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GA&BlWPrtt" HYGEIA, THE GODDESS OF HEALTH. HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL 
CULTURE FOR WOMEN 
BY 
ANNA M. GALBRAITH, M. D, 
Fellow New York Academy of Medicine; Attending Physician Neurologi- 
cal Department, New York Orthopedic Hospital and Dispensary ; 
Late Attending Physician and Instructor in Diagnosis and 
Clinical Medicine Woman's Medical College, New 
York Infirmary; Former Gynecological Clini- 
cian and Assistant Attending Siaff 
fior Diseases of Women, Wo- 
man's Hospital of 
Philadelphia, 
etc., etc. 
“ Yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” 
—Job ii. 4 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK 
1^95 Copyright, 1895, 
BY 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 
A U rights reserved. 
THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, 
RAHWAY, N. J. I have examined the manuscript of Dr. Anna M. Gal- 
braith’s Treatise on Hygiene for Women with some care. 
I think it contains sound doctrine, well expressed. In my 
opinion, its wide circulation among the women of this 
country will be of service to their physical condition, and, 
so far as any recommendation of mine can go, I cheer- 
fully commend it to the favorable consideration of the sex 
for whom it is written. 
D. B. St. John Roosa. 
New York, November 29, 1894. 
V “ Man is his own star ; and the soul that can 
Render an honest and a perfect man. 
Commands all light, all influence, all fate ; 
Nothing to him falls early or too late. 
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.” 
—Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's 
“ Honest Man's Fortune." 
VI PREFACE. 
The writer ventures to offer this little volume 
to the public as the result of her personal inves- 
tigation, observation, and the collated wisdom of 
many eminent authorities. 
The need of it was felt in the many years of 
her student life, as well as since then in her pro- 
fessional life, to combat the ignorance shown by 
the masses of otherwise well-educated women, in 
regard to all functions of the human body, so 
that in girlhood many follies are committed that 
render the woman’s life well-nigh a burden. 
This work has been in preparation for six years, 
and all accessible works bearing on the subject 
have been carefully studied. The works of the 
most noted anatomists, physiologists, hygienists, 
as well as those of the most eminent authorities 
on the diseases of women, have been freely drawn 
upon, since many of them are inaccessible to the 
general reader; while by means of profuse illus- 
VII VIII 
PREFACE. 
trations the writer has endeavored to further 
elucidate her subject. 
This little book will have accomplished its end 
if it arouses woman to extend her studies on the 
subjects discussed, and to bend her thoughts and 
energies to the emancipation of her sex from the 
bondage of invalidism. 
A. M. G. 
New York, Nove?jiber, 1894. CONTENTS. 
Introduction, . . . . . . . ix 
CHAPTER I. 
The Bony Skeleton, Its Uses and Abuses—The Skull and 
Spinal Column Viewed in Connection with their Contents, 
the Brain and Nervous System—Artificial Deformities 
of the Head and Foot, with a Description of a Perfect 
Foot, . . . . . . .3 
The Key to Physical Beauty—Relative Proportions of a 
Perfect Female Form—The Muscular System—Outdoor 
Exercises: Walking, Running, Rowing, Bicycling, 
Swimming, etc., and Gymnastics, and what they will 
Do to Develop the Form and Restore the Health, . 45 
CHAPTER II. 
CHAPTER III. 
The Maintenance of Health : a Balance of Power between 
Food Supply, Digestion, and Excretion—The Digestive 
System—Varieties of Food and the Amount Necessary 
to Health—Alcoholic Beverages—Constipation—The 
Kidneys—The Skin and the Complexion—Baths—Men- 
struation, . . „ . . *ii5 X 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER IV. 
The Importance of Good Chest Development and Ventilation 
in Order to Obtain a Vigorous Circulation and a Healthy 
Body—The Blood—The Circulatory and Respiratory Ap- 
paratus—The Changes in the Air Caused by Respiration— 
Ventilation, ...... 177 
CHAPTER V. 
Dress, the Fundamental Cause of the Physical Deterioration 
of the American Woman—The History of Woman’s 
Dress—The Influence of the French Court on Dress— 
The Corset—Hygienic Dress—Decollete Evening Dress 
—Artistic Evening Dress, .... 207 
CHAPTER VI. 
Work, Recreation, Rest, and Sleep, in a Rational Combina- 
tion as a Preservative of Good Temper and Good Health— 
A Definite Occupation a Physical Necessity—Number of 
Hours Allotted to Brain Work—Signs of Overwork— 
Physiological Necessity for Recreation—Number of 
Hours Required for Sleep—Health a Duty from an 
Ethical Point of View, .... 265 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
FIG. PAGE 
1. Hygeia, ..... Frontispiece 
2. Our Framework, . . . . . I 
3. The Human Skeleton (Holden’s Human Osteology), 5 
4. a. Upper Surface of the Brain (Gray’s Anatomy), . 9 
b. Base of the Brain (Gray’s Anatomy), . . 9 
c. Median Section of the Brain (Gray’s Anatomy), . 9 
5. The Brain, Spinal Cord, and Spinal Nerves (Dalton’s 
Physiology), . . . . .11 
6. Side View of the Skull (Gray’s Anatomy), . . 14 
7. Lateral View of the Spine (Gray’s Anatomy), . .15 
8. A Single Vertebra (Gray’s Anatomy), . . 16 
9. Female Pelvis (Gray’s Anatomy), . . .17 
10. The Bony Thorax (Allen’s Anatomy), . . 19 
11. Homology of the Leg and Arm (Quain’s Anatomy), . 21 
12. Thigh-bone, Lengthwise and Sawn Across (Dalton’s 
Physiology), . . . . . 23 
13. The Scapula, or Shoulder-blade (Quain’s Anatomy), . 25 
14. The Clavicle, or Collar-bone (Quain’s Anatomy), . 25 
15. Bones of the Arm (Quain’s Anatomy), . . 25 
16. Bones of the Wrist (Quain’s Anatomy), . . 27 
17. Bones of the Hand (Quain’s Anatomy), . . 27 
18. The Hip-joint (Heath’s Anatomy), . . 29 
19. Bones of the Leg (Gray’s Anatomy), . . .29 
XI xii 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
FIG- PAGE 
20. Bones of the Foot, Upper Surface (Allen’s Anatomy), 31 
21. Bones of the Foot, in Profile (Allen’s Anatomy), . 32 
22. The Natural and Artificial Positions of the P'oot (Cam- 
per), . . . . . .34 
23. Sole of Shoe for Normal and Artificial Shape of Foot, 37 
24. Juno, . . . . . . .44 
25. Relation of Skeleton to Muscular System, . . 49 
26. Biceps Muscle (Dalton’s Physiology), . . . 52 
27. Flexor and Extensor Muscles of the Leg (Heath’s Anat- 
omy), ...... 53 
28. Muscles of the Back (Quain’s Anatomy), . . 55 
29. Abdominal Muscles, 3 plates (Gray’s Anatomy), . 57 
30. Directions of Fibers in Abdominal Muscles, . . 58 
31. Muscular Fibers, highly Magnified (Dalton’s Physiology) 59 
32. Muscles of the Head, Face, and Neck (Allen’s Anatomy) 63 
33. Facial Expression, .... 67 
34. Walking Child (Keating’s Cyclopedia of Diseases of 
Children), . . . . . .69 
35. City Woman in Walking Costume, . . 71 
36. Running Child (Keating’s Cyclopedia of Diseases of 
Children), . . . . . 75 
37. Rowing (Keating’s Cyclopedia of Diseases of Children), 79 
38. Woman in Riding Costume, . . . 81 
39. The Valveless Veins, with the Varicose Conditions that 
may Ensue from Strain During Waist Constriction 
(American Journal of Obstetrics), . . -85 
40. Location of the Viscera of the Body (Heath’s Anatomy), 114 
41. Alimentary Canal (Dalton’s Physiology), . . 117 
42. Skulls of Various Animals (Dalton’s Physiology), . 120 
43. Human Teeth, Upper Jaw (Dalton’s Physiology), . 121 
44. Muscular Coat of Stomach (Gray’s Anatomy), . 126 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
FIG. PAGE 
45. Mucous Membrane Lining Stomach (Gray’s Anatomy), 128 
46. Stomach, Duodenum, Pancreas, and Spleen (Gray’s 
Anatomy), ...... 132 
47. Upper Surface of Liver (Gray’s Anatomy), . 136 
48. Under Surface of Liver (Gray’s Anatomy), . . 138 
49. Kidneys in Situ, Showing Relation to Lleart and Great 
Blood-vessels (Quain’s Anatomy), . . .153 
50. Kidneys and Bladder (Quain’s Anatomy), . . 157 
51. The Uterus and Its Appendages (Gray’s Anatomy), . 168 
52. Pelvic Contents seen from above (Mann’s American 
System of Gynecology), .... 169 
53. Pelvic Contents in Profile (Mann’s American System 
of Gynecology), . . . . .171 
54. Relation of Heart and Lungs to Chest Wall (Heath’s 
Anatomy), . . . . . .176 
55. The Diaphragm (Kitchen), . . . 178 
56. The Circulatory System, . . . .181 
57. The Heart and Lungs (Gray’s Anatomy), . . 183 
58. The Larynx (Holden’s Anatomy), . . . 187 
59. The Trachea and Bronchial Tubes (Gray’s Anatomy), 188 
60. Venus de Capua, ..... 206 
61. Greek Costumes (“ Queen and Two Attendants.” From 
Greek Play given at Vassar College, 1893), . 210 
62. Fashionable Costume of To-day, . . . 211 
63. Lady of Fashion, 1894, . . . . .218 
64. Artistic Dress, . . . » . 219 
65. Effects of Tight Lacing on Bony Thorax, . . 225 
66. Corseted Figure, ..... 228 
67. Relation of Bony Thorax to Heart, Lungs, Liver, etc., 
with Artificial Lines Produced by Corsets (Gray’s 
Anatomy), . . . . . .231 XIV 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
FIG. PAGE 
68. Ribs Removed, Showing Relation of Thoiacic and Ab- 
dominal Viscera (Masse, Petit Atlas d’Anatomie), . 235 
69. Venus de Medici, ..... 239 
70. Outline Figures Man and Woman (Kellogg’s Influence 
of Dress on the Physical Decadence of American 
Women), ...... 242 
71. Effects of Corsets and Tight Lacing (Kellogg’s Influence 
of Dress on the Physical Decadence of American 
Women), . . • . . . 243 
Same Person After Training (Kellogg’s Influence of 
Dress on the Physical Decadence of American 
Women), ...... 243 
72. German Peasant Woman (Kellogg’s Influence of Dress 
on the Physical Decadence of American Women), 247 
Effects of Corsets and Tight Bands, American Woman 
of Same Age (Kellogg’s Influence of Dress on the 
Physical Decadence of American Women), . 247 
73. Stocking Supporters, ..... 254 
74. Decollete Dress, ..... 257 
75. Venus de Milo, ...... 264 
76. The Ivy and the Oak (Life, February, 1888), . 267 
77. The Sleeping Ariadne, ...... 291 REFERENCES. 
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Duckworth, Dyce, M. D., F. R. C. P., On Tight Lacing, 
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Durant, Ghislandi, M. D., Sea Bathing, Its Use and Abuse. 
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Edwards, Joseph F., M. D., Catechism of Hygiene. Phila- 
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Egbert, Seneca, M. D., The Bicycle in its Relation to the 
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Elliot, John B., M. D., Exercise as a Physiological Ne- 
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Faries, Randolph, M. D., Mechanism of Physical Culture. 
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Faries, Randolph, M. D., Physical Education. Med. News, 
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Flower, William Henry, LL. D., F. R. S., Fashion in De- 
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Fothergill, J. Milner, M. D., The Maintenance of Health; 
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Gairdner, William T., M. D., The Care of the Body a Pri- 
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400. 
Goodwin, E. W., F. S. A., Dress and its Relation to Health 
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Gorecki, Dr., Le repos du Dimanche au point de vue de 
l’Hygiene. J. d’Hygiene, Paris, 1880, 293. 
Grandin, D. Egbert, M. D., Gynecological Diagnosis. 
Mann’s Amer. Sys. Gynecol., vol. i., 287. 
Grant, J. A., M. D., Gymnastics of the Brain. Canada 
Lancet. Toronto, 1880, 13, 157. 
Granville, J. Mortimer, M. D., The Secret of a Clear Head. 
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Granville, J. Mortimer, M. D., Change as a Mental Restora- 
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Gray, Henry, F. R. S., Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy. 
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Hammond, Graeme M., M. D., The Bicycle in the Treat- 
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Hoggan, Frances E., M. D., Swimming and its Relation to 
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XIX 
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XXI 
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Leicester, England. INTRODUCTION. 
“ We are weak, because it never enters into our thoughts that 
we might be strong.”—Salzmann. 
There was a time, you know, so far back in the 
history of our race that it is now called the Age 
of Fable, when Hygeia lived on the earth. Her 
father was Hisculapius, the Father of Medicine. 
He was not only the founder of the healing art, 
but he acquired so great a knowledge of herbs 
and surgery that, besides curing the sick, wounded, 
and dying, he actually restored the dead to life. 
Zeus fearing that this dread rival would render 
mortals independent of the Gods, smote ZEscula- 
pius with a thunderbolt, and afterward received 
him, being also the son of Apollo, into Olympus, 
among the number of the Gods. 
Misculapius at his apotheosis left two sons, 
Machaon and Podalirius, and a virgin daughter, 
Hygeia. The first became noted as a surgeon, 
while the second gained renown by the healing of 
XXIII XXIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
disease through medicine. But to-day we know 
that Hygeia was the greatest of the three, since 
she taught how disease could be prevented. 
Of her life we know but little. After she was 
called to the Home of the Gods, temples and 
statues, such as you see in the frontispiece, were 
erected to her. In her hand she holds the cup of 
bounty ; and that not to us pleasant looking ser- 
pent which is coiled about her arm is the emblem 
of foresight, wisdom, and eternity. 
But Hygeia had left written on parchment 
ponderous volumes, teaching how to attain the 
perfect development of body and mind, how to 
maintain this period of beauty and vigor, so that 
the harmonious action of body and mind might 
be prolonged until death occurred, not as the 
result of disease, but the natural dissolution of 
a ripe old age. 
In the ages which followed, Ilygeia had many 
noble expounders, hence the Age of Beauty 
of the Greeks. Women were very learned, and 
in those ancient universities of Alexandria, 
Bologna, etc., for many centuries learned ladies 
lectured in professors’ chairs. 
This was followed by the terrible Dark Ages, 
from 476 A. u. to 1492. The great libraries were INTRODUCTION. 
XXV 
burned down by the barbarians, and the most 
gross ignorance prevailed. The nobles with their 
vast retinue of attendants went to the Wars of 
the Crusade, while their wives buckled on their 
armor, and embroidered tapestries and banners. 
And neither lords nor ladies knew how to read or 
write. The priests formed the only leisure class, 
and learning became confined to the monasteries. 
In the meantime those books of Hygeia’s had 
been forgotten, and the most dreadful plagues 
swept over and devastated Europe. 
But with the art of printing, men again became 
more generally educated, and as education in- 
creased, Hygiene, for that was the name of the 
work, became more practiced among men. So 
ponderous have been the most of these books, so 
weighed down by technical and scientific terms 
and statistics, that like the chained Bibles of the 
Middle Ages they have been accessible only to 
the learned few. 
As the natural result of the state of affairs 
brought about by the Dark Ages, woman was 
obliged to take her position, not beside man, but 
at his feet, as his pupil. Being taught by him, 
for the most part she looks at life through his 
glasses. Unfortunately the finest lenses are not XXVI 
INTRODUCTION. 
accessible to the masses. She has accepted as 
an axiom, among other popular fallacies, that 
“ her ill-health is natural, that she is the victim 
of functions whose exercise constitutes a sort of 
invalidism.” 
That the cause of her weakness does not lie in 
the performance of her functions has repeatedly 
been attested by our most eminent medical 
authorities. Professor T. Gaillard Thomas says 
(“A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of 
Women,” Fifth Edition, p. 41): “ If we compare 
the present state of women in refined society 
over the world with that of the working peasants 
of the same latitudes, or with the North Ameri- 
can squaws, or the powerful negresses of the 
Southern States, we can with difficulty believe 
that they all sprang from the same parent stem, 
and originally possessed the same physical capaci- 
ties. Observation shows that women who are 
not exposed to depreciating influences can com- 
pete with the men of their races, and in savage 
countries they are sometimes regarded as superior 
to them. In the lower orders of animals this 
equality is still more marked. The mare endures 
as much as the horse, and some of our most cele- 
brated racers have represented the female sex, INTRODUCTION. 
The lioness is fully as dangerous to the hunter as 
her more majestic consort, and the bitch proves 
as untiring in the chase as the most muscular dog 
in the pack. 
“ From all these facts we may logically argue 
that the human female, if properly developed and 
placed beyond causes which militate against her 
physical well-being, would be in no great degree 
the inferior of the male. This position I now 
assume, and maintain that the customs of civilized 
life have depreciated her powers of endurance 
and capacity for resisting disease.” 
Dr. Kellogg says (“ The Influence of Dress 
in Producing the Physical Decadence of the 
American Woman ”) “ that travelers in China 
are constantly astonished at the immense load that 
Chinese women carry on their shoulders. And 
that in Naples:, Italy, he had seen a woman carry 
off upon her head an immense load of vegetables, 
which had required two men to lift into position. 
De Saussure relates that when he had finished 
his observations in the valley of the Zermatt, he 
packed a collection of mineralogical specimens in 
a box, and called for a porter to carry it out of 
the valley, as the mountain roads were too steep 
for it to be carried by four-footed animals of any XXVIII 
INTRODUCTION. 
sort. After a fruitless search for a man who was 
able to carry his box of specimens, he was finally 
told, if he wished a porter to carry them, he must 
employ a woman, as no man could be found who 
was able even to lift the box. He accordingly 
engaged a woman who offered herself for the serv- 
ice, and stated that she carried the heavy box of 
minerals over the steep mountain roads without the 
slightest injury either to it or to herself. Stanley 
reports that the two hundred women porters whom 
he employed on one of his expeditions proved to 
be the best porters he ever had in Africa.” 
To the American resident of Vienna, the sight 
of the peasant women as hod-carriers going up 
ladders with their heavy burdens is a familiar 
one; and many of them continue at these heavy 
labors until the very day of their confinement. 
Dio Lewis (The Health of American Women, 
North American Review, 1882, pp. 135-503), 
relates that William Crafts, who resided for 
twelve years in Dahomey, Africa, said that the 
Dahomey women are quite as large and strong as 
the men, and manage the business affairs of the 
country. In conversation with one of the king’s 
bodyguard, a stalwart Amazon, he asked what 
she thought of men as soldiers. “ Men can't 
fight. We three thousand women of the king’s INTRODUCTION. 
XXIX 
bodyguard would like to meet six thousand men; 
we’d show them how to fight.” 
The vital question now is, Can the civilized 
woman of to-day overcome the physical deteriora- 
tion which has been imposed upon her by hered- 
ity, her own dress, and mode of life ? Hygeia 
answers emphatically Yes! and will show you 
how this consummation, devoutly to be wished 
for, may be attained. 
For, as Hygeia went up and down the face of 
the earth, from country to country, from city to 
city, from town to village, she considered the 
daughters of men, what universal and needless 
sufferings and bodily afflictions they had brought 
upon themselves through ignorance and folly; 
ay ! even opprobrium upon their sex, so that a 
learned man once said : “ The world is but one 
vast hospital for women, where every kindly 
deed done one of them is a favor to an invalid.” 
And though they did but justly suffer, since 
they reaped what they had sown, this beneficent 
though very jealous goddess, that none might suf- 
fer ignorantly, sent hither her hierophant to de- 
clare these things unto you. Listen well then, for, 
“ The Gods implore not, plead not, pity not, ' 
They only offer time and occasion, which being once refused 
Returns no more.” OUR FRAMEWORK, HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
CHAPTER I. 
The Bony Skeleton, its Uses and Abuses—The Skull and Spinal 
Column Viewed in Connection with their Contents, the Brain 
and Nervous System—Artificial Deformities of the Head and 
Foot, with a Description of a Perfect Foot. 
“ O wad some pow’r the gif tie gie us 
To see oursel’s as others see us ! 
It wad frae monie a blunder free us, 
And foolish notion.” 
—Robert Burns. 
In order that woman may again attain to the 
most perfect development of body and mind, and 
maintain this period of beauty and vigor with 
the prolonged harmonious action of body and 
mind until a ripe old age, she must adhere rigidly 
in letter and in spirit to three of Hygeia’s chief 
laws: namely, of Dress, Exercise, and Food. 
Now, in order to clothe the body in accordance 
with the laws of nature, she must first know the 
kind of a body nature has given her, of what it 
consists, and how it is constructed. When she 
3 4 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
has thoroughly mastered this first and fundamen- 
tal principle, she must next consider what kinds 
of exercise and food will best maintain perfect 
symmetry of body and mind—which was the true 
secret of the great beauty of the Greeks. To 
this end a slight knowledge of anatomy and 
physiology is essential. 
When you are feeling your “ bluest,” nothing 
is more certain than that some mournful croaker 
will sadly shake her head and add to your low 
frame of mind by the trite old saying: “Yes, 
there certainly is a skeleton in every closet.” To 
which I add : and what is more, each of us carries 
her skeleton with her wherever she goes, be it to 
the ballroom or to church. And, further, I aver 
that this skeleton is the very making of us, and 
without it our life would be impossible. 
The physical body is, as it were, an animated 
mechanism or machine. The only laws we can 
comprehend about it are purely chemical and 
mechanical. The machine is made, wound up, if 
you will, like a clock; life is breathed into it by 
the Creator; it goes until it is run down, when it 
stops ; in common parlance we say life is extinct. 
Or again, the human body may be likened to a 
house. After the plan has been made and the THE HUMAN SKELETON, THE BONY SKELETON. 
7 
foundation laid, the framework is erected, and this 
last determines the size of the house, the height 
and the shape or style, as to whether “ Gothic,” 
“ Queen Anne,” etc. And on the solidity of the 
framework will depend to a great extent the 
worth of the building. 
For the human being, the plan has been made 
by the Creator; our ancestors have pretty 
thoroughly laid the foundations, so we will begin 
by an examination of the skeleton on which you 
and I are built. 
A glance at our illustration shows that by 
looking at a skeleton we can tell to what kind of 
an animal it belonged ; what the habits of the 
animal were—that is, whether it walked on two 
feet or on four, or whether it crawled. 
Like the framework of a house, so the human 
framework or skeleton determines the general 
shape and height of the individual, gives the 
body solidity, and is divided into rooms or com- 
partments which form safe receptacles for deli- 
cate organs. For bone, you know, is the hardest 
structure found in the human body, while at the 
same time it possesses a certain degree of tough- 
ness and elasticity. 
A glance at the figure shows that in the human 8 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
skeleton there are four bony compartments, and 
on learning what each contains you will recognize 
at once how admirably adapted each compart- 
ment is to the most perfect development and 
protection of its contents. You will see as we go 
on, that in these cavities are contained all those 
organs which are essential to life and the repro- 
duction of the race. 
We will begin with the skull, because its cavity 
contains and protects the brain, which is not only 
the most delicate and complicated organ in the 
whole body, but because it is the master organ 
and controls the whole. It is now regarded that 
the hemispheres of the brain are the seat of the 
mental faculties, perception, memory, thought, 
volition, etc. The brain, spinal column, and 
nerves constitute the so-called nervous system. 
