The ten laws of health, or, How diseases are produced and prevented : and family guide to protection against epidemic diseases and other dangerous infections

Front matter

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Preface To Third And Enlarged Edition

THE second edition of this work having been exhausted for some years, a revision of it has been somewhat carelessly neglected, or at least thrust aside, until improvements could be made in keeping with the requirements of a progressive age. This, I conceive, has now been done by the addition of a new departure to the present volume, opening up a field of knowledge almost unknown to the popular reader, and one that abounds with the keenest anxieties in reference to health, life and death, as well as to the prosperity of every large commercial city.

Living, or, more properly, viable germs, as the sole means of propagating deadly infections, being now to physicians everywhere an accepted, and, in large part, a demonstrated doctrine, and its bearings upon the prevention of such diseases possessing an importance to every one’s welfare difficult to exaggerate, it occurs to the writer to be high time that

_the subject should be made familiar to the public, whom it most deeply concerns. The immense benefits an easily-comprehended knowledge of this doc- (v) w co vi PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.

trine is capable of conferring should no longer be left to repose on the book-shelves of physicians, with only a scattering and inefficient outlet now and then through boards of health, but should be brought home to the occupants of ‘every household.

A concise statement of the whole subject may be made as follows: that persons sick of infectious diseases are the breeding hot-beds from which the germs issue; that these germs make of air, drinks, and foods mediums by which they are carried into the bodies of others; and that when they once pervade the air, mix with foods and drinks, they can neither be detected nor destroyed; and, as a corollary, that the only time and place effectually to destroy them is at the bedside as they pass from the bodies of the sick. It is the aim in the closing part of this work to present the evidences and modes of doing all this, meanwhile calling attention to the worse than faulty methods now in vogue to stop or stamp out the deadly infections.

Householders do not know how such infections spread, nor that they can with any certainty be prevented; consequently, when any one is taken sick with a catching disease, they do not know what to do, or that anything can be done, to keep it from spreading; and as for notifying a health officer, they

‘ shrink from annoying interferences, they dread disagreeable conspicuity, and so the germs of the disease are allowed to extend to other members of the house and to the air, where they cannot be seen or

‘destroyed. After the infectious disease in this way

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. vii is allowed to become epidemic and alarming, then sterner measures are enforced to put a stop to its spread. This is like waiting until a fire becomes an alarming conflagration before making systematic efforts to subdue it. It is even far worse, for the firebrands can be seen in the air and on houses, and dealt with; not so with the pestilential germs; they are invisible, and hence indestructible, and all that health boards can do under such circumstances is simply to prevent fresh accessions to an already laden atmosphere. Is it any wonder that these or- © ganizations, under such a system, are so powerless and disappointing to panic-stricken cities ?

The bedside of the very first cases of a deadly infection is, then, the only time and the only place to_ successfully arrest its spread. Manifestly, this can ‘ only be done by making householders aware of the fact, aware of their own danger, aware of a sure way of avoiding it, and the instinct of. self-preservation may be trusted as a sufficient inducement for carry-— ing the preventive measures into effect. That all this can be done, and by directions so simple and plain - that any one who reads can understand, is the firm conviction of the AUTHOR.

PREPACE.

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To prevent disease, the first necessity is to know what produces it. It is the business of the physician to understand what are the causes of disease, and he ought, therefore, to be the most capable of directing how they can be avoided. Very many persons, evidently impressed with this view, are in the habit of complaining that physicians do not endeavor to instruct their fellow-beings as they ought, in reference to the preservation of health. While ‘it is true that nearly all the popular books on the subject of health have been written by those whose knowledge of disease is mainly theoretical, yet in the accumulation of sanitary knowledge physicians have been the only contributors. Especially in recent times and in every part of the world have they been investigating, with great care, the causes which produce disease, and the conditions which prevent it. On these topics, their literature contains an immense accumulation of facts, and of a value to humanity almost immeasurable.

By the light of these collected facts, and the conclusions they are capable of establishing, all uncertainty in reference to the preventability of nearly every form of disease must disappear, and the laws pertaining to health be capable of definite settlement ; so that men and women, by living accordantly with them, may livé’as they ought to live, free from disease, and die as they ought to die, from old age, and not by the violent and unnatural process of disease.

