A Handbook of Health

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Sprains. Sprains are twists or wrenches, of a joint, not severe enough
to "put it out," or dislocate it, or to break a bone. A mild sprain is a
very trifling affair, but a severe one is exceedingly painful and very
slow in healing. The best home treatment for sprains is to hold the
injured joint under a stream of cold water for ten or fifteen minutes
and then to bandage it firmly and thoroughly, but gently, with a long
"figure-of-eight" bandage, wound many times, and to keep this moist with
an alcohol lotion. Then keep the limb at rest. If the cold water does
not relieve the pain, plunge the joint into water as hot as you can
comfortably bear it and keep it there for ten or fifteen minutes, adding
fresh hot water to keep up the temperature; then bandage as before.

If the pain should not go down under either of these treatments within
six or eight, certainly within ten or twelve, hours, it is far wisest to
call a doctor, because severe sprains very often mean the tearing of
some important tendon or ligament, and the partial fracture of one of
the bones of the joint. Unless these conditions are promptly corrected,
you may be laid up for weeks, and even months, and left with a
permanently damaged--that is, stiffened--joint. You will often hear it
said that a sprain is harder to heal than a fracture; but that kind of
sprain usually includes a fracture of some small portion of a bone,
which has escaped notice and proper treatment. If the sprain is mild, so
that it does not pain you when at rest, then the bandage should be
removed every day, and the joint gently rubbed and massaged, and the
bandage replaced again. Should there be any one in reach who understands
massage, a thorough massaging right after the accident is quite helpful;
but no amateur had better attempt it, as unskilled rubbing and
stretching are likely to do more harm than good.

What to Do in Case of Poisoning. Poisoning is, fortunately, a rare
accident; and the best thing to be done first is practically the same,
no matter what poison--whether arsenic, corrosive sublimate, or carbolic
acid--has been swallowed. This is to dilute the poison by filling the
stomach with warm water and then to bring about vomiting as quickly as
possible. This can usually be done by adding a tablespoonful of mustard
to each glass of warm water drunk. If this cannot be had, or does not
act within a few minutes, then thrusting the finger as far down the
throat as it will go, and moving it about so as to tickle the throat,
will usually start gagging; or a long feather may be dipped in oil and
used in the same way. It is also a good thing to add milk or white of
egg or soap to the water, or to mix a little oil or plaster scraped off
the wall with it, as these tend to combine with the poison and prevent
its being absorbed. If the poison happens to be an acid, like vitriol,
then add a tablespoonful or more of baking soda to the hot water; if an
alkali, like lye or ammonia, give half a glass of weak vinegar. The main
thing, however, is to set up vomiting as quickly as possible.

[Illustration: POISON IVY

It may be distinguished from woodbine by its _leaves in groups of three_
(not five), _glossy_ and _smooth-edged_ (not dull and saw-toothed); its
_berries greenish-white_ (not blue).]

Another rather frequent and most disagreeable accident, which may happen
to you when out in the woods, is poisoning by poison ivy. This is due to
the leaves or twigs of a plant, which many of you probably know by
sight, touching your hands or face. If you do not happen to know what
poison ivy looks like, you had better get some one who knows to point
out the shrub to you the next time you go into the woods, and then you
should try to keep as far away from it as possible. It is sometimes
called poison oak, but both these names are incorrect, as the shrub is
really a kind of sumac. It takes its different names because it has the
curious habit of either climbing like a vine, when it is called "ivy,"
or growing erect like a bush, or shrub, when it is called "oak."

All sorts of absurd stories are told about the leaves of the shrub being
so poisonous that it is not safe to go within ten feet of it, when the
dew is on it, or to walk past it when the wind is blowing from it toward
you. But these are pretty nearly pure superstitions, because it has been
found that the substance in the leaves or bark of the shrub which
poisons the skin is an oil, which is _non-volatile_, that is to say,
will not give off any vapors to the air and, of course, cannot be
dissolved in dew or other watery moisture. You must actually touch the
leaves in order to be poisoned; but, unfortunately, this is only too
easy to do without knowing it when you are scrambling through the woods
or hunting for flowers or picking berries.

The remedy for poison ivy is a very simple one, and within the reach of
anybody, and is as effective as it is simple. This is a thorough
scrubbing of the part poisoned, just as soon as it begins to itch, with
a nail-brush and soap and hot water. This makes the skin glow for a
little while, but it washes out all the burning and irritating oil and,
if used promptly, will usually stop the trouble then and there. It is a
good idea if you know that you have touched poison ivy, or even if you
have been scrambling about actively in woods or patches of brush where
you know that the ivy is common, to give your hands a good washing and
scrubbing with sand or mud, if there is no soap at hand, in the first
stream or pool that you come to. This will usually wash off the oil
before it has had time to get through the natural protective coating of
the skin.