This has been likened to the electric telegraph; 
the brain being the central station, while the 
nerves serve simply as conductors, just as the 
wires do. Besides the special senses, there are 
many terminal sub-stations in the skin ; all these 
keep the brain informed of what is going on in 
the world around it; and the various internal 
organs of the body are provided with similar sub- 
stations to send word to the brain how matters a. UPPER SURFACE OF 
THE BRAIN. 
b. UNDER SURFACE OF 
THE BRAIN. 
C. MEDIAN SECTION OF 
THE BRAIN. THE BONY SKELETON 
11 
are going with them. The body is supplied with 
two distinct sets of nerves or wires, one of which 
carries messages from the outside world and 
1,2. The Brain. 
3. The Spinal Cord. 
4. Nerves to Upper Extremities. 
5. Nerves to Lower Extremities. 
various organs to the brain, while the other set 
transmits the orders from the brain. 
That aperture which you see at the base of the 12 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
skull is for the transmission of the spinal cord, 
which is a continuation downward from the brain 
through the spinal canal. The spinal cord is the 
center of reflex acts; that is, if you touch the leg 
of a brainless frog with acid he will take another 
leg to wipe it off with. What really takes place 
is as follows: There are, as we have seen, sub- 
stations in the skin, hence the acid causes the sen- 
sation of a foreign body; word is telegraphed the 
spinal cord, where there is a large central station ; 
from here word is sent out by another set of nerves 
to move the leg away from the acid, but this being 
insufficient, word is telegraphed another leg to 
wipe off the offending substance. Did the same 
thing happen in the human body, at the same 
time that the spinal cord telegraphed word to 
the affected member to withdraw it, it would 
telegraph to the brain and a perception of pain 
would be felt. But more than this the brain 
causes the various parts of the body to act 
together or to suppress action altogether. A 
baby’s brain is less well developed and does not 
possess this so called inhibitory power. Again, 
when women work too hard and are exhausted— 
reach a state which we call nervous prostration— 
these inhibitory centers become weakened and THE BONY SKELETON. 
13 
the woman becomes hysterical ; that is, she gives 
way to fits of laughing or crying if anyone speaks 
to her. 
A message travels along a nerve at the rate of 
about thirty-six yards a second, or a mile a min- 
ute. This is about the time made by a lightning 
express train. The distances in the body being 
so short, the time taken is imperceptible, and we 
say that movement is instantaneous. 
The paths traveled by the nerve impulses are 
made passable by use; the oftener an impulse 
traverses a given route, the more adapted such a 
route becomes for future traffic. 
But all this has to do with nerves which are 
under the control of the will. There is another 
set of telegraph wires in the body called the 
sympathetic or vegetative system, so called be- 
cause it presides over the processes of nutrition 
and is beyond the control of the will. 
The hard, inseparable bony .skull of the adult is 
as solid and compact as if it were formed of a 
single bone, instead of twenty-two. If you will 
examine the head of a young baby you will find 
that it feels very differently. The bones are soft, 
you can push them about, and in several spots, 
notably on the top of the head, anteriorly, there is 14 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
a soft diamond-shaped space. At birth the bones 
are connected by a tough membrane to allow for 
the growth of the brain. So brain and skull grow 
apace until adult life is reached, when the bones, 
SIDE VIEW OF THE SKULL. 
which have gradually been becoming harder, are 
united to form one solid piece. Those forming 
the exterior of the cranial cavity are thin and 
flat, having dentated or saw-like edges, which fit 
into each other like building blocks; these finally 
become so firmly united that they cannot be sepa- 
rated. There is only one opening of any consid- 
able size in the skull, this is at the base; and is, as 
you have been told, for the transmission of the 
spinal cord. The other small orifices are for the THE BONY SKELETON. 
15 
passage of nerves to the various 
parts of the body. 
We naturally pass next to a 
consideration of the spinal col- 
umn, which supports the weight 
of the head, and forms a canal 
for the protection of the spinal 
cord. This spine or back-bone 
is the sharp ridge which is felt 
at the middle of the back. It 
enters into the formation of the 
two remaining bony compart- 
ments of the body, the chest 
and pelvis. It is, in short, the 
key-stone which supports and 
binds the whole body together. 
The spinal column is, as you see, 
not a straight hollow rod, but 
is curved and slightly flexible. 
This is due to the fact that the 
spinal column does not consist 
of a single bone, but is made up 
of thirty-three bones, set one 
upon another. These bones 
are called vertebrae. The front 
part of each bone is solid, 
LATERAL VIEW OF 
THE SPINE. 16 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
yet light and spongy in texture, while the back 
part is hollow and forms a ring. Now, when 
these' bones are put together, you see a canal 
must be formed, and the spinal cord passes 
through and is protected by this bony canal. 
The flexibility of 
the spinal column 
is increased by the 
elastic cartilage 
which is placed 
between the ver- 
tebrae and serves 
as a cushion ; this 
also greatly dimin- 
ishes the shock of 
a fall, as when the 
feet suddenly fly out from under one who is skat- 
ing. The skull and spinal column are the only 
compartments that are wholly composed of bone, 
and this we have seen is necessitated by the ex- 
treme delicacy of their contents. The three re- 
maining compartments of the body are composed 
partly of bone, partly of muscle. The propor- 
tions and arrangements of each depend on the 
functions of the organs which they contain. 
A SINGLE VERTEBRA. 
The pelvis is a somewhat basin-shaped cavity THE BONY SKELETON. 
found at the lower end of the spinal column. 
This is formed at the back by the lower end of 
the spinal column, while two large flat bones 
form the front and sides. In the adult this be- 
17 
FEMALE PELVIS. 
comes practically almost as solidly grown to- 
gether as the bones of the skull. But there is 
this very essential difference: the bottom of the 
pelvic basin is closed by muscles, while the top is 
filled in with loose structures. You will readily 
understand the necessity for such an arrangement 
as this, when you learn that in this cavity are 
found the bladder, the lower end of the large 
bowel, and the reproductive organs. The flaring 18 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
edges seen in the illustration are the hips. In 
woman the pelvis is broader and the hips more 
flaring than in man. 
The fourth and last bony cavity, the chest or 
thorax, forms a marked contrast to the hard 
immovable skull and pelvis. Here you see 
simply a bony cage, whose base is filled in by 
one large flat muscle, the diaphragm. The chest 
or thorax is formed in the back by twelve verte- 
brae, and from each vertebrae a pair of ribs pass 
around to the front, but instead of forming a 
joint with the breast-bone, a piece of elastic car- 
tilage unites the seven upper ribs with the breast- 
bone, while the cartilage of the eighth, ninth, and 
tenth are simply attached to the cartilages of the 
preceding ribs; the eleventh and twelfth ribs are 
free at their anterior extremities, and form the so- 
called floating ribs. It should be noted here 
that the bony thorax is cone shaped ; that it is 
distensible, but that the distensibility increases 
from above downward, and is greatest at the base. 
The thorax contains and is completely filled by 
the heart, lungs, and great blood-vessels. When 
we come to study the mechanism of respiration 
and the circulation, we shall find that anything 
which tends to impair the distensibility of this TIIE BONY SKELETON. 
19 
life-containing cage works the greatest injury 
possible to the individual. Thus far we have 
The bony thorax. 
only considered that part of the bony skeleton 
which enters into the formation of the cavities or 
compartments of the body, namely, the head and 20 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
trunk. Now, while life would be possible, since 
we have here all the vital organs, still the human 
torso would be a very pitiable affair without its 
extremities. And this brings us to a considera- 
tion of the arms and legs. 
In looking at the arm and leg of the skeleton, 
we find that the structure or arrangement of the 
bones is the same in both ; that is, the arm and 
leg are said to be homologous. There are the 
same number and the same kind of joints, with 
just one bone more in the upper than in the 
lower extremity. The arm has three long bones 
arranged in two sets, one in the arm and two in 
the fore-arm. Each long bone consists of a 
hollow cylinder expanding into two extremities, 
each end being made to fit into the correspond- 
ing end of the adjoining bone or bones. . The 
two bones of the fore-arm enter into the forma- 
tion of the wrist and elbow joints. These are 
both so-called hinge-joints; the only motion 
possible is opening and closing like a door. We 
find the same kind of joints at the ankle and 
knee. Since at the wrist strength is needed with 
limited motion, we find here short bones placed 
compactly. 
The arrangement of the bones of the leg and HOMOLOGY OF THE REG AND ARM, THE BONY SKELETON. 
23 
foot is precisely the same as that found in the 
arm and hand, except that the knee joint is pro- 
tected by a bone placed in front of it. The ends 
of the bones are held together by strong elastic 
bands which surround the joints; the bands 
THIGH-BONE—LENGTHWISE AND SAWN ACROSS, 
or ligaments, as they are called, being lined by 
by a membrane which pours out a fluid to lubri- 
cate the parts. 
The end of the arm-bone which enters into the 
formation of the shoulder-joint is of an entirely 
different shape. It has a round ball-like end or 24 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
head, which is received into a corresponding 
depression in the shoulder-blade, and is held 
there by strong elastic ligaments. This is called 
a ball and socket joint, and allows motion in 
every direction. There is precisely the same 
kind of joint at the hip. 
As we proceeci in our studies of the skeleton 
we cannot fail to be impressed with its marvelous 
construction, and the perfect adaptability of each 
part for its intended purpose. 
Yet so wonderful is this man when put to- 
gether, so great is the ingenuity, and so many 
and varied are the imaginings of his fertile brain, 
that every civilized nation of the globe from time 
immemorial has boasted that the men, and 
latterly more especially the women, of its race 
have conceived methods of improving on the 
original plan. That is, the creature has said to 
the Creator, “ Had you given me a differently 
shaped head, waist, or foot, I would have been 
much more beautiful than I am to-day.” For the 
different ages and the different races have not 
agreed as to just where the defect lay ; and these 
have been the three chief points attacked. 
We will pass over those minor devices which 
have at various times been resorted to, and SCAPULA, OR SHOULDER-BLADE. 
CLAVICLE, OR 
COLLAR-BONE. 
HUMERUS, OR 
ARM-BONE. 
ULNA AND RADIUS, OR 
BONES OF FORE-ARM. THE BONY SKELETON. 
chiefly among savage races, for the beautifying 
of the body ; they were for the most part con- 
fined to the skin and its appendages ; as bleach- 
ing the hair, the eradication of the eye-brows, 
BONES OF WRIST. 
BONES OF HAND. 
tatooing the skin, boring the ears, nose, and lips 
for the insertion of ornaments. 
One of the most ancient and wide-spread cus- 
toms with which we are acquainted is that of 
artificially changing the shape of the head. Hip- 
pocrates, writing 400 B. C., De Aere, Aquis, et 
Locis, says of the people dwelling near the sea 
of Azov: “ They think those the most beauti- 28 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
ful who have the longest heads. Immediately 
after the child is born, and while its head is still 
tender, they fashion it with their hands, and con- 
strain it to assume a lengthened shape by apply- 
ing bandages and other suitable contrivances, 
whereby the spherical form of the head is 
destroyed and it is made to increase in length. 
Thus at first usage operated so that this shape 
was the result of force; but in the course of time 
it was formed naturally, and usage had nothing to 
do with it.” This same custom of distorting the 
shape of the head has been practiced among the 
Chinese to a small extent, also among the North 
American Indians, and many other races; but 
it has for the most part been confined to sav- 
age nations. While to the man of the most 
advanced civilization belongs alone the credit of 
devising many methods for beautifying the foot, 
by preventing its growth and development. 
The foot forms the base of support for the 
entire body, and at every step it is subjected to a 
pressure of from one to two hundred pounds. 
This base is in the form of two arches, a trans- 
verse and antero-posterior. The latter is the 
most important and has been sub-divided into 
two by an imaginary line drawn between the HIP-JOINT. 
FEMUR, OR THIGH-BONE. 
FIBULA AND TIBIA, OR BONES OF LEG. TIIE BONY SKELETON. 
third and fourth metatarsal bones. The inner 
portion of this arch is much more curved than 
the outer, and forms the instep. The arch is 
supported by two piers. The posterior pier is 
UPPER SURFACE, BONES OF FOOT. 
formed by the os calcis or heel-bone, and the 
posterior part of the astragalus; it is shorter, has 
but one joint, is more curved, and at the same 
time more solid, than the anterior pier, and 
receives the greater part of the weight of the 32 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
body. The anterior pier includes all the bones 
in front of the astragalus to the junction of the 
three inner metatarsal bones with the toes. It is 
much the longer, is less curved, and has many 
joints, giving it greater elasticity and also enables 
it to diminish the force of shocks transmitted to 
the arch. The summit of the arch is at the 
ankle. The length of the foot should be one- 
seventh of the woman’s height. It is evident 
BONES OF FOOT, IN PROFILE. 
that the superincumbent pressure, by flattening 
the arches, both lengthens and broadens the foot. 
The antero-posterior arch is further lengthened 
by a turning upward of the toes which form a 
hinge-joint with the instep. 
The foot in extension rests normally upon the 
heel, the tips of the metatarsal bones, and the 
outer side of the sole. In walking, running, or 
dancing, the direction of the weight upon the 
arches is constantly changing; and it is only THE BONY SKELETON. 
33 
through the action of certain muscles that the 
normal arches are conserved. This healthy con- 
dition of the plantar arch can only be maintained 
by the evenly balanced action of those muscles 
which surround and strengthen the weak parts of 
the arch. 
Dr. Busey’s classic description of the move- 
ments of the foot in walking is as follows: * 
“ In walking, the heel touches the ground first, 
and supports (Onimus) the whole weight of the 
body for a moment. A little later the point of 
the foot touches, and assists in preserving the 
equilibrium by increasing the base. During the 
second movement of walking the heel is raised 
(see figs. 2 and 3), and the weight of the body 
is shifted more and more to the center of the 
foot and to the toes, the latter spreading and 
pushing the body forward. This last is the 
movement which displays to the greatest advan- 
tage the suppleness and elasticity of the articula- 
tions of the foot, and the adaptation of the arch 
to receive the weight of the body and to transfer 
it to its distal pier, while the body is being 
moved forward by the same act. It is the execu- 
*S. C. Busey, M. D.: Influence of Constant Use of High- 
heeled French Shoes upon the Female Form, etc. 34 
IIYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CUETURE. 
tion of this movement which gives to the gait of 
woman that elegance and those graceful modula- 
Ti3-1 
Iry. 2. 
THE NATURAL AND ARTIFICAL POSITIONS OF THE FOOT. 
tions which are so attractive. While on the 
other hand the high- and narrow-heeled shoes, by 
displacing the supporting base, cause both piers THE BONY SKELETON. 
35 
of the double-spanned arch to strike the ground 
simultaneously. So the gait, instead of being 
undulating, is stiff and hobbling, and the body 
advances by jerks. 
“ When standing, the heel-bone (N M I, fig. i), 
the joint at K, and the great toe A C, touch the 
support upon the line A B. When the feet are 
shod according to the present fashion, the line A B 
is made to assume the concave form shown in 
fig- 3 by V T u. The instep is made more con- 
vex and rounded, and the foot is actually short- 
ened. (See A B, figs, i and 2.) The constant 
elevation of the heel places the body of the 
pedestrian in the same position as when standing 
upon an inclined plane. Again, the heel is so 
shaped and located (Dowie) that it forces up the 
key-stone of the arch, and weakens the whole 
structure.” 
The compression of the foot into a rigid body 
not unlike a shoemaker’s last, destroys the nat- 
ural relation of the parts, prevents the growth, 
interferes with the circulation, compresses the 
nerves, weakens muscles and ligaments which 
should support the arch, and is the prolific source 
of corns, bunions, weak ankles, and “ flat foot.” 
But, in addition to the direct injuries to the 36 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
feet, the excessive elevation of the heel displaces 
the center of gravity, and transfers the weight of 
the body for the most part from the heel to the 
line of union of the instep with the toes, a series 
of joints with shallow sockets not formed to bear 
the brunt of the body-weight. Besides which, 
the equilibrium of the body can only be main- 
tained by an increase of the natural curves of the 
bony frame-work. With the resulting increased 
curvature forward at the small of the back, is an 
increase in the prominence of the buttocks and 
abdomen. This tilting backward of the pelvis 
interferes with the circulation of the pelvic 
organs, uterus, ovaries, etc., and congestion and 
inflammation of these organs follow. 
The Chinese begin applying tight bandages 
about the feet of girls at five years of age. By 
this means they secure not only an alteration of 
the relative position of bones and other struc- 
tures, but an actual arrest of their development. 
The foot eventually has the four outer toes 
turned under the sole, so that the first or great 
toe alone retains its normal position, and a narrow 
point is produced in front; there is, of course, 
also a compression of the roots of the toes and 
the entire foot. THE BONY SKELETON. 
3 7 
Fashion with us is somewhat different in this 
respect. It has decreed that the French shoe, 
with its high heel and pointed toe, alone is mode. 
SOLE OF SHOE FOR NORMAL AND ARTIFICIAL SHAPE OF FOOT, 
And, “ Was nicht Mode ist, ist nicht schon.” 
That is, the shape of the foot must be adapted to 
the shape of the shoe. If you are not prepared 
to accept this statement, disabuse your mind by 
comparing the imprint of your bare foot on the 
wet sand with the sole of your shoe. 
In the next place, after a woman has reached a 
certain sized shoe, she positively refuses to wear 
anything larger. She forgets that the size of the 38 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
foot increases with use, as does every muscle and 
every part of the body. She has also forgotten 
the laws of symmetry upon which all true beauty 
depends. Indeed, it often seems as if the 
modern woman did not think at all, but leaves 
all that to her various modistes, boot-makers, 
tailors, and milliners, into whose hands she gives 
the various parts of her body to be molded like 
plastic clay. 
The twenty-six bones and twenty-six joints 
of the foot have become converted into one 
hundred and four centers of agony and pain. 
Woman gives up almost all exercise because it 
is an exquisite torture. With the foundation 
destroyed, what can befall the house but utter 
ruin? Different specialists tell us of different 
maladies for which this same French shoe is 
responsible. The surgeon, of the painful opera- 
tions it has necessitated on the foot; the gyne- 
cologist, of the displaced uterus with all its 
attendant evils ; the general physician, of chronic 
dyspepsia, thinness of the blood, and kidney dis- 
ease produced by lack of exercise, given up, for- 
sooth, because walking with these deformed 
members was all too painful. And Brown- 
Sequard told of a patient who, whenever he bore THE BONY SKELETON. 
39 
the weight of the body on the right great toe, 
became violently insane. He was cured by a 
surgical operation on the foot. 
Woman has ever been heroic to endure suffer- 
ing, and the end of the nineteenth century 
woman is in this respect in no way inferior. She 
has gladly endured all this suffering for the sake 
of beauty! 
Does she who is surrounded with art not know 
the artists’ verdict, that “ every foot that has 
worn a shoe is deformed ” ? When the artist 
wishes to make a study of the foot, he goes off to 
the shores of Italy, where the peasant women 
have never worn shoes. 
Paget’s description of a perfect female foot is 
“ Great breadth and fullness of instep, a well- 
marked great toe, a long second toe, projecting a 
little beyond the great toe, and a very small, or in 
some cases almost suppressed little toe.” 
Mrs. Haweis (The Art of Beauty), on seeing 
the play of Pygmalion and Galatea, in which the 
actresses were thinly stockinged, with sandals 
beneath the feet, and an embroidered strap com- 
ing between the two first toes across the instep 
after the Roman fashion, was so struck with the 
beauty of the movement and the gracefulness of 40 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
the lines from the ankle in every position, that 
she advocated the re-introduction of the Greek 
sandal. “ For,” she argues, “ in reality we lose 
nearly as much by the shoe as the face loses by 
a mask; cover the hands with patent leather 
or lined French kid, and then expect them to 
entrance the spectator. The leathern case of a 
woman’s foot is about as expressive of her foot as 
a violin case is of a fine violin. If women only 
knew the fascinations of the foot whose outlines 
had not been impaired by corns, nor the bones by 
generations of deformity, no shoe would be worn 
again forever.” 
“ It is a wondrous thing, the human foot ” 
(George Du Maurier, Trilby, Harpers’ Monthly, 
January, 1894), “like the human hand ; even more 
so, perhaps; but unlike the hand, with which we 
are so familiar, it is seldom a thing of beauty in 
civilized adults who go about in leather boots or 
shoes. 
“ So it is hidden away in disgrace, a thing to 
be thrust out of sight and be forgotten. And all 
for the sake of a high heel and a ridiculously 
pointed toe. 
“ Nothing else that Mother Nature has to show, 
not even the human face divine, has more subtle THE BONY SKELETON. 
power to suggest high physical distinction, happy 
evolution, and supreme development; the lord- 
ship of man over beast, the lordship of man over 
man, the lordship of woman over all ! ” 
Contrast with this artist’s flight in the adora- 
tion of the human foot, the description of 
Amelie Rives (The Witness of the Sun, April, 
1889), which is not so much a caricature but that 
we are all familiar with it : “ Her big limbs 
ended in the tiny hands and feet which are the 
ideal of beauty with so many women. As a little 
girl, Natalie possessed the arms of a well stuffed 
chair and the legs of a piano. As a young lady, 
voluminous sleeves and draperies only permitted 
one to observe hands which corresponded to the 
little tassels which usually finish off chair-arms, 
and feet not much larger than the castors in 
which piano-legs always terminate.” 
“The gorilla, ourang-outang, and other tailless apes, walk on 
their toes, so it would seem that a reversion to ancestral types is 
aimed at.”—Charles Moore Jessop, M. R. C. P. JUNO. CHAPTER II. 
The Key to Physical Beauty—Relative Proportions of a Perfect 
Female Form—The Muscular System—Outdoor Exercises: 
Walking, Running, Rowing, Bicycling, Swimming, etc., 
and Gymnastics, and what they will Do to Develop the Form 
and Restore the Health. 
“ Men at some time are masters of their fates: 
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” 
—Julius Ccesar, Act i. sc. 2. 
‘ Health is the vital principle of bliss, 
And exercise of health.” 
—Thompson. 
“ The ill-health of women is clue to the fact that they are too 
constantly in contact with chairs.”—Mme. de SevignIL 
To the perfect development of the muscular 
system is due the greatest beauty of the human 
body, as is proved by the fact that the Venuses, 
Junos, Dianas, Minervas, Niobes, in short, the 
most beautiful statues the world has ever seen, 
were made in Greece at a day when the systematic 
physical training began in infancy, and the gym- 
nasium was a resort for the citizen of all ages. 46 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
The greatest attention to the physical develop- 
ment of her citizens was given in Sparta. Girls 
and young women were subjected to a similar, 
though less severe, training than men and boys. 
It included running, leaping, wrestling, and throw- 
ing the lance ; these formed the favorite contests 
in the national games. Xenophon says: “The 
Spartans are the healthiest of all the Greeks, and 
among them are found the finest men and the 
handsomest women in Greece.” 
History, as well as these magnificent legacies in 
marble and on canvas, teaches us that no greater 
fallacy could be imagined than that “ we are 
women and therefore weak.” Among the Teu- 
tonic tribes the women frequently accompanied 
their husbands to war, and exhibited instances of 
the most daring bravery. In “The Fall of the 
Nibelungen ” we are told that the conditions 
upon which the “ Good King Gunther ” won the 
the hand of the beautiful Brunhilde, were, that at 
the peril of his life, he should vanquish her in 
hurling the spear, casting the stone, and leaping 
after the stone as it was thrown; also how he 
succeeded only with the assistance of his noble 
friend Siegfried. 
This magnificent physique does not come un- THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM 
47 
sought, nor can it be bought with wealth; it can 
only be attained gradually by hard work. Prof. 
