A Handbook of Health

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One of the chief things in training for athletics is teaching our skin
and heart together to get rid of the heat made by our muscles, as fast,
or nearly as fast, as we make it, thus enabling us to keep on running,
or working, without discomfort. As soon as we stop running, or working,
the heart begins to slow down, the blood vessels in the skin contract
and diminish in size, the flush fades, and we begin to cool off. We are
not making either as much heat or as much waste as we were, and hence do
not need to get rid of so much through our skins.

When we feel cold, just the opposite kinds of change occur in the skin.
The blood vessels in the skin contract so as to keep as much of our warm
blood as possible in the deeper parts of our body, and prevent its
losing heat. As blood showing through the pavement-layer of the skin is
what gives us our color, or complexion, our skin becomes pale and
pasty-looking; and if all the blood is driven in from the surface, our
lips and finger nails will become blue with cold. Here again, by changes
in the skin, nature is simply trying to protect herself from the loss
of too much heat.

If we exercise briskly, or eat a good warm meal, and thus make more heat
inside of our body, then there is no longer any need to save its surface
loss in this way; and the blood vessels in our skin fill up, the heart
pumps harder, and the warm, rich color comes back to our faces and lips
and finger nails.

So perfectly and wonderfully does this skin mesh of ours work, by
increasing or preventing the loss of heat, that it is almost impossible
to put a healthy man under conditions that will raise or lower his
temperature more than about a degree, that is to say, about one per cent
above, or below, its healthful level. Men studying this power of the
skin have shut themselves into chambers, or little rooms, built like
ovens, with a fire in the wall or under the floor, and found that if
they had plenty of water to drink and perspired freely, they could stand
a temperature of over 150 deg. F. without great discomfort and without
raising the temperature of their own bodies more than about one degree.
If, however, the air in the chamber was moistened with the vapor of
water, or steam, so that the perspiration could no longer evaporate
freely from the surface of their bodies, then they could not stand a
temperature much above 108 deg. or 110 deg. without discomfort.

Other men, who were trained athletes, have been put to work in a closed
chamber, at very vigorous muscular exercise, so as to make them perspire
freely. But while a thermometer placed in that chamber showed that the
men were giving off enormous amounts of heat to the air around them,
another thermometer placed under their tongues showed that they were
raising the temperature of their own bodies only about half a degree.
One man, however, happened to try this test one morning when he was not
feeling very well, and didn't perspire properly, and the thermometer
under his tongue went up nearly four degrees.

THE NERVES IN THE SKIN

How We Tell Things from Touch, and Feel Heat and Cold and Pain. Last
of all, the skin is the principal organ of the sense of touch, and also
of the "temperature sense"--the sense of heat and cold--and of the sense
that feels pain. All these feelings are attended to by little bulbs
lying in the deeper part of the skin and forming the tips of tiny nerve
twigs,[20] which run inward to join larger nerve branches and finally
reach the spinal cord. There are millions of these little bulbs
scattered all over the surface of the skin, but they are very much
thicker and more numerous in some parts than in others; and that is why,
as you have often noticed, certain parts of the skin are more sensitive
than others. They are thickest, for instance, on the tips of our fingers
and on our lips, and fewest over the back of the neck and shoulders,
and across the lower part of the hips.[21]

For a long time, it was supposed that all these little nerve-bulbs in
the skin did the same kind of work, because they looked, under the
microscope, exactly alike; but it was found that they divide the work up
among them, so that some of them give their entire attention to heat,
and others to cold, others to touch, and others again to pain. So
carefully has the work been mapped out among them that they report to
different centres in the brain and spinal cord, so that we now
understand why, in diseases which happen to attack one or other of these
centres, we may lose our sense of heat and cold, as in that terrible
disease, _leprosy_; or our sense of touch, as in _paralysis_; or we may
even, in some very rare cases, lose our sense of pain, and yet have all
our other senses perfect.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] Hairs are of value chiefly as protection against cold and wet,
although we have got rid of them and substituted clothing for this
purpose, except on the top of our heads; but their roots also are very
richly supplied with nerves so that they form almost a sort of feelers,
or organs of sense. Many animals that move about much in the dark, like
cats and bats, for instance, have their lips or faces studded with long,
delicate, stiff hairs called whiskers, which act in this way and prevent
their bumping into objects in the dark. And it is probable that the
bristling of the hair on a dog's back, when he is angry or frightened,
is in part for this purpose--to enable him to slip aside and dodge a
blow, even after it has touched the ends of the hairs. This great
sensitiveness of the hair roots is what makes it hurt so when any one
pulls your hair.

