HEALTH IN LIFE

Evening Star, Issue 19942, 11 August 1928, Page 21

HEALTH IN LIFE

AN APPEAL FOR GO-OPERATION MODERN CONDITIONS DEMAND CHANGE IN MODE OF LIVING On Wednesday there assembled in the Burns Hall several hundred persons belonging to and representing the various groups and associations of the community who are interested in the health building and body training or children of the school and pre-school ages. These comprised a representative gathering of head masters and teachers of primary schools, kindergarten teachers and members, members ot the various school committees, the Kindergarten Association, the Plunket Society, and of the various branches of the Home Economics Association, as well as representatives of Peace Time Council of the Red Cross Society and St. John’s Ambulance Association. The object of the meeting was to hear a statement from Mr J. Renfrew White concerning the physical state of our. school children, particularly in its relation to future health or ill-health, and an appeal for the members of these various bodies and associations to cooperate in the remedying and prevention of the defects found in too largo numbers of our children jiving under the conditions of an industrialised civilisation and an ill-bajanced and over-intellectualisod education. The chair was taken by Professor Howitson, the master of Knox College, who, on congratulating the audience in attending in such numbers on such a night, remarked on the extraordinary number of good people and good societies working actively in our midst at some aspect or other of the task of human amelioration in either the physical, mental, or spiritual sphere. In introducing tno speaker, he said that the subject of the address was to bo an account of the physical needs of the rising generation, and an appeal to the members of the audience to widen their views and their sympathy beyond the coniines of their own immediate task or interest and see and work at the problem as a whole Mr White said that they found themselves to-day in the midst of a worldwide awakening on the part of all educated and civilised as to the fundamental importance in life _ of health, a great movement of realisation of the importance in education of the guiding of the growth and development of the body, with its training to meet the adverse conditions so abundantly present to assail it in its passage through life. This was the commencement of a great era of preventive medicine in which the role of the doctor would gradually change from a curative one to one of research, with an uncovering of the secrets ot health and disease, and to one of education, a teaching ol people to change their modes of life, to regulate their lives in accordance with the gradually accumulating store of scientific truth. CLAIMS OF THE BODY. Even in their own midst they saw abundant manifestations of this spirit and of this activity. Probably no generation of parents in the past were so anxious as this present one to assure to their children as a whole the best and most efficient body for the work and race of life. Teachers and educationists were never so sympathetic as to-day to the claims of the body for training and education as well as the mind. Almost daily in the newspapers columns of advice to parents on the physical bringing up of their children were published, supplied by the Health Department and other authorities. Dental clinics were from school to school, and the staffs had already in five years performed nearly 400,000 dental operations, each one of which they could be sure was, a definite contribution to the future health of this generation of children. The city authorities were multiplying open spaces and furnishing them with inducements tor children to bo out in the mien. The Red Cross Society and St. John’s Ambulance Association had converted their war-time council into a peace time one, which was sending a trained nurse teacher into the schools to_ teach and preach health lessons. Kindergarten teachers and members were interesting themselves in the bodily condition of their pupils, and had already achieved some measure of co-operation with the Plunket Society, whoso work was so widely and favourably known throughout the British Empire and America and further. Not many years since the Otago University had added a third to its previously existing schools concerned with the health or the people, a home science to the Medical and Dental Schools, whilst within but a short period of its establishment its staff inaugurated a movement in the shape of the Home Economics Association with its branches spreading throughout the land with the object of educating the present generation of mothers and home-makers With all this the audience would see clear evidence that much remained to be done in the way of extension of present organisation and methods in the light of growing knowledge, and, above all, of co-operation of al concerned in tho future health welfare of the nation. Such an era of prevention was on the way before the outbreak of the war, but it was tho war that carried them with its irresistible force over the threshold, and projected them forward into this era with an impetus that would be long in exhausting itself. STOCK-TAKING DURING WAR. In the first place, the war meant great national stock-takings of the physical efficiency and inefficiency of men living under the conditions of modern civilisation, and this led to a realisaton of the deformng and debilitating effects on the human frame of such conditions of life. The extent of this deformity and ill-health existing in the last generation had naturally led all thinking people to attempt a forecast of the prospects of the oncoming generation, and to ask what could be done for them to save them something, at least, of this result of tho disharmony between the nature of man's body, and tho complex and the highly artificial environment in which it found itself to-day. Even in this supposedly relatively healthy country the results of this stocktaking were found to be depressing, if not alarming. Of men called up _ for examination between the ages of eighteen and forty-two two out of every three were found not fit for active service. Even of thoso_ chosen, how many were rejected later in England and in the war zones as with bodies unfit for the hard physical conditions they had to face? How_ many returned with tuberculosis, with rheumatism, and other chronic disorders for which no doubt, in many cases they were candidates before their enlistment. In the second place, the war carried out experiments in the production of disease on a vast scale, and gave such opportunities for the intensive study of these diseases that had never before existed. To take as an example a condition that again was closely related to the subject of the interest that night. Toward the end of the war the child of the central empires, and particularly the children in Vienna, were growing up afflicted with a severe form of rickets, deprived as they were of certain elements in their food essential for the production of strong muscle and hard and rigid bones. What should have been devoted to the building of strong and healthy bodies was being used in the form of nitre-glycerine to blow to pieces the bodies of the enemy, or else expended into thin air. What followed from that great war experiment was one of the fairy tales of modern science, the last chapter of which was only completed last year—a fairy story that, properly interpreted and ap-

