PflIOE EIGHT CENTS. HAMPTON TRACTS FOR THE PEOPLE SANITARY SERIES . . . No. II. it {y c a c It e t* s By E. W. COLLINGWOOD NEW VORK Published for the Hampton Tract Committee By G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 182 FIFTH AVENUE 1879 Handy-Books for every Household. 'Till the Doctor Comes, and How to Help Him. By George H. Hope, M.D. Revised, with Additions by a New York Physician. *** A popular guide in all cases of accident and sudden illness. i2mo, cloth, 75 cents. " A most admirable treatise; short, concise, and practical.”—Har- per’s Monthly ( Editorial). “ We find this an invaluable little compendium, embracing more in- formation of use to bystanders in time of sickness or accident than we have ever seen put together before. 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Where It Should Be, and What to Put in It, Containing Hints for the selection of a Home, its Furniture and internal arrangements, with carefully prepared price lists of nearly everything needed by a housekeeper, and numerous valuable suggestions for saving money and gaining comfort. By Frank R. (of Sctibner’s Monthly). i2mo, 182 pages, cloth, . . ’ . . . . . 75 cents. “Young housekeepers will be especially benefited, and all house- keepers may learn much from this book.”—Albany Journal. Infant Diet. By A. Jacobi, M.D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of Children, College of Physicians and Sur- geons, New York. Revised, enlarged, and adapted to popular use, by Mary Putnam Jacobi, M.D. i2mo, boards, ....... 50 cents. “ Dr. Jacobi’s rules are admirable in their simplicity and comprehen siveness.”—N. Y. Tribune. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS. NEW YORK. 'ss&sishxos vsMnm FOR THE PEOPLE. No. II. SA NIT A R T.SERIES ji\ i E. W. COLLINGWOOD. “ Education is the apprenticeship of life.” HAMPTON', VIRGINIA : PUBLISHED FROM THE HAMPTON INSTITUTE PRESS. 1573. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1878, by Eleanor \V. Collingwood, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. MAXIMS FOR HEALTH AND EDUCATION. O blessed health ! tliou art above all gold and treasure; it is thou who enlargest the soul, and openest all its powers to receive instruction, and to relish virtue, lie that has thee has little more to wish for! and the that is so wretched as to want thee wants everything with thee. Sterne. A sound mind in a sound body, if the former be to the glory of the latter, the latter is indispensable to the former. Edwards. Life is not to live, but to be well. Martial. The first wealth is health. Sickness is poor-spirited and cannot serve any one; it must husband its resources to live. But health or fullness answers its own ends and has to spare, runs over and inundates the neighborhoods and creeks of other men’s necessities. Emerson. Health is the greatest of all possessions, and it is a maxim with me, that a bale cobbler is a better man than a sick king. Mckerstaff. Education is the apprenticeship of life. WUlmott. The sacred books of the ancient Persians say. If you would be holy, instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you. Montesquieu. In this country every one gets a mouthful of education, but scarcely any one a full meal. Theodor« Marker. Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearing of little children tends towaid the formation of character. Hosea Barlow. -Tails and State prisons are the complements of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more you must have of the former. Horace Mann. DUTY OF TEACHERS. The old Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said, “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind, have been con- vinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” More than two thousand years have passed since then, and the people to whom these words were addressed have long been forgotten; but the saying of the wise old teacher has been handed down to us, and is well worth our attention. First, let us see in what a correct education consists, and what means are best to secure this education to all future gen- erations of men. What course of training is best for children, to make them live good and true lives in this world, to develop all the best parts of their natures, and so prepare them for the life to come ! These and many other questions arise in con- nection with the subject, and I think that everyone who gives it proper attention will agree in saying that there can be but one answer for them all—which is this: Education should aim at the highest possible development and perfection of man's moral, intellectual and physical nature. Yet if we look care- fully through the schools in this country alone, w’e shall be surprised to find that in most cases much more attention is given to the intellect than to the morals and health. This is often the fault of parents as well as teachers, and arises from an ambitious desire on the part of one or the other, or both, to have children make great mental progress; while the fact is often lost sight of, that this object is attained at the expense of the body. So much depends on education, and so little can be accomplished in this world without it, that it is of the 4 DTJTV OF TEACHEES. greatest importance that those who are instructed should be taught in the best possible way, and receive physical as well as mental training to insure sound minds in sound bodies. If we could fully realize how closely connected