The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-10-03
WITHOUT USE OF DRUGS.
GIVE THE BODY A CHANCE TO
KEEP COMFORTABLE.
Provide Sunshine and Fresh Air and
Pat less Faith In Fires, FuEs and
window GIass-A Few Facts.

window GIass-A Few Facts.
Give the body a chance. Give it a
chance to show that it can keep we'll
without the use of drugs. After it has
failed there win be time enough in
which to run to the medicine chest.
Give it chance by providing it with
sunshine and fresh air and by relieving
it of the care of furbelows to show that
it has a beauty of its own. If it does
not reward you with bright eyes and
clear complexion there will be time
enough in which to apply cosmetics and
to put on a spotted veil. Give it a
chance to show that with little assist
ance it can keep itself comfortably
warm. 1t it fails put on more clothing,
build fire and shut the window. Mote
the order. 1t was premeditated, not
accidentally Upon the whole the sub
ject of the body's ability to take care OF
itself volumes might be written. but as
volumes are not available Just few
lines about its ability to keep itself
warm.
Our friends, the physiological chem
lists, tell us that there is daily set free,
in the body o. an adult who does the
average amount of work quantity of
heat, which, roughly estimated,is enough
to raise ten gallons oS water from the
temperature of an ordinary room C0
degrees FahrenheiD to that of boiling
water (212 degrees Fahrenheit) 1t is a
good heating apparatus that can do all
that. Ought we not to put a great deal
of faith in it? .,... .s.
Let us begin with the morning, when
faith is usually strongest. We, rise a
little chilly. We know that there is
plenty of fuel in the body and there
fore conclude that the trouble must be
with supply of oxygen. We look after
the draft. First, we take a few deep
breaths of cool. fresh air and signs of
returning warmth appear. The toes
and finger tips are still cold, so we
exercise a little in order to send the
blood with its burden Of oxygen to
every part of the body. ....-
We can learn good exercises from the
books on physical culture, but for this
purpose the kind of exercise is not an
important consideration. Anyone can
hop up and down and move his arms
about Having thus set the draft going,
it is time to jump into a cool bath and
to challenge the body to show what it
can do in the way of making heat.
This does not mean that If, on all Of our
yesterdays, as we have taken baths at 81
degrees Fahrenheit or higher, we are
suddenly to plunge into water at 60
degrees. We should have the family
doctor after us if we did that. He has
firm faith in cool bath, but he fears to
recommend them because he has
learned by experience that people do not
begin them judiciously. If the bath
was IS degrees yesterday, let us make
it 95 degrees to-day, 80 or 90 degrees, to-
morrow, and so on down until we have
reached the lowest temperature to
which the body will react.
BY this time we are glowing and are
ready TO dress. Il Now we must rernem-
Der that the clothing is not a source Of
heat, that all 1t can do is, to conserve
the heat which the body produces.
Heavy clothing implies lack of faith
and besides its use is inconsistent with
our motto: "Give the body a chance"
for 1t interferes with free muscular
action and consequently with circula-
ton. Tight Clothing puts a damper on
the fire within us and is therefore out of
the question.
We put on light, loose clothes.
Perchance the morning is COOL but
there is hope that the temperature will
rise as the day advances. If so we
Y shall temporarily need little extra pro-
lection. This we can secure by putting
on a Jacket or a sweater. A white
sweater, by the way is not an unattract-
i've of dress. The children, whose sur
face areas are greater than ours are in
proportion to the amount of heat they
make and who must fight against a
greater loss Of heat to the air, may need
wooden tights for early mornings wear.
Sweater and tights are Infinitely better
than heavy underwear, for they can be
easily removed when the day grows
warm. "'&
All this time, IL it is summer, early
fall or late spring, the windows have
been open. This is for the purpose of
giving the body such good air that 1t
cannot resist the temptation to breathe
deeply. There may be furnace fire,
for that comes before the windows are
closed in the fall and tarries after they
are opened in the spring. Shut-in air is
bad enough at its best. 1t is at it's
best when fresh warm currents are
pouring up through the registers and
are stirring up the cold air and escort
ing it to the fiues and to the exits
around the windows and doors; it is at
v its worst when there is no heat in the
house and when 1t stagnates only by
being breathed and rebreathed. Such
air is bad enough to take away all the
good to go from our winter trip to
California or from our summers journ-
ey to the country.
There Is always time in the spring
and another in the fall when it is lust
too cool to keep the windows open with
Il out a fire. Then we have a choice, We
can close the house or we can open it
and keep up a little fire. Is it not
worth while to keep our houses like the
beautiful out of doors? Shall we barter
our birthright to the health-giving
winds of heaven for the price of a little
mess of coal?
And SO on through the day and the
night Let us remember that there is
a source of heat within us and that all
that clothing and furnace fires and
closed windows can do is to prevent I'M
desirable loss from the surface Of the
body Given plenty of fresh air and an
+. az~x~ IT,. H. II