plied, promised to rid them for ever of that disease of civilisation, affecting the bodies of the children in some measure or other—rickets. Thus, what one generation suffered hal already brought relief and promise of improvement to the next.

What they wore concerned- to do was to make an examination of the degree to which these conditions and deficiencies of civilised life were affectng the bodies' of the growing children; to attempt to diagnose the most important factors among these, and to see how far the situation called for persistence in the present remedies, or an extension or a modification of them, or for the use of new remedies. It was really a census of the physical condition of children pertaining to their future health that they were interested in. The speaker held in his hand a pamphlet published ten years ago by the Christchurch branch of the Plunket Society under the name ‘ What Happens To All Our Beautiful Babies?’ and they might well ask this question—it was one in which members and workers within the Plunket Society should be specially interested. As babies, thev seem to give fair promise of beautiful form, of perfect performance of normal function, of health lasting long through life. When they commenced to examine the children on the first rungs of the educational ladder, however, they found at once that in many cases something seemed to have gone seriously wrong already. Tho speaker had recently examined fifty children in one of the kindergarten schools of this city. In many cases the physique was already showing signs of distortion from the fulfilment of Nature’s intentions. Already, under the age of five years, many of these children had had diseased and overgrown tonsils removed. Only one in four of them had still perfect sets of milk teeth as yet untouched by decay, whilst in two out of every five of the children six or more of their twenty teeth had been more or less seriously touched by decay, and two out of every seven had ten or more in this state. In many cases twelve to fourteen of tho teeth were black, broken, decayed holocausts. Practically all had some degree or other of knock-knee—sure evidence of some degree of rickets. Advancing to the new educational stage, the speaker then throw on the screen a number of slides taken at random to show a sort of average crosssection in regard to tho physical condition and defects present in the trunk and feet of children of the ages from five to ten. The defects in each part of the body had been divided into lour classes, according to their severity, and the incidence of these classes was shown in children of different standard by means of tables on the screen. It was shown that whereas C 6 per cent, of 150 children examined in Standards 1., 11., and 111. presented grades of deformity falling into the two worst classes, this figure rose to 75 per cent, in the case of children of Standards IV., V., and VI. As regards deformity of the feet, the children showing the highest grades of deformity in the lower standards were 18 per cent, of tho whole, in the upper standards 40 per cent. It was estimated that 50 per cent, of girls leaving the Sixth Standard possessed high degrees of foot deformity already. Figures were screened showing the physique of twenty-four girls in the Sixth Standard of one of tho Dunedin schools. Half of these presented highgrade deformities of tho worst class in regard to the spinal column, chest shape and capacity, and general postural development. DIRT AND OCCUPATION. What, then, were the factors at work that converted so many promising babies into these children with physical defects so numerous and in many cases so well marked? The most important of those could bo summed up in two words—diet and occupation. By diet he meant, in tho widest sense of tho word, what tho child’s environment gave it in the way of quantity, quality, balance, and tho presence of essential growth and health-giving elements in tho form of food, air, and sunshine. By occupation all the abnormal mechanical elements and influences in tho child’s environment tifat tended to interfere with Nature’s intentions as regards the proper use and function of the various parts of tho human frame. As a part of tho body was used so it grew and developed. Used in accordance will Nature’s intentions in constructing it, in accordance with the laws of its construction, it would fulfil Nature’s intention as regards its growth and form. Misused, physical deformity and in time disability, inability to use it aright, would result. From the moment tho child stood up for tho first time tbo mechanical conditions of modern life tended to exert a deforming influence on its frame, and this influence was tho more readily and the more intensively deforming if through the relative absence of certain elements in the child’s early diet the tissue of the frame, particularly tho muscles and bones, were lacking in tone and resisting power. The dietetic deficiency and the abnormal mechanical stress worked together into each other’s hands, so_ to speak, in tho production of deformity. The most fundamental necessity, then, was_ an adequate supply of those elements in the diet from before birth up to the school ago at any rate that are concerned in assuring strong muscles full of tone and bones of normal power to resist the body weight and the force of tho pull of the muscles. No elements were so important for this as lime salts and tho latest discovery—tho first isolated vitamin D.