the moral, intel- lectual and physical natures of man are, we should consider it a sin to separate them as we do ; and until wo can train them together we need expect nothing but a generation of “one- sided” men and women. Of course, the first responsibility rests with parents ; but next to them there is no one who can do more good for the young people of this country, or any other, than teachers. Their influence, either for better or worse, is almost incon- ceivable. Their words, acts and even looks are repeated by those who are brought in daily contact with them; while sug- gestions and good advice are often accepted with a better grace from a true, warm-hearted teacher, than they can be from anybody else. The position of teacher is one of such immense responsi- bility that it should never be lightly assumed, nor taken by those who are not acquainted with human nature and the laws of health. Mere book-learning is only a small part of what a teacher should be familiar with; and I hope the time will come when parents will bo unw illing to have their children placed in the charge of teachers who are unacquainted with physical laws, and unable to train the body in a systematic way. When wo consider how early children are sent to school, and for how long a time they remain there, just when the muscles and bones are developing and the little frames need most strengthening,—when we remember that the rooms in which they stay are close, and that for the time they are there they must keep still and learn their lessons in seats that are often too large or too small,—we wonder that so many come out with any degree of health. We can also understand why so many are round-shouldered, short-sighted or perhaps worse. Of DUTY OF TEACHEKS. 5 course teachers cannot do everything to counteract outside in- fluences for ill, but they can do a great deal. And this little book is to help point out the great opportunity, two-fold in nature, that all teachers have of benefiting the public health. First—in the present, by keeping from those placed in their care all known causes of disease, and second—in the future, by teaching them to form such habits as will enable them to live healthful and long lives. They should be told that the principal necessaries of a healthv existence are PURE AIR, LIGHT, EXERCISE, REST AND WARMTH ; and that most of the derangements of the system are caused by errors committed with regard to these. PUKE AIK. Pure air is of such vast importance that it may well be placed first. Let us consider the subject a little. We find that the atmosphere which surrounds the earth and extends above it some miles, to be composed of two gases, mixed, but not combined, in the proportion of about 21 parts of oxygen to 7!» parts of nitrogen. We also find that no matter in what part of the earth air is examined the proportions are always the same, and that no other gas is necessary to support life, though either gas taken alone would cause death. Now God has made this air just to suit our bodies, and when we take it in through the nose and it passes down into the lungs, it comes in contact with the blood; and by a most wonderful process, it parts with its purifying properties, which enter the blood and burn up the old waste matter that would otherwise poison the system. Now when the carbon in the lungs combined with the oxygen in the air it not only destroyed the useless particles and gave out heat, but it also formed a very poisonous gas called carbonic acid gas, which is so deadly in its nature that if we were to breathe it in a concentrated form we should die in a few minutes. We can easily see therefore, that 6 DUTY OF TEACHERS. although the air may be very pure when taken into the lungs, it is no longer so when it corues out, and should never bo breathed again. Children should understand, that, although people may not be killed immediately by breathing impure air of close rooms, they are taking into their systems small quan- tities of poison which will lay the foundation for many dis- eases. It has been stated by an eminent EDglish physician that ‘ ‘scrofula and comsumption are diseases that arise from the want of fresh air. They are the diseases of civilized com- munitiesof people that herd together and prevent pureairfrom getting into their residences.” There are numerous facts prov- ing this statement, and I will tell you of an instance that is a striking illustration of it. In the Pyrenees mountains, which as you know are between France and Spain, there was once a village, built in a sort of hollow on the sides of a high hill in such a way that the houses extended around and the inhabi- tants could enter them only through one little opening into the village. This place was noted for the diseased condition of its inhabitants. In fact they were really dying of scrofula and consumption in the most alarming manner. Fortunately for them, however, a lire broke out in one end of the village, and those whose homes were destroyed built a better set of cot- tages, higher up on the hill. These houses were made so that the air could pass through, and those who went into them to live, began immediately to improve in health, much to the as- tonishment of those who had remained in the old place and were still suffAing. The consequence was that they deter- mined to pull down the whole village and build better cottages farther up and as far apart as possible. Now the Society of Hygiene in Paris reports this village one of the healthiest in the Pyrenees. There are numerous stories that show the effect of crowding and bad air. The sickening one of the Black Hole of Cal- cutta is an instance of what impure air did in 17">G, when an East Indian Nabob ordered that 14G English people, who had DUTY OF TEACHERS. 