Eliot said that the majority of students on enter- 
ing Harvard had undeveloped muscles, a bad car- 
riage, an impaired digestion, without skill in out- 
door games, and unable to ride, row, swim, or 
shoot. “ One-half the struggle for physical train- 
ing has been won when the person can be induced 
to take a genuine interest in his bodily condi- 
tion, to want to remedy his defects, and to pride 
himself on the purity of his skin, the firm- 
ness of his muscles, and the uprightness of his 
figure.” 
First we must know what the ideal to be aimed 
at is, and second what are the means by which it 
may be attained. 
The relative proportions of a perfect female 
form, as deduced by modern sculptors from the 
Greek statues, are as follows: With a height of 
5 ft. 5 in., the weight should be 138 pounds. She 
should, with the arms extended, from tip to tip 
of the middle finger measure 5 ft. 5 in., that is, 
exactly her own height. The length of the hand 
should be one-tenth, the foot one-seventh, and the 
diameter of the chest one-fifth that of the height. 
From the perineum to the ground she should 48 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
measure just what she measures from the peri- 
neum to the top of the head. The knee should 
come exactly midway between the perineum and 
the heel. The distance from the elbow to the 
middle finger should be the same as the distance 
from the elbow to the middle of the chest. From 
the top of the head to the chin should just be the 
length of the foot, and there should be the same 
distance between the chin and the armpits. A 
woman of this height should measure 29 inches 
around the waist, 34 inches around the bust if 
taken under the arms, 43 inches if measured over 
them. The upper arm should measure 13 inches 
and the wrist 6 inches. The calf of the leg 
should measure inches, the thigh 25 inches, 
and the ankle 8 inches. 
We have seen that the bony skeleton forms 
simply the framework of the body : compartments 
for the protection of delicate organs—a series of 
levers with points of attachment for the muscles, 
so that motion becomes possible. And while it 
determines the general outlines of the body and 
the height, the weight and general size of the 
of the body depend upon the muscular develop- 
ment and the amount of adipose tissue. That is, 
the bones are padded about with muscles, the so- RELATION OF SKELETON TO MUSCULAR SYSTEM. THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 
called flesh, and these again have their inequali- 
ties filled out with fat. So that the rotundity of 
the body is due to the amount of adipose tissue 
or fat. 
When the skin and adipose tissue are removed 
from a body, the whole looks like a conglomerate 
mass of flesh. Upon closer examination, it is 
found that this apparent homogeneous mass is 
made up of individual muscles, just as the walls of 
a house are made of individual stones, and these, 
like the stones, vary in size and shape according to 
the part of the wall for which they are intended. 
As we saw, the long bones were found in the 
arms and legs, so here too are found the longest 
muscles. 
Looking at a muscle, you would probably de- 
scribe it as a dark red piece of flesh, thickest in 
the middle and tapering toward the ends, where 
it terminates in white, glistening, band-like strips 
of sinew. The red forms the working part of the 
muscle, while the white end is attached to bones, 
cartilage, or skin, as the case may be. Take for 
example the biceps muscle, which forms the bulk 
of the anterior part of the upper arm. The 
upper extremity of this muscle is attached to the 
shoulder, while the lower end is attached to one 52 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
of the bones of the fore-arm. The chief use of 
the biceps is to bend the fore-arm on the arm. 
It is evident that with the shoulder fixed, a 
BICEPS MUSCLE. 
shortening of this muscle must raise the fore-arm 
and so cause the bend of the elbow. In the 
elbow we find an example of a hinge-joint, as 
well as at the wrist, knee, and ankle, fingers, and 
toes. Now, the muscles that cause the bending 
of these joints are called flexors; there is another 
group of muscles working on the other side of 
the joint whose duty it is to extend the joint, and 
these muscles are called extensors. Nearly all 
the muscles of the body and limbs are arranged 
in two different sets, and are placed on the op- 
posite sides of the part, so that in acting they THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 
53 
move the limb in opposite directions. And it is 
by the alternate contraction or shortening and 
FLEXOR AND EXTENSOR MUSCLES OF THE LEG. 
relaxation of these two sets of muscles that the 
movements of the body are accomplished. So 
that in order to perform their work, which is that 54 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE 
of contraction, the muscles must exert enough 
force to elongate the opposing muscles, must 
overcome forces exerted by the tonicity of the 
antagonizing muscles, and must lift the weight 
of the portion of the limb into which they are 
inserted. It is by the action of the muscles 
that the body is held upright. 
The trunk is maintained from falling backward 
by the action of those huge muscles on its 
anterior surface. The space between the pelvis 
and the thorax is called the abdominal cavity. 
Its walls are almost wholly composed of muscles. 
There are several important facts to note about 
these muscles. First, that they extend from the 
brim of the pelvis, into which they are inserted, to 
the ribs and breast-bone, to which the other ends 
of these muscles are attached ; that there are three 
layers of these muscles; and lastly, that the fibers 
of these different layers run in different directions 
so that they cross each other as shown on p. 58. 
The re-enforcement of the layers, the arrangement 
of their fibers, and the manner in which they dove- 
tail into the adjacent groups of fibers, give a 
structure of the greatest possible strength. 
The trunk is kept from falling forward by the 
action of the muscles of the back. These are i. Trapezius muscle. 2. Latissimus dorsi. 3. Gluteal muscle. 4. Rhom- 
boid muscles are in second layer under trapezius and cannot he seen. 
MUSCLES OF THE BACK. THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 
57 
divided into six layers. * The cut shows the 
direction of the fibers. Take the first or outside 
I, 2, 3. THE THREE LAYERS OF ABDOMINAL MUSCLES. 
layer, which consists of the trapezius and latis- 
simus dorsi, or, in other words, the broad muscle of the back. You see on the one side these 
muscles are attached to the spines of the verte- 
brae, the sharp ridge which you feel in the middle 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS OF FIBERS IN THE THREE 
LAYERS OF ABDOMINAL MUSCLES. 
of the back, and the broad attachment to the 
pelvis affords a firm basis of support. There are 
other muscles which run parallel with the spinal 
column, whose function it is to hold the spinal 
column erect. 
Standing erect calls into action almost all the 
muscles of the lower extremity, trunk, and neck. 
So long as the line of gravity falls within the 
area of the feet, the muscular effort required is 
so slight that it is little more than the tonicity 
contained in all living muscle. The greater the 
displacement of the line of gravity, the greater THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM 
59 
the muscular effort required to maintain the 
equilibrium of the body. 
The muscles of the body, even when at rest, 
are under a slight degree of 
tension. When stimulated, 
the muscle contracts, that 
is, it becomes shorter and 
thicker. A muscle can only 
remain in a state of contrac- 
tion for a few seconds, 
because the force of the 
muscular fibers is more or 
less exhausted during con- 
traction. The more rapid 
the contractions the soon er 
does fatigue manifest itself. 
Like the steam engine, the 
muscles of the body in performing their work pro- 
duce heat and motion. The fuel which supplies 
this force is taken into the body as food, it is 
prepared for use in the intestinal tract, and from 
there carried by the blood to be stored up in the 
muscles and various tissues as latent force. The 
muscles contain one-fourth of all the blood in the 
body. The blood is also a carrier of oxygen, 
which it receives in the lungs. Now, as in the 
MUSCULAR FIBERS, HIGHLY 
MAGNIFIED, HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
grate we have carbon in the form of coal and it 
is surrounded by oxygen from the air of the 
room, the oxygen and carbon do not unite until 
ignited by the flame of the match. The same 
thing happens in the body, where the ignition is 
caused by the stimulus of the will. 
By watching a muscle when contracted, we 
learn that there is not only a change of shape, 
but a dilatation of its blood-vessels, that is, more 
blood passes through a muscle when it is contract- 
ing than when it is at rest, and this increased flow 
continues for some little time after the contrac- 
tion has ceased; there is also a rise of temper- 
ature. Nearly three-fourths of the heat devel- 
oped is produced in the muscles at the actual 
moment of muscular contraction. Hence we 
learn that the whole body is heated by muscular 
exercise ; the even temperature of the various 
parts is maintained through the circulation of the 
blood. This combustion, going on throughout 
the entire economy, is the source of all the force 
or energy of the body. In every movement, 
every breath taken, in the change even of a 
muscle of expression or the conception of a pass- 
ing fancy, combustion has occurred and potential 
force has been liberated. THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 
61 
The fatigue produced by contraction may be 
due to the consumption of the readily available 
material present in the muscle, to the consump- 
tion of the supply of oxygen, or to the presence 
of the products of combustion. During repose, 
either the internal changes of the tissue manu- 
facture new explosive material out of the com- 
paratively raw material already present in the 
fiber, or the directly hurtful products of the act 
of combustion undergo changes by which they 
are converted into comparatively inert bodies. A 
stream of fresh blood may exert its restorative 
influence, not only by quickening both these 
events, but also by carrying off the immediate 
waste products, while at the same time it brings 
new raw material. 
Every movement of the body depends as much 
upon the proper co-ordination of the muscles for 
its accuracy, grace, and force as upon the strength 
of their contraction. And while the fatigue of 
which we are conscious in our own bodies after 
prolonged or unusual exertion arises partly 
from the exhaustion of the motor nerves, it is 
chiefly from the exhaustion of the central nerv- 
ous system concerned in the production of volun- 
tary impulses. A man who says he is absolutely 62 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
exhausted may, under excitement, perform a very 
large amount of work with his already wearied 
muscles. The will rarely, if ever, calls forth the 
greatest contraction of which the muscle is capa- 
ble. Absolute temporary exhaustion of the mus- 
cles of the body, so that the strongest stimuli 
produce no contraction, may be produced by 
artificial stimulation; recovery takes place on 
rest. In exhausted muscle the elasticity is 
much diminished ; the tired muscle returns much 
less readily to its natural length than does the 
fresh one. 
Up to a certain extent, exercising the muscle 
develops the strength and size of the muscle— 
hence the powerful arm of the blacksmith and 
leg of the danseuse. This fact is made use of by 
actors who wish to give to their faces the expres- 
sion of the character which they represent. 
There are twenty-eight muscles about the 
mouth, and the habitual expression of the face 
will develop just those groups of muscles which 
cause this expression, whether laughing, crying, 
pouting, sadness, joy, etc. 
All those muscles which form the great bulk of 
the body and face are under the control of the 
will, and are called voluntary muscles. There are MUSCLES OF THE HEAD, FACE, AND NECK. THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 
65 
other muscles found within the body over which 
the will has no control, and these are called in- 
voluntary. They preside over those functions 
which are essential to life, and a cessation of 
which would result in death. Such is the heart, 
which is only a powerful muscle that pumps the 
blood through the body. Involuntary muscle is 
also found throughout the digestive tract, in the 
uterus, bladder, walls of the blood-vessels, etc. 
When a muscle within the body is unused it 
wastes; when used within certain limits, it grows. 
Both these facts show that the nutrition of a 
muscle is favored by its functional activity. To 
this should be added another physiological fact, 
that for every muscle there is a certain weight of 
load by which the most work will be done, and of 
two muscles of equal length, the greatest amount 
of work will be done by the one which has the 
greatest sectional area. 
In physical culture the object aimed at is the 
symmetrical development of all the muscles of the 
body. Hence the necessity for bringing every 
individual muscle into play, both for its develop- 
ment and later for its maintenance. The neces- 
sity for an alternation of work and rest has been 
hinted at. 66 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
Professor Parkes has concluded that a healthy 
adult should bear without the risk of over-fatigue 
what would be equivalent to a walk of nine miles, 
from which must be deducted the exertion used 
in ordinary business pursuits. 
Outdoor Exercise.—The tendency of almost all 
forms of exercise is to develop some portion of 
the body at the expense of the rest. No system 
of physical education is complete that does not 
aim at the symmetrical development of the whole 
body. 
The most perfect form of exercise is, then, that 
one that will most nearly call into play all the 
muscles of the body. All exercises may there- 
fore be divided into three classes: Class I 
includes climbing, swimming, sparring, fencing, 
rowing, and bicycling. Class II includes those 
exercises that call into action chiefly the muscles 
of the upper and lower extremities—foot ball, 
shooting, tennis, rackets, lacrosse, and cricket. 
Class III includes those exercises that call into 
action chiefly the muscles of the lower extremities 
—walking, running, riding, dancing, and leaping. 
Beginning with the third class, which are also 
only third-rate exercises, since we see that both 
the other classes call into action a greater FACIAL EXPRESSION. WALKING. 
69 
number of muscles, we 
find that of all these, 
walking is the only form 
of exercise which may 
be said to be universal. 
In walking the muscles 
of the chest get little ex- 
ercise and those of the 
spine and abdomen even 
less. In slow walking 
there is a period when 
both feet are on the 
ground together, while in 
fast walking one foot 
leaves the ground the 
moment the other touches 
it. The length of the 
step should depend on the 
length of the leg; this 
may be increased or di- 
minished by direct mus- 
cular effort. 
In walking, the arms 
should swing easily at the 
sides, both from a phys- 
iological and aesthetic 
WALKING CHILD. 70 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
point of view. Compare the grace of the atti- 
tude of the walking child with that of the city 
woman. Carrying the hands in a muff or clasped 
in front is an unphysiological habit, to which is 
due that peculiar waddling which many women 
exhibit when moving rapidly. In addition to 
spoiling the gait, it contracts the chest. The 
woman who depends on walking for her outdoor 
exercise should walk at least three miles every 
day, and walk at the rate of three miles an hour. 
To the woman who is weak or unaccustomed to 
any exercise, the guide for the amount of exer- 
cise taken at one time must be, at the first sense 
of fatigue stop at once and rest, and then you will 
be able to continue and complete the required 
amount with enjoyment and return home with a 
feeling of bien-etre, instead of exhaustion. 
After acquiring as great a walking speed as 
is consistent with a graceful and easy carriage, 
begin the running exercise, gradually increasing 
the distance but not the rate of speed. 
In exercising, all tight clothing about the neck, 
chest, and waist must be removed. Pure air and 
full breathing are required during and after exer- 
cise ; the latter not only promotes the change of 
air in the lungs, but also quickens the functions CITY WOMAN IN WALKING COSTUME. RUNNING. 
73 
of the circulation and digestion. Eating must 
be avoided shortly before or shortly after any 
considerable exercise, as digestion is thereby 
impaired. 
Running is the best exercise for developing the 
breathing capacity. In slow walking we saw 
that both feet were on the ground momentarily 
together. In running just the reverse is true, 
that is, both feet are off the ground at the same 
time. To prevent the body from falling, a 
quick short leap or kind of jerk is given to the 
body by quickly flexing the active leg at the 
commencement of the step and forcibly extend- 
ing it. The duration of the pressure of the feet 
upon the ground is less than in walking, this 
% 
being in proportion to the energy of the gait. 
The gait depends upon the extent of each fall, 
rather than upon the number of falls. While 
brisk walking is allowable, fast running is not. 
In running always begin slowly, running moder- 
ately for perhaps fifty feet, then increase the 
speed gradually, but in running for exercise never 
speed to the utmost, as this is not necessary for 
the benefits of the exercise. A five-mile gait is 
quite sufficient, and a healthy person in good 
form ought to cover two or three miles easily and 74 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
without experiencing at any time any marked 
shortness of breath or sense of exhaustion. 
Always close the run with the same moderation 
with which it was begun, that is, never stop short, 
as this sudden arrest of action gives a most unde- 
sirable shock to the heart. 
Gentle running is generally advised as a consti- 
tutional exercise for all those who can take it. 
This is usually severe enough to start the per- 
spiration and make a bath of some kind desirable. 
A tepid sponge or shower bath is usually 
advised. This must be followed by a vigorous 
friction and a rest before the principal meal of 
the day. Since after exercise the temperature 
falls one degree, exposure to cold must be 
guarded against, as this is especially injurious to 
the heart. 
When anyone who is tired, overworked, or 
who has been leading a sedentary life, engages in 
active exercise which makes the greatest demand 
on the heart and lungs, as boating or running, 
instead of a beneficial result accruing, serious and 
often permanent injury frequently follows. The 
intensity and duration of the movements prac- 
ticed must be increased very gradually, if increase 
of muscular strength is desired. As soon as RUNNING CHILD. DANCING. 
77 
fatigue is appreciable exercise should be sus- 
pended and rest should continue until this feel- 
ing is gone. Rapid respiration, palpitation, dizzi- 
ness, headache, the face becoming pale or pinched, 
or flushing suddenly, a feeling of great heat or 
excessive perspiration, are all danger signals, 
showing that exercise has already been carried 
too far, and should cease at once. Continued 
overexertion carried to a point of exhaustion 
leads to an obstinate irritability of the heart as 
well as to organic lesions. 
Dancing might form a very healthful exercise, 
were it done in the open air and with other favor- 
able circumstances. As it is, the dance takes 
place in an overcrowded, ill-ventilated room, the 
woman is not properly dressed to take any exer- 
cise at all, and it is carried to excess. Hence 
women are carried out of the ballroom in a faint- 
ing condition, and, occasionally, someone drops 
dead. This subject will be referred to again. 
Skating is another delightful outdoor exercise, 
developing chiefly the lower extremities. But 
owing to the clear bracing air and the amount of 
enjoyment it affords, it should take a high rank 
among outdoor exercises. 
Climbing, whether mountains or trees, brings HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
into play almost every muscle of the body. 
Boerhaave, the famous physician, declared that a 
man was more likely to get well by climbing a 
tree than by drinking a decoction made of its 
leaves! 
All the foregoing have the advantage of requir- 
ing no apparatus or outlay of money, that they 
may be so varied that much pleasure will be 
derived from them, and they are equally available 
for town, city, or country. 
Rowing is one of the exercises which call into 
action almost all the muscles of the body. When 
the handles of the oar are grasped, there is a con- 
traction of the abdominal muscles, the trunk is 
flexed on the thighs at an angle of 450, and 
the arms are fully extended. The oar is now 
lowered into the water and the boat is propelled 
forward by the retraction of the scapulae or 
shoulders, by the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, and 
rhomboidei muscles (for which see plate p. 55) and 
the entire trunk is drawn backward to the upright 
position by the action of the powerful glutei mus- 
cles. The movements of flexion and extension 
call into play all the muscles of the arms and 
legs, the “stretcher” acting as a brace for the 
feet. The action both of the heart and lungs is ROWING. ROWING. 
81 
greatly accelerated. In short, the fact that it calls 
into action more muscles than are engaged in 
almost any other form of athletic exercise, is 
WOMAN IN RIDING COSTUME. 
practiced under the most hygienic surroundings, 
and with a degree of pleasurable excitement that 
adds materially to its sanitary value, should make 
it form one of the outdoor exercises of every girl 
and woman to whom the water is accessible. 82 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
Horse-back riding, as now practiced by women, 
is an exercise of questionable value. The side 
saddle often increases the tendency to lateral 
curvatures of the spine, while the tight corset 
prevents the good that would otherwise accrue to 
heart, lungs, and the digestive organs. 
Bicycling.—The newest exercise, one which is 
at present attracting the most attention, and last 
but not least, the exercise which it is said will 
accomplish for women that which the centuries 
and the combined wisdom of the medical faculty 
have failed to do, namely, a reform in her dress, 
and insure her taking a sufficient amount of exer- 
cise, is bicycling. 
Observation teaches that very few people, 
especially women over twenty-five years of age, 
will take any form of exercise systematically for 
any continued length of time unless it is com- 
bined with pleasure. While learning to balance 
one’s self on the wheel and to steer it are com- 
paratively easy, to sit erect, to ride gracefully 
and easily are sufficiently difficult to stimulate the 
ambition, to arouse dormant energies, to require 
the entire concentration of the mind and will 
power, which most happily brings the rider out- 
side of herself and the troubles of her daily life. BICYCLING. 
83 
After all this has been accomplished she still has 
left to her the pleasure that must always come 
from doing anything well; the exhilaration that 
is caused by rapid motion ; the ease and rapidity 
with which she covers the ground brings her into 
new scenes, which can be varied from day to day; 
finally, it is an outdoor exercise that can be 
enjoyed with congenial spirits. It will be seen at 
once that the effect upon the mind in the men- 
tally overworked and the bodily under-exercised, 
as well as in those cases where physical weakness 
has caused a depression of spirits verging on 
melancholia, is quite ideal. 
Now, merely considered as an exercise per se, 
we have seen that that was the most ideal form 
of exercise which symmetrically developed the 
greatest number of muscles and organs of the 
body. It is claimed for bicycling that the mus- 
cular system is as a rule uniformly well-devel- 
oped, and that the legs are not developed at the 
expense of the other muscles of the body. To 
sit erect and balance one’s self on the wheel 
brings into play continuously all the muscles of 
the back, neck, and sides of the trunk. Steer- 
ing, riding rapidly, and hill-climbing exercise 
vigorously the muscles of the arms and shoulders. 84 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
The abdominal muscular movements are suf- 
ficient to cause a shrinking and reabsorption of 
superfluous abdominal fat, and at the same time 
tend to overcome obstinate constipation; while 
the increased frequency and depth of the respira- 
tions bring into play the muscles of the chest 
and the diaphragm. Like the other muscles of 
the body the heart is also increased in its size 
and tone. That is, the heart, being larger and 
more vigorous, is enabled to contract more 
powerfully, and by pumping the blood more 
forcibly through the system, and at the same 
time because of the increased chest capatity, the 
suction power is increased by which it draws the 
blood back to itself. For, in addition to the 
increased power of the heart there is an increased 
capacity of the lungs. 
From a table of fourteen amateurs who have 
ridden a great deal for a number of years, Dr. 
Hammond found,'* first, that they had acquired 
simple cardiac hypertrophy without dilatation, and 
second, that their breathing capacity was greatly 
in excess of that of the average man. The car- 
diac hypertrophy referred to is due simply to an 
* The Influence of the Bicycle in Health and in Disease, by 
Graeme M. Hammond, M. D. BICYCLING. 
85 
increase of muscular tissue and is in the nature 
of a healthy growth or development induced by 
THE VALVELESS VEINS, 
With the varicose conditions that may ensue from strain during 
waist constriction. 
exercise, precisely the same which occurs in any 
other muscle which has been used a great deal. 
“ Taken into consideration what a great influence 
is exerted on the general health and on the 86 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
proper performance of the functions of the 
various organs by a perfect oxygenation of the 
blood, and when this is added to the action of a 
powerful muscular heart, it can readily be seen 
that bicycle riding, if conducted properly and for 
a long time, induces a condition of cardiac and 
pulmonic development which must exert an 
enormous influence in maintaining the proper 
functions of other organs, and in overcoming 
disease that has been contracted.” 
The relief that is afforded to the congested 
condition of the pelvic vessels and pelvic organs 
is particularly marked and fortunate. Pelvic 
congestion is relieved by the improvement of the 
general circulation that will be caused by any 
general exercise systematically pursued. But in 
addition to this it is claimed that since in riding 
the wheel the leg muscles do most of the work, 
the pelvis will be subjected to a much greater 
rapidity of circulation, the pelvic vessels, pelvic 
muscles, and the pelvic floor with the organs 
above it, all receive a well-defined stimulus, and 
by degrees a permanently increased tone, from 
regulated riding. And indeed gynecologists are 
pretty well agreed that this will afford relief in 
many cases of pelvic congestion, which these BICYCLING. 
87 
patients will never find in taking “ rest cures ” at 
the sanitariums. Only be it remembered that 
during the menstrual period there is normally a 
physiological congestion of these organs; and 
during the first two days of this time women 
should never mount the wheel, or at least only 
for short distances. 
