Lime being prepared for our use.
In the same way, the grain growing in the field takes up lime and other things that we need, but could not eat for ourselves. The lime that thus becomes a part of the grain, we get in our bread, oat-meal porridge, and other foods.
Animals need salt, as children who live in the country know very well. They have seen how eagerly the cows and the sheep lick up the salt that the farmer gives them.
Even wild cattle and buffaloes seek out places where there are salt springs, and go in great herds to get the salt.
We, too, need some salt mixed with our food. If we did not put it in, either when cooking, or afterward, we should still get a little in the food itself.
Muscles are lean meat, that is flesh; so muscles need flesh-making foods. These are milk, and grains like wheat, corn and oats; also, meat and eggs. Most of these foods really come to us out of the ground. Meat and eggs are made from the grain, grass, and other vegetables that the cattle and hens eat.
We need cushions and wrappings of fat, here and there in our bodies, to keep uswarm and make us comfortable. So we must have certain kinds of food that will make fat.
Esquimaux catching walrus.Esquimaux catching walrus.
There are right places and wrong places for fat, as well as for other things in this world. When alcohol puts fat into the muscles, that is fat badly made, and in the wrong place.
The good fat made for the parts of thebody which need it, comes from fat-making foods.
In cold weather, we need more fatty food than we do in summer, just as in cold countries people need such food all the time.
The Esquimaux, who live in the lands of snow and ice, catch a great many walrus and seal, and eat a great deal of fat meat. You would not be well unless you ate some fat or butter or oil.
Sugar will make fat, and so will starch, cream, rice, butter, and fat meat. As milk will make muscle and fat and bones, it is the best kind of food. Here, again, it is the earth that sends us our food. Fat meat comes from animals well fed on grain and grass; sugar, from sugar-cane, maple-trees, or beets; oil, from olive-trees; butter, from cream; and starch, from potatoes, and from corn, rice, and other grains.
Green apples and other unripe fruits are not yet ready to be eaten. The starch which we take for food has to be changed into sugar,before it can mix with the blood and help feed the body. As the sun ripens fruit, it changes its starch to sugar. You can tell this by the difference in the taste of ripe and unripe apples.
Most children like candy so well, that they are in danger of eating more sugar than is good for them. You would starve if fed only on sugar.
We would not need to be quite so much afraid of a little candy if it were not for the poison with which it is often colored.
Even what is called pure, white candy is sometimes not really such. There is a simple way by which you can find this out for yourselves.
If you put a spoonful of sugar into a tumbler of water, it will all dissolve and disappear. Put a piece of white candy into a tumbler of water; and, if it is made of pure sugar only, it will dissolve and disappear.
If it is not, you will find at the bottom of the tumbler some white earth. This is notgood food for anybody. Candy-makers often put it into candy in place of sugar, because it is cheaper than sugar.
1. Why do we need food?
2. How do people get water to drink?
3. Why is it not safe to drink water that has been standing in lead pipes?
4. Why is the water of a well that is near a drain or a stable, not fit to drink?
5. What food do the bones need?
6. How do we get lime for our bones?
7. What is said about salt?
8. What food do the muscles need?
9. Name some flesh-making foods.
10. Why do we need fat in our bodies?
11. What is said of the fat made by alcohol?
12. What kinds of food will make good fat?
13. What do the Esquimaux eat?
14. How does the sun change unripe fruits?
15. Why is colored candy often poisonous?
16. What is sometimes put into white candy? Why?
17. How could you show this?
H
ERE, at last, is the bill of fare for our dinner:
Roast beef,Bread,Peaches,Potatoes,Butter,Bananas,Tomatoes,Salt,Oranges,Squash,Water,Grapes.
What must be done first, with the different kinds of food that are to make up this dinner?
The meat, vegetables, and bread must be cooked. Cooking prepares them to be easily worked upon by the mouth and stomach. If they were not cooked, this work would be very hard. Instead of going on quietly and without letting us know any thing about it, there would be pains and aches in the overworked stomach.
The fruit is not cooked by a fire; but we might almost say the sun had cooked it, for the sun has ripened and sweetened it.
When you are older, some of you may have charge of the cooking in your homes. You must then remember that food well cooked is worth twice as much as food poorly cooked.
"A good cook has more to do with the health of the family, than a good doctor."