[20] See the diagram of the skin on page 171.

[21] You can easily test this by a very simple experiment. Take a pair
of dividers; or, if you haven't these, a couple of long pins or needles
will do. Set them with their points a quarter of an inch apart. Then
touch these points, first closing your eyes, so that you will not be
able to see them, to the tip of one of your fingers, and you will
readily feel that _two_ points touch the skin. Turn your hand over and
touch the back of it with the two points, and they will feel like one
point. Carry the test further, over other parts of the body, and you
will find that they are much less sensitive; thus you will find that at
the back of the neck, or over the shoulder-blades, you will have to put
the points nearly an inch apart before you can tell that there are two
of them. This simply means that you have to touch two separate touch
bulbs before you can get the idea of "two-ness." As these bulbs are an
inch or more apart in the skin of the back, you have to spread the
points of the dividers that distance. You can also prove that the
touching of two nerve-buds gives the idea of "two-ness" by crossing two
of your fingers and placing a pea, or small round piece of chalk,
between their crossed tips. If you close your eyes and roll the pea on
the table, or desk, you will think you have two peas between your
fingers.

CHAPTER XVI

HOW TO KEEP THE SKIN HEALTHY

CLOTHING

Clothes should be Loose and Comfortable. Man is the only animal that
has no natural suit of clothing. Birds have feathers, and animals have
fur, or hair, which they shed in summer and thicken up in winter without
even thinking about it, so that they do not have to bother with either
overcoats or flannels. The wise men say that man originally had a full
suit of hair like other animals, and that he gradually got rid of it, as
he became human. Whether this be true or not, the fact remains that he
has none now; and consequently he must invent and manufacture something
to take its place.

Originally, in the time of our savage ancestors, clothing was worn
chiefly as protection from cold at night, so that all the earlier forms
of clothing were of a more or less blanket-or cloak-like form, and
wrapped, or swathed, the whole body without fitting closely to the
limbs. It is interesting to remember this fact, because even our most
highly civilized forms of clothing still show this same tendency. The
skirt, for instance, is simply a survival of the lower end of the
blanket, which has never been cut down to fit the limbs.

The principles upon which garments should be built are two: First, they
should fit closely enough to the body and limbs to protect them from
either injury or cold, even while free activity of every sort is
allowed--you could not wrestle in a blanket or run very far in a sack.
Second, they should be thick enough to protect us from cold, and yet at
the same time porous enough not to interfere with the natural breathing
and ventilating of the skin. A garment should be as loose as possible
without interfering with our movements, and as free and as light as can
be worn with reasonable warmth and protection. The less clothing you can
wear and be comfortable, the better.

We should particularly avoid binding or cramping the chest and the hips
and waist. If clothing is too tight about the chest, it interferes both
with free movement of the arms and, what is even more important, with
the breathing movements of the chest. If too tight about the waist and
hips, it badly cripples the lower limbs and interferes with the proper
movements of the diaphragm in breathing, and with the passage of the
food and the blood through the bowels.

Your instincts are perfectly right that make you dislike to be squeezed
or pinched or cramped in any way, or at any point, by your clothing; and
if you will only follow these instincts all through your lives, you will
be far healthier and happier.

The Texture of Clothing. Just as for ages we have experimented with
different kinds of food, so we have with different kinds of material for
clothing. We have used the skins of animals; mats woven out of leaves
and grasses; the feathers of birds; the skins of fishes; cloths made of
wool and of cotton; and even the cocoon spun by certain caterpillars,
which we call _silk_. But of all these materials, practically only two
have stood the test of the ages and proved themselves the most suitable
and best all-round clothing materials--wool and cotton.