The question is often asked why physicians 
recommend the use of the bicycle to their 
patients at the same time that they forbid the use 
of the sewing-machine. The bicycle takes the 
woman out of doors into the fresh air, it is entirely 
under her control, so that the exercise can be 
made as gentle or as vigorous as she desires, and 
most women dress suitably for this exercise. At 
the sewing-machine the muscles of the inner 
side of the thigh and the abdomen are used 
principally, and the woman treadles more rapidly 
than the wheelwoman, not giving these groups 
sufficient time to rest, at the same time the feet 
rise on an incline, instead of the straight up and 
down motion of cycling. In addition, the stooped 
and constrained position of the trunk, and the 
sharp concentration of the eyes on the work to 
guide it in a straight line under the needle form 
a prolific source of headache due to the eye- 88 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
strain. From the stooped position comes the 
contracted chest with an aching of the muscles of 
the back and neck. Further, the sewing-machine 
operator avers that she is obliged to wear a cor- 
set to hold her up. As she leans forward the 
outward pressure made against the upper end of 
the corset-steels throws in the lower end and 
presses the pelvic contents inward at the same 
time that the contracted waist forces the abdomi- 
nal contents downward. And this increases the 
pelvic congestion by interfering with the return 
of the venous blood to the heart. Machine run- 
ning simulates more the faulty way of wheeling, 
and the position is almost identical with that 
assumed when handle-bar and saddle are placed 
too low. In wheeling there is greater variety of 
movement and less tension of the muscles. 
On fairly level roads there is far less exertion 
than in walking, while the rate of speed is thrice 
as great. The quicker movements of the legs 
causes the blood to circulate more rapidly through 
the system, as well as to greatly increase the 
quantity of oxygen inhaled. Through the per- 
spiration which is induced many impurities are 
thrown off through the pores of the skin. There 
is also increased elimination of morbid materials BICYCLING. 
89 
through the increased activity of the kidneys, 
and a great improvement in the digestion and 
assimilation. 
In the light of experience it is believed that for 
healthy individuals bicycle riding is one of the 
most excellent forms of exercise for maintaining 
health, retarding disease, and strengthening the 
constitution; and in many forms of disease, when 
used cautiously and under medical supervision, it 
will often be found an inestimable advantage. 
The diseases in which it is particularly recom- 
mended are cases of nervous prostration, weak 
ankles, functional paralysis, rheumatism, and 
gout. While it is contra-indicated in certain 
forms of heart, lung, and kidney diseases. 
Not only in those cases where a woman knows 
that she has a weak heart, diseased lungs, or 
some well-marked pelvic disorders, should she 
consult a physician before learning to ride, but in 
every case where the general health is noticeably 
below the normal. 
The choice of a wheel is a matter of impor- 
tance. A heavy woman would be liable to break 
a wheel which is too light for her ; on the other 
hand, too heavy a wheel is an unnecessary 
burden, especially to a woman who is not strong. 90 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
The rules for dress are very much the same as 
for taking any vigorous exercise. The clothing 
should be all wool, and as light as is compatible 
with warmth. The corset must be discarded, as 
well as all tight bands and tight shoes. The 
knees must have perfect freedom in pedaling. 
Lining the skirt with silk will do away with 
considerable friction between the skirt and 
bloomers. 
Like other vigorous exercises, bicycling should 
not be undertaken within two hours after meals, 
especially dinner, and should cease one hour 
before meals, so as not to interfere with diges- 
tion. 
Beginners should not ride more than a mile or 
two, gradually increasing the distance as it is 
found it can be done without fatigue. Women 
who are weak or not accustomed to taking much 
exercise, must be particularly careful to stop 
riding at the first sense of fatigue. The tired 
feeling should wear off after a short rest. No 
exact rules can be given as to the length of time 
or the distance to ride. When the rider cannot 
breathe easily through the nose and with the 
mouth shut, it is time to stop. 
Hills should be taken quietly. If you are not BICYCLING. 
91 
strong, it is better to walk most of the hills. 
The change of exercise and rest out of the 
saddle is beneficial as well as enjoyable. When 
you find you can do so without fatigue, take 
long rides at a moderate speed, and vary your 
routes as much as possible. 
Excessive and exhaustive exercise does no 
good, but actual harm to the system, and may 
produce languor, irritability of the disposition ; 
and what is much worse, riding excessive' dis- 
tances or at a great speed may actually produce 
heart disease. 
It is said that more evil comes from bicycling 
than from any other exercise, due to the im- 
proper attitude and overstrain. The tendency is 
to overtax the heart. 
A stooped position in riding causes curvature 
of the spine, round shoulders, contracts the chest, 
and healthy development is arrested ; at the 
same time dilatation of the heart, impoverish- 
ment of the blood, and lowered vitality of the 
system are probable consequences. 
For a good style of riding the saddle should 
be so adjusted that, when sitting upright with the 
limbs extended, the toe just touches the lower 
pedal comfortably, and when propelling, the ball 92 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
of the foot and not the instep should rest upon 
the pedal. Riding with the saddle too low im- 
pedes the action of the muscles of the leg ; and 
there is a constant tension of the muscles above 
the knee, and as a result they become cramped. 
The saddle should be amply high for the entire 
leg to be fully extended, and give to these mus- 
cles a second of relaxation on the downward 
stroke of the pedal. 
Knee and ankle movement should be adopted 
from the first, the two working conjointly to- 
gether with the thigh do the bulk of the work. 
Take care to pedal evenly ; don’t favor one leg 
more than the other. The pedals should be so 
placed that no abduction of the thighs is neces- 
sary, or the feet will be too widely separated for 
graceful riding. The handle-bars should be of 
such a height that the handles can be easily 
grasped with the fore-arm extended and the 
body erect. The handle-bars when placed too 
low cause a forward stoop which interferes with 
chest expansion. 
Sit with the trunk erect, the chin up and well 
away from the body, and the weight of the 
body resting on the gluteal muscles, not on the 
perineum. With the weight resting well against BICYCLING. 
93 
the back of the saddle, push thence with the 
hips, not the body, which should lemain still and 
erect, in an easy and graceful position. Be 
careful to avoid any movement of the shoulders 
or wriggling in the seat, which looks bad and is 
usually the cause of the breaking of the saddle- 
springs. 
When overheated, do not remain still in the 
open air or in a cool room without an extra wrap ; 
otherwise there will assuredly result a chill 
of the surface, with a congestion of the internal 
organs. In the popular vernacular, you will catch 
cold. 
To obtain the best results you should, after 
cycling, go directly to your dressing room, and 
be immediately rubbed with soft towels until 
thoroughly dry. After this a further rubbing 
with alcohol will prevent you from becoming 
stiff. Rubbing by the bare hand of a healthy 
person is one of the most useful adjuncts. By it 
the muscles are made firm and pliable and the 
skin is kept in a good, healthy condition. No 
amount of rubbing with towels is as refreshing as 
rubbing with the bare hands. One should never 
allow herself to become overheated in riding 
unless she can be properly rubbed down after- 94 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
ward. After this rest in the horizontal position 
from half an hour to one hour. 
To do any good the riding must be done in a 
regular and systematic manner. 
Of all outdoor exercises for women, swimming 
is one of the most perfect. It not only calls 
into vigorous action most of the muscles of the 
body, but spares many of those muscles which are 
so commonly overworked, the most of the work 
being performed by muscles which are so little 
used as to have become flabby and weak. For 
instance, the extensors of the fingers and hand, 
that are so constantly stretched in sewing and 
writing, are in constant use in swimming, while 
the corresponding flexors, the slaves of the 
needle and the pen, are relaxed. Again, those 
muscles passing from the shoulder-blades to the 
trunk, on which depend much of the erect car- 
riage and strength of the chest, which have become 
wasted from disuse while the woman has bent 
over the needle, sewing-machine, or desk, are the 
very muscles by which the movements of the 
upper half of the body are executed. While all 
the muscles of the lower extremity are brought 
into use, of especial value is the free movement 
at the hip joint, a joint that is seldom moved SWIMMING. 
95 
with any degree of freedom from the time a 
girl leaves off climbing trees unless she has the 
advantage of special gymnastic training. The 
vigorous action demanded of the inspiratory 
muscles greatly increases the chest capacity. 
The body is lighter than the water and is per- 
fectly supported by it, so the weight is taken 
off the spine, and the muscles of the back are 
relieved from their normal state of tension. The 
head is the only part of the body that is held 
up by muscular action, and in floating even this is 
supported by the water. 
The disadvantages arise from the fact that a 
prolonged stay in cool or cold water produces 
in most persons a liability to cramp. During 
the month of August the temperature of the 
ocean reaches its maximum of 66.65° Fahren- 
heit. This is about 32° Fahrenheit below the 
temperature of the body. Upon entering the 
water the first effect noticed is a sensation of 
cold ; this varies with the susceptibility of the 
individual and the difference between the 
temperature of the water and the surrounding 
air. The skin assumes the appearance of “ goose- 
flesh,” the face is pale and anxious, the lips blue, 
the pulse decreases in frequency, a sense of 96 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
oppression is manifest, and there may be a spas- 
modic shivering. That is, the first effects of the 
immersion is to cause a contraction of the blood- 
vessels of the surface of the body. This should 
be quickly followed by a secondary reaction, in 
which there is a sensation of warmth, a quickened 
pulse, and an increase of energy. When by 
taking the proper precautions this reaction does 
not take place it is a contra-indication to 
bathing. 
If the immersion in the water has been too 
prolonged there is a second sensation of chilli- 
ness, a signal that the bather must leave the 
water at once. 
The best time for bathing is between eleven 
and four o'clock, depending on the tide. No one 
should go into the water within two hours after 
meals, nor should she, on leaving the bath, pro- 
ceed to the table, since digestion draws the blood 
from the periphery to the stomach, and to eat 
immediately after the bath is to lose most of the 
benefit of the saline treatment. 
All should avoid bathing in anything but hot 
water when fatigued, and swimmers ought to pay 
especial attention to this point on account of the 
demand they are going to make on their muscu- SWIMMING. 
97 
lar systems. And on no account must one enter 
the water when in a perspiration ; let her first take 
a moderate walk along the shore until the perspi- 
ration has subsided. These injunctions are of 
the highest importance, unless one would emulate 
the rashness of Alexander the Great, and suffer 
the same fate, by plunging an overheated body 
into the water. 
Enter the water quickly until the water reaches 
the waist, then plunge headlong, or cover the 
body to the neck. Care should be taken to wet 
the chest and abdomen immediately, since these 
are the parts most sensitive to the impression 
of cold. Everyone should learn to swim ; and 
those who will not must move the arms and legs 
about vigorously. The duration of the bath 
should depend on the health and strength of the 
individual, on the state of the weather, and on 
whether the water be rough or calm. The aver- 
age duration of time spent in the water should be 
from three to fifteen minutes, the latter being the 
maximum time for anyone. No benefit will 
accrue from spending a longer time than this in 
the water, and much harm may result. 
The sea-bath should be followed by moderate 
exercise to insure a perfect reaction and to aid in 98 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
expending the superfluous energy which sea- 
water imparts. 
Swimming and sea-bathing must be avoided by 
persons who have a weak circulation and in 
whom the reaction after a plunge into cold water 
is never established. Also by persons with heart 
or kidney diseases and aged persons. 
Persons with feeble constitution, but with no 
actual disease, as in hysteria, insomnia, and some 
forms of nervous prostration, generally derive 
marked benefit from sea-bathing. 
People who are weak should walk and not 
plunge into the water. As in all other exercises, 
a determination on the part of the weak to equal 
the strong is a fertile source of mischief. 
The principal outdoor games are croquet, 
archery, tennis, cricket, football, and baseball. 
Of these croquet is the mildest, and for that 
reason is a good beginning exercise for a woman 
who has always led a sedentary life. To be 
beneficial and not detrimental, the exercise must 
be very gradually increased both in the length of 
time occupied and the vigor of the movements. 
The muscles must be slowly built up and 
improved in tone, the lungs enlarged and proba- 
bly new air cells formed, while the heart must TENNIS; GYMNASTICS. 
99 
be educated to contract rapidly and the blood- 
vessels to carry an unusually large volume of 
blood. 
Tennis is a much more violent exercise, and 
one which is often carried to excess. It should 
not be undertaken until the system has been 
somewhat developed through the milder exer- 
cises. Croquet, archery, and tennis are all alike 
defective in that one arm only is required, hence 
developing the muscles of the right side of the 
body alone. 
As the great majority of these outdoor exer- 
cises can only be indulged in for seven months of 
the year, they should be supplemented by exer- 
cises in the gymnasium for the remaining five 
winter months. At a very early period the 
Greeks had recognized the truth that with the 
advance of civilization and civilized modes of life, 
a regular system of bodily training must be 
substituted for the lost opportunities of physical 
exercise which Nature affords so abundantly to 
her children in the daily functions of their wild 
life. The laws of Lycurgus provided free train- 
ing schools for the physical education of both 
sexes. In one’s life will always come moments 
when the woe and weal of years depend on strong HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
nerves and a strong hand, and such moments 
prove the value of a system of training which 
teaches children to treat danger as a mechanical 
problem. Lycurgus not only laid down laws 
which for five hundred years made Sparta the 
chief city of Greece, but he was able to outrun 
all the mob who persecuted him and forced him 
to seek refuge in a sanctuary. 
One should always have the greatest variety 
possible in the kinds of exercise taken, not only 
to develop the body symmetrically, so as to obtain 
strength, vigor, grace, celerity, and accuracy of 
movement, but also because there is no such 
potent cause of fatigue as monotonous repetition 
of the same act, whether physical or mental. 
Do not expect a too prompt return from any 
system of exercise. Physical growth is almost as 
slow as mental development. Do not expect to 
counteract in a few minutes those influences 
which are at work from morning until night, or 
to overcome in a moment physical defects which 
have existed for years, and perhaps from infancy. 
But the beneficial results of such training, and the 
amount of development which may be attained, 
are as capable of demonstration as any mathe- 
matical problem, and no one need fail to secure THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE. 
results proportionate to the amount of labor 
expended. 
The direct effect of exercise is seen in the in- 
creased frequency and force of the heart’s action 
and dilatation of the arteries, as well as in in- 
creased respiratory action. In extreme exertion 
the heart may be embarrassed by the act of 
breathing. This will be better understood when 
we come to study the mechanics of the circula- 
tion. The facts in the case are as follows : at the 
end of deep inspiration, the increased pressure of 
the lungs impedes the flow of blood from the 
right heart to the lungs, the right heart becomes 
overfull and the blood is dammed back in the 
veins. At the same time general muscular con- 
traction presses on the arteries, passing through 
them, and causes an increased arterial tension 
which may lead to enlargement of the left side of 
the heart. The interchange of carbonic acid for 
oxygen does not take place with sufficient 
rapidity, and the blood becomes surcharged with 
carbonic acid. When exercise is regularly taken 
the arteries accommodate themselves to the 
strong action of the heart, and there is a general 
improvement in the breathing power. 
Active exercise tends to equalize the circula- 102 
HYGIENE ANI) PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
tion, and by causing a dilatation of the surface 
capillaries lowers the temperature and increases 
the activity of the excretory glands. Thus the 
amount of work thrown on the kidneys is les- 
sened and the skin is rendered clear. 
During its early stages, digestion is retarded by 
exercise, since it prevents the necessary flow of 
blood to the stomach, but during its later stages 
it is aided by the vigorous abdominal circulation. 
Another benefit resulting from exercise is seen 
in the bones, since muscles are the most powerful 
agents in giving shape to the bony framework to 
which they are attached, and in accelerating its 
growth and development. So that from the inac- 
tivity of a muscle not only does it become weak, 
flabby, and waste away, but the nutrition of the 
bones to which it is attached will become impaired. 
And as the natural result of the sedentary occu- 
pations of woman, and the lack of active exercises 
for the muscles of the back, we find that one of 
the most common deformities is a backward cur- 
vature of the spine. It is recognized by the 
drooping of the head, the forward inclination of 
the shoulders, with the wing-like projections of 
the shoulder-blades—a deformity that is almost 
wholly confined to civilized nations. THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE. 
103 
But the most beneficial result is seen upon the 
nervous system. It has been .supposed that ex- 
cessive exercise renders the intellect less active, 
owing to the greater expenditure of nervous 
force in that direction ; on the contrary, it has 
been proven that sufficient exercise is necessary 
for the perfect performance of mental work. Du 
Bois-Reymond demonstrated that the most 
marked influence of physical exercise is upon the 
nerve centers. In every bodily movement of a 
composite nature, the gray centers of the brain 
and cord are at work equally in securing the 
result, and are exercised at the same time. 
Every time a child co-ordinates a well directed 
movement, the movement exercises and develops 
its brain, and the movement of the muscles is as 
necessary to the mental development as the 
health and integrity of the brain are to the physi- 
cal development of its parts. The muscles and 
brain are developed by reciprocal action, and in 
later life a direct relation is found to exist be- 
tween great physical strength and the possession 
of those intellectual qualities which naturally lead 
to commanding positions of authority; while 
from statistics from Oxford and Cambridge it 
appears that the rowing men and cricketers have 104 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
obtained more than their proportional share of 
academic honors. 
Vigorous muscular exercise, especially when 
pushed to the point of fatigue, demands a vigor- 
ous action of the will; a consciousness of in- 
creased power is thus acquired, and this in turn 
begets self-confidence, resolution, and courage; 
qualities which, if rightly directed by proper 
moral and intellectual training, elevate the tone 
of the entire character, and aid in an important 
degree in subduing the passions. That the 
mind possesses a more perfect control over a 
vigorous than over a morbidly sensitive body 
has given rise to Rousseau’s paradox: “ The 
weaker the body, the more it commands; the 
stronger it is, the more it obeys.” 
It has been repeatedly proven that physical 
deterioration can be overcome by exercise, and 
that by so doing the mental capacity is greatly 
increased. Caesar was naturally of a delicate con- 
stitution, suffering from severe headaches, and 
was probably epileptic, but by continual exercise 
became an athlete, “ admirable in all manly 
sports,” and surpassed by none in enduring the 
fatigue and hardships of a military life. THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE. 
105 
“ Ye gods, it doth amaze me, 
A man of such a feeble temperf should 
So get the start of the majestic world, 
And bear the palm alone.” 
—Casar, Act i. Sc. 2. 
Cicero is described by Plutarch as at one time 
thin, weak, and dyspeptic, but as having been so 
strengthened by gymnastic exercises at Athens 
as to become robust and vigorous. While Pliny 
tells us that Asclepiades, who lived in the second 
century before Christ, cured all diseases by physi- 
cal exercises alone, and said he was willing to for- 
feit all claims to the title of physician should he 
ever fall ill or die except from accident or senil- 
ity. He lived for more than a century, and 
died as the result of an accident. Themistocles, 
Socrates, and Plato all excelled in gymnastic 
exercises. 
As the result of his own experience and obser- 
vation as to the benefits obtained by women 
through outdoor exercise and gymnastics, Dio 
Lewis says that during the three summers that 
he camped out in the mountains of California 
a number of ladies joined the party. They all 
adopted the rough, short mountain dress, and 
rode astride. From being delicate invalids seek- 
f Temper here used for temperament, constitutional quality. HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
ing health, several of them became the most 
adventurous and enduring members of the party. 
One-half of the 421 graduates in the Boston 
school for physical education were women, many 
of whom had been teachers broken down in 
health. The result of the removal of the corset 
and the long heavy skirts, together with the use 
of those exercises which a short and a very loose 
dress renders easy, was that in every one of the 
ten classes of graduates the best gymnast was a 
woman. In each class there were two to six 
women superior to all the men. 
During his personal supervision of the Lex- 
ington School for Young Ladies, there were 
nearly three hundred pupils with an average age 
of seventeen years. The object was by a new 
regimen to improve their bodies during their 
school life, as is the custom for men in some of 
the German universities. Many of the girls 
came from private families and were so delicate 
as to be unable to bear the artificial life of private 
seminaries. The constant dress of the girls, like 
that of the normal school, was short and loose, 
leaving them as much liberty as the boys have 
in their gymnastic dresses. On entering the 
school all the measurements were taken ; in eight THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE. 
107 
months there was an average gain about the 
waist of 5 inches, chest, inches, arm, 1 y2 
inch, and fore-arm 1 inch. 
“ Little or no attention was given to periodicity. 
The girls worked through the entire month in 
those extreme stridings and other vigorous exer- 
cises of the legs and hips contrived to counter- 
act the evil effects of the long imprisoning skirts, 
and in the four years not only was no harm 
done by this constant and dreadful violation of 
Dr. Edward Clarke’s counsels, but in no in- 
stance did a pupil fail to improve in health. 
From the semi-invalid condition in which they 
entered the school, in a few months they could 
do the full and hard gymnastic work of the 
school, dance three evenings of the week, and 
walk five to ten miles on Saturday without in- 
convenience.” 
Dr. Mary Taylor Bissell, the medical director 
of the New York Berkeley Ladies’ Athletic Club, 
gives as the result of her experience there : “ The 
gains of twelve months’ exercise in the gymna- 
sium are, for the chest two inches, stature two 
inches, an increase of thirty per cent, in the lung 
capacity ; many of the strength tests are doubled, 
the spine is erect, the arm vigorous, and the girl 108 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
has gained for herself the consciousness of con- 
trolling her own body, instead of having it control 
her.” 
From the measurements of twelve hundred 
boys and girls Professor Sargent ascertained that 
at the age of fifteen years boys are three-quarters 
of an inch taller than girls, but the mean height 
in the two sexes is the same, and that taking the 
sum of the measurements of the head, chest, 
waist, legs, and arms, the mean total was equal in 
boys and girls. The sum of these measurements 
is regarded as indicative of the strength of the 
individual. But as a matter of fact it was found 
that girls did not compare favorably with boys 
in the point of strength. In capacity of lungs 
the girls were seventy cubic inches behind the 
boys, and in strength of the expiratory muscles 
the weakest boy was stronger than the average 
girl. In strength of back, leg, chest, and arms 
the showing for girls was a little better, though 
considerably below what it should have been. 
At twenty years of age the man was found to 
be five inches taller and twenty pounds heavier. 
The superiority of the male in strength was now 
much more apparent than at an earlier age. 
He now presented ninety cubic inches greater THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE. 
109 
lung capacity and 143 pounds'greater strength of 
legs, while the muscular power of the arms and 
chest was more than double that of woman. 
The charts showed that women were physically 
inferior to men in almost every particular. 
Dr. Sargent then goes on to say that “ the prin- 
cipal characteristics of general form that distin- 
guish civilized women from men are smaller mus- 
cles, sloping shoulders, broader hips, and shorter 
legs. The smaller muscles and shorter legs may 
be said to be embryonic, while the superior 
breadth of the hips indicate a greater evolutionary 
advancement in this part of the body than has 
taken place in men. The constricted waist must 
be regarded as a deformity artificially produced. 
When the hips are large in the male or female 
the waist will be naturally large if the muscles 
which connect the trunk with the pelvis have 
nothing to constrict them. Since the hips of 
women are much wider than those of men, we 
should expect to find the waist proportionately 
larger in women than in men. 
“ From an anatomical point of view the tissues 
of a woman do not differ materially from those of 
a man. The bones, muscles, arteries, and nerves 
are similarly constituted, and are governed by the HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
same laws in their development. So also the 
heart, lungs, stomach, and brain. Anything that 
will impair the function of an organ in one sex 
will certainly interfere with its action in the 
other. If you put a tight bandage around the 
waist of a man, the physiological functions of the 
abdominal and thoracic organs are for the time 
impaired, and the man is unable to make more 
than two-thirds of the mental and physical exer- 
tion of which he is capable. 
