or three degrees, then
trouble at once begins. If our temperature goes down, as from cold or
starvation, we begin to be drowsy and weak, and finally die. If, on the
other hand, our temperature climbs up two, three, or four degrees, then
we begin to be dizzy and suffer from headache and say we have "a fever."

A fever, or rise of temperature, that can be noted with a thermometer,
is usually due to disease germs of some sort in the body; and most of
the discomfort that we suffer is really due more to the poisons (toxins)
of the germs than to the mere increase of heat, though this alone will
finally work serious damage. However, as we well know from repeated
experience, we need only to run or work hard in the sun for a
comparatively short time to make ourselves quite hot enough to be very
uncomfortable; and if we had no way to relieve ourselves by getting rid
of some of this heat, we should either have to stop work at once, or
become seriously ill. This relief, however, is just what nature has
provided for in this thick coat of blood vessels in our skin; it enables
us to throw great quantities of blood out to the surface where it can
get rid of, or, as the scientists say, "radiate," its heat. This cooling
process is hastened by the evaporation of the perspiration poured out at
the same time, as we have seen.

Copyright (c) 2007. topboookz.com. All rights reserved.