Japanese in America
The articleJapan(Vol. 15, p. 156) is equivalent to 370 pages of this Guide,—and is almost entirely the work of Captain Frank Brinkley, editor of theJapan Mail, author ofJapan,A History of Japan,An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, etc. The article is divided into 10 parts—Geography,People,Language and Literature,Art,Economic Conditions,Government and Administration,Religion,Foreign Intercourse,Domestic History, andThe Claim of Japan; A Japanese View, by Baron Dairoku Kikuchi, in which the president of the Imperial University of Kyoto and of the Imperial Academy of Japan discusses “the ambition of the Japanese people ... to be recognized as an equal by the Great Powers,” their resenting “any discrimination against them as an Asiatic people,” the “misrepresentation, arising from want of proper knowledge of Japanese character and feelings,” that the Japanese immediately after the war with Russia were “ready and eager to fight with the United States”—whereas the Japanese have always regarded the Americans with a special good will, due no doubt to the steady liberal attitude of the American government and people towards Japan and Japanese, and they look upon the idea of war between Japan and the United States as ridiculous.
Marks of the Race
Any justifiable discrimination against the Japanese as Asiatics must of course be based upon such characteristics of custom and thought as render Japanese immigration undesirable, and not upon the colour of the Japanese skin or any other peculiarity of appearance. But it is none the less interesting to turn from Baron Dairoku Kikuchi’s argument to Capt. Brinkley’s careful study (p. 164) of the physical characteristics of the Japanese. “The best authorities are agreed that the Japanese do not differ, physically, from their Korean and Chinese neighbors as much as the inhabitants of Northern Europe differ from those of Southern Europe.” Some of the bodily traits which distinguish the Japanese from races of European origin are to be observed “in the eyes, the eyelashes, the cheekbones and the beard.” The eyeball does not differ from that of an occidental, but the eye is less deeply set. The conspicuous peculiarity is that the upper eyelids are much heavier at the inner corners than at the outer, making the eyes apparently oblique; and a fold of the upper lids hangs over the roots of the upper lashes. The lashes, too, are short and scanty, and converge, instead of diverging as they do in occidentals, so that the tips are nearer together than the roots. There is but little hair on the face (except among the Ainus), and it is nearly always straight. The cheekbones are prominent among the lower, rather than the upper classes. The article proceeds to discuss the moral characteristics of the Japanese; attributing to them a degree of frugality and endurance such as to make it virtually impossible for any occidental race, living in reasonable comfort, to compete with Japanese labour.
As in the study of India and China, it will be well for the student of Japanese history to make himself familiar with the Britannica’s full material on native religion: see Vol. 15, p. 222, noting especially that in the section on Shinto it is said: “The grandson of the sun goddess was the first sovereign of Japan, and his descendants have ruled the land in unbroken succession ever since.”
Foreign intercourse
In Japanese history two main topics of study present themselves—foreign intercourse and domestic or internal history—the former naturally the more attractive to the foreign student, and of additional interest both because of its picturesque and romantic early detail and by reason of its explaining the sudden emergence of Japan as a power in world politics. Portuguese shipwrecked in Japan in 1542 or 1543 opened the country to Portuguese trade and in 1549 landed the great Jesuit missionary,Francisco de Xavier: see the article by K. G. Jayne, author ofVasco da Gama and his Successors. The contest between Spain and Portugal for Eastern trade and between Jesuits and Franciscans for Japanese converts to Christianity and the other factors that resulted in the suppression of Christianity in 1614 and the consequent persecutions of converts and missionaries are told in the articleJapan—and so also is the story of the foothold that Dutch and English traders got before the Japanese practically excluded them also, as Christians rather than as foreigners or traders. From the middle of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century Japan was practically untouched by Western civilization. The part of the United States navy in opening the country to trade in 1853 is described in the articleJapan(pp. 237–238) and in the articleMatthew Calbraith Perry. The articleJapanalso devotes much space (p. 238) to the work done by another American, Townsend Harris, who was less known than Perry, but who carried through the immensely important first commercial treaty.