“ Put a restriction around the waist of a boy or 
girl so that the arms cannot be raised above the 
head, or issue an edict that the legs shall not be 
raised above a certain angle, and you will as cer- 
tainly retard the growth and development of the 
limbs of your boy and girl as you would the limbs 
of a tree similarly interfered with. 
“If physical training is necessary to secure the 
best types of men, it is equally important as an 
agent toward securing the fullest development 
of women. And for their own sakes they ought 
to have an equal chance with them for realizing 
the full perfection of their being.” 
For the degree of physical deterioration her 
mode of dress, sedentary occupations, indoor life, 
with her persistent neglect of bodily exercise have THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE. 
111 
brought the American woman—for it is univer- 
sally conceded that she takes much less exercise 
than European women—let her compare the well- 
developed chest, shapely arm and shoulder, 
vigorous body, and erect carriage of the galaxy of 
Grecian beauties, with pipe-stem arms, scrawny 
necks, angular shoulders, flat chests, narrow backs 
with curved spines, stooping carriage, and weak 
walk of—let us say her neighbor and familiar 
friend. 
Remember that the most beautiful women 
were Spartans, where the idea of personal 
hygiene or physical culture overtopped every 
other, and resulted in a type of physical perfec- 
tion which has never since been- equaled. 
“ Better to hunt in fields for health unbought 
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. 
The wise for cure on exercise depend ; 
God never made his work for man to mend.” 
—Dryden. SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE VISCERA OF THE BODY AND 
THEIR RELATION TO EACH OTHER. 
D. D. Lungs with air expelled. E. E. Diaphragm cut away to show* 
F. Liver cut to show stomach. 2. Gall bladder. H. Large intestine- 
K. Small intestines. L. Vermiform appendix. CHAPTER III. 
The Maintenance of Health : a Balance of Power between Food 
Supply, Digestion, and Excretion—The Digestive System— 
Varieties of Food and the Amount Necessary to Health— 
Alcoholic Beverages—Constipation—The Kidneys—The Skin 
and the Complexion—Baths—Menstruation. 
“ My fahver says it takes food to make brains, an’ de reason 
women aint so smart as men is dat dey don’t eat ’nough to know 
their own minds.”—John Habberton, At last, Six Days in the 
Life of an Ex-Teacher. 
We have seen that every movement of the 
body, every breath that we take, every beat of 
the heart, every thought of the mind, is accom- 
panied by an expenditure of force. That is, that 
a certain amount of carbon that has been stored 
up in the body has been burned. 
Just as the steam engine requires force to 
furnish its motive power, and the worn-out parts 
of the machinery need to be replaced by new, 
so food is essential to the body for the evolu- 
tion of force and to replace the material worn out 
in the use of the machine. But before food can 
be assimilated by the tissues, that is, be made 
into brain, muscle, and nerve, it must be con- 1 16 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
verted into a liquid and changed into the same 
kind of material as the tissues themselves. And 
this leads us to a study of that part of the body 
in which these changes take place, namely, the 
digestive system. 
As in a house, different compartments are de- 
signed for special purposes, so in the human body 
each separate part was made to perform some 
particular kind of work. 
In many respects this compartment, which is 
also called the alimentary canal, may be likened 
to an intricate hall or passageway winding 
through an old castle. The alimentary canal has 
its doors of entrance and of exit: its location in 
the body is central; it serves as a passageway for 
the food, and it expands into large roomy com- 
partments where the food is liquefied and is so 
changed that it can pass through these trans- 
parent membranes, incomparably more delicate 
than tissue paper, into the blood. But the walls 
of this human passageway form a marked con- 
trast to that of a house, in that these, being living 
walls, propel or push the contents along from 
above downward. All this is beyond the control 
of the owner of these walls, and is regulated by a 
complicated connection with the nervous system. i. Esophagus. 2. Stomach. 3. Duodenum. 4. Gall bladder. 3. Small in- 
testines. 6. Large intestine. 7. Rectum. 8. Biliary duct. 9. Pancreatic 
duct, 10. Vermiform appendix. 
ALIMENTARY CANAL. THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
There are three chief workrooms or labora- 
tories in the digestive system. The first is the 
mouth. Since this is the only workroom over 
which the owner has any control, and the work 
done here is highly important, we will stop to 
consider it. The work performed here is the 
minute subdivision of the food by the teeth and 
its intimate admixture with the saliva, so that a 
soft pulpy mass is formed. 
Several lessons may be learned from a study 
of the teeth. Infants are born without teeth; 
they live on milk and do not need them. 
Each individual has two complete sets of 
teeth. The first from their whiteness are 
called milk teeth. They are replaced by the 
permanent teeth ; which have been slowly grow- 
ing in the jaw and are pushing on behind the 
temporary teeth ; the latter gradually become 
loosened and are easily pulled out or fall out 
themselves. 
Further, on examining the skulls of various 
animals you will find that the “ style ” of teeth 
varies according to the kind of food which the 
animal lives on. Serpents, which swallow the 
food entire and in which digestion is a slow proc- 
ess, have curved spine-like teeth pointing back- 120 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
ward, the object of the teeth being to seize the 
food and prevent its escape. 
The polar bear furnishes a good example of 
the teeth of carnivora, or those animals which 
Skcle or Polar Bear. 
Upper Jaw. 
Rattlessakb. 
Skcil O* TBI HOR8I. 
feed wholly on animal food. The teeth in front 
are sharp and cut like shears, and are called 
the cutting or incisor teeth. The curved, conical 
tusks are for seizing the prey, and these corre- 
spond to the canine teeth in the human jaw. TIIE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
121 
The remainder of the teeth have saw-like edges 
for tearing the food apart. 
The horse furnishes us with an example of an 
animal which feeds solely on grass and grain; these 
A. Incisors. B. Canines. C. D. Molars, 
UPPER JAW. 
animals are called herbivora. Mastication or 
chewing, being a grinding process in this case, is 
performed by the large square molars. The in- 
cisors are found as a rule only in the lower jaw, 
and are for cutting off the grass. 
Look at your teeth in a mirror: you will see in 
front the incisor or cutting teeth, like those of 
the flesh-eating animals, the canine being imper- 
fectly developed ; in the back of the mouth are 
the molars or grinders which correspond to the 122 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
teeth of the herbivora. Thus the teeth them- 
selves show that the human diet should be con- 
fined neither to vegetable or animal foods, but 
should consist of both. 
Again, while the teeth may be beautiful, and 
add greatly to the appearance if properly 
attended to, they were not meant solely for 
adornment, but for use. When you consider that 
the solid food which you put into your mouth 
must be converted into a liquid, before it can be 
absorbed by the blood-vessels and be made over 
into the very tissues of your body, you will 
readily see how much the process will be hastened 
by dividing it up into very fine pieces. For a 
rough illustration, take two large lumps of cam- 
phor, place the one entire into a bottle, and 
divide the other up into very fine pieces, cover 
both with alcohol, and you will see how much 
sooner the last will be dissolved than the first. 
This is always the case when a solid body is sub- 
jected to the action of a solvent fluid, since the 
subdivision into small particles increases the sur- 
face which comes in contact with the fluid, and 
so the substance is more readily attacked and dis- 
solved by it. 
The alimentary canal, which is the name of the THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
123 
various compartments taken together in which 
digestion is performed, is a musculo-membranous 
canal of different sizes in different parts, expand- 
ing into a large pouch called the stomach, and ex- 
tends from the mouth to the anus. It has a length 
of thirty feet. The wall of this canal is composed 
of three layers, two of which consist of muscle 
fibers. In the external the fibers are longitudi- 
nal ; when these fibers contract or shorten the 
caliber of the tube will be enlarged to admit the 
passage of food, while on the other hand the 
inner muscular layer is circular, and a contraction 
of its fibers will diminish the caliber of the tube, 
and the food will be propelled onward and down- 
ward. It is this propulsion onward of the food, 
together with the churning movements of the 
stomach, that constitute the so-called mechanics 
of digestion. 
The alimentary canal is lined throughout its 
entire length with membrane which begins at the 
inner surface of the lips, and can be seen lining 
the compartment of the mouth. 
In passing downward the food meets with five 
different digestive fluids: the saliva in the mouth, 
the gastric juice in the stomach, and the bile, pan- 
creatic, and intestinal juice in the small intestines. 124 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
These digestive fluids act in two ways: they 
change the solids into liquid, that is, by dissolv- 
ing them, just as alcohol dissolves camphor, but 
if the alcohol evaporates, the camphor is found in 
the bottle unchanged. Now the digestive fluids 
do more than this. They contain a so-called 
digestive ferment, which acts upon certain 
insoluble portions of the food and changes them 
into soluble. The action is comparable to that 
of yeast which added to flour and water produces 
bread, a substance entirely different from any 
one of the ingredients. Each digestive fluid 
acts only on some particular kinds of food. This 
action of the digestive fluids on foods is called 
the chemical part of digestion. 
The chief function or role of the saliva is to 
moisten the food and so assist its mastication 
and passage down the esophagus. Without the 
presence of this fluid, both chewing and swallow- 
ing become difficult. Probably everyone has 
experienced the fact that, through the fear of 
some impending calamity, the mouth became dry 
and parched and the food stuck in the throat. 
On the other hand, the sight, smell, or even 
thought of certain kinds of savory foods causes 
a flow of saliva, and so the mouth is said to THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
125 
“water.” Movements of the jaws without any- 
thing in the mouth will also cause a flow of 
saliva. Besides favoring the mechanical part of 
digestion, saliva has also a slight chemical action, 
and being an alkaline fluid is a distinct stimulant 
to the secretion of the acid gastric juice. Soup 
will thus be seen to serve a doubly good purpose 
as an early course at dinner. 
In the mouth, then, the food is ground up by 
the teeth, moistened by the saliva, and finally car- 
ried back in a bolus or ball by the tongue. Only 
the first part of swallowing is under the control 
of the will. In the second stage the food 
traverses a region common to the food and respi- 
ration. During the passage of the food the air 
passage is normally closed by a safety valve, but 
if for any reason the food is delayed here and one 
attempts to breathe, this valve opens and by the 
entrance of a particle of food or water into the 
air passage, a most disagreeable attack of chok- 
ing may be brought about by the efforts of the 
respiratory muscles to dislodge the foreign body 
from the larynx. 
From the pharynx or throat the food passes 
through the esophagus, which is almost a 
straight tube into the stomach. And this is the 126 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
second great workroom or laboratory of the 
digestive system. 
The stomach is a pouch-like expansion of the 
MUSCULAR COAT OF STOMACH. 
alimentary canal. It may be felt at the lower 
extremity of the breast-bone in the triangular 
space caused by the divergence of the ribs. In 
the adult the stomach lies transversely, with its 
greater curvature downward, but so soon as food 
enters the stomach, it rotates on its long axis 
so that the greater curvature is turned forward, 
where there will be more room to work in. An TIIE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
127 
influx of blood into its vessels takes place, its 
lining becomes swollen and congested and of a 
bright red color. At the same time the gastric 
juice begins to be poured out, and the muscle 
fibers are so arranged that their contraction 
causes a sort of a churning movement, by which 
the food is constantly brought into contact with 
the gastric juice, thereby hastening its liquefac- 
tion, for the food which has been changed into 
a sort of a pulp in the mouth actually becomes 
liquefied and dissolved in the stomach. At the 
end of the stomach, which opens into the small 
intestine, the muscle fibers form a thick ring; in 
addition the mucous membrane is thrown into a 
fold here, so that a valve or swinging doors are 
formed, which prevents the food from passing 
into the small intestine before it has been sub- 
jected to the action of the gastric juice. 
The mucous membrane lining the stomach is 
very thick and velvety, and lies in longitudinal 
folds. Its entire thickness is occupied with 
glandular tubules which secrete the juices of the 
stomach. These tubules are so closely set as to 
leave almost no space between them except what 
is taken up by the blood-vessels. The tubules 
are surrounded by a network of fine arterial 128 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
capillaries from which the glands draw their sup- 
plies, as well as by veins and lymphatics which 
carry off the refuse matter and that part of 
MUCOUS MEMBRANE LINING STOMACH AND DUODENUM. 
i. Stomach. 2. Duodenum. 3. Gall bladder. 4. Common duct from gall- 
bladder and pancreas. 
the food which has been dissolved or liquefied 
by the gastric juice. It is also abundantly sup- 
plied with nerves. The solvent action of the 
gastric juice is due to the presence of a ferment 
body called pepsin. 
Gastric juice does not dissolve and chemically 
change all the food that enters the stomach, but THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
129 
acts only on that class of food called proteids. 
Proteids form the bulk of muscle and therefore 
of all meat, and are found in large quantity in 
eggs and milk. A trace is found in all vegeta- 
bles. The new substance that is formed by the 
action of the gastric juice is highly diffusible, 
that is, possesses the power of passing through 
animal membranes and does at once pass into the 
veins and lymphatics of the stomach. 
While these changes are taking place, the thick, 
turbid, grayish-looking liquid is from time to time 
ejected from the stomach, accompanied by even 
large morsels of solid, less digested matter. This 
may occur within a few minutes of food having 
been taken, but the larger escape from the 
stomach probably does not begin till from one to 
two, and lasts from four to five hours after meals, 
becoming more rapid toward the end, such pieces 
as most resist the action of the gastric juice 
being the last to leave the stomach. The move- 
ments of even a full stomach are said to cease 
during sleep. During the intervals of digestion 
the stomach is quiescent and empty. 
The quantity of gastric juice secreted in a man 
in twenty-four hours has been calculated to be 
between thirteen and fourteen liters. And a 130 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
very practical point is that this secretion of the 
gastric juice may be wholly arrested by violent 
emotions. When a hearty meal which you have 
been eating with the greatest relish has been 
almost completed, let there be handed to you a 
telegram containing the news of the death of a 
friend, or some heavy financial loss; all appetite 
is at once gone and the dinner lies like lead on 
the stomach. This shows the important role 
played by the nervous system over the digestion 
of food. 
In the presence of healthy gastric juice and the 
absence of any nervous interference, the question 
of the digestibility of any food is determined 
chiefly by mechanical conditions. The more 
finely divided the material, and the less the 
proteid constituents are sheltered by not easily 
soluble envelopes, the more rapid is the solution. 
So also pieces of hard boiled egg, which have to 
be gradually dissolved from the outside, are less 
easily digested than the more friable muscular 
fiber, the repeated transverse cleavage of which 
increases the surface exposed to the gastric 
juice. Again, the unboiled white of eggs, unless 
thoroughly beaten up and mixed with air, is less 
digestible than the same boiled. The unboiled THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
131 
white forms a viscid clotted mass of low diffusi- 
bility into which the juice permeates with the 
greatest difficulty. 
Briefly, then, the work done in the stomach is 
that meats and allied substances are dissolved 
and transformed into a substance that is capable 
of passing through membranes, and does pass into 
the blood at once. If large quantities have been 
eaten the surplus passes into the intestine, where 
its digestion is completed. Envelopes contain- 
ing starches and fats are dissolved, setting these 
bodies free. The fats are melted by the heat of 
the stomach and tend to run together in large 
drops, forming an imperfect emulsion. 
And this brings us to the duodenum, which 
is the name of that part of the small intestine 
into which the stomach opens. This is the third 
and last important workroom of the digestive 
tract. And here digestion is completed ; that is, 
all those substances which resisted the action of 
the gastric juice are here dissolved or liquefied 
and so changed as to be capable of passing 
through membranes and do at once pass into the 
blood. 
Into this compartment are poured the secre- 
tions from the liver, which is the largest gland in 132 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
the body, and that from the pancreas, a gland 
situated transversely across the posterior wall of 
the abdomen. The ducts from these two glands 
STOMACH RAISED TO SHOW RELATION TO PANCREAS AND SPLEEN, 
i. Stomach. 2. Duodenum. 3. Pancreas. 4. Spleen. 
generally unite to form a common duct which 
opens into the duodenum. There is also a liquid 
secreted by the mucous membrane of the small 
intestine. So that in this laboratory there are THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
133 
three kinds of digestive fluids instead of one, as 
in the stomach. 
The semi-digested add food as it passes over 
the biliary orifice causes gushes of bile to flow 
into the intestine. The alkaline bile, by neutraliz- 
ing the acid contents of the stomach, prepares the 
way for the action of the pancreatic juice. The 
bile is an emulsifying agent, and stimulates the 
muscles of the intestine to increased action, there- 
by aiding absorption as well as the onward move- 
ment of those insoluble materials which have to 
be evacuated by the bowel. In cases of jaundice 
or where the bile is removed by a fistula the 
faeces are hard and friable and with difficulty ex- 
pelled. The bile is also said to act as an anti- 
septic, preventing fermentation and the forma- 
tion of bacteria. Although the great bulk of 
bile is reabsorbed by the intestinal tract into the 
blood and again used in the economy, some of 
its constituents pass off with the faeces, and are 
no doubt excrementitious materials that must be 
gotten rid of. 
Pancreatic juice is remarkable for the power it 
possesses of acting on all food stuffs, starches, 
fats, and proteids. When the contents of the 
stomach enter the intestine the pancreatic juice is I34 HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
secreted with renewed vigor. The secretion is at 
once stopped by nausea or vomiting. 
It is possible that when proteids are taken in 
excess they undergo pancreatic digestion, and it 
is also possible that this pancreatic digestion of an 
excess of proteids is accompanied by a consider- 
able development of bacteria and other organized 
bodies, which create trouble by inducing fermen- 
tative changes in the accompanying saccharine 
contents of the small intestine. Thus, during the 
transit of this so-called chyme through the intes- 
tine, the proteids not digested by the stomach are 
changed into peptones, the starch into sugar, 
possibly being further converted into lactic acid, 
and the fats are emulsified and to some extent 
saponified. 
The digested contents from the small intes- 
tines, as in the case of the stomach, pass into the 
minute blood-vessels, where they are collected 
and pass directly to the liver to be subjected to 
its powerful action, or pass through the lym- 
phatics into the general circulation. The evi- 
dence is in favor of the fats passing at once into 
the general circulation, while the proteids and 
sugar are subjected to the action of the liver. 
Since the amount of the secretions into the THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
135 
small intestine is almost as great as the absorp- 
tion from it, the contents remain liquid through- 
out its course, while the nutritive elements have 
all been absorbed by the time the large intestine 
is reached. Here, owing to the absorption of the 
water, the contents become converted into the 
solid faeces which shift in color from a bright 
orange to a dirty brown. When the bile is cut off 
from the intestines the faeces become clay colored. 
At the same time that digestion is being 
accomplished, the contents are carried from 
above downward by the contraction of the mus- 
cular coats toward the large intestine. We have 
seen that the bile acted as a stimulant, causing 
the so-called peristaltic action of the intestines; 
if the bile is cut off for any reason, constipa- 
tion results. But there are other influences 
which will cause such violent peristaltic action as 
to bring on an excessive diarrhea, such as a 
lack of oxygen or an excess of carbonic acid in 
the blood, or powerful nervous influences. 
When digestion ceases there is a cessation of 
contractions, and the mucous membrane, which 
was deep red and congested, now becomes grayer, 
and the whole intestine is restored to its ordinary 
condition of repose. 136 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
The liver is not only the largest gland in the 
body, but of all the organs which modify the 
composition of the blood as it flows through 
UPPER SURFACE OF LIVER. 
them, the liver plays the most important part. 
It is situated on the right side of the body 
beneath the lower ribs and extends across the 
median line into the left side. It is a somewhat 
concavo-convex body, its convex surface coming 
immediately into contact with the under surface 
of the diaphragm, while the under concave sur- 
face rests on the stomach and intestines. It 
measures twelve inches across, six inches from 
before backward, and has a thickness of three 
inches. It not only contains one-fourth of all 
the blood in the body, but after eating it receives THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 
137 
the blood containing the greater portion of the 
products of digestion from the alimentary canal. 
We have seen that one of the functions of the 
liver was the secretion of the bile which is mainly 
excrementitious. The elimination of certain 
constituents of the bile is necessary for the puri- 
fication of the blood, but it is believed that the 
main duty of the cells of the liver is the forma- 
tion of an animal starch, necessary to the nutri- 
tion and growth of the tissues. 
On the under surface of the liver is the gall 
bladder, which serves as a receptacle for bile in 
the intervals of digestion. The semi-digested 
food passing over the opening of the biliary duct 
causes a flow of bile into the intestine. 
The conditions which will best aid digestion 
are those that will also best prevent dyspepsia. 
First, a hearty meal should never be eaten when 
one is exhausted or even greatly fatigued. 
Second, the diet must consist of both animal and 
vegetable food, and there must be a variety in 
the kinds of food and in its preparation from day 
to day. Third, the meals should always be 
served at the same hour every day. Fourth, the 
temperature of the food and drink should ap- 
proach that of the blood, that is, be about ioo° 138 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
Fahrenheit. Fifth, very cold or very hot sub- 
stances have an injurious effect on the stomach 
in proportion to the rapidity with which they are 
UNDER SURFACE OF LIVER. 
i. Gall bladder. 
taken, as the gulping down of hot tea or coffee. 
Sixth, during the meal hour all excitement and 
business cares should be forgotten. Seventh, 
the meal should be eaten leisurely, as if that were 
the only business in life. Eighth, and lastly, it 
is affirmed on all sides that women do not eat 
enough—“ even to know their own minds.” 
Here we meet with the second of the three 
chief causes of the physical deterioration of the 
American woman. For in the words of Sir 
Henry Thompson (Food and Feeding), “ No THE MAINTENANCE OF HEALTH. 
139 
matter how consummate the scheme of the 
architect, nor how vast the design, more or less 
of failure to rear the edifice results when the 
materials are ill chosen or wholly unworthy to 
be used.” How much greater the failure when 
the supply is wholly inadequate to meet the 
demand! 
A man’s work is generally estimated by the 
amount of muscular effort or mental labor which 
is shown in day's works, books, or sermons 
written. Now we have seen that one of the radi- 
cal defects in the life of the American woman 
was the lack»of physical exercise, and judging the 
tangible results of her brain work by the number 
of her writings or original researches, she is 
equally deficient in mental exercise. Ergo, if a 
woman does not perform much external labor, 
she needs next to no food to maintain her body 
in a vigorous condition. And this proposition 
brings us face to face with another popular 
fallacy. The external labor of the body com- 
pared with the internal labor required to keep 
the body alive, is very like man’s work compared 
to woman’s, 
“ A man’s work is from sun to sun, 
But woman’s work is never done.” HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
To external labor is given perhaps one-third of 
the twenty-four hours, while the workings inside 
the body continue during the entire twenty-four 
hours. 
Be the life that you lead never so indolent, recall 
the fact that the heart beats seventy-two times a 
minute. That twice every minute the blood in 
the body passes through the heart. That eigh- 
teen times every minute you breathe in order to 
obtain a fresh supply of oxygen for the blood. 
You have seen how complicated were the proc- 
esses of digestion. These are all the so-called 
vital processes, that is, those processes which are 
essential to the life of the body. You have also 
learned that part of the work or duty of the mus- 
cles was to maintain the warmth of the body. 
But the body is constantly losing heat: through 
the skin by radiation as from a grate, also 
through the perspiration ; in raising the tempera- 
ture of the air breathed to the temperature of 
the body, so that expired is always warmer 
than inspired air; and lastly, in warming the 
various ejecta. Now we have seen that not only 
in the accomplishment of every one of these 
acts, but in speaking or even thinking there was 
an expenditure of force which had previously been laid up in the body. To these must of 
course be added all external movements of the 
body. And you now have before you in startling 
array but a partial list of your daily expenditures. 