Woolen cloth, woven from the fleece of sheep or goats or camels or
llamas or alpacas, has three great advantages, which make it _the_
outside clothing of the human species. First, it is sufficiently tough
and lasting to withstand rips and tugs and ordinary wear and tear;
second, it is warm--that is, it retains well the body heat; and third,
it is porous, so that it will allow gases and perspiration from the
surface of the body to pass through it in one direction, and air for the
skin to breathe, in the other.

[Illustration: RESULTS OF TIGHT CLOTHING

(1) The normal thorax. (2) The thorax and organs cramped and lifted by
pressure of the clothing. (From an X-ray photograph.--After Dickinson.)]

No clothing, of course,--not even fur,--has any warmth in itself; it
simply has the power of retaining, or keeping in, the warmth of the body
that it covers. The best and most effective way of retaining the body
warmth is to surround the body with a layer of dead, or still, air,
which is the best non-conductor of heat known. Hence, porous garments,
like loosely-woven flannels, blankets, and other woolen cloths, are warm
because they contain or hold large amounts of air in their spongy mesh.

The reason why furs are so warm is that their soft, furry under-hairs,
or "pelt" as the furriers call it, entangle and hold an enormous amount
of air. The fur of ordinary sealskin, for instance, is about half an
inch deep; and _ninety per cent_ of this half-inch is air. If you wet
it, its fur "slicks down" to almost nothing, although the most drenching
wetting will not wash all the air out of it, but still leaves a dry
layer next to the skin. The fur of mink skin, coon skin, or wolf skin,
is an inch thick; and nearly eighty per cent of this thickness is air.

The great advantage for clothing purposes of wool over fur is that the
wool is porous through and through, while the fur is borne upon, and
backed by, a layer of leather--the skin of the animal upon which it
grew--which layer, after tanning and curing, becomes almost absolutely
air-tight.

As a matter of fact, furs are worn mostly for display and are most
unwholesome and undesirable garments. The only real excuse for their
use, save for ornament in small pieces or narrow strips, is on long,
cold rides in the winter, and among lumbermen, frontiersmen, and
explorers. They hold in every particle of perspiration and poisonous gas
thrown off by the skin, and if worn constantly, make it pale, weak, and
flabby; and the moment we take them off, we take cold.

For outer garments and general wear, nothing yet has been discovered
equal to wool, particularly at the cooler times of the year. But for
under wear, in the hotter seasons and climates, wool has certain
disadvantages. It is likely to be rough and tickling to most skins,
which makes it uncomfortable, especially in warm weather. It is also
difficult and troublesome to wash woolens without shrinking them; and,
as soon as they do shrink, not only do they become uncomfortably tight,
but the natural pores in them which make them so valuable close up, and
they become almost air-tight. Finally, when loaded with perspiration,
woolens easily become offensive, so that they must be frequently changed
and washed; and as they are also high in price, it is easily seen that
there are practical drawbacks to their use.

Cotton is much softer and pleasanter to the skin than wool, is cooler in
hot weather, is much cheaper, and is very easily washed without losing
either its shape or its porousness. It can be so woven as to be almost
as porous as wool, and to retain that porousness even when saturated
with perspiration. It does not soak up and retain the oils and odors of
perspiration in the way that wool does; and on the whole, for under
wear, and for general wear at the warm seasons of the year, it is not
only more comfortable, but far more healthful, than wool. Persons of
fair health and reasonably vigorous outdoor habits, whose skins are well
bathed and ventilated, can wear properly woven cotton or linen
undergarments the whole year round with perfect safety.

[Illustration: A COMFORTABLE DRESS FOR OUTDOOR STUDY IN COLD WEATHER

The thick bags pulled up to the shoulders keep the body surrounded by a
layer of warm air.]

Linen and silk both make admirable and healthful under wear, if woven
with a properly porous mesh. Linen has the advantage of remaining more
porous than cotton, when moist with perspiration. But for healthy people
they have no advantages over cotton that are not offset by their higher
prices.

BATHS AND BATHING

Bathing as a Means of Cleanliness. It has been said that one of the
reasons why man lost his hairy coat was that he might be able to wash
himself better and keep cleaner. However this may be, he has to wash a
great deal oftener than other animals, most of whom get along very well
with currying, licking, and other forms of dry washes, and an occasional
swim in a river or lake.