7 become liis prisoners, should be thrust for the night into a small cell used as the prison of a fortress. This room was only 18 feet long by If feet wide, and had only two small holes for windows. The captives were crowded so closely into the place that it was necessary to push the last one in with violence before the door could be closed, and then their anguish was terrible. The noise of their cries and struggles filled the neighborhood for a long time, but towards morning it died away, and when the prison door was opened the reason was painfully evident. Out of the 14(5 prisoners there were taken out 128 corpses and 23 wretched creatures who could hardly be called alive. That happened more than one hundred years ago; but only a few years ago an emigrant vessel started from Cork, in Ireland, to take a large number of emigrants to Liver- pool, where a ship was about to sail. In the night a great storm arose as they were crossing the English Channel, and the captain, thinking that the sailors would be unable to do their work properly when the frightened passengers crowded the deck, sent them all below into the hold and ordered the hatches to be closed. Shut into the close place they must have suffered terribly, but their cries were either unheard or disregarded for no fresh air was given them. When the cap- tain and his crew looked after the passengers they found to their horror that many were dead and other’s in a dying condition, from having breathed the same air over and over again. Now, every one who reads these stories is naturally shocked at the ignorance of the villagers in the Pyrenees, at the tyranny of the Indian Nabob, and the carelessness of the Irish Captain, but the very people who think that such tilings were inexcusable then, may be allowing the same poisonous gas in their own dwellings and in school-houses. Were they to give the subject sufficient attention, they might be able to trace a large part of the present ill-health of this generation to the want of fresh air. It has been stated by those who have made the subject a 8 DUTY OF TEACHERS. study that in every 1,000 parts of air in an inhabited room, there should never be more than 6 parts of carbonic acid gas. Now the air which we breathe, after it leaves the lungs, con- tains 400 parts of carbonic acid gas in every 10,000 parts, and also a bad smelling organic matter which comes from the pores of the skin. This substance may be invisible but is none the less offensive, as all decayed matter is, and it hangs about a room, condenses on the walls and furniture, giving the old “fusty” smell that a place has after it has been closed for a long time. A very good way to see how much carbonic acid gas there is in a room, is to have standing there, an open vessel con- taining lime water ; and as the carbonic acid gas from the lungs unites with the lime it forms carbonate of lime, which falls to the bottom of the vessel in a chalky deposit. But. though we can tell about how much of the deadly poison there is in the atmosphere, there have been no means found by which air that has been breathed can be purified in the smallest degree. Nothing can be done but to let in the fresh air, and so force out the bad. This process we call ventilation, and though one object of it may be to cool the room, the principal one is to drive away the impurities which must not enter the body a second time. In a school-room the amount of cubic space allotted to each scholar is usually very small, and it is of the greatest import- ance that the air should be changed very frequently. It is also very necessary to have all outside garments hung away from the school room. In many cases the air is tainted by odors arising from clothing that has been worn, particularly in wet weather, and a little trouble and expense on the part of those who have the building of school-houses in charge, would provide a suitable entry for clothing that is not worn in school. Often in cold weather it is impossible to change the air of a school-room as often as is desirable, for fear of exposing children to injurious draughts; but when they are not there the DUTY OF TEACHERS. 9 place can be thoroughly ventilated. To do this effectually there should always be windows that open top and bottom, on two sides of the room at least. Of course there should be ventilators besides, and I call your attention to Tract No. Ill of this series, entitled “Preventable Diseases,” where careful directions are given that will enable any one to ventilate a room cheaply and at the same time thoroughly. It is astonishing how little attention these things receive compared with what they deserve, and how often those who understand and try to follow out rules concerning them are laughed at and called too particular, even “fussy.” It is equally astonishing how ignorant many people are on this subject, who seem to know enough on many others. How often you see a person open a window from the bottom and expect to have the room well aired, never remembering that there must be some opening at the top for the bad air to pass out, as well as one at the bottom, for the good air to come in. In order to make