THE MAINTENANCE OF HEALTH. 
141 
If you would run a satisfactory bank account, 
your daily receipts or income should be in excess 
of the expenditures. And if in the financial life, 
“ The chief part of one’s expenditures is the un- 
foreseen,” how much more certain this is in the 
physical life. For there come into the life of 
everyone accidents and dire emergencies the 
most unexpected, which make a tremendous drain 
on the vital forces and under which brain or body 
not seldom give way. The mammalian animal 
under full keep always stores fuel as fat. The 
hump on the camel’s back is a mere mass of fat, 
without any corresponding curve on the verte- 
bral column, and forms a source of nourishment 
to be used when other supplies fail. 
So much for the expenditures. Now we will 
look at the income or fuel which is to furnish a 
reparatory juice, to renew the perpetual waste 
that is constantly taking place in all the tissues 
of the body. Your daily income to meet these 
expenditures is made up of the food you eat, the 
wajer you drink and the air you breathe. HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
Chemical analysis shows that the tissues of the 
human body are made up of proteids, carbo-hy- 
drates and fats in association with various saline 
and crystalline bodies and water. The really 
nutritious food-stuffs are composed of materials 
which are chemically like the tissues, although 
these are not exclusively destined to replace 
corresponding substances in the body ; for in the 
body one group is often converted into another. 
Each of the various substances which we use as 
food contains in varying proportions several of 
the different kinds of nutrient material, water 
being the only one that is commonly used by 
itself. 
The nutritive value of any food depends : first, 
upon the proportion of the soluble and digesti- 
ble matters to those which are insoluble and 
indigestible, and the relative proportion of the 
different kinds of nutrient stuffs; second, on the 
mechanical construction, as is seen where the 
nutritious starch of grain is inclosed in insoluble 
cases of cellulose which, if not burst by boiling, 
prevent the digestive fluids from reaching the 
starch ; third, upon the digestibility—for ex- 
ample, cheese, though chemically showing evi- 
dence of great nutritive properties, by #its VARIETIES OF FOOD. 
143 
impermeability resists the digestive juices and so 
is a poor aliment; fourth, owing to the idiosyn- 
crasy of different individuals, and even of the 
same individual under different circumstances, 
food may have a different nutritive value. 
Fresh meats are highly nutritious ; but in order 
that the nutritive properties should not be lost in 
the cooking, they must be eaten “ rare,” that is, 
either beef or mutton should be at least pink. 
A roast should be done in a quick oven, so that 
the albumen will rapidly coagulate on the surface 
and prevent the escape of the nutrient juices. 
Or, if the meat is boiled, it should for the same 
reason be plunged into boiling water. On the 
other hand, in treating meat to obtain “ stock ” 
for soup or in making meat teas, cold water 
should be used, and the temperature slowly and 
gradually raised, but not quite to the boiling 
point, in order that as much as possible of the 
soluble ingredients may be extracted, and a taste- 
less, friable mass remain. Poultry and eggs 
belong to this same class of foods, that is, 
proteids. 
Vegetables differ from animal food in contain- 
ing a much greater proportion of material which 
for man is indigestible, and a less portion of real 144 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
nutritive material. So that in order to get the 
required amount of nutriment from a purely 
vegetable diet, it is necessary to consume a much 
greater quantity. Except potatoes, which con- 
tain a considerable amount of digestible starch, 
vegetables are used not so much on account of 
their nutritive qualities as for the supply of salts, 
while some substances contain peculiar oils which 
act as condiments, as in onions. Peas and beans 
are highly nutritious but rather indigestible. 
However, they are valuable articles of food, 
especially where much exercise is taken. 
Milk contains all the classes of aliment essen- 
tial to health. Being intended for feeding especi- 
ally during growth, the proportion of nitroge- 
nous substances and fat as compared to sugar is 
great. 
Butter supplies to most people the largest 
amount of fat they take. It is easily digested by 
most persons except when it is rancid. It then 
causes dyspepsia and diarrhea. As a rule it may 
be said that decomposing fats of all kinds dis- 
agree/ 
While common salt in moderate quantity is 
essential to the economy, all highly spiced or 
seasoned foods should be avoided. VARIETIES OF FOOD. 
The liver makes all the sugar that is needed in 
the system, when none is taken in the food. In 
addition to this, all the starch taken as food is 
converted into sugar in the body. Many foods 
contain sugar, as honey, molasses, milk, raisins, 
dates, figs, and indeed all kinds of fruit. When 
sugar is taken in excess it undergoes fermenta- 
tion in the alimentary canal, being converted 
into alcohol, carbonic and acetic acids. This fer- 
mentation and its products impede the work of 
the liver, make the system run with friction, 
prevent the elimination of effete products, and 
after long continued use, cripple all the processes 
of life. 
Carbon is the essential clement of force, and 
the fatty principles of food yield in their combus- 
tion double the force value of an equal quantity 
of proteids or starch, for the carbon is stored up 
in fat to the amount of eighty per cent., while 
proteids contain fifty-three per cent., and starch 
only forty per cent. The carbon stored up in 
the fat of the body has the additional advantage 
of always being ready for immediate use. Good 
health cannot be maintained without fat. 
Fats and starches are both compounds of 
carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, while proteids 146 
HYGIENE ANI) PHYSICAE CUETURE. 
contain nitrogen, in addition to these other three 
substances. As the hydrogen and carbon of coal 
can only unite with the oxygen of the air when 
the heat from the flame of a match disintegrates 
the atoms of hydrogen and carbon in the coal, 
thus bringing them into contact with the oxygen, 
so in the body it is believed that the nitrogen 
does not act as a fuel, but its presence is essential 
to set up the first beginnings of a fire, not to 
keep the fire going afterward. 
Thus it is seen that no one can live solely or 
even chiefly on any one of the three great classes 
of food without great detriment to the economy. 
It has been estimated that in order to retain his 
full strength and weight, the entire quantity of 
food required during the twenty-four hours by a 
healthy man taking exercise in the open air, is 
rather more than one pound of fresh meat and 
eggs, two pounds each of bread and potatoes, or 
their equivalent in other starchy or saccharine 
foods, with nearly one-quarter of a pound of 
butter, lard, and suet, and he should drink a little 
more than three pints of liquids. But even when 
the proper proportions of the various constituents 
are provided for in a dietary, it is equally neces- 
sary that certain articles belonging to the same VARIETIES OF FOOD. 
147 
class be varied from day to day, with the greatest 
variety of preparation of the same dishes. While 
the greatest care should be given to the prepara- 
tion of the dishes, and sufficient thought to their 
proper combination, the table itself should be 
sufficient to provoke an appetite. It is an excel- 
lent idea to preserve a book of the menus in 
order that no one dish should be too frequently 
repeated. 
If a woman’s strength is below par, the diges- 
tive power is enfeebled, and so in addition to 
what she can eat at the table she should during 
the twenty-four hours drink say a quart of mixed 
milk and cream. Part of this may be taken 
just the last thing before retiring, the remainder 
between breakfast and lunch, so that the stomach 
should not be allowed to become entirely empty. 
The fast from dinner to breakfast is particularly 
long. In this way the nutrition of the body 
will be in excess of the disintegration that is 
going on at the same time, and as a result she will 
increase in weight and improve in general vigor. 
As in those below par the system is at its lowest 
ebb during the morning hours, something should 
be again taken at this time. 
The symptoms of failing health produced by 148 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
insufficient diet are the following: There is a 
gradual loss of flesh, advancing to extreme emaci- 
ation. The pulse becomes feeble, the complexion 
sallow. Exertion brings on attacks of palpita- 
tion, vertigo and transient blindness, until at last 
the patient falls a victim to some sort of wasting 
disease. 
In addition to the water taken in the food 
which includes tea and coffee, there should be 
three pints of plain water taken daily. It would 
appear that a lessened amount of water in the 
body diminishes the eliminations of carbonic acid 
by the lungs, as well as the excretion from the 
bowels and kidneys. The supply of water then 
becomes a matter of the most urgent necessity. 
Alcoholic beverages belong to the acquired and 
not to the natural tastes. Children dislike the 
taste of them. The human animal is the only 
one who resorts to stimulation. With a proper 
mode of life, the stomach calls for all we can 
digest. 
Women resort to alcoholic stimulants as an 
analgesic to relieve pain, whether physical or 
mental, as a narcotic to produce sleep, as a spur 
to a failing appetite or bodily powers. The 
majority of women patients say that they first ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. 
149 
used alcohol in the shape of whisky, brandy, or 
gin to relieve pain at the time of the menstrual 
period. The pain that is caused at this time by 
a chilling of the body would be as effectually 
removed by drinking a cup of hot tea, taking a 
mustard footbath and going to bed with a hot 
water bag to the abdomen. If the pain is intense 
and constant, recurring every month, it doubtless 
comes from some local inflammation, and if these 
simple remedies do not relieve it, the alcohol 
simply veils the real trouble, and the woman is 
losing valuable time by not consulting a physician 
at once. 
As to the use of alcohol to blunt the nervous 
sensibility due to mental suffering of any kind 
whatever, it is the testimony of the entire medical 
profession that this is the greatest cause of 
inebriety or drunkenness among women of all 
classes of society. Sleeplessness generally arises 
from some well-defined physical cause, very fre- 
quently to inaction of the liver, and the proper 
remedial agents should be used to remove the 
cause. The same thing holds true of loss of appe- 
tite, and while at first alcoholic beverages increase 
the appetite as the amount taken is increased, 
distaste for food is created, the system languishes 150 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
under an insufficient food supply, and the original 
aim of increasing the appetite is defeated. 
As to taking stimulants to do more work than 
one could otherwise accomplish, it is by means of 
stimulants that woman can accomplish her phy- 
siological ruin more quickly than in any other 
way. By a bill a woman anticipates her income 
and utilizes a portion of her capital, otherwise 
beyond her reach ; by stimulants a woman brings 
into action a portion of her reserve fund of 
energy, otherwise equally beyond her reach. In 
each case the person is enabled to draw on her 
capital. But it is obvious that if she does not 
repay these loans to herself, she will sooner or 
later be bankrupt. A stimulant enables a woman 
to use to-day what she ought not to consume 
until to-morrow. This process is not illimitable. 
So woman’s powers fail; the final catastrophe is 
usually precipitated by some external force, some 
sudden disease or illness. It requires strenuous, 
unaided efforts for a woman to reach her reserve 
capital without the aid of stimulants, though it is 
possible to do so, especially for a woman of a 
nervous temperament, and a perfect and genuine 
abstainer may die physiologically bankrupt. But 
alcohol will enable her to do it much more ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. 
quickly and effectually, and tea or coffee when 
taken to excess will do the same thing. There 
will be neuralgia, sleeplessness, palpitation of the 
heart, and muscular tremors. All stimulants by 
virtue of their nature as stimulants have certain 
injurious effects. 
The result of a series of experiments of 
Dr. Parke’s (Alcohol as an Article of Diet in 
Health), were as follows: “By quickening the 
action of the heart, it shortens the interval of 
rest and therefore interferes with the nutrition of 
the heart. It also produces palpitation and 
breathlessness. That any amount of alcohol, 
though it did not produce neurosis, would act 
injuriously by increasing unnecessarily the action 
of the heart, which labor alone sufficiently 
augmented. It acts on the nervous system by 
lessening the rapidity and the delicacy of the 
impressions, as well as by lessening the power of 
control of a train of thought. Further, by this 
same blunting of the nervous system, voluntary 
muscular power is impaired and the finer com- 
bined movements are less perfectly made. It 
causes a lowering of the temperature of the 
body. And although it is taken to overcome 
the effects of exposure to cold it has been 152 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
learned that persons who habitually take it are 
less able to resist the exposure to cold.” 
Every housekeeper knows that, although her 
furnace is in perfect working order, the draughts 
good, and it is supplied with coal, if it is allowed 
to become clogged with cinders or choked with 
ashes, the fire instead of burning gradually dies 
out. And the only way to procure a good fire is 
to have the cinders and ashes regularly removed, 
at not too long intervals, as well as to have it 
regularly supplied with coal. Yet, strange to say, 
while a woman would consider herself an incapa- 
ble and shiftless housekeeper did she not bestow 
all this care on her furnace, which could at any 
time be replaced by a new one, she forgets that 
her own physical machine must be quite as care- 
fully looked after if it is to be kept in good run- 
ning order. 
The waste matter of the body is gotten rid of 
through the bowels, the kidneys, the skin, and the 
lungs. 
The refuse matter which collects in the lower 
bowel must be evacuated once every day. It 
might seem superfluous to mention this were it 
not a notorious fact that the great majority of 
women are constipated, a bowel movemen tonly RELATION OF KIDNEYS TO HEART AND GREAT BLOOD-VESSELS. 
A. Heart. B. B. Kidneys. C. Bladder. CONSTIPATION. 
155 
taking place every second or third day. This 
means that the flow of blood from the veins of 
the bowel is prevented and piles are likely to be 
caused; that the unfortunate womb is pushed 
wherever the compressed waist, full bladder, and 
packed bowel have left room for it; that the 
digestive system is clogged by the non-removal 
of worn-out material, and the blood is constantly 
reabsorbing matter which is poisonous to the 
body. Decomposition goes on, foul gases are 
generated, and a slow, insidious poisoning goes 
on without being suspected by the sufferer. Bad 
drainage and defective sewerage within the body 
produce infinitely worse results than when the 
same occur outside the body. 
To secure a free daily bowel movement regu- 
larity is an essential condition. Nothing must 
be allowed to interfere with the evacuation of the 
bowels at the same hour each day. Such a habit 
once established will force itself on the attention 
and make regularity a necessity. 
Much can be done to overcome obstinate con- 
stipation by exercise and selecting such food as 
stimulates the peristaltic action of the intestines, 
as cracked wheat, oatmeal, corn and graham 
bread, fruit, and vegetables. Strong coffee, but 156 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
tea to a much greater degree is constipating. A 
large glass of hot water taken one hour before 
meals will often keep the bowels open when 
medicines have failed. The small amount of 
water taken by women is a fertile source of con- 
stipation. 
We have seen, too, that water is needed to keep 
the kidneys properly flushed. The kidneys are 
quite as important as the bowels in removing 
poisonous matters from the blood, and drain the 
water off from it as well. The kidneys are 
constantly at work. The urine secreted by them 
passes through fine tubes, one on each side of 
the body, to the bladder. The amount of urine 
secreted during the twenty-four hours should be 
three pints ; of course it will be less if the quantity 
of water taken is insufficient. The bladder acts 
as a reservoir for the urine and should be emptied 
at least three times a day. If it is allowed to go 
longer than this, it is apt to displace the womb 
and the walls of the bladder itself to become 
paralyzed. 
The skin is the third great excreting organ. 
It is a thin, leather-like substance, divided into 
two layers. The superficial layer is the portion 
that raises up when the hands are blistered. In SHOWING URETERS OR FINE TUBES PASSING FROM THE 
KIDNEYS TO THE BLADDER. 
K. K. Kidneys. U. U. Ureters. B. Bladder. TIIE SKIN. 
159 
this layer we find the opening of the ducts, or 
pores of the skin, which are really situated in 
the next layer, the so-called true skin. There are 
two kinds of glands, the sweat and oil glands; 
these are in the form of hair-like tubules, and it 
has been estimated that the total length of these 
tubules covering a man of ordinary size is about 
twenty-eight miles. 
These glands, like the kidneys, help to purify 
the blood by carrying off worn-out matter which 
has become injurious to the body. In addition 
to this, these glands keep the skin moist, and 
help to regulate the temperature of the body. 
So we find that, in the hot weather, when the 
temperature of the body would otherwise natur- 
ally be higher, the perspiration is much more 
profuse. When an excess of water is taken 
the amount of perspiration is increased, and so 
it regulates the volume of blood. Again, if the 
kidneys should be diseased, the skin, if in good 
condition, will do part of their work. 
The effect of stopping twenty-eight miles of 
sewer pipes can easily be imagined. This has 
been tried in the case of dogs ; all the hair was cut 
off and the entire surface of the body varnished 
over. The experiment proved rapidly fatal. HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
The skin can only be kept in a good condition 
by bathing. With insufficient care as to baths, 
there is a local irritation of the skin by dirt, worn 
out epithelial scales, dried perspiration, and 
exuded oily matter. The impure condition of 
the blood which is caused by the blocking up of 
these glands gives rise to most of the trouble- 
some skin diseases. 
For purposes of cleanliness a hot bath should 
be taken at least once a week. Soap is necessary 
to remove the oily matters, and for this purpose 
nothing is better than white castile. If you 
would avoid all manner of skin diseases always 
carry your own soap with you, since you never 
know who last used that piece of soap in the 
hotel room which you now occupy, nor what was 
the matter with him. Abroad the hotels do not 
furnish the guests with soap, sensibly thinking 
that everyone will prefer to furnish her own. 
A plunge bath should not be taken within two 
hours after a hearty meal, nor should it be too 
long continued, especially if the water is very 
hot, otherwise it will prove debilitating. The 
best time for the hot plunge is just before retir- 
ing, since it increases the flow of blood in the 
skin and opens the pores. Going out at once BATHS. 
161 
into the cold air would increase the danger of 
chilling the body and react injuriously upon 
the internal organs. But if the woman is suffi- 
ciently strong, after taking her hot bath she may 
turn on the cold water, thus gradually reducing 
the temperature of the water until it is cold, or 
she may follow the hot bath with a cold shower 
bath. Either of these will greatly reduce the 
danger of “ chilling ” following the bath. 
A cold plunge can only be borne by the 
robust, and a cold plunge before breakfast should 
be taken by none but the very vigorous. Those 
who are not sufficiently strong to bear the shock 
of a cold plunge bath will find a delightful stimu- 
lating effect in the cold sponge bath. The 
temperature of the room in which this is taken 
must depend on the vigor of the woman. Bytak- 
ing a glass of hot water or hot milk, the average 
woman can take this on rising in the morning. 
Any cold bath must be followed by friction with 
a rough towel until the skin is in a glow. 
While, if used in suitable cases and at suitable 
times, cold baths are invaluable aids in promot- 
ing and preserving health, they may, if employed 
by the wrong individuals at improper times, or 
with excessive frequency, become dangerous 162 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
agents, causing even fatal results. The test for 
the advantage or disadvantage of the cold bath 
is the occurrence or non-occurrence of this 
reaction or glow as soon as the skin is dried. 
When the glow is felt promptly and is followed 
by a pleasurable sense of warmth, the bath does 
good and may be repeated, but if reaction takes 
place slowly or not at all, the person feeling 
chilly, and the lips, the skin beneath the nails, 
and the external surface generally continues for 
some minutes bluish, the bath does harm. This 
means that the loss of heat has been so great that 
the internal heat production has been exhausted ; 
that the body has thus been deprived of heat it 
cannot afford to lose, and a great tax has been 
imposed upon the heart. 
Cold baths should never be taken when the 
body is exhausted, neither during nor just before 
menstruation, and they should be used sparingly 
by pregnant women, who must wholly avoid the 
cold plunge. Elderly people should not take a 
bath below 70° Fahrenheit. Persons of a nervous 
temperament and those with heart disease should 
be very cautious in the use of cold baths, the cold 
plunge being wholly avoided. 
Women who study their complexions—and THE COMPLEXION. 
163 
there is nothing that will so completely mar a 
face with even perfect features as a skin that is 
blotched or dotted with pimples—will avoid the 
use of cosmetics. These, if not positively chemi- 
cally injurious, stop up the pores of the skin, thus 
interfering with its action. Cold water is likewise 
to be avoided. Hot water should be used with 
soap, followed by friction with a rough towel. 
Equal parts of glycerine and water increase the 
softness of the skin. This keeps the pores open 
and removes the black “ pin-heads,” which is 
nothing more or less than a pore stopped up 
with dirt. 
Still more efficient is the vapor or “Turkish ” 
bath. The Greeks, who possessed such beautiful 
satin skin, after their exercise took a daily bath. 
There was first friction with flour or soda, fol- 
lowed by the hot bath, the cold plunge, then 
friction or massage with oil or ointments. The 
advantage of this combination is seen in the 
increased activity of the function of the skin. 
The sheet of oil prevents the danger that might 
otherwise follow from the sudden change of 
temperature, while the oil acts as a food and is 
particularly valuable in cases of emaciation, so 
that the body increases in bulk and the general 164 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
circulation is improved. The manipulation is 
particularly invigorating and soothing when the 
body is exhausted. 
Scarcely less necessary to the appearance, as 
well as comfort of the individual, than attention 
to the skin, is the proper attention to its append- 
ages, namely, the nails, hair, and teeth. In these 
days, when so much is said about bacteria, no one 
would think of allowing nails to grow 
immoderately long, nor to consider her toilet 
complete without the use of a nail brush. For 
the same reason the hands should be washed 
very shortly before going to the table. 
Before retiring the scalp should be well brushed 
and the hair left in a loose braid down the back. 
Steel hair pins cut the hair, and one rests much 
better with her hair down. The head should 
be well washed once a month. This is best 
done with a little water of ammonia in a large 
bowl of warm water. If care is taken to wash 
the ammonia well out of the hair, no harm can be 
done. A little alcohol put on while the scalp is 
being rubbed with a towel will hasten the drying 
process and prevent the tendency to take cold. 
If there is a tendency to harshness, follow the 
alcohol with a small amount of glycerine. If the CARE OF THE TEETH. 
165 
hair is properly cared for in this way, the fine 
comb will be found unnecessary. And since its 
use is positively deleterious to the scalp it should 
be relegated to ancient history. 
Beautifully kept teeth add not a little to the 
charms of a woman. This means the use of a 
toothpick, not a pin, after each meal, being care- 
ful to go closely around the gum of each tooth. 
But the teeth are so closely set together that 
this is not sufficient to remove the very slight 
traces of food from between them. For this 
purpose, it is necessary to use waxed dental floss, 
preferably after every meal, but certainly once a 
day. For even where the toothpick, toothbrush, 
and tooth powder are scrupulously used, these 
minute particles of food left between the teeth 
are sufficient to cause decay of the teeth and 
indigestion. The heat and moisture of the 
mouth acting upon these particles of food cause 
its decomposition, setting up a so-called acid fer- 
mentation. And it is this acid that causes the 
decay of the enamel and finally of the teeth. 
The decayed tooth gives a still further lodgment 
to particles of food, and these, left to decompose, 
give rise to the most offensive gases, giving fetor 
to the breath. This is not only offensive to all 166 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
around, but does great harm to the woman her- 
self who breathes and rebreathes this fetid air, 
as this poisons the blood and so injures the ner- 
vous system. 
If there is a cavity in a tooth, seek a good 
dentist at once, for the sake of the tooth, to pre- 
vent the formation of an abscess, which is excruci- 
atingly painful, and for the sake of the entire 
body, since nothing is more demoralizing to body 
or morals than the fine tortures of a tooth- 
ache. 
If acids are prescribed by your physician, 
they should be taken well-diluted and through 
a glass tube. All acids and very cold sub- 
stances are injurious to the teeth. The tartar 
always does harm and should be kept carefully 
removed. Hot water is a better solvent than 
cold, hence it should be used in cleaning the 
teeth; the brush should be serrated and not too 
hard. 
We now come to consider another physi- 
ological function, but this one is peculiar to 
women. It is that of menstruation, or the 
monthly period. According to the oldest, as 
well as the most recent theories, this is an ex- 
cretory process. The Mosaic ritual indicated 167 
MENSTRUATION. 
that the impure matters which collected in the 
woman’s blood were discharged in the men- 
strual flux, which was therefore a purification. It 
is now known that the flow of blood is a sec- 
ondary factor. As in the alimentary canal, the 
mucus secreted plays an important part in ex- 
cretion, by entangling and so carrying with it to 
the rectum indigestible and other possibly harm- 
ful solid particles as microbes. So we see that 
the uterus not merely cleans itself by the secre- 
tion and expulsion of mucus, but during menstru- 
ation it discharges all the superficial part of its 
mucous membrane. 