Recent Wars
The remainder of the story of Japan’s foreign relations is given in the main articleJapan, but the student should read besides the articlesChino-Japanese War,Manchuria, andRusso-Japanese War. The last of these would be equivalent to 40 pages of this Guide; it is accompanied by the following plans:General Dispositions after Nanshan,Liao-Yang,Port Arthur, andMukden: and it is a remarkable critical summary of the military operations of the war. Read also the biographies ofKatsura,Kodama,Kuroki,Nogi,Nozu,Okuma,Oyama,Togo,Yamagata.
Domestic History
As for domestic history, it is important to note that early Japanese history is more purely mythical and legendary, and is chronologically untrustworthy for a longer period than is Chinese history. The conventionally accepted date of the establishment of the Empire is 660 B. C.; and from this year all dates are reckoned; but Japanese annals are self-contradictory and are proved faulty by Chinese and Korean records. Even the famed Japanese invasion of Korea in 200 is possibly apocryphal, and there are few trustworthy recorded facts before 400 A.D. or dates before 500 A.D. In the middle of the 6th century Chinese influence, through Korea, became strong, and in 552 Buddhism was introduced from Korea. A century later legislative government and administrative reform began.
On the Japanese feudal system beginning in the 12th century see: the articleBushido; in the articleJapanthe account of the earlier army; and the articlesShogunandMikado. The more important separate articles for the later period are:TokugawaandArisugawafor the rival families of the 17th–19th centuries;Mutsu Hito;Sanjo;Okubo Toshimitsu;Saigo;Mutsu;Iwakura Matsukata, the financier;Kato;Komura;Ito;Enomoto;Itagaki, “the first to organize and lead a political party in Japan”;Inouye;Okuma;Yamagata;Hayashi.
CHAPTER XLVIIIECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Many topics in the field of economics and social science are treated with some detail in other parts of this Guide. For public finance, for instance, see the chapterFor Bankers and Financiers. Tariffs, trusts, labour questions and the problems of population (such as immigration, eugenics, aliens and race-conflict, the liquor traffic, penal and charitable institutions) are among the topics presented in the course onQuestions of the Day. In this chapter is a brief outline of the entire subject, including these special topics.
The key article, equivalent to 35 pages in this Guide, isEconomics, (Vol. 8, p. 899), by W. A. S. Hewins, formerly director of the London School of Economics, secretary of the tariff commission.
Great Economists
For the history of economic theory in biographies of great economists, seeJean Bodin;Thomas Mun;Hobbes;Sir William Petty;Sir William Temple;Sir Josiah Child;Vauban;Sir Dudley North;Fénelon;Charles Davenant;Pierre Boisguilbert;Montesquieu;François Quesnay;Benjamin Franklin;Antonio Genovesi;Sir James Steuart;Josiah Tucker;Victor Mirabeau;Count of Carli-Rubbi;Justus Möser;Pedro Rodriguez;Adam Smith;Anne Robert Jacques Turgot;Ferdinando Galiani;Beccaria-Bonesana;Du pont de Nemours;Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos;Gaetano Filangieri;Alexander Hamilton;Henry Thornton;Thomas Robert Malthus;Melchiorre Gioja;Jean Baptiste Say;David Ricardo;Jean C. L. de Sismondi;James Mill;Thomas Tooke;Richard Jones;Robert Torrens;Friedrich List;J. R. M’Culloch;Nassau W. Senior;Karl Heinrich Rau;Henry Charles Carey;Auguste Comte;Frederic Bastiat;Harriet Martineau;John Stuart Mill;Bonamy Price;W. T. Thornton;Emile de Laveleye;J. E. Cairnes;J. E. Thorold Rogers;J. K. Ingram;Walter Bagehot;T. E. Cliffe Leslie;David Ames Wells;W. Stanley Jevons;Henry George;Francis Amasa Walker;W. G. Sumner;L. J. Brentano;William Cunningham;Eugen Boehm von Bawerk;Arnold Toynbee;R. T. Ely;A. T. Hadley;D. R. Dewey;F. W. Taussig;W. J. Ashley;E. W. Bemis; andE. R. A. Seligman.