Snake-bite is one of the rarest of all accidents and not one-fiftieth as
dangerous as usually believed. Not more than one person in twenty bitten
by a large rattlesnake will die, and only about two in a hundred bitten
by small rattlers or by copperheads. The average poisonous snake of
North America cannot kill anything larger than a rabbit, and any
medium-sized dog can kill a rattlesnake with perfect safety. Our
horror-stricken dread of snakes is chiefly superstition. Of those who
die after being bitten by North American snakes, at least half die of
acute alcoholic poisoning from the whiskey poured down their throats in
pints; and another fourth, from gangrene due to too tight bandaging of
the limb to prevent the poison from getting into the circulation, or
from pus infections of the wound from cutting it with a dirty knife.
Alcohol is as great a delusion and fraud in snake-bite as in everything
else; instead of being an antidote, it increases the poisoning by its
depressing effect on the heart. If you should be bitten, throw a bandage
round the limb, above the bite, and tighten as for a cut artery. Then
make with a clean knife two free cuts, about half or three-quarters of
an inch deep, through the puncture, one lengthwise and the other
crosswise of the limb, and let it bleed freely. Then throw one or, if
there be room, two or three other bandages round the limb, three or four
inches apart, and tighten gently so as to close the surface veins by the
pressure, without shutting off the flow in the arteries. After thirty or
forty minutes loosen the first bandage to the same tightness and leave
it so unless the heart weakens or faintness is felt, in which case
tighten again. If this be done, there isn't one chance in a hundred of
any serious result.

How to Avoid Drowning. In case of falling into the water, the chief
thing to do is to try to keep calm and to _keep your hands below your
chin_. If you do this and keep paddling, you will swim naturally, just
as a puppy or a kitten would, even if you have never learned to swim. It
is, however, pretty hard to remember this when you go splash! into the
water. Everyone should learn to swim before he is twelve years old; and
then in at least nine times out of ten, he will be safe if he fall
overboard. Remember that, if you keep your mouth shut and your hands
going below your chin, you can keep floating after a fashion, for some
time; and in that time the chances are that help will reach you. If you
can reach a log or apiece of board or the side of a boat, just cling
quietly to that with one hand, and keep paddling with the other. Even if
you can get hold of only quite a small limb or pole or piece of a box,
by holding one hand on that and paddling with the other and kicking your
feet, you will be able to keep floating a long time unless the water be
ice cold. If you can manage to keep both your feet splashing on top of
the water and both hands going, you can swim several hundred yards.

[Illustration: Pressing out the air in the lungs.

Allowing the lungs to fill themselves.

THE NEW METHOD OF ARTIFICIAL BREATHING

Devised by a celebrated physiologist, Professor Schaefer of Edinburgh,
and now being adopted by life-saving stations and crews everywhere.]

You may sometime be called upon to save another person from drowning. In
such a case, as in every emergency, a cool head is the chief thing. Make
up your mind just what you are going to do before you do
_anything_,--then do it _quickly_! If no one is near enough to hear your
shouts for help, and no boat is at hand, if possible throw, or push, to
the one in the water a plank or board or something that will float, and
he will instinctively grasp it. If you are thrown into the water with a
person that can't swim, grasp his collar or hair, and hold him at arm's
length, to prevent his dragging you under, until help arrives, or until
you can tow him to safety.

Boys and girls, after they have learned to swim, may well practice
rescuing each other, so as to be prepared for such accidents.

Artificial Breathing. The best way to revive a person who has been
under water and is apparently drowned, is to turn him right over upon
his chest on the ground, or other level surface, turning the face to one
side so that the nose and mouth will be clear of the ground. Then,
kneeling astride of the legs, as shown in the picture, place both hands
on the small of the back and throw your weight forward, so as to press
out the air in the lungs. Count three, then swing backward, lifting the
hands, and allow the lungs to fill themselves with air for three
seconds, then again plunge forward and force the air out of the lungs
and again lift your weight and allow the air to flow in for three
seconds. Keep up this swinging backward and forward about ten or twelve
times a minute. This is the newest and by far the most effective way--in
fact the only real way--of keeping up artificial breathing. It is very,
very seldom that any one can be revived after he has been under water
for more than five minutes,--indeed, after three minutes,--but this
method will save all who can possibly be saved.