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In the endeavor to arrange the laws of health into a code, it is, of course, necessary to consider all the ways and means by which health is destroyed, and all the ways and means by which it can be preserved. In no other way can any one be fully informed how to use himself without detriment under all circumstances, and in no other way can a book assuming to be a guide to health, lay claim to the title of complete.

It has also been an object in these pages to impress

upon the mind of the reader the degree of importance which should be attached to the various ways in which health is destroyed. This is the more needful, as many persons are seen giving the strictest attention to some things which have very little influence over health, while others of the greatest importance are either overlooked or neglected. A very correct estimate of the relative importance of the laws of health may be obtained by taking them in the order in which they are herein arranged. \ The thought will readily occur to every reflective person, that though man is more than ever the monarch of the earth, saying to the forces of nature, ‘‘ Do this,’’ and it is done, he is himself a poor, weak, sickly, suffering, short-lived being. \ He has displayed the immensity of his resources in making nature pliant to his will, but only the poverty of his resources in overcoming the causes of the numerous evils which torment his own body. Firm in the conviction that he has the same power for progress and for good over himself as he has over external nature, even to the entire eradication of disease, I offer this work as a small contribution to an end so great.

CONTEN ES: PART -1:

DISEASE:

WHY IT ARISES; WITH SOME CONSIDERATIONS IN REFERENCE TO ITS PREVENTABILITY.

PAGE Physicians the Strongest Believers in the Preventability of Disease.—

Opinions of Savages as to the Causes of Disease.—Prevailing Opinions as to the Causes.—Progress of Knowledge among Physicians as to the Causes of Disease.—Nature not Accountable for Disease.—Other Considerations which make Physicians Strong Believers in the Preventability of Diseaes—Why Man is the most Sickly of Beings . 5 5 d is “ . : peat

FIRST LAW.

BREATHING A PURE AIR—VIOLATION AND RESULTS.

Pure Air the Natural Food of the Lungs.—Effects of Air Movement on Lung Food.—Results of Defeating a Purpose of Nature.— Gaining Strength by Good Food for the Lungs.—Universality of Lung Starvation.—How rapidly the Body corrupts Air.—Size of Bedrooms in Relation to Health.—Effects of Impure Air on Animals.—Importance of Oxygen to the Blood.—Impure Air and Infant Mortality—Popular Dread of Ventilation—Danger of breathing Air slightly Impure.—Cause of Consumption.—Brain- Dropsy, how Produced.—About Children taking Cold.—Other Sources of In-door Air Impurity.—Sources of Bad Air in Cities — Its Effects —Why Some are always taking Cold.—All Diseases Aggravated by Impure Air.—A Common Mistake about Impure Air : : : x E ° : s 5 4 . 3e

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xii CONTENTS.

MODE OF OBSERVING THE FIRST LAW.

The Sentinel of Danger to the Lungs.—How the Sentinel is Suencd. —How to keep House-Air Pure.—Ventilation, what it means.— Cause of Catarrh in the Head.—Right Kind of Fireplace.—Removal of Sewage.—Wet and Dry Methods.—Popular Mistake in Reference to Impure Air.—The Best Way of Securing Pure Air in an Impure Locality.—Sure Way of Preventing Consumption . 61

SECOND LAW.

ADEQUATE AND WHOLESOME FOOD AND DRINK—VIOLATION AND RESULTS,

Epicurean Pleasures.—What leads to Over-eating.—Cause of Dyspepsia.—Cause of Decaying Teeth.—Costiveness, its Cause.— Biliousness.—Two Purposes of Food.—Cause of Dizziness, Apoplexy, Boils, and Skin Eruptions.—What produces Bilious Vomiting and Bilious Fever.—Kind of Food which produces a Bilious Complexion and a Pimply Skin.—Limited Supply of Food sometimes promotes Health.—Test of what constitutes Sufficient Nourishment.—Test of what constitutes Insufficient Nourishment. —Cause of Rickets, Hip-Joint Disease, and White Swelling.— What renders Food unwholesome.—What should be the Object in preparing Food.—Why some have always had Weak Stomachs.— What is Good and what is Bad Cooking.—Unripe Food under some Circumstances Wholesome, under others Unwholesome.— Three Diseases Arising from Diseased Food.—Hasty Eating.—Only Natural Drink.—Use of Stimulants like Tea, Coffee, and Tobacco. —Mild Stimulation.—Test of Drinks that are Natural and Wholesome, and of those that are not.—Ultimate Design of a Growing Appetite for Strong Drink.—Effects of Tea, Coffee, and Tobacco. —Alcohol in Health.—Alcohol as a Cause of Disease.—Delirium Tremens.—Insanity and Imbecility.x—Cause of Hob-Nail Liver. —Brandy for Travelers—Wholesome Drinks recommended by Quacks.—Effects of Spirit-Drinking on the Future of our Race . 106

MODE OF OBSERVING THE SECOND LAW.