For the chief branches of economic theory read:
Economic Theory
Value(Vol. 27, p. 867) by Dr. J. S. Nicholson, professor of political economy, Edinburgh University, author ofPrinciples of Political Economy, etc. This article, equivalent to 25 pages of this Guide, distinguishes between utility and value—to be valuable a “thing must have some utility; and there must be some difficulty in its attainment.” There are three laws of value—supply and demand, in the discussion of which monopoly-values and competition-values are considered; that of cost of production, in whichcost of raw material and wages are obvious factors; and that of increasing cost with increased quantity of production,—upon which depends the theory of rent.
Wealth(Vol. 28, p. 437) is by the same author, who adopts the definition of wealth connected with the name of Adolf von Held, based on a study ofconsumption,productionanddistributionof wealth,—“consumable utilities which require labour for their production and can be appropriated and exchanged.”
Consumption(Vol. 7, p. 23) is the “destruction of utilities.”
Production(Vol. 22, p. 423) is the creation of utilities.
Capital(Vol. 5, p. 278) is accumulated wealth available for earning interest and producing fresh wealth. “It is not antithetical to labour, but ... the accumulated savings of labour and of the profits accruing from the savings of labour.” The “importance of ability or brain-work, as against much of modern theorizing against capitalism,” must not be overlooked.
Wages(Vol. 28, p. 229), also by Dr. Nicholson, is equivalent to 17 pages in this Guide. It distinguishes between nominal and real wages, describes the economic wages fund theory, and deals with such topics as state regulation of wages, factory legislation, trades unions and wages, effects of machinery on wages.
Further information, more particularly in the field of finance, will be found in:
Banks and Banking(Vol. 3, p. 334), with a special treatment of American banking by Charles A. Conant, formerly treasurer of the Morton Trust Co., New York City, and author ofHistory of Modern Banks of Issue, and with the general description by Sir Robert Palgrave, director of Barclay & Co., Ltd., and editor of theDictionary of Political Economy.
Trust Company(Vol. 27, p. 329) is by C. A. Conant, late treasurer of the Morton Trust Co., New York.
Money(Vol. 18, p. 694) andFinance(Vol. 10, p. 347) are by Prof. Charles Francis Bastable, University of Dublin, author ofPublic Finance, etc.
See also the articles onGold,Silver,Bimetallism, andMonetary Conferences.
On “Ideal” social systems, see these four groups of articles:
Anarchism, Socialism, etc.
Anarchism(Vol. 1, p. 914), by Prince Kropotkin, author ofModern Science and Anarchism, and a contributor to the Britannica on Russian geography; andNihilism(Vol. 19, p. 686), by Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, author ofRussia, andThe Web of Empire; and biographies ofWilliam Godwin,Proudhon,Bakunin,Clémence Louise Michel,Kropotkin,Most,Reclus(like Kropotkin, well known as a geographer),Tolstoy, and on “anarchist” outrages seeChicago(Vol. 6, p. 125),McKinley,Alexander IIof Russia,M. F. S. Carnot,Elizabethof Austria (Vol. 9, p. 285), andHumbert.
Communism(Vol. 6, p. 791), and see alsoRobert Owen,New Harmony,Amana,Shakers,Fourier,Brook Farm,Considerant,Cabet,Saint-SimonandOneida Community; and on Plato’s “Republic,”Plato(especially pp. 818–819, Vol. 21); on More’s “Utopia,” the articleSir Thomas More(especially p. 825, Vol. 18); on Bacon’s “New Atlantis,” the articleFrancis Bacon(especially p. 144, Vol. 3); on Hobbe’s “Leviathan,” the articleHobbes(especially p. 547, Vol. 13); on Campanella’s “Civitas Solis” or “City of the Sun,” the articleCampanella(Vol. 5, p. 121);Samuel Butler(Vol. 4, p. 887) for “Erewhon” and “Erewhon Revisited”; andEdward Bellamy(Vol. 3, p. 694) for “Looking Backward,” the latest of the well-known literary pictures of an ideal commonwealth.
