HEALTH NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 17

HEALTH NOTES

FRESH AIR AND SUNLIGHT PERSONAL HYGIENE (Contributed by the Department of Health.) . Sir George Newman discusses otlicr essentials of true, nurture in his Hastings popular lecturo us- follows:—Fresh air is almost as- valuable to''health as food. It is, iiicleeclj another clement in nutrition, for tho living processes carried on« in every, cell of the body require oxygen. This -reaches the body through tho nose, passes to tho lungs, enters tho blood stream, and is thus carried, like the products of digestion, to all parts. Breathing ..should, always be through the nose, in order that the air may be properly filtered and warmed before reaching tho lungs.. The fresh incoming air conveys oxygen and. expels the^used-up air of the lungs. Its physical • properties of coolness and movement are valuable as conducive to the increase of metabolism and stimulation of the skin' and the appetite. There can be no more far-reaching or beneficial method of improving the health of the people as a whole than the wider practice of the open-air life. As Walt Whitman said in the "Song of the Open Road": "Now I see the secret of tho making of the, best persons., It is to grow in the open air." Every school should be an open-air school and every home an open-air home. It is the stagnant, overheated air, loaded with moisture and organic impurity, which is harmful in factories, offices, homes (especially bedrooms), or schools. The means of avoiding it is effective ventilation which shall give us fresh', clean, coot; moving air, without draught. Therefore ventilation should bo ."cross" or "through," which means that inlet and outlet must bo opposite to each other. The temperature of the room should be about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.* . • One of the principal advantages -of tho open-air life is that it affords more opportunity of gaining benefit from direct sunlight. All the rays of the sun are advantageous, but the invisible ray beyond, the violet (ultra-violet) is believed to exert special health-giving benefit. Unfortunately the ultra-violet ray is filtered out by ordinary window glass, hence its health-giving property is only obtainable in the open air. It is now used widely in its natural form in tho treatment, of debility, rickets, tuberculosis of the skin, bones, and joints (heliotherapy), and artificially for some of these conditions by means of the arc lamp.' Atmospheric • smoke anil the indoor life,, of English towns arc without doubt depriving largo portions of the population from enjoying the health obtainable by sunlight and fresh air. EXERCISE AND BEST. Tho daily exercise of the body is another primary need. Various forms of exercise tend to strengthen all the muscles (including the heart),' deepen and increase the rate of respiration, produce' body heart, induce tho >kin to perspire, secure and maintain equilibrium, and develop the motor and sensory centres of the brain.. They are' essential if proper benefit is to be derived from food, if the digestive organs and the alimentary canal are *to be kept in good working order, if proper secretion through the kidneys, skin, and lungs is to be ensured, and if the nervous regulation of the body is to develop. George Meredith, the novelist, used to say that every man '' should 'get into a sweat at. least once a day.". It-is not a bad rule. Motoring has advantages, but we must beware of becoming "all liver and no legs." To walk to the? station is better than to take a bus. It should, be remembered that ordinary active forms- of; free exercise are wisely supplemented by more regular and systcmatised forms of exercise, including games, swimming, and dancing, which plays a part in the harmonious training of-the body as a "whole (such** as tho Swedish system), which lead to improvement in. the general physique, the correction of faulty attitudes, and the; acquirement of habits of' self-discipline, control, and ready response. But we must not overdo physical exercise, or allow any system to become a thraldom or fetish —or be specially violent in exercise on Saturdays and negligent of it for the remainder of the week. ■ It is important that'we should recognise that physical' exercise. is something vastly more .than "drill • and jerks." It is one of the means "by which the law of variation fulfils it--self) the means by whieh'we "exercise" and use all the organic functions of the. body—respiration, circulation, digestion, 'excretion, reproduction—the means by which we train the organs of special sense, and educate the nervous regulation of the body. "Use or disuse" lies at the basis of variation in (fur bodies. . CLEANLINESS OF BODY. Speaking generally, it* may { be said that most people stand in greater need of rest than of movement. ' "The first and second secrets of Nature," said Emerson, "are motion and rest.'' Our American cousins and ourselves are getting much tod . restless . for good health, or even mental capacity and balance. There is an excess of noise, clatter, chattering,* and meaningless activities which' have no value or virtue in themselves, and for children are directly harmful. Indeed, children require time, peacefUlness, and, rest in order to ,grow and ripen, and there is wisdpm in Madam, Montessori's excellent injunction, "Silentio" on the walls of her House-of Children at Rome. ' Children under 15 need ten to twelve hours in bed:'every night. For them also it is particularly important to scure and maintain a nic« balance between tho production and loss of body heat. The ne-wborn infant is unable to effect this * accommodation, and its power of heat regulation is undeveloped. The very young and the old aro particularly susceptible to external' conditions of atmosphere and temperature, and wo have yet much to learn in the practice of /warmth and its relation to hygiene. Lastly, there is cleanliness —within as well as without. In tho Middle Ages people did not wash, they went dirty, and this disregard of cleanliness must be associated with their neglect of other items of our model six, which was perhaps one of the chief causes for their very unhealthy and stiortened lives. Tho skin of the body cannot perform its most important functions unless it be clean; but the teeth, lungs, stomach, bowels, 4ind blood must also be kept clean, if we are to be unconscious (as we ought to be), of their existence. A clogged machine does not work well. ' I (To be concluded'in another article).

! population. In MIS there were 80,146 holdings, and in 1927 85,628—an increase of 5482. . V ' " This last ten years there has been a rise and fall in the number of holdings —the last four years show a decrease of 511. With the steady growth of population this is serious enough, but.it is nothing like so serious as the Labour Party seeks to makfc out. To talk loosely of thousands being "driven oft' the land" is not helping to settle the agrarian question. Helping the farmer with scientific research, and assisting him with credit, also 'making country life more healthy and pleasurable, is far more valuable than all this idle political talk from Socialist doctrinaires. . ]