Next to the cooking comes the eating.
As soon as we begin to chew our food, a juice in the mouth, called saliva (sa lī´vá), moistens and mixes with it.
Saliva has the wonderful power of turning starch into sugar; and the starch in our food needs to be turned into sugar, before it can be taken into the blood.
You can prove for yourselves that saliva can turn starch into sugar. Chew slowly a piece of dry cracker. The cracker is made mostly of starch, because wheat is full of starch. At first, the cracker is dry andtasteless. Soon, however, you find it tastes sweet; the saliva is changing the starch into sugar.
All your food should be eaten slowly and chewed well, so that the saliva may be able to mix with it. Otherwise, the starch may not be changed; and if one part of your body neglects its work, another part will have more than its share to do. That is hardly fair.
If you swallow your food in a hurry and do not let the saliva do its work, the stomach will have extra work. But it will find it hard to do more than its own part, and, perhaps, will complain.
It can not speak in words; but will by aching, and that is almost as plain as words.
Next to the chewing, comes the swallowing. Is there any thing wonderful about that?
We have two passages leading down our throats. One is to the lungs, for breathing;the other, to the stomach, for swallowing.
Do you wonder why the food does not sometimes go down the wrong way?
The windpipe leading to the lungs is in front of the other tube. It has at its top a little trap-door. This opens when we breathe and shuts when we swallow, so that the food slips over it safely into the passage behind, which leads to the stomach.
If you try to speak while you have food in your mouth, this little door has to open, and some bit of food may slip in. The windpipe will not pass it to the lungs, but tries to force it back. Then we say the food chokes us. If the windpipe can not succeed in forcing back the food, the person will die.
But we will suppose that the food of our dinner has gone safely down into the stomach. There the stomach works it over, and mixes in gastric juice, until it is all a gray fluid.
Now it is ready to go into the intestines,—a long, coiled tube which leads out of the stomach,—from which the prepared food is taken into the blood.
The blood carries it to the heart. The heart pumps it out with the blood into the lungs, and then all through the body, to make bone, and muscle, and skin, and hair, and eyes, and brain.
Besides feeding all these parts, this dinner can help to mend any parts that may be broken.
Suppose a boy should break one of the bones of his arm, how could it be mended?
If you should bind together the two parts of a broken stick and leave them a while, do you think they would grow together?
No, indeed!
But the doctor could carefully bind together the ends of the broken bone in the boy's arm and leave it for awhile, and the blood would bring it bone food every day, until it had grown together again.
So a dinner can both make and mend the different parts of the body.
1. What shall we have for dinner?
2. What is the first thing to do to our food?
3. Why do we cook meat and vegetables?
4. Why do not ripe fruits need cooking?
5. What is said about a good cook?
6. What is the first thing to do after taking the food into your mouth?
7. Why must you chew it?
8. What does the saliva do to the food?
9. How can you prove that saliva turns starch into sugar?
10. What happens if the food is not chewed and mixed with the saliva?
11. What comes next to the chewing?
12. What is there wonderful about swallowing?
13. What must you be careful about, when you are swallowing?
14. What happens to the food after it is swallowed?
15. How is it changed in the stomach?
16. What carries the food to every part of the body?
17. How can food mend a bone?
H
ERE are the names of some of the different kinds of food. If you write them on the blackboard or on your slates, it will help you to remember them.
Water.Salt.Lime.
Meat,}for muscles.Sugar,}for fat and heat.Milk,Starch,Eggs,Fat,Wheat,Cream,Corn,Oil,Oats,
Perhaps some of you noticed that we had no wine, beer, nor any drink that had alcohol in it, on our bill of fare for dinner. We had no cigars, either, to be smoked after dinner. If these are good things, we ought to have had them. Why did we leave them out?
We should eat in order to grow strong and keep strong.
If you wanted to measure your strength, one way of doing so would be to fasten a heavy weight to one end of a rope and pass the rope over a pulley. Then you might take hold at the other end of the rope and pull as hard and steadily as you could, marking the place to which you raised the weight. By trying this once a week, or once a month, you could tell by the marks, whether you were gaining strength.
But how can we gain strength?
We must exercise in the open air, and take pure air into our lungs to help purify our blood, and plenty of exercise to make our muscles grow.