Co-Operation(Vol. 7, p. 82), byAneurin Williams, chairman of executive, International Co-Operative Alliance, and author ofTwenty-eight Years of Co-operation at Guise; andBuilding Societies(Vol. 4, p. 766) andFriendly Societies(Vol. 11, p. 217), both collaborative articles by Sir Edward William Brabrook, late chief registrar of friendly societies, and Dr. Carroll D. Wright, late United States Commissioner of Labor; and for the different co-operative experiments, see, in addition to the articles mentioned under Communism above:Rochdale,Guise,Jean Baptiste,André Godin,E. V. Neale,RaiffeisenandSchulze-Delitzschfor German co-operative banks and rural credit,Ireland(especially p. 749, Vol. 14),France(especially p. 782, Vol. 10),Italy(especially p. 14, Vol. 15),Russia(especially p. 887, Vol. 23, on theArtel); and for American approaches to co-operation the articlesHopedale,PullmanandMormons(especially p. 846, Vol. 18).
Socialism(Vol. 25, p. 301), by James Bonar, author ofPhilosophy and Political Economy; and supplement this by the articlesRobert Owen;Karl Marx, by Edward Bernstein, author ofTheorie and Geschichte des Socialismusand formerly a Socialist member of the Reichstag and a leader of the German Socialist movement away from Marx;Rodbertus;Lassalle;Kettler;Bebel;Liebknecht;Schmoller;Jaures;Millerand;Henry George;William Morris;H. G. Wells;Bernard Shaw;John Burns; and local articles, especiallyNew ZealandandFinland.
Tariffs, Trusts, etc.
Among the more interesting general economic topics are tariffs and trusts, matters of constant and great importance both in politics and business. See the articles:Tariff(Vol. 26, p. 422), by Dr. F. W. Taussig, professor at Harvard, and author ofThe Tariff History of the United States;Free Trade(Vol. 11, p. 88), by Dr. William Cunningham, archdeacon of Ely, author ofGrowth of English Industry and Commerce.
Protection(Vol. 22, p. 464), by E. J. James, president of the University of Illinois, author ofHistory of American Tariff Legislation, etc.
For the history of tariff legislation in the United States, the articlesAlexander Hamilton,Henry Clay,Federalist Party,Anti-Federalist Party,Democratic Party,Whig Party,Republican Party,J. S. Morrill,McKinley, etc., andUnited States History(Vol. 27) especially § 113 (p. 689), § 151 (p. 694), § 195 (p. 701), § 241 (p. 708), § 297 (p. 716), § 314 (p. 718), § 354 (p. 728), § 370 (p. 728), § 373 (p. 729), etc.
And for the English tariff legislation in the last hundred years, the articlesCorn Laws,John Bright,Cobden,Joseph Chamberlain, etc.
The articleTrusts(Vol. 27, p. 334), by Prof. J. W. Jenks of New York University should be supplemented by the articleGilds(Vol. 12, p. 14), contributed by the late Professor Charles Gross of Harvard University, and for American Trust Legislation, by the articlesInterstate Commerce(Vol. 14, p. 711) andUnited States,History(Vol. 27), especially pages 725–726, 729, 734. See also under separate state headings.
Labour and Wages
The article on Gilds just referred to will serve as an introduction to the subject of labour and labour organizations. The most important articles on modern conditions areTrade Unions(Vol. 27, p. 140);Strikes and Lockouts(Vol. 25, p. 1024); andLabour Legislation(Vol. 16, p. 7), all with American sections by Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor. On labour legislation see the special articleEmployers’ Liability(Vol. 9, p. 356) and the sections on legislation and miscellaneous laws in separate state articles.
