The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-31
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC y. HAsIzrN, Director.
Washington, D. G.
HEALTsI A HABIT.

HEzALIk2 "A HABIT.
Washington, D. c.. Dec. 2s.--Healtl1.
says the federal bureau of education,
is largely a matter of habit.
This statement was not buletined as
a sensation. In fact it passed almost
unnoticed. AS today the hum of an
airplane attracts almost no attention,
so does a declaration like this, COM
ing from that governmental agency
which has most to do with the educa-
ltion of young America, pass without
notice. Yet two decades ago the the
ory that health is a habit would have
| received no more credence than one
that a machine Weighing two tons
would rise into the air and fly.
! Everywhere, continues the bureau,
there is a demand for instructors who
can teach health. To those teachers
who are ambitious, who want to get
portunity lies in capacity to stimu-
late a belief in health, to create an
attitude of mind favorable to health.
The bureau holds that the nation
has experienced an awakening as to
the value of health, has come to the
belief that health can be taught. It
believes that in the past and the pres
ent generation there were and are
many people with the habit of illness
that the illness idea was so persist
emily dinned into them that they were
branded with it for life. Now the pro-
gram is to be changed and the schools
are to be the medium.
The bureau of education has recent
ly printed four bulletins and three
charts on this idea There is one en-
tic in Youth" one on the Summer
Health and Play School" one on diet
for the School Child" one entitled,
Wanted: Teachers to Enlist for
Child Health Service" They may be
bought for five cents each from the
! nf
ington, D. C.
THE children of the country, over
25,O0o,0 900 strong" says the last named
of these bulletins, who represent our
nations future, are endangered. The
! physical impairment of the coming
/ generation is one of the most disas-
trous by-products OF the great war. and
one whose after effects, once estab-
lished, can never be fully undone.
The ending of the war does not end
this danger. These after effects can,
however, be prevented, and the teach
ers of the country can max a big con-
| tribution to this work of prevention.
1t demands immediate activity. Hence
this call to you for service.
You may be the teacher of rural
| school, in charge of a squad of per-
| haps only twenty members OF the
creators of ourE future. Or You may
! be a superintendent, responsible for
| twenty regiments of children. In any
case, you will have an opportunity
! this year, in connection with their
! health, which may never recur in the
history of the country. A little energy
wisely applied at this time of crisis,
will accomplish great results. Your
opportunity is one which only You
can develop
Then the bureau proceeds to outline
the new gospel and the method that
should be followed in its preaching.
1t says that the teaching should be
mand, Thou shalt not" shall be
changed to Thou shalt 1t shall not
be said, Don't fail to brush your teeth
because if you do they will decay, fill
your system with poison and spoil
your digestion" On the contrary the
advice shall be, Brush your teeth,
enjoy the feeling of a, fresh, clean
mouth, let them glisten when You
smile, let them do efficient teamwork
with your stomach, that you may en-
JOY strength"
The child shall not be told not to
its death of cold, but it wear its rub
oers that 1t may be strong and
healthy. 1t shall not be told not to
eat certain food for fear of the tum-
myache, but to eat certain other food
that it may be husky enough to play
the world. The "don'ts'' all along the
line which suggest illness and weak
ness and calamity, shall give way to
positive commands which suggest al
ways happiness and joy and health.
The new health fact that is thus COM
ing into official recognition is that
continuous suggestion has its effect
on the well-being of the individual.
The teacher or the parent who con-
stantly suggests illness is actually in
n q Inc ftn 01ls t..
dividual in any walk OF life who sug-
gests health is exercising a health in
fluenee on all his fellows.
The public health authorities are,I
reading q new meaning into some of
the old stories in the physiologies.
1t was hundred years ago that
certain scientific gentlemen in France
asked the authorities to allow them
to try an experiment on a criminal
who was condemned to death. In
stead of the guillotine. 1t was given
out, this man was to be comfortably
bled to death. The ceremony was
elaborately staged. The man was
bIindtolded and put to bed. His
wrists were bound and the doctors
proceeded to what seemed to be the
opening of the arteries of those wrists |
AS a matter of fact the skin was bare
ly scratched. Then warm water was
poured down the hand to produce the
erect OF 1aSt-floWlnG blood and the
conversation was about the gushing
| of blood and the waning strength of
the victim. The doctors said that his
life was ebbing away. They were
watching him die. AS matter of
fact the man did actually die. Yet
he had lost no blood at all, had re-
ceived no physical injury. He died
because his mind believed he was go
ing to die.
This experiment has been told in
textbooks for generations but it re-
manned for the twentieth century to
draw the conclusion from it that in
! the mental attitude of the individual
lay a constructive health possibility
In one of the offices in one of the
departments of the government there
was a certain man whose physical |
vigor was so great and whose boast