You can readily see how necessary for us washing is, when you remember
the quarts of watery perspiration, which are poured out upon our skins
every day, and the oily and other waste matters, some of them poisons,
which the perspiration leaves upon our skins. Especially is some means
of washing necessary when the free evaporation of perspiration and the
free breathing of the skin has been interfered with by clothing which is
water-tight or too thick.

Bathing as a Tonic. But bathing is of much greater value than simply
as a means of cleansing. Splashing the body with water is the most
valuable means that we have of toning up and hardening the skin, and
protecting us against the effects of cold. The huge and wonderfully
elaborate network of blood vessels that lies in and just under our skins
all over our bodies is, from the point of view of circulation, second
only in importance to our hearts, and from the point of view of taking
cold, and of resisting the attack of disease, one of the most important
structures in our entire body. If, by means of daily baths, you keep
this mesh of blood vessels in your skin toned up, vigorous, and elastic,
and full of red blood, it will do more to keep you in perfect health and
vigor than almost any other one thing, except an abundance of food, and
plenty of fresh air and exercise. A healthy skin is the best
undergarment ever invented.

Right and Wrong Bathing. The best form of bath is either the tub or
the shower bath; and the cooler the water, provided that you warm up to
it quickly and pleasantly, the greater the tonic effect, the more
exhilaration and pleasure you will get out of it, and the more it will
harden your skin against cold. But it should never under any
circumstances be any cooler than you can _readily_ and pleasantly react,
or warm up to, during the bath and afterward. The habit of plunging into
a great tub of ice-cold water all winter long, except for people of
vigorous constitutions and active habits, may often do quite as much
harm as good. Have your bath water just cool enough to give you a
slight, pleasant shock, as you plunge into it, or turn it on, so that
you will enjoy the glow and sense of exhilaration that follows; and you
will get all the good there is out of the cold bath, and none of the
harm. By beginning with moderately cool water you will find that you
come to enjoy it cooler and cooler. If a bath-room is not at hand, a
large wash-bowl of cool, or cold, water into which you can dip your
hands and splash well over the upper half of your body every morning,
and once or twice a week all over your body, will keep your skin clean
and vigorous. If you cannot warm up properly after a cool bath, there is
something wrong about your habits of life; and you had better change
them, and keep changing them, until you find you can enjoy it. For some
delicate children, a quick plunge into, or splash with, very hot water
in the morning will give somewhat the same tonic effect as stronger ones
can get from cold water.

[Illustration: AS A TONIC, SWIMMING IS THE BEST FORM OF BATHING]

Warm baths are best taken at night, just before going to bed, though
the danger of catching cold after them on account of their "opening up
the pores of the skin," has been very greatly exaggerated. They have,
however, a relaxing effect upon the skin, and take out an undue amount
of the natural oil which nature provides for its oiling and softening,
so that, except for special reasons, it is best not to take them oftener
than once, or twice, a week.

Soaps and Scrubbing Brushes. As part of the perspiration deposited
upon our skins is in the form of a delicate oil, and as this oil may
become mixed with dirt, or dust, and form a mixture not readily soluble
in water, it is at times advisable to add to the water something that
will dissolve oil. The commonest thing used for this purpose is soap,
which is a combination of an _alkali_--most commonly _soda_, though
occasionally _potash_ (lye) is used in the soft soaps--with a fat or an
oil. The combination of the two, which we call soap, has been invented
for two reasons; one, that it makes a convenient, solid form in which
the alkali, needed to dissolve the body oil, can be used in such
strength as not to burn or injure the skin; the other, that the fat in
the soap will, to some extent, take the place of the natural oil, or
fat, which it washes off.

Necessary as soap is, it should be used very moderately. You should
never lather and scrub your skin as if it were a kitchen floor, for the
reason that, with the dirt, the alkali also washes and dissolves out a
considerable amount of the natural oil of the skin, and leaves it harsh
and dry. On this account, it is best not to use soap upon the covered
portions of the body, and in the full bath, oftener than once or twice a
week; and upon the face, oftener than once or twice a day. But the hands
may be washed with soap more frequently.