Statistics, Population, etc.
One of the great branches of economics is the study of statistics. Advisedlywe say “studyof statistics” and in the Britannica the student will find comparatively few statistical tables, but much analysis both of statistics and of their meaning. For statistics of population see, for instance, the section on population in the articleUnited Statesor in any one of the state or city articles. UnderPopulation and Social Conditionsin the articleUnited States(Vol. 27, pp. 634–638) are treated: growth of the nation geographically and in population, with special consideration of immigration; changes in localities; urban and rural population; interstate migration; sexes; vital statistics—death rate, marriage, families, birth-rate, illiteracy; religious statistics; occupations; national wealth. And the state articles give: total population at each census; foreign-born and of foreign parentage,—often with analysis and historical outlines of immigration and its variation and character and amount; religious statistics; negroes and whites, Indians, Asiatics, etc.; urban population, with list of larger cities and population of each. In articles on American cities and towns population figures are given from the last census; comparisons are made between native and foreign-born and the foreign-born are classified, and, where there is a predominant element, like the Germans in Cincinnati and St. Louis, an estimate of the influence of this element.
One of the problems of population peculiar to the United States, particularly the Southern states, is the negro. See the articleNegro(Vol. 19, p. 344), especially the part dealing with the United States, which is by Walter F. Willcox, professor of social science and statistics in Cornell University and chief statistician of the U. S. Census Bureau. This article and that onDivorce(Vol. 8, p. 334)—another urgent American problem—are remarkable examples of the treatment of a social question from the point of view of a statistician in a most interesting and illuminating manner, although based on dry statistics, and in a manner all the more satisfying and accurate because it has carefully analyzed figures at the back of it.
The status of the negro in different states is described in the separate state articles, and there, too, the reader will find a summary of local divorce laws.
Other articles coming under the head of population areInfanticide,Illegitimacy,LegitimacyandLegitimation.
Social Legislation
In the chapter in this Guide onQuestions of the Dayattention is called to the increasing tendency of the state to control and regulate matters which a generation or so ago were considered outside the sphere of government. Two particular economic questions—“social evils” we sometimes call them—are foremost in this category and on these the student of economics should read in the Britannica:
The articleProstitution(Vol. 22, p. 457), by Dr. Arthur Shadwell, member of the Council of the Epidemiological Society and author ofIndustrial Efficiency and Drink,Temperance and Legislation, and the articlesLiquor Laws(Vol. 16, p. 759) andTemperance(Vol. 26, p. 578), also by Dr. Shadwell. These should be supplemented by accounts of local legislation against liquor, as for example in the articlesMaine,Kansas,South Carolina, etc. On the Gothenburg system of Sweden and Norway see Vol. 16, pp. 769 and 780, and Vol. 26, p. 587, where, we learn that the essence of this method of conducting the retail traffic is that the element of private gain is eliminated. See besides biographies of temperance reformers—e.g.,Theobald Mathew,Neal Dow,John B. Gough, etc.
Another great problem which the state and the municipality are attempting tosolve, or to help solve, by means of legislation is that of housing. See the articleHousing(Vol. 13, p. 814), which comprises not only the topic of city housing and its faults due to overcrowding, excessive value of land in great cities, etc., but the subject of rural housing, and the experiments in garden cities, model towns, etc. See also the articleOctavia Hill(Vol. 13, p. 465), and for American model towns,Hopedale,Pullman, etc.
Social Welfare
Many movements for social welfare are of a very different character and are based on an entirely different principle from that of repressive or controlling legislation. Charities, education, care of insane, training of defectives, prison reform—such are a few of these topics, and the student will quickly learn that these burdens have been borne quite as much by the individual as by the State, and that in many instances individual initiative has by long and laborious effort succeeded in reforming in this field abuses which had flourished under government care.