a current of air in a room, windows must be open at the top and bottom ; the children should learn this, and the importance of fresh air and how to get it, if they learn nothing else. Let them be told that fresh air is more important than food, for without food men have lived many days, but without air they invariably die in a few minutes. But do not stop there. Show them how to breathe. Tell them that in order to get their lungs well filled they must lift the chest, and lower it' to send the air out, and that they can- not do so by breathing just below tlm throat, but must make use of the great muscle, the diaphram, that is just below the lungs. Then show them how important it is that clothing should always be loose, and tell them what the results will be of compressing the organs. A teacher must wear her own clothing properly, however, before she can teach others to do so ; and often her example will influence a pupil more than any amount of talking. Children should be taught to stand straight; to hold up the 10 DUTY OF TEACHEliS. head, with the chin down, to throw the shoulders back to keep the stomach in, and stand on both feet, not bear all the weight of the body on one. It is excellent practice for any one to walk with a good-sized book on the head, and children are benefited by practising even’ day, gradually increasing the weight. If all these things are taught them, they will be healthier girls and boys and better 'women and men than if you allow them to sit and stand in a crooked position, and they will remember longer and try harder to do as you ask them, if they are told why you require it of them. Look among the men and women around you and see how many are straight ! You will be surprised to find that not more than one out of every hundred will stand or sit as he should. Is it not reasonable to suppose that the children wrho know most about standing and sitting will make the straightest men and women ? You cannot tell how many lives will be bene- fited, perhaps saved, by a little care and attention to all these things, on your part, nor how many generations will be made stronger and better, by what you teach your pupils concerning these things. It is the privilege of your position as teacher, and should be regarded as a great and glorious one. Do not let it escape you, but make the most of it before it is too late. LIGHT. Next to pure air comes Light, which is so very necessary to life and health. If you want to make a plant white and tender, you tie it up and put it in a dark place; and the same rule will apply to human beings. If they are kept in dark places they will surely be pale and delicate, and droop like plants under similar circumstances. Children must have light to be healthy, and school-rooms, above all other places, should be bright and sunny; not only for the reason I have just given, but to enable children to read, write, &c., without stooping. Many cases of short-sightedness and curvature of the spine are the results of habits acquired in a badly-lighted sehool- DUTY or TEACHEES. 11 room, and teachers cannot be too careful to see that the light by which their pupils write, draw, or study, shall fall over the left shoulder, to prevent a shadow on the paper. In short- sightedness the globe of the eye is drawn out from back to front so that the images of distant objects are not brought to a focus on the retina, but in front of it. When a book is read by a dim light the muscles of the eye that adapt the focus for near objects have to be brought into great and continued action, and frequently the eye yields and is pulled out in the way I have described. A book can be read at a distance of fifteen or eighteen inches by healthy eyes, but if held nearer short-sightedness is the result. Let every teacher remember these things and take all precautions to save children from a misfortune that already 'prevails to an alarming extent in our schools. EXEECISE. And now I come to a subject that is of great importance, greater, perhaps, than is fully realized. It is Exercise. Ex- ercise is needful for all who would keep in health, and par- ticularly for children, whose muscles are constantly generating energy that must be spent in -vigorous movement. It is against every law of nature to suppose that children can remain perfectly quiet for any length of time, and yet many teachers seem to consider that the one aim and end of school- teaching is to have their pupil sit like so many sticks. I have known instances where children have been punished because they were restless, whereas they were only obeying the laws of nature by relaxing the muscles that were painfully contracted by a constrained position. It is a well-known fact that a muscle wastes which remains idle, and if by a position long continued, certain muscles are brought into action to the exclusion of others, deformity and bad habits must be the result. There is no doubt that many of the bad habits that are such a curse to young people were formed 12 DUTY OF TEACHEISS. at school, simply because proper exercise was not given at the right time. Teachers cannot be too careful to introduce calisthenics into their schools; and there can be no excuse for not doing so, as many of the exercises are very simple and can be given without music. The time spent in that way would be well employed and children would feel the benefit of such training all their lives. And here I want to call your attention to a way in which some