We must eat good and simple food, that the blood may have supplies to take to every part of the body.
People used to think that alcohol made them strong.
Can alcohol make good muscles, or bone, or nerve, or brain?
You have already answered "No!" to each of these questions.
If it can not make muscles, nor bone nor nerve, nor brain, it can not give you any strength.
Some people may tell you that drinking beer will make you strong.
The grain from which the beer is made, would have given you strength. If you should measure your strength before and after drinking beer, you would find that you had not gained any. Most of the food part of the grain has been turned into alcohol.
The juice of crushed apples, you know, is called cider. As soon as the cider begins to turn sour, or "hard," as people say, alcohol begins to form in it.
Pure water is good, and apples are good. But the apple-juice begins to be a poison as soon as there is the least drop of alcohol in it. In cider-making, the alcohol forms in thejuice, you know, in a few hours after it is pressed out of the apples.
None of the drinks in which there is alcohol, can give you real strength.
Then why do people think they can?
Because alcohol puts the nerves to sleep, they can not, truly, tell the brain how hard the work is, or how heavy the weight to be lifted.
The alcohol has in this way cheated men into thinking they can do more than they really can. This false feeling of strength lasts only a little while. When it has passed, men feel weaker than before.
Ship
A story which shows that alcohol does not give strength, was told me by the captain of a ship, who sailed to China and other distant places.
Many years ago, when people thought a little alcohol was good, it was the custom to carry in every ship, a great deal of rum. This liquor is distilled from molasses and contains about one half alcohol. This rum was given to the sailors every day to drink; and, if there was a great storm, and they had veryhard work to do, it was the custom to give them twice as much rum as usual.
The captain watched his men and saw that they were really made no stronger by drinking the rum; but that, after a little while, they felt weaker. So he determined to go to sea with no rum in his ship. Once out on the ocean, of course the men could not get any.
At first, they did not like it; but the captain was very careful to have their food good and plentiful; and, when a storm came, and they were wet and cold and tired, he gave them hot coffee to drink. By the time they had crossed the ocean, the men said: "The captain is right. We have worked better, and we feel stronger, for going without the rum."
We have been talking about the strength of muscles; but the very best kind of strength we have is brain strength, or strength of mind.
Alcohol makes the head ache and deadensthe nerves, so that they can not carry their messages correctly. Then the brain can not think well. Alcohol does not strengthen the mind.
Some people have little or no money, and no houses or lands; but every person ought to own a body and a mind that can work for him, and make him useful and happy.
Suppose you have a strong, healthy body, hands that are well-trained to work, and a clear, thinking brain to be master of the whole. Would you be willing to change places with a man whose body and mind had been poisoned by alcohol, tobacco, and opium, even though he lived in a palace, and had a million of dollars?
If you want a mind that can study, understand, and think well, do not let alcohol and tobacco have a chance to reach it.
1. What things were left out of our bill of fare?
2. How could you measure your strength?
3. How can you gain strength?
4. Why does drinking beer not make you strong?
5. Show why drinking wine or any other alcoholic drink will not make you strong.
6. Why do people imagine that they feel strong after taking these drinks?
7. Tell the story which shows that alcohol does not help sailors do their work.
8. What is the best kind of strength to have?
9. How does alcohol affect the strength of the mind?
T
HE heart is in the chest, the upper part of the strong box which the ribs, spine, shoulder-blades, and collar-bones make for each of us.
It is made of very thick, strong muscles, as you can see by looking at a beef's heart, which is much like a man's, but larger.
Probably some of you have seen a fire-engine throwing a stream of water through a hose upon a burning building.
As the engine forces the water through the hose, so the heart, by the working of its strong muscles, pumps the blood through tubes, shaped like hose, which lead by thousands of little branches all through the body. These tubes are called arteries (är´tĕr iz).
Those tubes which bring the blood back again to the heart, are called veins (vānz). You can see some of the smaller veins in your wrist.
If you press your finger upon an artery in your wrist, you can feel the steady beating of the pulse. This tells just how fast the heart is pumping and the blood flowing.
The doctor feels your pulse when you are sick, to find out whether the heart is working too fast, or too slowly, or just right.
Some way is needed to send the gray fluid that is made from the food we eat and drink, to every part of the body.
To send the food with the blood is a sure way of making it reach every part.
