Temperance VOL. XXXIX. Edited by J. H. KELLOGG, M. D. NO. 2 t ebruary. 1904. How Not to Mind the Weather. Alcohol and Disease. Winter Life at Davos — Mits. Restoring a Drunkard. The Total Abstinence Prescrip- tion. Winter Hygiene in the South — Illustrated Effects of Habitual Use of Opium . Temperance Teaching from Cor- naro. When the Baby Has the Croup — Illustrated. CHAUTAUQUA SCHOOL OF HEALTH: Elements of Food ; Fomentations ( Illustrated); Distribution and Environment of Germs ; February Menu ; Beds and Bed Making (Illus- trated); Healthful Dress (Ill- ustrated). Hundred Year Club. Editorial. $1.00 A YEAR. 10 CENTS A COPY. PUBLISHED MONTHLY Entered et the Post Office in Battle Creek, Mich., as Second-class Matter. Chapped and irritated skin quickly relieved by use of PACKER'S TAR SOAP Pure as the Pines—Soothing—Healing The Packer Markulaoturing Co.. New York. 1 J•7 ""1 4-* q 47,0t,?, 'tWeit-i •_' '="`i Permission —Country Life" " Earth receives Gladly the thickening mantle: and the green And tender blade, that feared the chilling blast, Escapes unhurt beneath so warm a veil." GOOD HEALTH A Journal of Hygiene VoL. XXX I X FEBRUARY, 1904 No. 2 HOW NOT TO MIND THE WEATHER BY J. H. KELLOGG, M. D. T a great foot-ball game in Chicago " Why do you not put clothing on your A recently, about 30,000 people stood face? Is your face cold? " " No, my out in the sleet and snow and chilly wind face is not cold." " Well," said the for several hours, watching the fighting. native, " the Indian is all face." He In a week from that time many of those could see no more reason why any other people were dead from pneumonia. The part of his body should be cold, than Chicago physicians attributed the rapid that his face should be cold. increase of cases of pneumonia, and the There is a principle in this ; sensibil- great harvest of pneumonia victims, to ity to cold is largely a matter of educa- the fact that there had been a great foot- tion. A neighbor of the writer was ac- ball game. Foot-ball games have cost customed to send his children to school many lives this year, besides many in the winter with nothing on their feet. sprained ankles and broken shoulders. They would go scampering half a mile Among the 30,000 people who went through the snow, and their feet never to this game, many took with them froze, but were rosy and warm, or at horses and dogs, which were exposed least quickly warmed when they got to the same sleet and snow and chilly in-doors. wind without any overcoats, shoes, There are thousands of people living stockings or rubbers — and none of these in a savage state who wear very little animals died of pneumonia. This is a clothing and yet are wonderfully hardy. malady that is common to animals as The natives of Terra del Fuego,— a well as to human beings. How then country as cold as this,— live without did it happen that human beings should fixed habitation, having only the poorest suffer so much on this occasion, and that kind of little huts, and the people are horses and dogs should suffer little or exposed to the weather without cover- nothing except, perhaps, a little chill ? ing. Travelers report that all the pro- Some time ago a civilized American tection from the weather that a native of while out West met a native, aboriginal this bleak country needs in order to American, wearing nothing but a small make him comfortable, is a board or a garment about his waist although it was a bush behind which he can be sheltered very cold, snowy day. The newcomer, from the wind and sleet. who was wearing an over-coat, furs, It is a question well worth consider- mittens, and felt boots, said to the old ing, what it is that makes the savage so inhabitant, " How is it that you seem so hardy. He lives nearer to nature than comfortable with scarcely any clothing? does the civilized man, and that is the Are you not cold?" Said the Indian, reason he is hardier, tougher and more 54 HOW NOT TO MIND THE WEATHER enduring. Civilized men have departed muscles of the skin. The contraction far from the natural order of life, and of these muscles compresses the blood- they are suffering the penalty — a short- vessels of the skin and shuts out the ened and a feeble life. blood ; the skin is hardened and thick- Unfortunately the majority of civilized ened and becomes a better non-conduc- human beings subject themselves to a tor, maintaining the body temperature. hot-house regimen, apparently thinking It is by repeated applications of cold that the most important thing in winter that the skin muscles are educated to is to keep away from cold. A cold day contract rapidly upon exposure to cold. is a dangerous thing to one who is not For this reason the daily cold bath is ready for it. January and February are an excellent measure for the prevention deadly months to those who are not pre- of colds. pared for them. During these months The usual effect of a draft of cold air many people are carried off by pneu- upon the back of the neck is a cold and monia. After people have reached the a sore throat. Many years ago Dr. age of forty or fifty years, they are par- Brown Sequard, an eminent French ticularly susceptible to this disease, physician, devised a means by which because of the lowered power of resist- sore throat from this cause might be ance. Toughness is the result of the prevented. By blowing upon the back body's power of resistance. of the neck with a pair of bellows, in- Now what can one do to protect him- creasing the time each day, he trained self, to educate and train himself, so as his patients until they could endure this not to suffer from cold? What is the treatment for half an hour without injury. difference between a man inured to It is not necessary to be exposed to cold, and a man who is not accustomed a draft of air on the back of the neck in to it — between the Indian and the civ- order to obtain this result. By means ilized man? The difference is mainly of the cold bath, the wet-sheet rub, the in the condition of the skin. The shower bath, towel friction, etc. , the skin of the Indian has become by con- skin may be educated to contract on the stant exposure so active and vigorous, slightest increase of cold. so sensitive to the slightest changes Daily exposure to the contact of cold of temperature, that the moment a cold air is of the utmost importance. It is breeze strikes him the muscles of the because of the constant exposure to skin contract, so that the temperature cold that the Indian's body is " all face " of the body is not lowered. The skin — the skin of his whole body has learned is so thick, tough, and resisting, so good to take care of itself, just as the face a non-conductor, that it is an excellent takes care of itself. But with some protector of the body. people even the skin of the face does The muscles of the skin need a gym- not take care of itself, and they take nastic training that will educate them cold by even a slight exposure of the to contract vigorously on the slightest face or hands to the cold. There is a contact with cold, shutting the blood difference between men and women in out of the skin so quickly that the pre- this respect. When a man goes out of cious body heat will not be lost. You doors with his hat off he usually takes notice that when the skin is cold there cold. But it makes but very little differ- is a " goose-flesh " appearance. This ence to a lady whether she has a hat on is due to the contraction of the little or not, because her hat is, as a rule, HOW N07 70 MIND THE WEA7HER 55 devised rather for ornament than for cold ice water. For three weeks he did protection, and so it is immaterial not have his clothes off. At night he whether she wears it or not. lay down on the bank beside the river Many people sneeze and take cold with his wet clothes on, covered with upon the least exposure to a draft of a blanket, and the next morning he cold air. The remedy for this is not to started on again. He was wet continu- try to keep away from drafts, but to ally, falling several times a day into the make oneself proof against them. It is icy water, and yet he did not have a cold. only necessary to accustom oneself He was as proof against cold as is a fish, little by little to contact with cold air, for he had been trained to contact with in the same way that Dr. Brown Se- cold and wet, wind and rain. One who guard made his patients proof against is thus trained need not fear contact cold by blowing on the back of their with cold. necks with bellows. A person can, by We live in our house cages, artificial daily exposure of the feet to the cold lives which carry us off prematurely, by blowing upon them in this manner, and the remedy for us is to live in a gradually increasing the time each day, natural way.