The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-03
WHILE YOU SLEEP,
Some Good Reasons Why You should
Not Lie on Your Back.

The health and the lives of hundreds
of thousands of people in this land are
daily injured and destroyed by the
position in which they are permitted
to sleep, says the New York Journal.
This dangerous position is that of
lying on the back. 1t will be found
that a majority of babies either take
it voluntarily or are placed in it when
put to bed. The great mistake made
is in putting them ON Il bed which en-
ables them TO take this position instead
of the natural and healthy way of ly-
| ing on the side.
| The injuries arising from lying on
| the back are of several kinds. One is
| the hindrance of breathing by the
pressure of the palate against the back
of the throat. The other is the collec-
tion OF mucus and other unwholesone
, substances in the throat. From these
two injurious conditions there result
many diseases of the throat and res
piratory organs, as we'll as general
weakening of them.
The remedy iS a very simple one.
1t Is to put the child to sleep in a
fairly hard bed. Then the position
on the back becomes practically i'm
! possible. and it turns naturally on its
! side. which is the proper attitude for
sleep.
a French physician, DR.. Madeuf. has
recently made some interesting in
vestigations on this subject. He en-
phasies his conclusions by some very
striking pictures showing the evil re-
suits of sleeping on the back, from an
anatomical point of view.
When the head is in an upright po-
| sition there is a considerable space be-
| tween the palate, or uvula, and the
! back OF the throat. 1t is through this
space that the air must pass on its
way from the nose to the windpipe.
Put child to sleep on its back. and
the palate tends by its own weight to
| fall toward the back of the throat. II
may go so far as TO make breath i'm
possible. Then the child is forced to
open its mouth and breathe through
| 1t, which. as every one should know
is unwholesome and unnatural.
When the child lies ON its side the
palate has no tendency to fan back
ward and remains in nearly the same
position as when the head is upright
The position on the back also tends to
| increase the effects of injurious secre-
liors. If. during sleep. the nose secrets
| mucus ii Is permitted to flow into the
| throat; whereas. if the position on the
| side had been taken, the mucus would
have remained in the nose.
~ ptlSoi WnD Has severe cOlu IN the
| head finds his lips rcd. swollen and
cracked on account of the passage of
mucus from the nose. In the same
way, but to a higher degree, does this
! injurious secretion affect the delicate
| skin of the throat when it Is allowed to
| enter there.
| Affections of the ear the internal pas
sage of which opens in this region, are
also facilitated by the same cause.
DR.. Madeuf noticed that disease of the
| nose, ears and throat. so common in
Europe, are very rare in Algeria. The
| reason of this he attributed to the fact
| that the Arab mother put her child to
sleep on mat, with one or two light
coverings. The hard couch was made
necessary by the climate, but it also
served valuable purpose in obliging
| the child to sleep on its side, and not
on its back. Thus it stood a better
chance of growing up without weak
ness or disease of the throat, ears and
| nose.
The American child is in this respect
less well off than the half-civiiZed
Arab 1t is usually put to bed on pill
| low of down or feathers. Then. more
often than not. it lies on it's back. turns
| up its little face, and is in fair way
to develop the terrible diseases men
| toned.
| In this country grown-up persons
have happily discarded the unwhole-
some feather bed to greater extent
| than in Europe: but when the seeds of
| disease ave laid in infancy they de-
| yelop i'm maturity.