Charity
Of prime importance to the student is the elaborate article onCharity and Charities(Vol. 5, p. 860), by Dr. Charles Stewart Loch, secretary to the council of the London Charity Organization Society and author ofCharity Organization,Methods of Social Advance, etc. This article, equivalent in contents to 100 pages of this Guide, is made up of an introduction and six parts, as follows:
Introduction: “Charity,” as used in New Testament, means love and mercy—an ideal social state.
Part I.—Primitive Charity—highly developed idea of duty to guest or stranger, whether beggar or vagrant.
Part II.—Charity among the Greeks. “In Crete and Sparta the citizens were wholly supported out of the public resources.” In Athens, charity by: legal enactment for release of debts; assisted emigration; gifts of grain; poor relief for infirm and for orphans of soldiers; pay for public service; private charity; loan societies.
Part III.—Charity in Roman Times. “The system obliged the hard-working to maintain the idlers, while it continually increased their number.” “The effect on agriculture, and proportionally on commerce generally, was ruinous.”
Part IV.—Jewish and Christian Charity. In Christianity a fusion of Jewish and Greco-Roman practice. Summary of Hebrew Charity. “To mark the line of development, we compare: 1. The family among Jews and in the early Christian church. 2. The sources of relief and the tithe, the treatment of the poor and their aid, and the assistance of special classes of poor. 3. The care of strangers; and, lastly, we would consider the theory of alms giving, friendship or love, and charity.”
Part V.—Medieval Charity and its Development. St. Francis and his influence. St. Thomas Aquinas. Medieval endowed charities.
Part VI.—After the Reformation. “The religious life was to be democratic—not in religious bodies, but in the whole people; and in a new sense—in relation to family and social life—it was to be moral. That was the significance of the Reformation.” Organization of municipal relief. Poor relief acts and statutory serfdom. Progress of thought in 18th and 19th century: influence of Rousseau, of Law, of Howard, of Bentham, of Nonconformists, particularly Friends in England; Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor (1796). The Poor Law. Movement for Old Age Pensions. Charity Organization. Hospitals.
American charities and their peculiar problems.
Other articles bearing on the subject are:
Poor Law(Vol. 22, p. 74), for the British system, and Dr. T. A. Ingram’s articlesUnemployment(Vol. 27, p. 578) andVagrancy(Vol. 27, p. 837).
Prisons
One of the earliest and most important definite charitable movements was prisonreform. On this subject see in the Britannica the articles,—all by Major Arthur Griffiths, British inspector of prisons,—Prison,Crime,Criminology,Children’s Courts,Police,Juvenile Offenders,Deportation,Finger Prints,Identification. This series of articles shows both the improvements in methods of treating criminals, in itself a means of protecting society, and the better methods of defense and of police.
Insane
On the treatment of the insane and feeble-minded, on the gradual assumption of responsibility for them by governments, and on the transition from the prison-like asylum to the modern hospital, see the articleInsanity, particularly part III (Vol. 14, p. 616), on Hospital Treatment, by Dr. Frederick Peterson, professor of psychiatry, Columbia University, author ofMental Diseases, etc.
Deaf and Blind
As great as the change in treatment of the insane has been that in the treatment of the deaf and blind. On this subject read the articles;Blindness(Vol. 4, p. 59), by Sir Francis J. Campbell, principal of the Royal Normal College for the Blind; andDeaf and Dumb(Vol. 7, p. 880), by the Rev. Arnold Hill Payne, chaplain of the Oxford Diocesan Mission to the Deaf and Dumb. Both these authors have had experience in teaching in the United States as well as in Great Britain,—one of the many striking instances of the wisdom displayed in the choice of contributors to the Britannica. And see the articles onGallaudet(Vol. 11, p. 416), the great teacher of the deaf, andS. G. Howe(Vol. 13, p. 837), the educator of the blind.
Biographies
The following list, arranged for the most part in chronological order, gives some of the names of reformers and philanthropists about whom there are separate articles. These biographical sketches will be of great value for the study of the history and development of charitable work for the public welfare.