So, when the stomach has prepared the food, the blood takes it up and carries it to every part of the body. It then leaves with each part, just what it needs.
As the brain has so much work to attend to, it must have very pure, good blood sent to it, to keep it strong. Good blood is madefrom good food. It can not be good if it has been poisoned with alcohol or tobacco.
We must also remember that the brain needs a great deal of blood. If we take alcohol into our blood, much of it goes to the brain. There it affects the nerves, and makes a man lose control over his actions.
When you run, you can feel your heart beating. It gets an instant of rest between the beats.
Good exercise in the fresh air makes the heart work well and warms the body better than a fire could do.
Your heart is made of muscle. You know what harm alcohol does to the muscles.
Could a fatty heart work as well as a muscular heart? No more than a fatty arm could do the work of a muscular arm. Besides, alcohol makes the heart beat too fast, and so it gets too tired.
1. Where is the heart placed?
2. Of what is it made?
3. What work does it do?
4. What are arteries and veins?
5. What does the pulse tell us?
6. How does the food we eat reach all parts of the body?
7. How does alcohol in the blood affect the brain?
8. When does the heart rest?
9. How does exercise in the fresh air help the heart?
10. What harm does alcohol do to the heart?
T
HE blood flows all through the body, carrying good food to every part. It also gathers up from every part the worn-out matter that can no longer be used. By the time it is ready to be sent back by the veins, the blood is no longer pure and red. It is dull and bluish in color, because it is full of impurities.
If you look at the veins in your wrist, you will see that they look blue.
If all this bad blood goes back to the heart, will the heart have to pump out bad blood next time? No, for the heart has neighbors very near at hand, ready to change the bad blood to pure, red blood again.
These neighbors are the lungs. They arein the chest on each side of the heart. When you breathe, their little air-cells swell out, or expand, to take in the air. Then they contract again, and the air passes out through your mouth or nose. The lungs must have plenty of fresh air, and plenty of room to work in.
The lungs, heart, and air-passages.The lungs, heart, and air-passages.
If your clothes are too tight and the lungs do not have room to expand, they can not take in so much air as they should. Thenthe blood can not be made pure, and the whole body will suffer.
For every good breath of fresh air, the lungs take in, they send out one of impure air.
In this way, by taking out what is bad, they prepare the blood to go back to the heart pure and red, and to be pumped out through the body again.
How the lungs can use the fresh air for doing this good work, you can not yet understand. By and by, when you are older, you will learn more about it.
Do the lungs ever rest?
You never stop breathing, not even in the night. But if you watch your own breathing you will notice a little pause between the breaths. Each pause is a rest. But the lungs are very steady workers, both by night and by day. The least we can do for them, is to give them fresh air and plenty of room to work in.
You may say: "We can't give them moreroom than they have. They are shut up in our chests."
I have seen people who wore such tight clothes that their lungs did not have room to take a full breath. If any part of the lungs can not expand, it will become useless. If your lungs can not take in air enough to purify the blood, you can not be so well and strong as God intended, and your life will be shortened.
If some one was sewing for you, you would not think of shutting her up in a little place where she could not move her hands freely. The lungs are breathing for you, and need room enough to do their work.
The lungs breathe out the waste matter that they have taken from the blood. This waste matter poisons the air. If we should close all the doors and windows, and the fireplace or opening into the chimney, and leave not even a crack by which the fresh air could come in, we would die simply from staying in such a room. The lungs could not do theirwork for the blood, and the blood could not do its work for the body.
Impure air-will poison you. You should not breathe it. If your head aches, and you feel dull and sleepy from being in a close room, a run in the fresh air will make you feel better.
The good, pure air makes your blood pure; and the blood then flows quickly through your whole body and refreshes every part.
We must be careful not to stay in close rooms in the day-time, nor sleep in close rooms at night. We must not keep out the fresh air that our bodies so much need.
It is better to breathe through the nose than through the mouth. You can soon learn to do so, if you try to keep your mouth shut when walking or running.
If you keep the mouth shut and breathe through the nose, the little hairs on the inside of the nose will catch the dust or other impurities that are floating in the air, and so save their going to the lungs. You will get out of breath less quickly when running if you keep your mouth shut.