The organs that are concerned in the process of 
menstruation are the ovaries, the Fallopian tubes, 
and the uterus or womb. The uterus is a some- 
what pear-shaped, thick-walled, hollow, muscular 
organ. It is situated in the middle of the pelvic 
cavity between the bladder and the lower bowel. 
It is held in place by broad elastic bands, which 
go to the different sides of the pelvis; it is also in 
part supported by the structures beneath and 
above it. But so loosely is the uterus held that it 
is easily pushed about, as for instance by a full 
bladder or packed bowel. And, persistently 
allowing the bladder to become overful, or a 168 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
failure to have a regular daily evacuation from 
the bowels, are prolific sources of displacement of 
the womb, one of which is a bending of the 
womb upon itself so that menstruation becomes 
painful. 
Again, when no constrictions are placed about 
THE UTERUS AND ITS APPENDAGES, 
i. Uterus. 2. 2. Ovary. 3. 3. Fallopian tube. 4. 4. Round ligament. 
5. Broad ligament. 6. Vagina. 
the waist, the uterus moves freely up and down 
with every respiration. So distinct and with 
such regularity do these movements take place, 
that an operator by watching the movements 
of the uterus can tell the effect that the anaes- 
thetic is having on the patient’s breathing. 
These so-called respiratory movements of the 
uterus play a very important role in the circula- 
tion of that organ and the return of the venous 
blood to the heart. Anything which interferes MENSTRUATION. 
169 
with the movement, as the use of corsets or tight 
bands around the waist, prevents the free return 
of the venous blood. The uterus becomes con- 
LOOKING DOWN ON THE PELVIC CONTENTS FROM ABOVE. 
Ligaments seen passing from Uterus to the sides of Pelvis, i. Rectum. 
2. Uterus. 3. Bladder. 
gested, and through the constant abnormal weight 
of the organ itself as well as the pressing down 
upon it from above of the superincumbent organs, 
the uterus is pushed down below its normal posi- 
tion, the ligaments whose duty it is to hold it up 
become relaxed, and the unhappy woman suffers 
all the agonies that are attendant on the “ falling 
of the womb.” For this reason this disorder is 170 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
met with in women who have never borne chil- 
dren, as well as in those who have. 
During the menstrual period the ovaries and 
the uterus are intensely engorged with blood ; the 
surface of the ovary is broken through by the es- 
caping ovule, which passes through the Fallopian 
tube into the uterus and is discharged from thence 
with the menstrual flow. It is on account of this 
intense congestion of the generative organs that 
all excessive muscular exercise, as gymnastics, 
horseback riding, dancing, and prolonged walks 
must be avoided at this time. On the other 
hand, it is not only not desirable, but would be 
actually detrimental to her well-being for a 
woman in good health to give up all exercise. 
Again, because of this physiological congestion, 
all chilling of the body must now be particularly 
avoided. A chill of the surface means a contrac- 
tion of the blood-vessels of the skin and an 
engorgement of the already congested and now 
sensitive pelvic organs. While wetting the feet 
or a thorough chill frequently causes a sudden 
checking of the flow, which is followed by an 
inflammation of the uterus as well as of the 
surrounding tissues. It follows, then, that not 
only cold plunge baths, but even the cold sponge MENSTRUATION. 
171 
bath must be prohibited during menstruation. 
On the other hand, anyone who is accustomed to 
ANTERO-POSTERIOR SECTION OF BODY. 
Showing relation of Bladder, Uterus, and Rectum. B. Bladder. U. Uterus. 
R. Rectum. 
a daily cold sponge bath for three weeks of the 
month, will be greatly annoyed if all bathing 
except of the face and hands is omitted during 
the fourth week. No harm and much comfort 
will be derived from an occasional warm sponge 172 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
bath taken in a well-heated room. While a daily 
washing of the vulva with warm water does not 
affect the flow, and is productive of great comfort 
by removing any local irritation and general 
nervousness caused thereby. 
As a rule the monthly flow recurs every 
twenty-eight days, and should last from two to 
six days. For the first few hours the flow is 
usually slight in quantity and may be light in 
color; on the second and third days it reaches its 
height, and the flow is profuse and dark but 
should never be clotted; after this it gradually 
ceases. A flow lasting less than two, or more 
than six days generally indicates local or general 
disease. The amount of the flow varies from 
five to ten ounces. If less than five or six or 
more than eighteen ordinary napkins are pretty 
well saturated through, the amount may be con- 
sidered abnormal. 
The menstrual flow first appears between the 
ages of thirteen and fourteen, and in a healthy 
woman should continue until the age of forty- 
four to forty-eight years. 
The premonitory symptoms of the monthly 
flow should not be so marked as to cause the 
individual discomfort. The first indication of MENSTRUATION. 
173 
the return of the period should be the appear- 
ance of the flow. There is a feeling of abdom- 
inal fullness with lassitude, and sometimes 
slight headache. The temperature is lower and 
the pulse slower than at other times. This 
lowered tone of the system is an additional 
reason for increased care against exposure in 
cold or wet weather. 
It has already been stated that the excretory 
organs, by constantly eliminating from the sys- 
tem the worn-out material, keep the machine 
healthy and in good working order. Kept 
within natural limits, this elimination is the 
source of strength and health ; beyond these 
limits the menstrual flow becomes an actual 
hemorrhage, that by draining away the life be- 
comes a source of weakness and disease. No 
physician would dare bleed a man or a woman once 
a montig year in and year out, for twenty-five or 
thirty years. But through ignorance or folly 
many girls do this for themselves. This exces- 
sive flow, aside from actual local disease, is 
brought about by excessive muscular exercise 
during menstruation ; by the use of all stimu- 
lants, whether alcoholic beverages or quinine ; as 
well as by thinness of the blood. When the flow 174 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
is excessive, it must be considered a patho- 
logical condition, which needs the physician’s 
attention. Rest in the recumbent position is the 
first essential; the diet must be plain and unstimu- 
lating, and attention must be paid to the con- 
dition of the blood. 
Painful menstruation is an equally pathological 
condition which may be the result of exposure to 
wet or cold. For either this or checked menstru- 
ation a cup of hot tea should be taken at once, 
followed by a hot mustard footbath. The equi- 
librium of the circulation will be most quickly 
restored by going to bed and placing a hot water 
bag over the abdomen. If this treatment does 
not relieve the pain, or if pain recurs month after 
month, it is the sentinel which points to some 
displacement or local inflammation, which if left 
to itself is sure to grow worse. RELATION OF HEART AND GREAT VESSELS TO THE WALL 
OF THE THORAX. 
The collapsed lungs are drawn slightly aside. CHAPTER IV. 
The Importance of Good Chest Development and Ventilation in 
Order to Obtain a Vigorous Circulation and a Healthy Body— 
The Blood—The Circulatory and Respiratory Apparatus— 
The Changes in the Air Caused by Respiration—Ventilation. 
“ I am convinced that he who devotes two hours each day to 
vigorous exercise will eventually gain those two hours, and a 
couple more into the bargain.”—Washington Irving. 
We have seen, in our studies of the bony 
skeleton, that the thorax or chest is a cone- 
shaped, distensible cage ; formed of bones, elastic 
cartilage, and muscles. That the base of the 
cone is situated in the region of the waist and 
that here, too, the chest is most distensible. 
That the heart, lungs, and great blood-vessels 
completely fill the cavity of the thorax. The 
thorax is converted into an air-tight cavity by 
means of muscles. The base is made up of one 
huge muscle, the diaphragm. This is attached at 
its border to the ribs and posteriorly to the verte- 
brae. It is the diaphragm which separates the 
cavity of the chest from that of the abdomen. 
When the diaphragm is relaxed it has a concavo- 178 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
convex shape, the convexity being directed to- 
ward the chest, and the heart and lungs rest 
directly on it, while the concave surface covers or 
rests on the liver. The height of the diaphragm is 
THE DIAPHRAGM. 
constantly varying during respiration. Its height 
also varies according to the degree of distention 
of the stomach and intestines and size of the liver. 
Further, we have seen that the blood is the 
great medium of exchange between all parts 
of the body. It is at the same time the 
nourisher and scavenger of all the tissues. After 
the food has been liquefied and changed into THE BLOOD. 
179 
new substances in the digestive system, it is 
poured into the blood. From the blood, all the 
tissues draw material to renew their own worn- 
out parts, and other material which they store 
up as so much latent force, which, when it 
becomes united with the oxygen of the blood, 
becomes active force as heat and motion. The 
blood holds in suspension a vast number of mi- 
nute cells or corpuscles. It is to these red cor- 
puscles that the blood owes its color and its 
power of carrying oxygen to the tissues. The 
blood constitutes about one-thirteenth of the 
weight of the body. Of this one-fourth is dis- 
tributed to the heart, lungs, and great blood- 
vessels ; one-fourth to the liver, one-fourth to the 
skeletal muscles, and the remainder to other 
organs. 
In order that the blood may be a satisfactory 
means of communication between all the tissues 
of the body, two things are necessary: First, 
there must be through all parts of the body a 
flow of blood of a certain rapidity and general 
constancy. Second, this flow must be susceptible 
of general and local modifications. 
The circulatory apparatus consists of a central 
force and suction pump, the heart, and a series HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
of tubes that grow finer the further from the 
heart they are situated, and sub-divide like the 
branches of a tree. A good idea of the circula- 
tory system can be had, by imagining the roots of 
two trees placed closely base and base together, 
while the tops of the trees are sufficiently arched 
together so that their finest twigs barely touch 
each other. The heart corresponds to the two 
roots, the large blood vessels to the trunks and 
large branches, and the capillaries or those blood- 
vessels which are of a hair-like size, to the very 
finest twigs. 
The heart is a hollow, somewhat cone-shaped 
muscular organ, placed between the two lungs ; it 
is situated more or less obliquely in the chest 
immediately back of the breast-bone. Roughly 
speaking, the base of the heart corresponds to 
the right edge of the breast-bone, while the apex 
lies a little below and to the right of the left 
nipple. 
The heart is divided into a right and left side. 
The left side forms the force pump, whose 
motive power is supplied by the contraction of 
its own muscle fibers. The bright red blood, 
with its fresh supply of oxygen, hence its bright 
red color, flows from the lungs into the left heart, THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. THE CIRCULATORY APPARATUS. 
183 
which then contracts, as you would squeeze a 
bulb in your hand, and forces the blood into the 
arteries of the body. The blood-vessels which 
FRONT VIEW OF HEART AND LUNGS. 
H. Heart, i. 2, 3. Great blood-vessels. 4. Trachea or wind-pipe. 5. 5. 
Lungs. 
carry the bright red or newly oxygenated blood 
to the tissues, are called arteries. They are a 
series of elastic tubings ; hence the finer the tub- 
ing the greater is the resistance which has to be 
overcome by the force of the heart’s beat. So 184 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
that during violent exercise, when the contraction 
of the muscles causes a pressure on the minute 
arteries and capillaries situated in the muscles, the 
more forcible must be the beat of the heart to 
overcome this additional resistance. Likewise 
when the surface of the body is suddenly chilled, 
as by a plunge into cold water, all the vessels 
situated here contract, and more work is again 
thrown on the heart. 
The equilibrium of the circulation is main- 
tained by the overflow of blood from the capil- 
laries into the veins, and it is the duty of the left 
heart to keep the whole arterial system in a state 
of over-distention. The three chief factors in 
the mechanics of the circulation are the force 
and frequency of the heart’s beat, the peripheral 
resistance, and the elasticity of the arterial walls. 
A disturbance between these relations brings 
about abnormal conditions. 
The average frequency of the heart’s beat, or 
pulse, is seventy-two times a minute. It is 
increased by exercise; it is quicker in a standing 
than a sitting, and in a sitting than a lying pos- 
ture. It is quickened by meals, and on the whole 
is quicker in the evening than in the early morn- 
ing. Independent of muscular exertion, it is THE CIRCULATORY APPARATUS. 
185 
quickened by great altitudes. It is said to be 
quicker in summer than in winter. Its rate is pro- 
foundly influenced by mental conditions. The 
whole of the blood of the body passes through 
the heart in thirty-two beats, that is, in less than 
half a minute. The greatest part of this time is 
spent in the capillaries, where the tissues are 
obtaining their fresh supply and discharging their 
waste matter into it. 
The heart, great blood-vessels, and lungs, are 
placed in an air-tight cavity, and are subject 
to the same pumping action of the respiratory 
movements. The inspiratory muscles elevate the 
ribs at the same time that the diaphragm by its 
contraction pushes the contents of the abdomen 
downward. The cavity of the chest so enlarged 
causes the pressure around the heart and great 
blood-vessels within the chest to be less than that 
on the blood-vessels outside the chest, hence dur- 
ing each inspiration the venous blood is sucked 
back into the right side of the heart. During 
forced expiration, the intra-thoracic pressure may 
be so great as to afford a distinct obstacle to the 
flow of the blood from the veins into the heart. 
The tissues deprive the blood of its oxygen, so 
that which flows back to the heart in the veins is 186 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
blue. The right heart then sends this blue blood 
to the lungs that it may get rid of its carbonic 
acid, which not only is not needed, but is abso- 
lutely injurious in the body, and to receive a 
fresh supply of oxygen which has been carried 
into the lungs in breathing. 
The lungs are the essential organs of respira- 
tion, or the ventilators of the body. They are 
two in number, separated from each other by the 
heart, are placed in a semi-distended state in 
the air-tight thorax, which we have seen, they, 
together with the heart and great blood-vessels, 
completely fill. The lungs ultimately consist of 
air cells, surrounded by dense plexus of capil- 
laries and nerves. The air cells communicate 
with the exterior through the bronchial tubes, 
trachea, and larynx. 
The larynx is the organ of voice, and forms 
the first part of the air passage. It is situated 
between the trachea and base of the tongue, at 
the upper and fore part of the neck, where it 
forms a considerable projection in the middle 
line called Adam’s apple. 
The trachea is a cylindrical tube which extends 
from the larynx downward about inches, 
where it divides into the right and left branches. 187 
TIIE RESPIRATORY APPARATUS. 
The branches on entering the lungs divide and 
sub-divide, until finally they terminate in a lobule 
which is composed of air cells and intercellular 
passages. 
We have seen that in inspiration the cavity of 
the thorax was enlarged by an 
active contraction of the mus- 
cles, in consequence of which 
the pressure of air within the 
lungs becomes less than that 
of the air outside of the body, 
and this difference of pressure 
causes a rush of air through 
the trachea into the lungs, until 
an equilibrium of pressure is 
established between the outside 
air and that within the lungs. 
This constitutes inspiration. Upon the relaxation 
of the inspiratory muscles, the elasticity of the 
chest walls and lungs, aided perhaps, to some 
extent, by the contraction of certain muscles, 
causes the chest to return to its original size. In 
consequence of this the pressure within the lungs 
now becomes greater than that outside, and thus 
the air rushes out of the trachea, until the equi- 
librium is once more established—expiration. 
THE LARYNX. 188 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
During inspiration the size of the thorax is 
increased in its antero-posterior, transverse, and 
FRONT VIEW OF CARTILAGES OF LARYNX, TRACHEA, AND 
BRONCHIAL TUBES. 
A. Larynx. B. Trachea. C. C. Bronchial tubes. 
vertical diameters. In forced inspiration the 
cavity of the thorax is increased from two to 
three inches, partly by the elevation of the ribs THE RESPIRATORY APPARATUS. 
189 
and partly by the descent of the diaphragm, due 
to the contraction of its muscular fibers. In con- 
tracting, the diaphragm presses upon the abdomi- 
nal viscera, pushing them downward about three 
inches, so that those organs are no longer pro- 
tected by the ribs, and a projection of the flaccid 
abdominal walls occurs. The least chest girth of 
the adult woman—that is, the under-arm girth 
around the chest—consistent with health is 
twenty-eight inches, and this girth must be 
enlarged three inches on forced inspiration. In 
ordinary respiration the waist expansion should 
be half an inch to one inch. While during great 
muscular activity it should be from one and a 
half to three or four inches. 
In women the movement in the upper part of 
the chest is very conspicuous, the breast rising 
and falling with every respiration. Whereas in 
children and men the movements are almost 
wholly confined to the lower part of the chest, 
and are called diaphragmatic in contradistinction 
to those seen in women, which are called thoracic. 
It is now the opinion of many observers in this 
country and in Europe that the habit of thoracic 
breathing in women has been brought about by 
constricting the waist and the lower ribs. Obser- 190 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
vations made among the Indian and Chinese 
women show that abdominal is there the type of 
female breathing, and civilized women who wore 
no corsets had relatively good abdominal breath- 
ing. Further, that a thoracic type of breathing 
can be produced in man by putting him in a 
corset. 
In normal breathing the current of air which 
passes in and out of the lungs travels through 
the nose, not the mouth. The ingoing air, by 
exposure to the vascular mucous membrane of 
the narrow and winding nasal passages, is more 
efficiently warmed than it would be if it passed 
through the mouth, and at the same time 
the mouth is protected from the dessicating 
effects of the continual inroad of comparatively 
dry air. 
The changes of the air in respiration are that 
the temperature of the expired air is higher than 
that of inspired air, that it is loaded with aqueous 
vapor, and is less in volume. Hence, when an 
animal is made to breathe in a confined space 
the atmosphere is absolutely diminished. The 
expired air contains from four to five per cent, 
less of oxygen and about four per cent, more of 
carbonic acid than the inspired air, besides vari- THE RESPIRATORY APPARATUS. 
191 
ous impurities. The organic substances present 
in the inspired air are the cause in part of the 
odor of the breath. It is probable that many of 
them are of a poisonous nature. 
The red blood corpuscles, by virtue of their 
hemoglobin, are emphatically oxygen carriers. 
Undergoing no intrinsic change in itself, the 
hemoglobin combines in the lungs with oxygen, 
which it carries to the tissues ; these, more greedy 
of oxygen than itself, rob it of its charge and the 
reduced hemoglobin hurries back in the venous 
blood to the lungs for another portion. As the 
blood passes through the lungs, the low oxygen 
tension of the venous blood permits the entrance 
of oxygen from the lungs into the blood. 
Hurried to the tissues, the oxygen, at a compara- 
tively high tension in the arterial blood, passes 
largely into them. The oxygen tension of the 
tissues is always low from the fact that they pack 
away in stable combination each atom of oxygen 
which they receive from the blood. How much 
hemoglobin is reduced will depend on the 
activity of the tissue itself. The quantity of 
hemoglobin in the blood is the measure of limit 
of the oxidizing power of the body at large, but 
within that limit the amount of oxidation is HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
determined by the tissue and by the tissue 
alone. 
We have seen that the direct result of exercise 
was an increased demand for oxygen by the tis- 
sues, and to meet this demand respiration was 
deepened and quickened, and the beat of the 
heart was more rapid and more forcible. The 
phenomena of increased breathing power and in- 
creased heart action benefit other parts of the 
body. At the commencement of an exercise, the 
contraction of the voluntary muscles called into 
action compresses the blood-vessels and impels 
the venous blood actively toward the heart, 
which, thus stimulated, contracts vigorously and 
propels the blood in increased quantity to the 
lungs. Stimulated by the pressure of a large 
amount of venous blood, the inspiratory muscles 
contract and elevate the osseous structure of the 
chest, the diaphragm pushes down the abdomi- 
nal contents, and the air rushes in to fill the 
cavity thus produced, and to supply the oxygen 
necessary for the purification of the blood. 
Supplied with this life-giving element, the blood 
is returned to the heart to be distributed again 
throughout the system, to restore the loss 
incurred in the original muscular movement. CHEST DEVELOPMENT. 
193 
In this manner not only are the voluntary 
muscles enlarged and strengthened, but also the 
involuntary muscles, particularly the heart and 
diaphragm. The increased activity of the cir- 
culation stimulates other organs to increased 
activity. The quantity of perspiration from the 
skin is more than doubled, the appetite is 
increased, digestion is more perfect, absorption 
is more rapid, the hepatic circulation is more 
active, and the abdominal circulation is carried 
on more vigorously. 
But, on the other hand, actual harm may be 
done if anyone who has been accustomed to lead 
a sedentary life or who is not vigorous suddenly 
engages in the more violent forms of exercise. 
In this extreme exertion the heart may be em- 
barrassed by the respiratory action. At the 
end of deep inspiration the increased pressure of 
the lungs impedes the flow of blood from the 
right side of the heart, while the compression of 
the heart itself by the distended lungs tends to 
overfill the large veins and to further endanger 
the right side of the heart. During general 
muscular contraction the arterial pressure is 
increased at the outset of the exertion, before the 
arteries have become relaxed, and this in turn 194 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
may lead to an engorgement of the left side of 
the heart and the circulation through the lungs. 
To these causes may be added another, that is, 
the exhaustion of the respiratory muscles, partly 
because of the unusual labor thrown upon them 
and partly from an inadequate supply of properly 
oxygenated blood. If the disturbance of the 
pulmono-cardiac equilibrium be severe and the 
condition unrelieved, general prostration ensues 
long before the muscles engaged in the work are 
exhausted. If, on the other hand, the equilibrium 
be restored, or, when the heart and lungs have 
been trained to accomplish the restitution, the 
distress disappears, and the individual is said to 
have gained his second wind. 
It is self-evident that any. restriction placed 
about the waist, by preventing the full expansion 
of the ribs and descent of the diaphragm, will 
further embarrass the heart’s action by diminish- 
ing the amount of room it has to work in, while it 
decreases the amount of oxygen inspired, because 
the lungs have not sufficient room to expand. 
Great physical injury has followed women play- 
ing lawn tennis while tightly corseted. And 
while dancing is a much milder exercise, since it 
is carried oil in an overheated and poorly venti- CHEST DEVELOPMENT. 
lated room, we occasionally meet with fatal re- 
sults from the same cause. 
Consumption destroys fully one-seventh of our 
population. It attacks the crippled and poorly 
developed lung, just as certainly as it shuns the 
one which is fully expanded and in constant 
and active service. Numerous observations have 
established the existence of a constant ratio 
between consumption and deficient chest expan- 
sion. A chest expansion of less than three 
inches is incompatible with the full vigor of the 
adult woman. 
A roomy thorax and a strong heart are no 
mean allies in resisting the assaults of disease. 
A few extra cubic inches of respiratory capacity, 
or a small reserve of disciplined cardiac power 
may suffice to determine a favorable issue in 
pneumonia, pleurisy, or typhoid. Every inch 
which a woman adds to her chest measure adds 
to the measure of her days. 
The capacity of the lungs is about two hun- 
dred and thirty cubic inches. Of this amount 
of air, about one hundred cubic inches remains 
constantly within them and cannot be expelled. 
It is renewed very slowly under the law govern- 
ing the diffusion of gases. About one hundred 196 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
more cubic inches is more rapidly changed, as it 
can be taken in and expelled by means of forced 
breathing. During ordinary inspiration, however, 
only about twenty or twenty-five cubic inches of 
air is inhaled, and only about one-tenth of the 
whole renewed. In many persons the apices and 
small sections of the circumference and bases are 
very little used, and it is very suggestive that these 
are the very portions of the lungs which are first 
seized upon by consumption. 
