Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/564

 522 HEALTH-SUGGESTIONS.

ward at the top. Close, foul air poisons the blood, brings on disease which often results in death ; this poisoning of the blood is only pre- vented by pure air, which enters the lungs, becomes charged with waste particles, then thrown out, and which are poisoning if taken back again. It is estimated that a grown person corrupts one gallons f pure air every minute, or twenty-five barrels full in a single night, in breath- ing alone.

Clothes that have been worn through the day should be changed for fresh or dry ones to sleep in. Three pints of moisture, filled with the waste of the body, are given off every twenty-four hours, and this is mostly absorbed by the clothing. Sunlight and exposure to the air purifies the clothing of the poisons which nature is trying to dispose of, and which would otherwise be brought again into contact with the body.

Colds are often taken by extreme cold and heat, and a sudden ex- posure to cold by passing from a heated room to the cold outside air. Old and weak persons, especially, should avoid such extreme change. In passing from warm crowded rooms to the cold air, the mouth should be kept closed, and all the breathing done through the nostrils only, that the cold air may be warmed before it reaches the lungs, or else the sudden change will drive the blood from the surface of the internal or- gans, often producing congestions.

Dr. B. I. Kendall writes that "the temperature of the body should be evenly and properly maintained to secure perfect health ; and to ac- complish this purpose requires great care and caution at times. The human body is, so to speak, the most delicate and intricate piece of ma- chinery that could possibly be conceived of, and to keep this in perfect order requires constant care. It is a fixed law of nature that eveiy violation thereof shall be punished ; and so we find that he who neglects to care for his body by protecting it from sudden changes of weather, or draughts of cold air upon unprotected parts of the body, suffers the penalty by sickness, which may vary according to the exposure and the habits of the person, which affect the result materially ; for what would be an easy day's work for a man who is accustomed to hard labor, would be sufficient to excite the circulation to such an extent in a per- son unaccustomed to work, that only slight exposure might cause the death of the latter when over-heated in this way; while the same exer- cise and exposure to the man accustomed to hard labor might not af-

�� �