The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-12-27
WINTER AND
IT'S DANGERS
Widespread Indifference to
Hygienic Laws Works
Much Harm
FALLACY OF SCHEME
OF HARDENING BODY

Exposure to Cold by Wearing Too Lit
tie Clothing Results in Large Mortal
ity List-Causes Apoplexy and Con-
gestior OF Lungs.
Nature s Laws cannot be broken
with impunity says Dr. Charles G. Per
cival. When disregarded they often de-
mand q penalty which involves lives
near and precious to us. This is espec-
tally so in winter and Zone vino
knows finds the task of impressing
on his near and dear friends the ne
cessity of ordinary care difficult
one, most all consider the caution adj
vised as extraordinary, extreme and
unnecessary. They almost all neglect
some one or more things like the feet.
throat and lungs, or are careless as to
proper clothing protection against sud
den changes in the temperature, the
heating and ventilating of their rooms.
Negligence is to be thought of those
whose laziness and carelessness brings
| illness upon the young children under
their control. These cannot think or
reason for themselves. They know no
way to prepare or judge what they
| need i'll dress, temperature and pro-
| lection against winter and its dangers.
| Every day is the same to them With
uncovered throats and breasts and half
clad they innocently and helpless go
/ forth and dare the winter S chill. With
half clad limbs they passively accept
the winter blasts and no indignant pro-
tests blast the parents ears The evil
continues every year, children die like
plants in a bitter frost, the terrible
| list of infant mortality grows and the
solemn statistical warning brings
about at the best IA slow change.
People cannot seem to understand
how that a slight chill, living in close
hot rooms, absence of sunlight, severe
exercise or exertion while fasting,
| warm or cold baths before breakfast
and a hundred other wrong and iniuri
| Gus things, can work so much harm.
| So far as the proper care Of the body
| is concerned, we seem TO be living and
rearing our children with what seems
TO amount to an almost criminal indif-
| ference to all hygienic laws and as the
cold weather approaches the dangers
increase accordingly.
In the summer we are safer, take less
chances live closer to Nature, windows
are open, baths are more frequent,
fresh vegetables and fruits are eaten,
We spend more time out of door and in
the sunlight and perspire and eliminate
and our system is purified in spite of
ourselves.
| With winter comes the banked up
| house, double doors and windows, coal
gas furnace. Pure oxygen becomes an
enemy and sunlight rare For long
hours we sit in artificially lighted
rooms breathing in either coal gas or
Initiated steam. The air in the rooms
is unchanged and we breath both our
own breaths and that of everybody
else; we leave and enter without a
thought of protection against sudden
change of temperature. Draughts we
ignore, also warning coughs, aches and
pains and a dozen, yes a hundred ways
we put ourselves in the deadly grasp
of winter.
If one freezes to death, it is because
the blood at the surface, or the skin
becomes cooler than the rate Of pro-
duction of heat in the interior of the
body. This is an increasing depression
of vitality. First there is pain In ex-
posed parts, then the skin loses feeling
the muscles energy, the breathing Is
less, the mind sluggish, sleep overcomes
and the person dies. The true facts in
the case was that the person did not
become colder and colder but that he
really lost Bodily heat until none re-
manned to support life. In short he lost
it faster than he could make it. If lie
could have by the means of proper
clothing, etc retained the heat he had
he would not have frozen.
The process of the whole scheme OF
heating the human body may be com
. pared to a house that is heated by
: hot water in pipes. The pipes near tht
outer walls are necessarily somewha
cooler than at the center. They los,
more heat but when the water in then
cireulates and returns to the boiler o
source of heat this water retains thu
heat which it has lost. The skin is sup
| piled with countless blood vessels, small
! in size, the calibre being controlle,
by nerves (vaso-motor) whose duty i
i TO keep them at certain size They d
i this by stimulation, which causes then
to contract and prevent undue dilata
ton.
When one is exposed to cold, it act