The little air-cells of the lungs have very delicate muscular (mŭs´ku lar) walls. Every time we breathe, these walls have to move. The muscles of the chest must also move, as you can all notice in yourselves, as you breathe.
All this muscular work, as well as that of the stomach and heart, is directed by the nerves.
You have learned already what alcohol will do to muscles and nerves, so you are ready to answer for stomach, for heart, and for lungs. Is alcohol a help to them?
1. Besides carrying food all over the body, what other work does the blood do?
2. Why does the blood in the veins look blue?
3. Where is the blood made pure and red again?
4. Where is it sent, from the lungs?
5. What must the lungs have in order to do this work?
6. When do the lungs rest?
7. Why should we not wear tight clothes?
8. How does the air in a room become spoiled?
9. How can we keep it fresh and pure?
10. How should we breathe?
11. Why is it better to breathe through the nose than through the mouth?
12. Why is alcohol not good for the lungs?
T
HERE is another part of your body carrying away waste matter all the time—it is the skin.
Perspiratory tube.Perspiratorytube.
The body is covered with skin. It is also lined with a more delicate kind of skin. You can see where the outside skin and the lining skin meet at your lips.
There is a thin outside layer of skin which we can pull off without hurting ourselves; but I advise you not to do so. Because under the outside skin is the true skin, which is so full of little nerves that it will feel the least touch as pain. When the outer skin, which protects it, is torn away, we must cover the true skin to keep it from harm.
In hot weather, or when any one has been working or playing hard, the face, and sometimesthe whole body, is covered with little drops of water. We call these drops perspiration (pẽr spĭ rā´shŭn).
Where does it come from? It comes through many tiny holes in the skin, called pores (pōrz). Every pore is the mouth of a tiny tube which is carrying off waste matter and water from your body. If you could piece together all these little perspiration tubes that are in the skin of one person, they would make a line more than three miles long.
Sometimes, you can not see the perspiration, because there is not enough of it to form drops. But it is always coming out through your skin, both in winter and summer. Your body is kept healthy by having its worn-out matter carried off in this way, as well as in other ways.
The nails grow from the skin.
The finger nails are little shields to protect the ends of your fingers from getting hurt. These finger ends are full of tiny nerves, and would be badly off without such shields. No one likes to see nails that have been bitten.
Waste matter is all the time passing out through the perspiration tubes in the skin. This waste matter must not be left to clog up the little openings of the tubes. It should be washed off with soap and water.
When children have been playing out-of-doors, they often have very dirty hands and faces. Any one can see, then, that they need to be washed. But even if they had been in the cleanest place all day and had not touched any thing dirty, they would still need the washing; for the waste matter that comes from the inside of the body is just as hurtful as the mud or dust of the street. Youdo not see it so plainly, because it comes out very little at a time. Wash it off well, and your skin will be fresh and healthy, and able to do its work. If the skin could not do its work, you would die.
Do not keep on your rubber boots or shoes all through school-time. Rubber will not let the perspiration pass off, so the little pores get clogged and your feet begin to feel uncomfortable, or your head may ache. No part can fail to do its work without causing trouble to the rest of the body. But you should always wear rubbers out-of-doors when the ground is wet. Certainly, they are very useful then.
When you are out in the fresh air, you are giving the other parts of your body such a good chance to perspire, that your feet can bear a little shutting up. But as soon as you come into the house, take the rubbers off.
Now that you know what the skin is doing all the time, you will understand that the clothes worn next to your skin are full of little worn-out particles, brought out by the perspiration. When these clothes aretaken off at night, they should be so spread out, that they will air well before morning. Never wear any of the clothes through the night, that you have worn during the day.
Do not roll up your night-dress in the morning and put it under your pillow. Give it first a good airing at the window and then hang it where the air can reach it all day. By so doing, you will have sweeter sleep at night.
You are old enough to throw the bed-clothes off from the bed, before leaving your rooms in the morning. In this way, the bed and bed-clothes may have a good airing. Be sure to give them time enough for this.
You have now learned about four important kinds of work:—
1st. The stomach prepares the food for the blood to take.
2d. The blood is pumped out of the heart to carry food to every part of the body, and to take away worn-out matter.
3d. The lungs use fresh air in making the dark, impure blood, bright and pure again.
4th. The skin carries away waste matter through the little perspiration tubes.