_True Standard of Flour Refinement.—Preventing Costiveness,— Use of Concentrated Foods.—How Much to Eat at a Meal.—

CONTENTS. xiii

PAGE Gratifying a Desire for Variety—Summer and Winter Food.—

Leading Precept of Good Cookery.—Bread.—Animal Food.— When an Unripe Vegetable Diet is Wholesome.—How and When to Eat——Nutriment during Infancy.—Wholesome Drink ,. . 140

THIRD LAW.

ADEQUATE OUT-DOOR EXERCISE—VIOLATION AND RESULTS.

Primary Effects of Insufficient Exercise.—Benefit of Restlessness in Childhood. — Bad Effects of School Confinement.— Cause of Crooked Backs.—Invaluable Time for laying up Health and Strength.—Brain Work required of Children.—Effects of Insufficient Exercise upon the Young.—Neglect of Out-Door Exercise in Adult Life—An Evil of our Social System.—What makes the Farmer-Boy Outwardly Strong and Inwardly Weak.—Effects of an Exclusive Strain upon Nerve.—Cause of an Early Loss of Beauty.—Main Cause of Great Suffering during Childbirth,—Too little Exercise causes an Untimely Decline of Health and Strength 164

MODE OF OBSERVING THE THIRD LAW, ~*~ . BA

Allowance of Out-Door Exercise for Children.—Infants, when to be Taken Out.—Proper Division of Time for Brain- and Muscle- Exercise with the Young.—More Sense shown in the Mode of Raising Animals than Children.—Outwardly Strong and Inwardly Weak.—Out-Door Exercise necessary for Young Women,—Out- Door Exercise for the Sedentary . ihe . e . . FOF 3

FOURTH LAW. a

ADEQUATE AND UNCONSTRAINING COVERING FOR THE BODY—VI10- LATION AND RESULTS.

Fashion, some of its Results——The Great Developer of Disease.— Effects of covering and uncovering Parts of the Body.—Whiskers, : | their Use.—Danger of Insufficient Covering for the Feet.—Baldness, how produced.—Tight Lacing, its Consequences.— an not Born to More Suffering than Man.— Effects of Tight Lacing on Offspring.—Corns and Bunions, how produced. : + 202 xiv CONTENTS.

MODE OF OBSERVING THE FOURTH LAW.

PAGR Test of Sufficient Clothing.—Clothing for Infants and Children.—

Clothing for Adults and the Aged.—Head-Coverings.—Appropriate Clothing.—Securing Lightness and Ease in Clothing.— Covering the Body equally—No Natural Movement to be Impeded . ° a ; : ' e P ete ne ° « 221

FIFTH LAW.

THE EXERCISE OF THE SEXUAL FUNCTION FOR, AND NO INTER- FERENCE WITH, THE NATURAL COURSE OF REPRODUCTION— VIOLATION AND RESULTS.

Instinctive Use of the Sexual Function.—Consequences of Illicit Indulgence.—Consequences of Solitary Indulgence.—Effects of Excessive Use of the Sexual Function during Married Life.— Effects of Promiscuous Cohabitation.—Effects of Abortions . 233

MODE OF OBSERVING THE FIFTH LAW.

Age appropriate for the Reproductive Act.—Is Entire Continence proper ?—When it is Improper to Exercise the Sexual Function. 252

SIXTH LAW.

A HABITATION IN THE CLIMATE FOR WHICH THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BODY IS ADAPTED—VIOLATION AND RESULTS.

Why a Change of Climate is sometimes Beneficial—No Race long survives an Extreme Climatic Change.—Acclimating, its Nature and Duration.—Climate modifies the Forms of Disease.—The Diseases which a Change of Climate tends to Produce x a /

MODE OF OBSERVING THE SIXTH LAW.

How far one may Remove to the North or South without Endangering Health.—A Change of Residence to the East or West does not affect Health—Rules to be observed in Great Climatic Changes : > . : 5 = Fs 5 ;: : - 270