Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-01-14
THE BODY AND ITS HEALTH.


lrevious to its being occupied will often
avert an attack. The taking of warm
drink, preferably a glass of hot milk.
before retiring, or. better. after getting
in bed, is equally as good. The oppor
tunity to warm a bed is not always pos
ssible, but it is generally very easy to
procure a hot drink of so he kind, no
matter where one happens to be. One of
The incest ways to warm bed Is by IRON
ing the lower sheet, and rs much of the
upper one as is thrown back when the
bed is opened After this is done quick
ly draw up the bed clothing and place
the bottles of hot water or the old
fashioned warm log or bricks in between
the ironed sheets. Persons with con-
sumption and heart disease will secure
untold comfort and many restful nights
if they always go to warmed beds to
seek repose.
DANGERS OF WOODEN TooTHPICKs.-
Wooden toothpicks of the cheap kind.
usually found in eating houses and sold
at about five cents bundle, are great
source of danger. Many people chew the
ends off and swallow the fragments to
the serious jeopardy of their internal
anatomy, and even when they don't do
this they are apt to use one of the little
barbs too roughly and to swallow pieces
without knowing it. Boys have q rcpu
tation for being able to eat anything but
no adult can mastcate or digest wood,
which swells and combines with other
substances, and soon forms a dangerous
lump or ball in the stomach. The best
toothpick to use is quill or a silver or
gold one, while aluminium, the new uni
versal metal, has already been tried for
the purpose. Most dangerous of all is a
pin, which, besides cracking the preser-
vative enamel, also infames and cankers
the gums, especially if blood happens to
be drawn.
HABITS AGAINST WHICH CHILDREN
SHOULD Be WARNED Children should
be warned against the indiscriminate
fashion they have of putting everything
in their mouths while out of doors.
Biting at their gloves is a very common
trick, and even money is often held be-
tween their teeth while making change.
People do not realize that their children
are constantly carrying things in their
mouths unless they begin to notice them
particularly in regard to it, and they will
then be astonished to see what a prevail
ing habit it is Give young child an
umbrella, a stick, pencil to hold, and
the chances are that it will be in the mouth
within five minutes and when one considers
how many dangerous diseases can be, and
are, introduced into the system solely
through the mouth it is easy to under
stand why one cannot be too careful.
Even rubbing the face with the fingers
in any way should always be stopped.
Many people have the habit of putting
the hands to the face for no reason what
ever, and they might easily carry germs
to the mouth unconsciously. Frequent
ablution is also great preventive of con-
tagious diseases, and it would doubtless
be a good plan if nurses saw TO it that
the faces and hands Of their little
charges were thoroughly washed when
ever they return from an outing.
ABOUT SLEEP. Sleep is one of the
least understood of physiological pheno-
mena. A new theory of it 1--WE learn,
says mature, from the "Revue Scien-
titique'D has been offered by Herr Rosen-
baum. He supposes the essential fact in
the fatigue of the nervous system leading
to sleep to be a hydratation of the nerve
cells, an increase of their water content.
The greater the hydratation, the less
the irritability. This hydratation arises
through chemical change of the
nervous substance during activity.
A small part of the water escapes by
day through the lungs, but the greater
part is eliminated during sleep. Its
passage into the blood takes place by
virtue of the laws of diffusion, and de
ponds on the quantity and density of the
blood, its amount of fixed principles,
speed of its flow, etc Elimination of
the expired cir takes place according to
the laws of diffusion of gases. The as
similable substances of the body take the
place of the water eliminated in sleep.
The repair of the physical and mental
forces through sleep is due to this elimi-
nation and replacement. Intelligence is
in inverse ratio of the proportion of
water in the brain, and may be measured
by this proportion, at least in the child.
1t may be doubted whether this theory
explains the sleep of alternating animals
or that caused by opium anRsthetics.
DANGERS OF DUAL SLEEPING. The
London Lancet called attention not long
ago to the habit of dual sleeping, saying
that there is nothing that will so derange
the nervous system of a person who is
eliminative in nervous force as to lie all
night in bed with another who is absorb
ent of nervous force. The latter will
sleep soundly and rise refreshed, while
the former will toss restlessly, and will
awake in the morning weary, peevish,
ana discouraged. No two persons. no
matter who they are, ought habitually to
sleep together. The one will thrive. the
other lose. An aged person and child
should not be bedmates great as is the
pleasure Of the grandma to have her Gilt
tie comfort" with Ter at night, it is one
which the wise as well as fond relative
will forego for the chid's sake. A case
recently came to the writer's knowledge
of two sisters, fifteen and seventeen years
old The younger was a splendid speci.
men of young womanhoOd, robust, act
i've and mprrV while the elder