Something of the story of tho relation between this vitamin and tho cause and prevention of rickets was told, and Park’s statement quoted: “I believe that if pregnant women received ample, well-balanced diets in which green vegetables and cow’s milk were abundantly applied and kept a sufficient part of their time in tho open air and tho sun, and if their infants were placed in the direct rays of the sun for the part of each day and were fed with cod liver oil for tho first two or three years of life, more could be accomplished in regard to the eradication of caries of tho teeth than in all other ways put together, and that rickets would bo abolished from the earth.” Already since this statement was made tho prevention of rickets, even in its mildest manifestations, was rendered easier and simpler by the actual isolation of the vitamin, which could be added as needed to tho diet of tho mother and child. Cod liver oil was no longer necessary when its essential principle could bo obtained itself. In whatever form it was given vitamin D ultimately came from the action of the ultra-violet radiation of the sun. Surely it should be possible in this young country by organisation to seo to it that every child in tho community received full share of body-building elements during the first three or four years—years that determined to so great an extent the presence or absence of life-long deformity of lifo. Could not the Plunket Society and the Home Economics Association combine in action and extend their scope, so as to assure that every child reached tho school age with a healthy body, free so far from the defects and deformities, tho prevalence of which, even in these young children, constituted a reproach <wid menace to this nation. BODY TRAINING IN SCHOOLS. The second necessity was the giving of body training a more fundamental place in school life and in education generally. Was tho body of so little importance in life, as compared with the mind, that the proportion of attention and time it received should be so small as compared with that given to mind training? More time was urgently required, especially if a serious attempt was to be made, not only to prevent the development and intensification ol already existing deformities, but the correction of those already existing. There should he no mistake about it. Under present conditions there was bat