CHAPTER XLIXHEALTH AND DISEASE
You may have happened to glance at one of the text-books written for the use of medical students and of doctors, and found that you could hardly understand a word of it. And yet you have found, when you consulted a specialist, and he wanted to explain to you just what was wrong with some part of your body, that he could make it all quite clear to you. The six hundred articles on health and disease in the Britannica are written by specialists, most of them, indeed, by professors in the leading medical schools; and these contributors to the Britannica are also the authors of many of the best text-books that practising physicians and surgeons habitually use. But in the Britannica the specialists were writing for the general public; and for that reason they have taken care not to be too technical either in their point of view or in the language they use.
Right and Wrong Way to Read
In this present chapter of the Reader’s Guide, the subject of health and disease is treated just as the Guide treats any other department of knowledge. You may want to learn something about it because it is one of the most wonderful branches of science, just as you would take up the course of reading on astronomy. Or you may feel that you ought to know more than you do about your own body, about the way you should live in order to preserve your health, and about the causes of the diseases to which you are exposed. Some people will tell you that it is unwise to read about the subject at all. That is absurd. There are no doubt exceptional people, with unsound nerves, who will imagine they must take every patent medicine they see advertised, and who long to try every newly discovered serum that the newspapers tell them about.
The Danger of “Doctoring” Yourself
Again, you may be told that if you try to learn something about health and disease, you will be tempted to think you know as much as the doctor; and so neglect to go to him when you need his advice. But this objection, again, applies only to people who lack good sense. For example, if you read the article onDentistry, by Dr. E. C. Kirk, dean of the Dental Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, it will help you to understand whatever your dentist may be doing for you. But it will certainly not give you the idea that you could fill your own teeth.
When you find your watch has stopped, you wind it. Then, if it does not start, you take it to the watchmaker. If, instead of doing that, you tried to tinker with it yourself, you would soon be in trouble. On the other hand, it would be ridiculous to go to the watchmaker without first finding out whether the watch merely wanted winding, and a man ought to know enough about his watch to connect the fact that it has stopped with the probability that he has forgotten to wind it. The daily winding is his work, not the watchmaker’s. The chemical and mechanicalwork that is going on within you is as complicated as anything in a watch or anything that you could see in a laboratory or factory. It is your business (and your most important business, for if you neglect it, you will not be able to do anything properly, for yourself or for anybody else) to keep this machinery running, and to do that is not so simple as to wind a watch. Your body needs food and warmth. It very probably gets too much of both. Furthermore, the food is often unwholesome, and the warmed air is often bad air. But unless you are a millionaire invalid, you do not have a private doctor with you at all hours to watch the food put on your plate and to ventilate your room.
The Kind of Knowledge You Need
The average watch is better treated than the average human body, and when the average body goes wrong, through the average man’s thoughtlessness, he proceeds, without in the least knowing what is wrong, to take violent medicines, or to experiment with some fad about diet or underclothing or gymnastics, and to make matters very much worse. The knowledge he can gain from the Britannica will tend to keep him from being careless, and also from trying to doctor himself when he needs professional care. Whether you undertake a complete course of medical reading or not, it is certainly worth your while to read the first group of articles mentioned in this chapter—those which have to do with the healthy routine of life.