teachers punish children. They are sometimes com- pelled to stand and hold a book at arm’s length, to place the finger on a nail in the floor or sit on the mop-board. Think of the barbarity of such things! I have known a teacher who compelled a boy to stand with his finger on a nail in the plat- form of the desk until he nearly fainted, all because he was disorderly. Now I do not excuse him for disorder, because he was old enough to know better, but neither do I excuse the teacher for not finding a better method of correcting him. How can children respect a teacher who is obliged to resort to such means in order to command their obedience? Think, also, of the example that a teacher is placing before pupils! You certainly will agree with me that such methods are barbar- ous and that anyone who cannot teach without using them ought to lose his position. All who think that such punish- ments are in accordance with any known law of health, had better try them first before obliging others to perform what will do no good and nobody knows how much harm. Little mean ways of punishing children—such as twisting the lips for whispering, Ac.,—are too much employed in our schools, and the inhuman practice of striking a child on the head has produced deafness and idiocy. I cannot speak too strongly on this subject. Anybody who boxes a child’s ears may injure the brain and cause a life-long misery, and, in any case, the worst passions of the nature are aroused. Teachers, look to it, that this sin is not at your door. Learn to control yourselves before you can expect to control others. DUTY OF TEACBEKS. 13 The next subject that I want to call your attention to, is Warmth. In connection with this subject are WAKSITH. The first we have already spoken of, and although the second and third are not under the entire control of teachers, they can be improved by advice regarding them. Every school-room should contain a thermometer, which should be hung on a level with the pupils, not far above their heads nor near the floor, as the temperature of a room will be found to vary at different heights. The thermometer should be placed on an opposite side of the room from the stove or register, and for studying, 07°, Fahrenheit’s, is warm enough. When the room is heated by a stove great care should be taken to keep the evaporating dish well filled with clear water, as a dry heated air produces a sensation of tickling all over the body, brings on a cough, and lays the foundation for pulmo- nary disease. The clothing of the children should be observed, and care taken that they remove their outer garments before entering the room. In many cases where pupils cannot afford flannels and suitable clothing for the Winter, a teacher can influence those who have such things at their disposal to provide what is needed. Of course warmth depends in a great measure on the food that is eaten ; and although teachers are not supposed to fur- nish it to their pupils nor know exactly what they have at their tables, yet there are many valuable suggestions in regard to eating that a teacher can give to pupils. Advice will often have more force coming to them in that way than if they were to hear the same things at home. There is one thing that must not be overlooked in connec- tion with a school, and that is the out-buildings. First, care must be taken that there shall be nothing that can in the FRESH AIR, CLOTHING AND FOOD. 14 DUTY OF TEACHEES. slighest degree delile the mind, or offend the most sensitive nature. The morals of the pupils should be as carefully watched as the mental progress, and should the teacher find the slightest trace of immorality among the pupils, an instant co operation with the parents should be sought, to remove an evil, which, if not rooted out at once, will grow, and produce the worst possible misery and wretchedness. This is a subject which is too serious to be passed lightly by, and if it were to receive more earnest, prayerful attention, there would be fewer bad habits formed among children in schools. From my own observation I believe that there is more wrong doing even in primary schools than most people know of; and that because children do not • understand how wonderfully and delicately they are made, and how important it is to take care of every part of their bodies, they do from ignorance what effects then moral, physical and mental con- dition throughout their lives. Constrained positions, mental pressure, close air, etc., will develop, even in little children, the germs of animal passion which grow into vices that shadow their whole lives. Children should be talked to very plainly, the girls and boys separately, and a pure minded, earnest, Christian teacher can do so in such a way that the mind will take in the wonder and beauty of the human body and will not dwell upon the lower side of nature. Nothing but the most constant watchfulness on the part of teachers in schools and parents in homes, and the closest sympathy between parents, teachers, and children, can save some children from the worst part of themselves, and as it is impossible for any one to do good individual work where the number of pupils is large, there should be more schools, more teachers, and fewer children taught together. You will be shocked at the story I am about to tell you, and yet it is perfectly true. Not long ago, in one of the New England States, it was necessary to close a public school for some time, because the bad habits of the girls and boys were DUTY OF TEACHERS. 