little chance of the severe bodily deformities, examples of which they had seen that night, being corrected during or after school life except in the most exceptional cases where the parents tools special measures outside of school time and life Attempts at body correction wero far more timeconsuming than any process of mere body training, with the object of prevention of deformity and of assisting the natural development of the body on right lines as it was engaged in growing. Correction required more time, more patience, and was on the whole a much more difficult and hopeless affair than guidance. The speaker urged the importance of children entering the schools with bodies free from even the slightest defect. Then the whole aspect of physical training was changed, and became simpler and far more hopeful in its results. It was not enough to get bodies free from deformity with an increase in the amount of time and attention given within the school to body training if the system was not applied in accordance with an accurate knowledge, nob only of the body structure and normal functions, but also of the effects that occurred when the various parts of the body were misused over a period of time or habitually. A good system of physical training should be founded on this basis, and a knowledge of this in a living form should bo part of the equipment of each teacher. Physical training could never produce the results it should where exercises were taught in the absence of such knowledge. This took them back to the training of teachers in all appertaining to the bodies of their pupils, and this knowledge and enthusiasm should come to them jn a living manner through practice in their own bodies and experience in their own lives. This led them to demand more body knowledge in a living form and more body training for teachers in training than was at present given. Such knowledge and enthusiasm would never come through am system of hygiene teaching which was mainly or largely given in the form of lectures, and made a subject for cramming for an examination to be passed. The examination to bo passed should be that of their own bodies and of the bodies of those they have been engaged in helping to train. In this respect the speaker paid a tribute to the prompt action of the Minister and Director of Education, who have instituted this year for tho first time a whole year’s special course in physical education for twelve yomm teachers from all oyer New Zealand who were spending this year in Dunedin devoting themselves to the principles and above all to the practice of health and body training. These wero the students who were going to demonstrate some of these principles that evening. The training within the school should be to the proper accompaniments and with tho proper equipment. It was impossible to train and develop bodies, much loss to correct defects, in bodies fully clothed and swathed tightly in jackets closed in thick-soled boots, by the performance of a fow simple exercises in the open playground for a few minutes a day. This was hardly doing more than scratching tho surface of tho problem. Gymnasia or room and flqpr space was necessary, and there was not tho slightest doubt in the speaker’s mind but that if much of the incidence of foot deformities, with the suffering that ensued in later life therefrom, was to bo avoided in the next generation much more time and attention would have to bo given to the training and development of girls’ feet, and this could never be done effectively with the feet cramped and enclosed in any sort of footwear. The best results could only be obtained by a bare foot work and training. The objection might be made that these conditions were going to cost too much to provide. Was any price too high to pay for a nation of healthy bodies, free from deformity and controlled by habits of use and carnage that wero one of the best possible insurances in favour of life-long health? Surely the provision of these conditions -was a matter that touched closely the interests of education boards and of school committees. Many of the schools of this city wero provided with gym nasia, he believed, originally through the activity of the school committees. How many of these gymnasia were properly equipped to allow of proper conditions of temperature, of fresh air, and of admission of sunshine? Indeed', how many wero being used for the fulfilment of their original function, and how many as classrooms? In large schools tho provision and equipment of gymnasia for tho training of tho body was just as important as the construction of the classrooms. In smaller schools tho construction and arrangement of furniture within tho classrooms should bo such that they could bo used as gymnasia within a minute or two every day, so that the training of the body could have its rightful place and rightful conditions and accompaniments.

It was very little use, however, for tho lesson in body training to be followed by hours of lessons in which tho position and use of the body during the various educational exercises was lost sight of again. The principles of body care and training should permeate the whole of school life, and should certainly dominate tho question and furnishing of schoolrooms These should be “ fresh air and sunlight rooms,” and teachers should be “ppou air and sunlight teachers,” whilst desks and chairs should bo such as to assist in and not, as only too often, to hinder full and normal body action and development. A DEMONSTRATION, A demonstration was then <dvcn by twelve girds from the Normal School under the direction of Miss Gloyn, one of tire teacher’s in special training in physical education. This demonstration was meant to illustrate some of tho principles that should guide a typical lesson for girls of this age—postural training, training and exercises of the bare feet, correction of existing defects, body-building exercises, recreational folk dancing, and rhythmic exercises to music with the object of developing rhythmic sense and that combination of relaxation with perfect control that is tho essential of tho technique of any art requiring body action for its expression or performance. This was followed by a demonstration of more advanced work on all these lines by specialist students m physical trainmg from tho Dunedin Training College under tho direction of Miss Rena Tuckwell. These were very much appreciated by tho audience. The speaker concluded by stressing again tho prevalence and incidence cf tho deformities among the children of school age, the importance of these in relation to health in later life, the two-fold origin—dietetic and mechanical—of most of these, and tho nature of tho means whereby alone these can be prevented. “The knowledge of how to prevent is ours—some of rt as old as the Greeks, some of it iust bom yesteryear,” said Mr White. ‘ Ail that is required is persistence, organisation, and co-operation* on the part of all interested and concerned, and all tho bodies and societies which are represented hero to-night are already selfconfessedly interested and concerned. Are you prepared so to co-operate and organise?” Professor Hewitson summed up tho lessons to be learned from tho address and demonstration. “ Look at the pictures of those children in our schools that we have seen to-night. They ar something at which wo should ho shocked and of which we should bo ashamed,” ho said. They all knew what the national stocktaking of their manhood had shown in 1914 in their hour of dire national need. Ho had an uneasy feeling that if things went on as before, if tho next generation were called upon in, such an hour again, things would not be found very different from what they had been with them. A vote of thanks to the lecturer and all those who had taken part in the demonstration tsrnainaM too jmeetin&i