Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/155

Rh become incurably deaf. People are too apt to fiddle about with their ears in cleaning them by using things which are dangerous with such a sensitive organ as the ear, the drum of the ear being a very delicate, tightly-stretched skin which is easily damaged. Very many children have had the drums of their ears permanently injured by getting a box on the ear, or cleaning them out roughly with the hard corner of a towel.

Eyes

A Scout, of course, must have particularly good eye-sight; she must be able to see anything very quickly, and to see at a long way off. By practising your eyes in looking at things at a great distance they will grow stronger. While you are young you should save your eyes as much as possible, or they will not be strong when you get older; therefore avoid reading by lamp-light or in the dusk, and also sit with your back or side to the light when doing any work during the day; if you sit facing the light it strains your eyes.

The strain of the eyes is a very common failure with growing girls, although very often they do not know it, and headaches come most frequently from the eyes being strained; frowning on the part of a girl is very generally a sign that her eyes are being strained. Reading in bed brings headaches.

Bad teeth are troublesome, and are often the cause of neuralgia, indigestion, abscesses, and sleepless nights.