So perfect a substitute for breathing is it that if any one of you will
lie down in this position upon his face, and allow some one else to
press up and down on the small of his back after this fashion, ten or
twelve times a minute, he will find that, without making any effort of
his own to breathe, this pumping will draw enough air into his lungs to
keep him quite comfortable for half an hour.

Don't waste any time trying to pour the water out of the lungs. As a
matter of fact there is very little there, in drowned people. Don't
waste any time in undressing, or warming or rubbing the hands or feet to
start the circulation. Get this pendulum pump going and the air blowing
in and out of the lungs, and if there is any chance of saving life this
will do it; then you can warm and dry and rub the patient at your
leisure after he has begun to breathe.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

CHAPTERS I AND II

1. Look up in a dictionary the words physiology and hygiene. What does
each mean? If you can, find the derivation of each. 2. Why should
everyone learn about the human body? 3. How is the "man-motor" like an
"auto"? Compare the fuel of each. 4. From what source do all the fuels
get their force or energy? 5. How do plants get their fuel, or food?
6. What is meant in saying that man takes his food at second, or third,
hand? 7. Why do we need a mouth? 8. Does a plant have a mouth? Where?
9. Draw a diagram showing how the food is carried into and throughout the
body. 10. Describe the parts of the food tube through which it goes.
11. Tell how the body-motor uses bread as a fuel. How is its form changed
before it can be used? 12. What are the salivary glands for? What work
is done by their juice? 13. What other juices help to melt the bread?
14. Which foods need the most chewing? 15. How is the food carried down
the food tube? 16. What is the appendix? Explain how it sometimes causes
trouble. 17. How can you tell the difference between colic and
appendicitis? 18. On which side is the appendix located? 19. In what
parts of the food tube are (_a_) starch, (_b_) meats, (_c_) fat
digested? 20. What causes constipation? How may it be avoided? 21. Is
drinking water at meals hurtful? If so, how?

CHAPTER III

1. If we call the body an engine, what is the fuel? what is the smoke?
what are the ashes? 2. Why and how far can we rely upon our natural
desires and appetites for food? 3. How should we choose our foods?
4. Name two serious faults that foods may have. 5. Why do we need a
variety of foods? 6. What is meant by the term "fuel value of food"?
7. How can we roughly tell to which class a food belongs or what its
fuel value is? 8. Why should animal and vegetable foods be used together?

CHAPTER IV

1. Name and describe our most common meats. 2. When is pork a valuable
food? 3. Why do we digest it slowly? 4. Why should we eat fish only
once or twice a week? 5. What food-stuffs are found in milk? 6. Name
some vegetables which contain protein food. 7. In planning a week's
diet, how often would you use these vegetables, and why? 8. What is our
greatest danger in eating meat? 9. Why is it dangerous to eat highly
seasoned stews or hashes? 10. Should cheese be eaten in large amounts at
a time? Why? 11. Describe the care taken at a good dairy. 12. Why is
this necessary? 13. Why is dirty milk less nourishing than clean milk?

CHAPTER V

1. Explain the name "starch-sugars." To which class of fuel-food might
we say that they belong? 2. Why are they cheaper than meat? 3. Why must
these foods be ground and cooked? 4. Which is the better food, white or
brown bread? Why? 5. Could we live on starch-foods alone? What is the
reason of this? 6. In what foods do we find nitrogen? In what, carbon?
7. What is a "complete food"? Name some. 8. Why must the starchy foods
be changed in the body into sugar, or glucose? 9. Name three ways by
which bread is made "light." 10. What is yeast? 11. How is bread made?
12. Why should it be thoroughly baked? 13. What causes bread to become
sour? 14. Name other important starchy foods. 15. Is sugar a valuable
food? Why? 16. In what plants do we find it?

CHAPTER VI

1. Why are fats slow of digestion? 2. If they are so valuable as "coal
foods," why do we not eat more of them at a meal? 3. Give some reasons
for carrying fats as food supply on long voyages and expeditions. 4. In
what forms are they best carried? 5. What makes up the emergency
field-ration of the German army, and why? 6. What is the most valuable
single fat, and why? 7. Name other fats in common use and describe their
effects on digestion. 8. State the food values of bacon. 9. Why should
nuts be eaten in moderate quantity only? 10. How do nuts compare in cost
(_a_) with other proteins? (_b_) with other fats? 11. What is the
peanut? 12. Why is it hard to digest? 13. What digestive juices "melt"
fats? 14. What is oleomargarine and how does it compare with butter?