15 beyond the control of the teacher. Who were to blame ? The parents, the teachers, or the school committee for putting so many together ? Who will answer the question, and who will find a remedy ? Parents are more to blame for the wrong doing of their children in these respects than teachers can be, and yet the responsibility rests heavily on teachers, who should be keenly alive to the importance of the subject in order to do good. If the evil that so affects society could be stopped in childhood there would be purer men and women in the world; and it rests with teachers, in a great measure, to see that this is done. In teaching, individual character should be studied with the greatest care, for what may benefit one girl or boy may be an injury to another. You remember the story of the young medical student who was called to attend an Englishman sick with fever. He prescribed chicken-broth, and the man re- covered, so he made a note to the effect that fever was cured by cliicken-broth. Sometime afterward he attended a French- man sick of fever, and remembering his former patient, or- dered chicken-broth. The Frenchman died, and the student accordingly wrote in his note-book : “Chicken-broth cures an Englishman of fever, but kills a Frenchman.” Don’t begin as the student did, by thinking that all need the same doctoring. Many teachers forget that all natures cannot be treated the same any more than two plants can, and by not remembering this they fail to bring out and strengthen good qualities that dull scholars often possess. It is a sad fact that the most attention is given to the “bright ones,” and that those who do not shine in their studies are rather left to get on as well as they can, with the general understanding that they are too dull to learn much. It may be natural to feel more interest in those who learn readily, but it is unjust and unchristianlike nevertheless. The dutj7 of the teacher does notstop at securing conditions favorable for the healthy development of children, but it 16 DUTY OF TEACHERS. should be the solemn duty of all to avert from those placed in their care, every known cause of disease. The class to which I particularly refer are those contagious diseases so common to school-going children, and which are best propagated by their congregating together at school. Teachers cannot be too particular about keeping childreu who have been exposed to contagious maladies from attending school. Their rules on this point should be of the strictest nature. “For in order to have a preventive measure of any real value, it should be taken when the first case occurs,” and for this reason no child should be allowed to attend school while there is a case of contagious illness in his house. Moreover, children should never be per- mitted to return after a sickness, without a certificate from the physician who attended them, and unless the teacher feels satisfied that their return is perfectly safe for the others. It may be said that many are not sick enough to need a physi- cian, and of course that is true. In many cases the form of a disease is very slight, but others may contract it and the re- sults prove fatal. So that although children may appear com- paratively well and be able to attend school, their coming may be dangerous for others. In order that teachers may knows what to guard against, they must be familiar with the symptoms of those fevers so common to childhood, and I shall speak first, of SCARI.ET FEVER. The first symptoms of this disease appear very suddenly, and generally with vomiting, especially with young children. There is great feverishness, flushed face, headache, languor and irritability. The second day a fine rash makes its appear- ance, first on the face and breast. There is also more or less sore throat, and the glands in the neck are swelled. In cases where the rash does not appear, a slight sore throat and a few days of feverishness are the only forms that the sickness as- sumes. Nevertheless, the danger of contagion is the same, DUTY OF TEACHERS. 17 and those who take the disease may have it in its worst form. There is no stage of scarlet fever in which it is not contagious, but it is more so during the period of shedding the skin, and that begins with the recovery of the patient. During this period the skin peels off iji “fine branny scales” from the body, ■while from the hands and feet it comes off in large fiakls. There is great reason to believe that these scales are active means of communicating the disease, and that so long as the peeling continues the patient can spread the contagion. In fact, as the contagion lasts so long, even in the slightest cases, where no doctor has been called in children should be kept from school six weeks at least, and should not be allowed to return even then, unless the cleansing of the house has been thoroughly attended to, and all the clothes that were worn or used at the time have been boiled in wrater. No child should be allowed to return to school while there is any in- fected person in the house ; and during the prevalence of scarlet fever all cases of sore throat should be treated as con- tagious. The time that elapses between exposure to the con- tagion and the appearance of the disease is generally under a week, so that if children continue well for ten days or two weeks after the source of contagion has been removed, and their clothing,