Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1914-06-26
ENVIRONMENT.

All that Is contained inside our SKIN
at birth is heredity; all that touches
or in any way influences us after birth
is environment.
The Century dictionary defines en-
vironment as: The act Of surround
ing; the aggregate Of surrounding
things or conditions"
Our food, our clothes. our house. our
work. our amusements. our studies,
our friends and the climate we live IN.
one and all are environment Envi-
ronment may be good or bad accord
ing as 1t tends to raise or lower US IN
the scale of efficiency and happiness.
Dirty milk is bad environment
insufficient ventilation is bad envi-
ronment.
Too much clothing is bad environ
ment.
Tight shoes IL bad environment.
An incompetent teacher is bad en-
vironment.
Too much or too little Of anything
is bad environment.
Everything we see, hear, feel, smell
or taste is environment, and each IL
certain to influence our development
and determine to some degree whether
we shall have good or bad health.
We inherit tendencies, and envi-
ronment develops or checks them. be
they for health or disease, In exact "a
ito to the sum of the Impressions re-
sulting from our experience. We are
born potentially sick or well. good or
bad, and environment determines
which it shall be and the degree OF the
final result.
All unrestrained activity or normal
functions give rise to a sense Of pleas
ure. We enjoy action along the lines
of our tendencies because they are
the lines of least resistance; they are
our instincts" and are therefore easy
to follow. Life is motion. and there
fore there is Joy in action. because 1t Is
life. At a very early age the emotion
of Joy arising from action is shown by
smiles and laughter In the human.
and by their equivalent. play, in the
brute. Action is the fundamental
foundation of all outdoor games and
amusement. The pursuit Of pleasure
through functional activity is vigor-
ously followed by all animals until
checked by unfavorable environment
conditions, and then resentment is
shown, because all restraint is de-
structive to the organism and all life
/ instinctively resists destruction.
Tendencies may be good or bad, and
bad tendencies should be restrained.
submerged and destroyed. That man
has risen far above the brute, that our
present civilization has been achieved
step by step. is proof positive of the
destructive power Of restraint on bad
tendencies. and is also proof that un.
favorable environment conditions
may easily destroy the desirable quail.
tiles.
The discovery of radio-activity. q
property of matter far beyond our abil
ity to sense without assistance, has
opened the minds of the scientific
world to the belief that undoubtedly
the primary sources of natural energy
by virtue of which the universe keeps
going over immense periods Of time
are to be found not in the great masses
of glowing matter dotting the heavens
nor in any of the relations between
energy and matter in bulk. but in the
individual atoms out Of which bulk Il
made up.
And so, too. the key to the proven
ton of disease and the promotion o.
human health and happiness undoubt
eddy lies in the little things: in thu
conservation of the enormous amour
of energy lost through apparently
trivial irritations and insignificant
friction constantly ignored. but tn,
effects Of which slowly accumulate
until in the aggregate there il q power
sufficient to overwhelm the stoutest
These are now levying an appalling
tax on our economic efficiency and
happiness.