CHAPTER VII

1. What is the necessity of fruits and vegetables in our dietary? Why
especially in summer? 2. Give some idea of the food value of fruits as
compared with bread and meat. 3. Name the most wholesome and useful
fruits. 4. What is the food value of bananas? Why is it very important
that they be eaten in moderation only? 5. What does (_a_) boiling and
(_b_) drying do to fruits? 6. Why seal the jars of preserved fruits?
7. Why can you not eat as much jam, at one time, as raw fruit? 8. What
disease is caused by scarcity of fresh vegetables or fruits? 9. Name
some of the common vegetables and give their fuel values. 10. Why do we
need with our meals the lighter green vegetables, although they have
little nutritive value? 11. What vegetables contain starch, what sugar,
and what digestible protein? 12. In what form is most of the nitrogen of
vegetables?

CHAPTER VIII

1. What changes occur in food when it is cooked? Describe some of the
changes. 2. What are the advantages of cooking meats and vegetables?
3. Why is it necessary that food should taste good? 4. What has cooking to
do with the cost of food? 5. Why is time well spent in cooking food?
6. Describe the different methods of cooking food and tell advantages of
each. 7. In what ways can you help make the table attractive and
preserve health? 8. In what ways may food be made less digestible and
wholesome by cooking? 9. In what way can fried food be made digestible?
10. What is the supposed economy of boiling? 11. Write out a good menu
for each meal of the day.

CHAPTER IX

1. Why is water necessary in the body? 2. How does the body take in
water other than by drinking it? 3. Why is this water sure to be pure?
4. Why is drinking water likely to be impure? 5. Where and when is water
perfectly pure? 6. What are our chief sources of water-supply? 7. What
is a well? a spring? a reservoir? 8. Which source of water-supply is
safest? 9. What are the dangers of well water? 10. How can they be
avoided? 11. What are the dangers of river water? 12. What is a filter
and how does it work? 13. What makes water rise in a spring or an
artesian well? 14. How may water suspected of being unhealthful be made
safe to drink? 15. How is sewage disposed of? 16. How can it be kept out
of the drinking water? 17. Why does it pay cities to spend large sums to
secure pure water? 18. How can a reservoir be protected? 19. What are
the risks of house filters? 20. How do bacteria help us in keeping our
water-supply pure? 21. Does your city or town have a central source of
water-supply? Where is it? 22. Visit the waterworks of your city or
town and describe to the class how the water is obtained, how prepared
for use, and how distributed to buildings.

CHAPTER X

1. How can you prove that beverages are not real foods? 2. What is tea?
What is coffee? What are chocolate and cocoa? 3. Why are tea and coffee,
if stewed, bad for the digestion? 4. Why is it better for you to let
these drinks alone? 5. How is alcohol made? 6. How is wine made? beer?
cider? whiskey? 7. When does fermentation stop, and for what reason?
8. What is the difference between whiskey and brandy? Why are these the
most harmful of these drinks? 9. Explain the effect of alcohol on the
digestion. 10. Does it increase the warmth of the body? 11. Does it
increase our working power? 12. How is it that at first people thought
that alcohol was helpful, when really it was not? 13. What is the effect
of alcohol on the nervous system? 14. Can the man who drinks alcohol
tell how, or to what extent, it is injuring him? 15. Is alcohol a food
or a medicine? 16. How does alcohol usually affect the mind and
character? 17. Why is smoking a foolish habit? 18. Why is it harmful for
boys? 19. What is nicotine? 20. What proof have we that smoking stunts
growth? 21. How is it likely to hinder a boy's career?

CHAPTER XI

1. Where does the real "eating" take place in the body? 2. How is the
food carried to these parts? 3. What does the name "artery" mean?
4. What are veins? 5. If you examine blood under a microscope, what will
you find in it? 6. What are the uses of these two kinds of little bodies
(corpuscles)? 7. Explain the process of inflammation. 8. Draw a diagram
or rough picture showing the route of the blood through the heart and
body. Mark the vena cava and the portal vein. 9. What are the
capillaries, and what does the name mean? 10. Why do the veins have
valves? 11. Explain how the different parts of the heart act, while they
are pumping and receiving the blood. 12. How many strokes of the
heart-pump are there per minute in a man? a woman? a child? 13. Which
part of the heart has the thickest muscle and why? 14. Where are the
strongest valves? 15. What blood vessels carry the blood to and from the
lungs? 16. What blood vessel carries the blood from the heart over the
body? 17. When you press your hand to the left side of your chest, what
movement do you feel? 18. Where is the best place to feel the pulse?
Why? 19. Which are generally nearer the surface, arteries or veins? Are
they near each other? 20. Why does the heart beat faster when you run?