Eating and Drinking
You will find the best introduction to the subject of diet in general in a section (Vol. 26, p. 799) of the articleTherapeutics, by Sir Lauder Brunton. He is one of the most famous consulting physicians in the world, and he gives you advice which your own doctor will certainly confirm when he tells you that the way to avoid indigestion is to masticate your food well and sip half a pint of hot water four times a day—when you go to bed, when you get up, and again about an hour before luncheon and dinner, instead of drinking anything with any meal except your breakfast. If you try that treatment for a week, you will be glad that you looked at this chapter of the Guide.Nutrition(Vol. 19, p. 920), by Prof. Noel Paton and Dr. Cathcart, describes the process of nourishment and shows how important it is to chew the food thoroughly, not only in order to break it up, but also in order to combine with it a sufficient supply of the chemical juices which come from the glands in the mouth.Dietetics(Vol. 8, p. 214) shows what use your body makes of each kind of food that you eat. This article, by the late Dr. Atwater of the United States Department of Agriculture, who conducted the famous government investigation of diet, and R. D. Milner, also of the Department, contains tables showing the amount of nourishment required by persons who are doing light or heavy muscular work, as well as by those who lead a sedentary life. It will interest you to see (p. 218) how the food of an American business man compares with that of an American working in a lumber camp. The articleDietary(Vol. 8, p. 212), describing the food given to prisoners, soldiers and sailors in various parts of the world, contains some striking information as to the possibilities of the simple life. In Sweden prisoners get only two meals a day, and those consisting chiefly of porridge or gruel; and the “punishment diet” in English prisons is one pound of bread a day, and nothing else but water. The articleWater Supply(Vol. 28, p. 387), by G. F. Deacon, deals with the storage and distribution of water, and shows how it should be filtered for drinking.Sewerage(Vol. 24, p. 735) describes the sanitary systems which prevent the pollution of streams and wells.Mineral Waters(Vol. 18, p. 517) describes the great variety of springs fromwhich the table-waters in general use are obtained. Their medicinal values are also indicated, and in the table which classifies thirty of the most important American springs it is curious to see that nearly all of them lie in the Appalachian Mountain chain.
Hurtful Foods
Vegetarianism(Vol. 27, p. 967), by Dr. Josiah Oldfield, describes the various systems of diet which reject flesh, the most extreme of which exclude everything but nuts, fruit and cereals, all to be eaten raw.Cookery(Vol. 7, p. 74) shows how the digestibility of food is influenced by methods of cooking, and unhesitatingly condemns the general practice of baking meat.Adulteration(Vol. 1, p. 218), by Dr. Otto Hehner, describes the dangers to health which arise from the use of preservatives as well as substitutes. For the use of boracic acid, which has been proved to be slightly unwholesome, but not really dangerous, there is at any rate the excuse that it keeps food from spoiling, but the article has nothing but blame for the “coppering” of vegetables. “Many years ago some artful, if stupid, cook found that green vegetables like peas or spinach, when cooked in a copper pan, by preference a dirty one, showed a far more brilliant colour than the same vegetable cooked in earthenware or iron. The manufacturer who puts up substances like peas in pots or tins for sale produces the same effect which the cook obtained by the wilful addition of a substance known to be injurious to health, namely, sulphate of copper.”Food Preservation(Vol. 10, p. 612) also shows the risks of using carelessly canned goods.Temperance(Vol. 26, p. 578), by Dr. Arthur Shadwell, tells the story of the reforms that have been effected since the 18th century days when London bars used to put up signs inviting customers to get “drunk for one penny” or “dead drunk for twopence;” andLiquor Laws(Vol. 16, p. 759) describes temperance legislation in all parts of the world, with a most interesting section on prohibition in the United States.Drunkenness(Vol. 8, p. 601) deals specifically with the effects of excess on the health.
Alimentary Canal(Vol. 1, p. 663), by Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, describes all the organs of the body that deal with food.Digestive Organs(Vol. 8, p. 262), by Dr. Andrew Gillespie, shows how indigestion arises, andDyspepsia(Vol. 8, p. 786) describes the symptoms caused by habitual indigestion.Metabolic Diseases(Vol. 18, p. 195), by Dr. Noel Paton, covers all the maladies arising from defective nutrition.Corpulence(Vol. 7, p. 192) tells about the reduction of superfluous fat, whileFasting(Vol. 10, p. 193) andHunger and Thirst(Vol. 13, p. 931) discuss the intentional or accidental cutting down of the usual food supply.Famine(Vol. 10, p. 166) gives a most interesting account of the disasters with which crop failures still threaten Asiatic countries. The feeding of young children is, of course, a distinct subject, and is treated in great detail in the articleInfancy(Vol. 14, p. 513), by Dr. Harriet Hennessy.