The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-06-21
MANNERIsMs THAT INJURE.
Apparently Harmless Practices That
Grow Into Fixed and In--
juri0us Habits.

Ones health may be seriously i'm
paired, ones life may even be short
ened by permitting little mannerisms
to grow into fixed habits. There are
score of such mannerisms which
are likely to do one serious injury
says the New York Herald.
Such apparently harmless practices
rs blinking the eyes rapidly, mois-
tening the lips with the tongue, pick
ing the teeth, scratching ones head,
or breathing through the mouth
when carried to excess become very
bad habits.
Take, for instance, the common
"trick" OF moistening the lips with
the tongue. If you make habit of
this you will make your lips drier
and dricr, and render the nerves of
them extremely sensitive. Eventual
ly you will contract permanently
cracked lips, which besides being
painful and annoying are likely to
produce cancer. If this disease. be
hereditary you run good chance of
getting it.
Why any man should blow his nose
when he does not want to is a mys-
terry, but hundreds of people, espe-
cially elderly ones, have the habit.
1t is extremely bad for the nasal
nerves and membranes. If done con-
stantly when in health 1t will, SOON
er or later, produce chronic nasal
catarrh.
If you find yourself blinking. your
eyes rapidly without any cause, stop
it at once, or it will grow into an in
durable habit, that will make your
eyesight fail comparatively early in
life.
Natural blinking is necessary to
clear and moisten the eye. The aver
age number of natural blinks is
about 20 per minute. But nervous
blinker will get in something like a
couple of hundred in a minute in bad
cases. The result of this is big de-
velopment of the eyelid muscles. It
besides involves counter irritation,
which acts on the optic nerve, and
renders the sight daily more weak
and irritable.
Once contract this habit, and YOU
will find you cannot bear a strong
light or read small type, and the eyes
will get worse and worse. The cure
consists in keeping the eyes shut for
At least ten minutes in every hour, and
bathing the lids in warm water.
It's unwise to breathe through your
mouth. If you do you will let the
lower half of your lungs fall almost
entirely into disuse. They are not
filed if you breathe through your
mouth, and the lungs will be weakened
and left an easy prey to maladies of the
chest. The,system will besides be fed |
BY only about half the oxygen it re-
quires. Thousands of people contract
this dangerous habit, which really is
} life shortener.
If you sleep with your mouth open
you will get about half the benefit of a.
nights rest. This is frequently the
cause of that ''tired feeling" on wax
ing in the morning. If there be any en-
demic floating about you double your
chances of catching it, and halve your
'hances of recovering, as you weaken
he lungs.
Never pick the teeth. 1t will make q
Inference Of years in the life of your
eeth, and send you to the dentist be-
ore your time. The habit, even after
meals will sooner or later start the en-
mel OF the teeth and cause decay.
'ome people contract a perpetual habit
4 picking the teeth when they have
lothing else to do. This will put
'ood sound set of teeth on the road to
ecay at least six or seven years before
hey ought to go. You will lose your
leep, pay dozen dentists bills and
hen wish you had left toothpicks
lone. Brush your teeth, instead, with
good powder after every meal, if pos
IDLE. +