It is also best to avoid the too frequent use of hot water, even upon
the hands and face, for the same reason; it takes out too much of the
natural oil of the skin, along with the dirt. Unless the dirt be of some
infectious, or offensive, character, it is often best to content
yourself with washing off just the "big dirt," and wait for the bubbling
up of the perspiration through your skin to bring the deeper dirt up to
the surface, and wash that off later, in the course of two or three
hours.

Soaps to be Avoided. Soaps that lather too quickly and easily should
always be avoided, for this shows that they contain an excessive amount
of soda or other alkali. It is also best to avoid, or at least be very
wary of, any soaps which are dark-colored or heavily perfumed, as these
disguises may indicate the presence of decaying, offensive fats, and
even of grease extracted from garbage. This is what strong perfumes in
soaps are chiefly used for. Beware of all such, and especially of tar
soaps, for the black color and the strong odor of tar can cover up any
amount of bad quality.

Medicated soaps (soaps containing medicines) are also best let alone.
They are only fit to be used on the advice of a doctor. Most of them are
out and out humbugs, and make up for their richness in drugs by their
poorness in good, pure fat and alkali. Moreover, what may suit one
particular diseased condition of the skin is quite as likely to be
injurious as helpful to another. Any drug which has the power of curing
disease is almost certain to be irritating to a healthy skin; and
nothing can be put into a soap beyond pure, sweet fat, or oil, and good
soda, which will make it any better, or more wholesome, for a healthy
skin. If your skin be red, or itchy, or scaly, or out of condition in
any way, go to a doctor and get the appropriate treatment for that
particular disease, instead of smearing on the surface of your body some
drug of which you know nothing, in the hope of its being the proper
thing for the little patch of diseased skin.

Avoid Using Skin Brushes. Scrubbing brushes and skin brushes of all
sorts should be used even more sparingly than soap or hot water, for the
same reason. Nature did not coat us over with either boards or rubber,
but with delicate, velvety, sensitive, living skin worth ten times as
much as any sort of leather, bark, rubber, or cloth, for resisting cold,
heat, and injuries. It is most important for the health of the skin that
we keep that velvety coating unscratched and unbroken. The use of
brushes and bristles of all sorts, therefore, should be chiefly
restricted to the hair and the finger nails, as for every ounce of dirt
that they take out of the skin, they do a pound of damage to it. They
scrub off the delicate epidermis, as well as the natural oil in it, and
leave it dry and irritated and ready to crack open. Then more dirt gets
into the cracks just formed, and more scrubbing with bristles and hot
water and soap is indulged in to get it out. This opens the cracks still
further, and the next layer of dirt is worked in still deeper. Wash
frequently with cold or cool water, occasionally with hot water, and
sparingly with soap; and limit the use of brushes to the nails and the
hair.

CARE OF THE NAILS

Importance of Clean Nails. On account of their constant use, your
hands are brought in contact with dusty or dirty substances in your work
and in your play; and it is very easy for some of this dirt, and such
germs as it may contain, to lodge in the little chink under the free
edge of the nail, between it and the rounded end of the finger. It is of
great importance that this nail chink should be kept clean, not only
because it looks both ugly and untidy to have the ends of your fingers
"in mourning," with black bands across them, but also because the germs
lodged under your nails may get onto your food the next time that you
eat, and set up irritation and fermentation in your stomach. They may
also cause other trouble; for instance, if your collar chafes the back
of your neck, and to relieve the itching you rub it a little too hard
with your finger, your nail may scratch the skin; and if it be blackened
with infectious dirt, this may get into the little scratch and give rise
to a boil, or a festering sore.

How to Clean the Nails. This cleaning of the nails, however, must be
done carefully and gently; for, if too harsh methods are used, the
delicate skin on the under surface of the nail will be torn, the nail
will be roughened or split, the dirt will work in just that much deeper
next time, and the germs in it may set up inflammations under the nail.
For this reason it is best not to use a sharp-pointed knife in cleaning
the nails, but a blunt-pointed nail cleaner, such as can be bought for a
few cents at any drug store, or such as many pocket-knives are now
provided with. It is also best to trim the nails with a file or with
scissors, instead of a knife, as the latter may split or tear the nail,
or cut down to the quick. Before any of these are used, the nails should
be thoroughly softened in warm water, and scrubbed with a moderately
stiff nailbrush, such as should be kept on every washstand.

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