Need of Attention to Hygiene
By A. B. Olsen
OUT of every one thousand children born, only one hundred reach the age of seventy-five. Four hundred perish before the age of five, and the average life to-day is about half the threescore and ten of which we read in Holy Writ. The five principal diseases, those which account for by far the larger number of deaths, are consumption, bronchitis, convulsions, pneumonia, and common fever, and all these diseases can to a large extent be prevented by careful attention to hygiene and sanitation. To illustrate, in Northumberland is a little village in which in twenty years one hundred and forty children were born, and at the close of the period all were living. What does this show?— That it is not necessary for half or nearly half of the children to die before the age of five if they could only have healthful surroundings, a wholesome diet, etc. A famous physician in London, noted for giving very original advice on various occasions, had as a patient a man who possessed much of this world's goods, and little of the wealth that we call health, and who was constantly consulting the physician about some pain or ache. Finally the genial old doctor almost got out of patience, and he startled his patient by saying, one day, “Young man, I advise you to go and steal a horse.” “What do you mean, doctor?” asked the patient, indignantly. “I mean,” said the doctor, “that if you steal a horse, you would probably be caught, and then you would be taken care of properly, and would not have an opportunity to keep fashionable hours, and injure your digestive organs as you are doing now.” This advice was not so far out of the way. The contracting of disease depends upon two chief factors: The first is exposure to disease germs, and we have not much control over that. The other and more important factor is the amount of power that the body has to overcome the disease. The body might be likened to an army; if we wish to obtain and keep sound health, we must keep it in a fighting condition, because there are all the time about us conditions which invite disease, and we must be able to resist them. People do not always stop to consider that the food that is eaten becomes muscle, brain, and nerve. The food that you swallow to-day is blood to-morrow, and it is soon built up into the body tissue. If the bodily organs are to be sound, full of health, ready for vigorous work, then the material of which they are built must be wholesome and pure. Simplicity should enter into all the details of one's life, including the preparation of one's food. Simplicity involves abandoning the eating of pickles, peppers, rich sauces, and all those things that require a large amount of work in the kitchen, and also prove burdensome to the digestive organs. A simple, wholesome diet, consisting largely of fruit, will conduce greatly to health and vigor of mind and body.