CHAPTER XII

1. Why is it bad for you to study or exercise while you are eating, or
right after eating? 2. How does overwork, or over-training, affect the
heart? 3. What kind of play or exercise strengthens it? 4. How does good
food help it? 5. What is the best way to avoid heart diseases,
rheumatism, consumption, and pneumonia? 6. How does outdoor air help
heart-action? 7. How do alcohol and tobacco injure the blood system and
heart? 8. Why is alcohol particularly bad for underfed and overworked
people? 9. At what two points is the blood system most likely to give
way? 10. What may cause this breakage, or leakage? 11. What "catching"
diseases often cause organic disease of the heart? 12. Why should heavy
muscular work or strain be avoided after an attack of one of these
diseases? 13. How may valvular heart trouble be remedied? 14. In what
way are the nerve and blood systems connected? 15. What signal have we
that we are beginning to over-exercise the heart? 16. What do we mean by
"tobacco heart"? 17. Tell how to take care of the heart.

CHAPTER XIII

1. How long can an animal live without eating? 2. How long can an animal
live without breathing? 3. Why is your body like a sponge? 4. What are
cells? 5. How do they get their food? 6. How many kinds of waste come
from the body cells? 7. How is each kind carried away from the body?
8. What does the blood carry from the lungs to the body cells? 9. Why does
it not carry air? 10. What process keeps your body warm? 11. What
happens if the body cannot get oxygen? 12. How are the human lungs
formed? 13. What is the windpipe? What are the bronchi? 14. Draw a
picture of the lung-tree showing how the tubes branch. 15. What is at
the end of each tiny branch? 16. How do the windpipe and the esophagus
differ in form? 17. Why is the windpipe stiff? 18. In what four ways is
the air you breathe out different from that which you took in? 19. Why
does lime-water become milky when you breathe into it? 20. When you run,
why do you breathe more quickly? Why does your heart beat faster?
21. How can you improve your "wind"? 22. In fever, why do you breathe more
rapidly? 23. How do the ribs and muscles help in breathing?

CHAPTER XIV

1. Why is "caged air" dangerous? 2. How is outdoor air kept clean and
pure? 3. What is air made of? 4. In what ways do people poison the air?
5. How do plants help to clean the air? 6. What is the best way to
ventilate a room? Why? 7. Why do you have recess? 8. How does impure air
make children look and feel? 9. Why is an open fire not the best means
of heating and ventilating? 10. See if the room you are now in is
properly ventilated. Why, or why not? 11. What are disease germs?
12. Why is dusty air unwholesome? 13. What is the safest way to clean a
room? 14. Name three groups of disease germs that float in the air.
15. Name three ways in which you can protect yourself against these germs.
16. What is a cold? 17. What is the best way to cure a cold? 18. How can
you prevent colds? 19. What causes consumption (tuberculosis of the
lungs)? 20. Does the tubercle bacillus attack other parts of the body?
21. Why should a consumptive hold a cloth before his face when coughing?
22. Why should his sputum be burned? 23. Why should he go to a camp or
sanatorium? Give two reasons. 24. About how much money could this
country afford to spend in fighting consumption? Why? 25. Why need we no
longer dread it as people did twenty-five years ago? 26. What methods
are used in curing the disease? 27. What methods are used for preventing
it? 28. Give two reasons why spitting should be prohibited. 29. What
will fresh-air and sunlight do to the disease germs in the dust?
30. What do we know about the germs of pneumonia? 31. Do those who use
alcohol stand a good chance in fighting pneumonia? 32. How may pneumonia
be prevented?

CHAPTER XV

1. Why is the skin so important? 2. Name some of the things that it
does. 3. How many layers has it? Describe each. 4. What glands are found
in the skin? 5. What is sweat, or perspiration, and from what does it
come? 6. Why should clothing be porous? 7. Why should clothing be
frequently washed? 8. Describe a hair gland and its muscles. 9. Describe
the process of "nail-making." 10. Is there any process like this among
the lower animals? 11. Why do we need nails? 12. What causes the white
crescent on the nail? 13. Explain how the skin is a heat regulator.
14. What is the "normal temperature" of the body? 15. How does perspiring
affect the heat of the body? 16. What are the "nerve buds" or "bulbs"?
17. Name four things that they do.

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