All this work goes on, day and night, without our needing to think about it at all; for messages are sent to the muscles by the nerves which keep them faithfully at work, whether we know it or not.
1. What covers the body?
2. What lines the body?
3. Where are the nerves of the skin?
4. What is perspiration? What is the common name for it?
5. What are the pores of the skin?
6. How does the perspiration help to keep you well?
7. Of what use are the nails?
8. How should they be kept?
9. What care should be taken of the skin?
10. Why should you not wear rubber boots or overshoes in the house?
11. Why should you change under-clothing night and morning?
12. Where should the night-dress be placed in the morning?
13. What should be done with the bed-clothes? Why?
14. Name the four kinds of work about which you have learned.
15. How are the organs of the body kept at work?
W
E have five ways of learning about all things around us. We can see them, touch them, taste them, smell them, or hear them. Sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing, are called the five senses.
You already know something about them, for you are using them all the time.
In this lesson, you will learn a little more about seeing and hearing.
The eyelashes and the tear-glands.The eyelashes and the tear-glands.
In the middle of your eye is a round, black spot, called the pupil. This pupil is only a hole with a muscle around it. When you are in the light, the muscle draws up, and makes the pupil small, because you can get all the light you need through a small opening. When you are in the dark, themuscle stretches, and opens the pupil wide to let in more light.
The pupils of the cat's eyes are very large in the dark. They want all the light they can get, to see if there are any mice about.
The pupil of the eye opens into a little, round room where the nerve of sight is. This is a safe place for this delicate nerve, which can not bear too much light. It carries to the brain an account of every thing we see.
We might say the eye is taking pictures for us all day long, and that the nerve of sight is describing these pictures to the brain.
The nerves of sight need great care, for they are very delicate.
Do not face a bright light when you are reading or studying. While writing, youshould sit so that the light will come from the left side; then the shadow of your hand will not fall upon your work.
One or two true stories may help you to remember that you must take good care of your eyes.
The nerve of sight can not bear too bright a light. It asks to have the pupil made small, and even the eyelid curtains put down, when the light is too strong.
Once, there was a boy who said boastfully to his playmates: "Let us see which of us can look straight at the sun for the longest time."
Then they foolishly began to look at the sun. The delicate nerves of sight felt a sharp pain, and begged to have the pupils made as small as possible and the eyelid curtains put down.
But the foolish boys said "No." They were trying to see which would bear it the longest. Great harm was done to the brains as well as eyes of both these boys. The one who looked longest at the sun died in consequence of his foolish act.
The second story is about a little boy who tried to turn his eyes to imitate a schoolmate who was cross-eyed. He turned them; but he could not turn them back again. Although he is now a gentleman more than fifty years old and has had much painful work done upon his eyes, the doctors have never been able to set them quite right.
You see from the first story, that you must be careful not to give your eyes too much light. But you must also be sure to give them light enough.
When one tries to read in the twilight, the little nerve of sight says: "Give me more light; I am hurt, by trying to see in the dark."
If you should kill these delicate nerves, no others would ever grow in place of them, and you would never be able to see again.
What you call your ears are only pieces of gristle, so curved as to catch the sounds and pass them along to the true ears. These are deeper in the head, where the nerve of hearingis waiting to send an account of each sound to the brain.
The ear nerve is in less danger than that of the eye. Careless children sometimes put pins into their ears and so break the "drum." That is a very bad thing to do. Use only a soft towel in washing your ears. You should never put any thing hard or sharp into them.
I must tell you a short ear story, about my father, when he was a small boy.
One day, when playing on the floor, he laid his ear to the crack of the door, to feel the wind blow into it. He was so young that he did not know it was wrong; but the next day he had the earache severely. Although he lived to be an old man, he often had the earache. He thought it began from the time when the wind blew into his ear from under that door.
All this fine work of touching, tasting, seeing, smelling, and hearing, is nerve work.
The man who is in the habit of using alcoholic drinks can not touch, taste, see, smell, or hear so well as he ought. His hands tremble, his speech is sometimes thick, and often he can not walk straight. Sometimes, he thinks he sees things when he does not, because his poor nerves are so confused by alcohol that they can not do their work.
Answer now for your taste, smell, and touch, and also for your sight and hearing; should their beautiful work be spoiled by alcohol?