The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-03
Vital Importance of Hygiene
Con,inued from Sepcn


business and nerve power with their
parents and grandparents Our hide
Gus industrialism is beginning to show
conseduehces. HYGIENE study Is
therefore a prime necessity OF the
hour for tho Americans as well as
for the immigrants. Self-defence Is
a law of nature. The children need
to be taught in the schools the whole
value of that one asset Of the poor,
q healthy body. The value Of knowl-
edge. of study. Of time. Of money, OF
virtue and religion. Of industry. is
common topic of the parent for the
child Why should not health have
its place in the discussion? 1t is
assaulted, by, the interests as fire.
Guently as virtue and honesty. If the
child is to be put upon his guard
against idieness, drink, pleasure, ir-
religion, why not against the forces
which attack his one asset in life?
He should learn enough about SAM
tation to prevent disease, about con-
sumption to avoid taking it from a
relative or a neighbor. There are
millions yet who do not know that
consumption Is contagious and who
associate intimately with its victims
And other millions who know nothing
of the danger in unventilated rooms.
in poor food, even if plentiful, in the
exhaustion produced by constant over
work. And other millions who see no
threat in child labor. In long hours
and dangerous employments for wom-
en- and children. and in other abuses
Of the industrial system
Even the children Of the weather.
Classes need instruction in many by
gienic matters. with particular atten-
ton to their affiuence. High society
overworks, overfeeds, overcances, in
al; its functions. The children of the
comfortable need to be put on their
guard against the temptations to de-
stroy that health without which
wealth is almost nothing, education
and culture nothing and life a deadly
burden. Educators are wen aware
that q goodly part of what the school
teaches permeates the home and al a
later date the multitude. The use OF
water and soap and the bathtub and
the didnfectant has grown among the
Americans TO proportions Sanitation
is almost a craze with us. The feeling
against alcoholic drinks has assumed
the form of political movement. Not
the shadow OF a doubt that hygienic
teaching in the schools helped in these
matters. The generation brought up
in the anti alcohol schools now has the
stage. If so much good has been ac-
complished in pioneer conditions, what
cannot be done when experience has
cleared the way? What an appeal the
Catholic system can make to its pupils
TN the score of preparedness for life on
earth as for life in heavenl The poor
are lavish with their little, too lavish.
With what care will a generation
trained to appreciate the two assets.
healthy body and healthy soul, coz
serve them by the avoidance OF the
things that harm and the observance
of the things that count. How strilt-
ing the analogy between the two. how
impressive and how fruitful. When a
man Is so intelligently trained that he
can see the enemies of the body and
the enemies Of the soul, namely. dis
esse and sin, in practically the same
light and knows the tactics against
them, his career is assured.
The opponents OF the teaching OF
hygiene in the schools found a new
argument IN the recent craze over the
attempt to introduce sex hygiene. Per-
haps a word on this matter will not
be amiss TO conclude this discussion.
Catholics often forget that their view
point Is different and that the circum-
stances which beget the viewpoint are
also different in their case. The effort
to teach sex hygiene sprang from con-
ditions with which Catholic society is
not familiar. Parents and teachers and
interested citizens in America awoke
suddenly to the fact that chastity is
not a virtue Of the irreligious; that
consequently impurity Is both Jest