Prof. Brown-Sequard, condensing the watery 
vapor coming from the human lungs, obtained a 
poisonous liquid, capable of producing almost 
immediate death. He injected the fluid under 
the skin of a rabbit and the effect was speedily 
fatal. This eminent physiologist said that 
respired air contained a volatile toxic principle 
far more dangerous than carbonic acid. Many of 
these substances can be detected by neither smell 
nor taste, and are inhaled without any knowl- 
edge on the part of those who breathe them ; 
while the organic matter has a fetid odor, and 
hangs about the room like clouds of tobacco 
smoke, and this odor is very difficult to get rid of 
even by ventilation. 
If the sense of smell is constantly ignored, it CHANGES IN THE AIR. 
197 
becomes blunted or is dulled by constant contact 
with the same odor. If not suppressed, the sense 
of smell is persistent in its warnings and adds an 
actually increasing discomfort that compels 
recognition. While the dulled sensibilities give 
no warning of the danger, and the individual 
does not feel conscious of the harm, although the 
nerve centers may be greatly depressed, it does 
not always follow because pain and discomfort 
have not been experienced in a vitiated atmos- 
phere that no harm has been done. The effects 
may be slowly and imperceptibly cumulative, but 
are on this account none the less injurious, and 
are now recognized as being among the most 
potent and widespread of all the predisposing 
causes of disease. 
Man breathes from sixteen to twenty times 
every minute, and the girth of the chest should 
increase three inches at every inspiration, when 
he should inhale one pint of air. Air is a com- 
pound of oxygen and nitrogen ; the oxygen is the 
life-giving principle, but when too condensed it 
acts as an irritant, hence, in the atmosphere, 
nitrogen is used to dilute it. Our very life 
depends on fresh air to supply this oxygen and 
to get rid of the carbonic acid which has been 198 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
formed in the body. Fresh air is by far the 
most important part of our daily food. We have 
seen that it was in the laboratory of the lungs 
that the blood threw off its carbonic acid and 
other impurities, but it is only able to do this 
when the lungs are supplied with an abundance 
of oxygen. 
The only way a sufficient supply of oxygen 
can be procured is by taking active exercise every 
day in the open air. Outdoor life is both the 
best prophylactic and curative remedy in all 
known diseases of the respiratory system. The 
average duration of life in various countries in the 
old world depends not so much on climate peculi- 
arities, or their respective degree of coldness, as 
on the chief occupation of the inhabitants. 
With the exception of deep-seated breast 
cough, “ colds ” may be nipped in the bud by a 
few hours of hard, sudorific work in the open air. 
It may be a heroic cure, requiring a good deal 
of will power in cold weather, but it is an infallible 
and the only radical remedy. In half a day the 
nasal ducts and the respiratory exhalants will 
throw off irritating matters which would defy the 
drug doctor for a couple of weeks. 
Even a small excess of carbonic acid interferes VENTILATION. 
199 
with healthy physiological action, by preventing 
a sufficient exhalation of the gas itself, thus 
causing an undue accumulation of it in the blood, 
and by lessening the amount of oxygen absorbed, 
thereby retarding those oxidizing processes which 
are requisite for the complete elimination of ef- 
fete matters from the system. This failure in the 
aeration of the blood interferes with the nutrition 
of the whole system. 
The bad effects of breathing impure air are 
shown by headache, dizziness, heaviness, and 
sometimes nausea. Anyone who continually 
breathes a vitiated atmosphere becomes pale, 
loses her appetite, and after a time there is a 
decline in muscular health and spirits; of the 
special diseases caused that of the lungs is the 
most frequent, consumption being the greatest 
scourge of the race. 
The common causes of impurity of the air are 
the expired air and the transudation of the skin, 
the products of the combustion of lights, the 
effluvia of simple uncleanliness of rooms or -per- 
sons, and the products of the fluid or the solid 
excreta retained in the room. In addition, there 
may be special conditions which allow the impure 
air to flow into the room, as from the basement 200 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
or cellar of a house, from imperfectly trapped 
soil and waste pipes, or from other impurities out- 
side a house. 
As the air contained in an inhabited room can- 
not under the most favorable conditions be kept 
as pure as the outside air, the object of ventila- 
tion is, by the admission of pure external air, so 
to minimize the impurities that the air respired 
may not be detrimental to health. To this end 
the amount of air supplied to an inhabited room 
must be sufficient to remove all sensible impurity, 
as judged by a person coming directly in from 
the open air. The air must not only be without 
odor, but also perfectly fresh. Attention to the 
humidity of the air is also important. Very dry 
air, as in winter, when a house is artificially 
heated, is irritating to the respiratory system, 
and often causes a sense of oppression and diffi- 
culty of breathing. 
To maintain a healthy standard of the air of a 
room, there must be a constant access of fresh air 
to the room. A simple and a rather primitive 
way to secure this is, by raising the lower sash, 
a strip of wood, the exact width of the window, 
may be placed under it. The air will then pass 
through the space between the upper and lower VENTILATION. 
201 
sashes. Some such or any better method of 
ventilation should be in continuous use, day and 
night, when the room is occupied. 
The most rapid way to change the air of a 
room is by opening the doors and windows of a 
room opposite each other; remembering that the 
heated, foul air of a room rises toward the ceiling, 
the window should be opened from above as 
well as below. This mode of ventilation should 
always be resorted to for about one hour in the 
morning. And if the sitting and bedroom be the 
same, the room should be again well aired before 
going to bed. Otherwise the air will be impure, 
and the temperature too high to be conducive to 
refreshing sleep. 
Every room should be provided with a ther- 
mometer which should register in the sitting- 
room from 68° to yo° Fahrenheit, depending 
on the occupation and health of the occupant, 
while in the bedroom it should not go below 6o°. 
Draughts are to be as zealously guarded against 
as impure air, always carrying with them as 
they do the danger of lung diseases, neuralgias, 
rheumatism, paralysis, etc. 
In the ventilation of a house it should always 
be borne in mind that the cellar is the most im- 202 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
portant part. For as the heated air is conducted 
by pipes from a furnace all through the house, so 
all the foul smells of a cellar permeate the entire 
house. Open fires form the best ventilators, but 
the most inefficient means for heating. It has 
been estimated that in the ordinary fireplace 
seven-eighths of the heat passes up the chimney. 
The living room should be bright and sunny; 
when possible, it should have a southern or 
eastern exposure, We have seen what vigorous 
races the Greeks and Romans were. But, even in 
that glorious climate, the Roman epicureans con- 
structed special solaria, glass-covered turrets, 
where they could bask in the full rays of the sun. 
When the air of a room is fresh and pure, the 
human system is furnished with all the oxygen it 
can consume, and heat is thus produced in the 
body, so that a lower external temperature is 
necessary for comfort. Hence, supplying fresh 
air minimizes the amount of coal consumed, 
besides increasing the vigor of the body. 
Every individual should have a bed to herself, 
as is the custom in Germany. To sleep in the 
room with a consumptive is a pretty certain way 
to take the disease. Wherever population is 
dense, or sleeping rooms ill-aired or over-crowded, VENTILATION. 
203 
consumption prevails. A room in which a con- 
sumptive person sleeps is reeking with contagion, 
if the air he exhales is not carried off. 
The importance of a proper ventilation of the 
sleeping room will be seen from the one fact that 
two-thirds of the oxygen absorbed in the twenty- 
four hours is absorbed between six o’clock in the 
evening and six in the morning. During sleep 
inspiration occupies ten-twelfths of the respira- 
tory period, while at other times occupying only 
five-twelfths of that period. In a closed room 
the oxygen would be eventually consumed, the 
air become filled with impurities, and the body 
languish for want of oxygen and incapacity to 
throw off its impurities. At the same time, the 
rashness of throwing wide open the windows or 
even window of the sleeping room on a winter 
night is to be equally avoided ; this would often 
mean gales of wind ; at least, heavy draughts and 
a too great fall of temperature. And a great fall 
of the temperature of the air breathed at night 
is highly detrimental to the perfect running of 
the machine. Instead of good being accom- 
plished, the friction thus caused will be detri- 
mental to the vitality. 
On leaving the bedroom in the morning the 204 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
bed-clothes should be thrown well back, in order 
that, with open doors and windows, the rapidly 
changing air will carry away all impurities from 
night garments, bed-clothes, and mattress. For 
the same reason, the clothes worn during the day 
should be hung up in the room at night in order 
to be well aired, instead of being hung up in a 
close wardrobe or closet, or being flung in a heap 
on a chair. It is taken for granted that in this 
enlightened age, no one would think of wearing 
the same undergarment at night as in the day- 
time. 
“ Perfect health depends upon a daily supply of fresh air as 
much as on our daily bread.”—Felix Oswald, M. D. VENUS DE CAPUA. CHAPTER V. 
Dress—The Fundamental Cause of the Physical Deterioration of 
the American Woman—The History of Woman’s Dress—The 
Influence of the French Court on Dress—The Corset—Hygie- 
nic Dress—Decollete Evening Dress—Artistic Evening Dress. 
“ O woman, lovely woman ! Nature made thee to temper 
man ; 
Angels are painted fair, to look like you ; 
There’s in you all that we believe of heaven,— 
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth.” 
—Thomas Otway. 
“ Woman—God’s best gift to man and the chief support of the 
doctors.”—The Annual Toast at Medical Conventions. 
“ A Turkish woman once told a missionary that she never knew 
what it was to be sick until she became a Christian and wore 
corsets.”—Anne Jenness Miller. 
The history of woman’s dress furnishes us 
with the key which solves the problem of the 
difference in physique of the women who posed 
for the Junos, Ariadnes, Venuses, and Madonnas, 
and the American woman of to-day who poses as 
“ the chief support of the doctors.” 
The difference in their dress is as striking as 
the difference in their physique. The dress of 
the Greeks when at the height of their civiliza- 208 
HYGEINE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
tion—and that of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and 
ancient Romans was not essentially different— 
was very simple, often consisting of a single gar- 
ment, the tunic, which pleased the eye by the 
gracefulness of its drapery, and at the same time 
was comfortable by reason of its looseness. 
There were two distinct styles of “ tunic/’ one, 
the short and sleeveless, being admirably adapted 
for working purposes, since it only came down to 
the middle of the thigh and was slightly confined 
at the waist by a girdle; the other was long and 
has remained noted for the rare beauty and 
grace of its draping. The tunic was made of two 
square pieces of cloth sewn together. The long 
tunic reached to the feet; it was worn loose, con- 
fined by a girdle at the waist, and sometimes 
there was a second girdle lower down. While 
the long wide sleeves were clasped on the 
shoulders. The girdle was nothing more than a 
loose cord or a narrow tape. 
Sometimes there was worn a light creamy stuff 
next the skin, which fitted the body closely. 
The peplum or mantle was the outermost gar- 
ment used by both sexes, but mostly by the 
elders and on occasions of ceremony. 
From the time of Pericles, the great European GREEK COSTUMES. 
“ Queen and two attendants.” FASHIONABLE COSTUME OF TO-PAY, HISTORY OF WOMAN’S DRESS. 
213 
distinction between male and female dress con- 
sisted in the length of the skirt; old men, priests, 
and officials being allowed the privilege of 
wearing long or women’s skirts, and young girls 
being permitted to wear the short or man’s skirt. 
Among the Romans, this single garment, worn 
by both sexes, was called the toga. The Greeks 
wore sandals and occasionally went barefoot. 
As time rolled on the loose cord which had 
formed the girdle was reinforced by a broad belt 
or band to support the breasts. Among the 
Assyrians this belt was made of stiffened linen or 
thin metal; the Egyptians wore a folded belt; a 
broad belt for supporting the breasts was also used 
by the Roman ladies. But whatever the mate- 
rial used, this stay belt does not show any signs 
of tight laces or of vertical ribs of iron or bone. 
It was, however, the forerunner of “ stays.” And 
when the moral fiber of the Greeks grew lax, the 
courtesans set the fashions and dress was used to 
display rather than to conceal the figure. And 
in order to make the hips more prominent the 
waist was constricted by a many-layered belt. 
At the same time the use of cosmetics was intro- 
duced. 
In following the history of the male attire, we 214 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
find that “ dress proclaims the man ” and the 
kind of life that he leads. In marked contrast to 
the loose flowing robes used by the Southern 
nations of Europe in their decadence, were the 
short skirts and jackets clinging to the limbs, 
which were worn by the hardy nations of the 
North, who were given to constant fighting and 
the pursuit of the chase. The Norman lords, fol- 
lowing the fashion of the South, swept about in 
long tunics and flowing robes. 
In the twelfth century the Anglo-Saxon 
women in their loose garments were indebted to 
the Norman ladies for the introduction of “ stays,” 
and the fashion of tightly lacing the body with a 
robe laced down to show its undulations, as well 
as the use of cosmetics. Thus for seven centuries 
the French court or its representatives have been 
the acknowledged leaders of fashion. 
In the British museum there is a manuscript 
of the time of Edward the Confessor, 1042- 
1066 A. D.—he had spent his youth in exile 
at the court of Normandy—which contains a pic- 
ture of the fiend of fashion. The figure wears 
an unmistakable corset, tightly laced and stif- 
fened. In the household register of Eleanor, 
Countess of Leicester, which bears the date of HISTORY OF WOMAN’S DRESS. 
215 
May 24, 1265, is one of the earliest places in 
which the word corset occurs. The word is again 
found in reference to the wardrobe of Richard, 
king of the Normans, and Edward, his son. The 
latter died in 1318. Corsets were at this time 
worn by men as well as women. 
In the fourteenth century the Emperor Joseph 
of Austria became so alarmed by the fascinating 
lures thrown out by sirens for the capture of 
mankind, that he issued a special edict, forbid- 
ding the use of the corset in all nunneries and 
places where girls were educated; and called 
upon the Church to aid him, threatening excom- 
munication to those evil-disposed damsels who 
should persist in operating on their waists. The 
College of Physicians of that day took up the 
subject with activity and zeal, and dissertations 
upon the evil of tight-lacing were scattered 
broadcast. 
The sixteenth century was indebted to no less 
a personage than that forceful queen, Catherine 
de Medici, who made France to flow with blood, 
for the invention of a corset which resembled 
in more than looks that instrument of torture, 
“ The Machine Virgin of the Inquisition.” 
This corset was made of steel and was as inflexi- 216 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
ble as a suit of armor, and like a warrior’s 
breast- and back-plate, consisted of two pieces. It 
opened longitudinally by hinges, secured by a 
hasp and pin, made like an ordinary box fasten- 
ing. In the front and back a rod or bar of steel 
projected in a curved direction downward, and 
on their bars depended the adjustment of the 
long-peaked body of the dress and the set of the 
skirt behind. Perhaps it was just a little due to 
these same corsets and also to the fact that dur- 
ing the forty years in which she ruled at court, a 
thirteen-inch waist measure became the accepted 
standard, that this queen died “ universally exe- 
crated.” 
The impression which this extraordinary 
woman made on the bodies of her subjects was 
second only to that which she made on their 
minds. And we are not at all surprised to learn 
that Mme. de S£vigne, born thirty years after 
the death of Catherine de Medici, formulated the 
axiom which has ever since been a law to the 
French modiste: “ Les homines ont la permis- 
sion d’etre laid, les femmes ne l’ont pas; aussi 
n’en est-il aucune qui consente a l’etre.” 
Dr. Fanton (Marseille Medical, 1879, 708) 
does not give his countrywomen, or, indeed, LADY OF FASHION, 1894. ARTISTIC DRESS, HISTORY OF WOMAN’S DRESS. 
221 
women at all, the credit of having gained any 
wisdom in the last three centuries in which 
medicine has been placed on a scientific basis, 
and science has advanced so far. For he says 
that this same axiom, formulated by Mme. de 
Sevigne, is still held as such, and then goes on to 
add, if there are any charms which nature has 
refused a woman, “ il n’est rien que celle-ci ne 
fasse pour y supplier, il n’aucune sacrifice devant 
lequel elle recule, fasse meme de la sante.” Now 
as hygiene is the basis of morals, that does not 
speak well for the morals of the woman of to-day, 
and less for her knowledge of what really consti- 
tutes true beauty. 
But to return to the sixteenth century, when 
men as well as women were still torturing their 
bodies by the wearing of corsets, we find that the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth was marked by the 
first use of whalebone stays. These were much 
affected by her successor, James, who insisted 
that all his courtiers, male as well as female, 
should cultivate the appearance of the wasp. 
The corset of George II., represented in Ho- 
garth’s pictures, is said to have been one of 
the most harrowing forms of screw torture. 
We are told that the doughty warriors of 222 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
Gustavus Adolphus wore stays almost to a 
man. 
The Renaissance, marked by the accession of 
Henry VIII., gave birth to the general style of 
dress that still holds to-day. But at just what 
period our brother man became emancipated 
from the corset we are not told. Be that time 
when it may, he seems to be getting along 
to-day bravely without it. Although doubtless, 
at first, when his corset was taken from him, he 
too felt that he had lost the best bone in his 
body. 
Truly “ there is nothing new under the sun,” 
for when the physician of to-day calls the 
American woman a “ sham,” which he some- 
times does, he is only repeating the complaint 
of a husband of the olden time who declares that 
he has married a “ sham,” a lady of comely pro- 
portions who en deshabille shrank into a dwarf. 
Her headdress measured eighteen inches, her 
shoes elevated her six inches. Her circum- 
ference decreased as alarmingly as her height, 
for on the removal of the stomacher and hoop, 
the stately pyramid of silk and satin who had 
swept about all day dwindled into an insig- 
nificant pigmy of half her artificial size. HISTORY OF WOMAN’S DRESS. 
223 
When traced to their original sources, we find 
that all the extremes of fashion were made 
either to conceal some deformity of the figure, or 
to give to a part of it undue prominence, as in 
the case of the corset, which was instituted at a 
time when clothes were not wanted for the con- 
cealment of the person, but for its display. 
The ruff grew out of a scrofulous complaint 
on a royal neck. The hoop-skirt to hide the 
enceinte condition of a French queen. 
From the time of Galen, A. D. 130, to the 
present day, in spite of all the anathemas hurled 
against it, and that all the departments of medi- 
cal science recognize and denounce this great 
injury which woman does herself, has the 
still prevailed. 
The greatest living pathologist, Professor Vir- 
chow, says: “ What is the use of introducing 
the principles and appliances of hygiene into the 
huts of the poor and ignorant, when the scions of 
wealth, pretended intelligence, and fashion, especi- 
ally in the gentler sex, show their contempt of 
hygiene by their dress and general wearing ap- 
parel ! In days gone by I have battled agamst the 
diabolical invention called the corset, but this cru- 
sade has been given up by me as absolutely futile.” 224 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
The secret of the failure of their anathemas to 
remove the corset from woman’s dress is mani- 
fold. First, for the most part they were hurled 
against tight lacing ; and although great distor- 
tion of the body due to corsets has been found 
after death, deep grooves in the liver caused by 
the pressure of the ribs, and in a few instances 
the left lobe of the liver has been found to be 
nearly separated from the right, these must all 
have been curious post-mortem changes. For 
that woman has never yet been found who laced 
at all. Second, habit breeds custom. Women, 
or rather girls wore corsets because their mothers 
had worn them. While their mothers had grown 
so accustomed to this grotesque deformity, and 
the true ideal of beauty was so completely buried 
in oblivion that mothers encouraged their daugh- 
ters to put them on while young, so as to better 
mold the figure. Third, for the most part woman 
has been allowed to sin ignorantly. Anatomy 
and physiology, with still less hygiene, as taught 
in girl’s schools, was a merest smattering. She 
has known that she was the unhappy possessor 
of certain organs, but in what way they acted or 
where they were located was quite another 
matter. In the fourth place, she was led to be- I. NORMAL CHEST. 
2. EFFECTS OF TIGHT-LACING ON 
BONY THORAX. THE EFFECTS OF CORSETS. 
227 
lieve, by some of these very same men, that she 
was a victim to her functions ; a woman, ergo, an 
invalid. And lastly, gymnasiums for women are 
only just old enough to show that the physical 
deterioration caused by centuries of improper 
modes of dress and life can to a great extent be 
overcome, and that the question of her physical 
development lies in her own hands. 
The remarks which follow are not for the bene- 
fit of the woman who tries to reduce her waist to 
a certain standard number of inches, but for the 
woman who wears a corset at all. 
The peculiarities of the bony chest are that it 
is distensible; the vertebrae form a fixed point 
and the breast bone a comparatively fixed one, 
upon which the ribs move up and down in respi- 
ration ; at the same time the muscular base of 
the thorax, the diaphragm, is constantly ascending 
and descending. As it descends, it carries with it 
the heart and lungs, and on rising, restores them. 
The heart makes a descent of one and a half 
inches eighteen times a minute, and the liver and 
stomach two and a half to three inches. The 
thorax extends down to the tenth rib, while the 
eleventh and twelfth ribs float freely in the 
abdomen. HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
A corset, even when loosely worn, acts to a 
certain degree like the surgeon’s splint which he 
CORSETED FIGURE. 
applies to immobilize the thorax in case of a 
broken rib. The whalebone corset of to-day is THE EFFECTS OF CORSETS. 
229 
supplemented with steels. The heaviest pair of 
steels, which measure from one and a quarter to 
one and a half inches, are in the median line in 
front. These steels are so heavy that the desired 
“ mold ” is given to them by machinery. This 
strong, unyielding band of steel passes over, if 
not presses upon, certainly does not yield to the 
liver, stomach, large and small intestines. Other 
steels does the corset possess to the number of six, 
four in the back and one under each arm, each 
of them measuring half an inch. In addition to 
this, “ firmness ” is given to the corset by the 
closely set whale-bones. 
This corset splint is fitted during quiet respira- 
tion, and generally when the stomach is empty. 
On eating, be it remembered that the stomach 
turns on its axis, so that the greater curvature 
shall be anterior where there is more room for 
digestion to be carried on. Now, where can the 
fashionable woman’s stomach turn to while she 
eats her dinner, or how will the liver be able to 
receive the blood laden with the products of 
digestion? 
You would take a rapid walk, a ride on horse- 
back, or play a game of tennis. All of these 
exercises call for the utmost chest capacity for  HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
230 
the play of heart and lungs, that is, a capacity 
for enlargement of the under-arm girth of three 
inches, and of the waist girth of from three to 
four inches. But you have limited the action of 
heart, lungs, and muscles by your corset splint. 
For the best corsets are made of the best quality 
of steel, whalebone, and French jean, and are so 
made that they will hold their shape; in other 
words, yield to nothing, but mold the figures to 
them. 
On disrobing, you will readily perceive this zone 
of compression by the purplish band on the skin 
from three to five inches wide, showing the creases 
and pattern of the undergarment. This zone 
extends from the sixth to the twelfth rib, which is 
directly over the location of the diaphragm, so 
that not only can the lower ribs not rise in forced 
inspiration, but the diaphragm cannot expand. 
The intercostal spaces are narrowed, the tidal 
capacity of the lungs is lessened. The heart’s 
action as a suction pump is impaired. In early 
youth the heart lies higher than in the adult. 
By narrowing the intercostal spaces the heart is 
retained, as it were, in its youthful position, and its 
descent interfered with. In the adult female it 
is found to lie higher than in the male. This RELATION OF BONY THORAX TO LUNGS, HEART, LIVER, 
AND STOMACH, 
With artificial outline produced by corsets. THE EFFECTS OF CORSETS. 
233 
encroachment of the chest wall on the heart is 
one of the causes of woman’s fainting, as well as 
of those well-authenticated cases in which it was 
the cause of death, brought on by some unusual 
exercise, as in dancing. It is also one of the 
causes of organic diseases of the heart. 
How seriously the corset interferes with the 
expansion of the lungs is shown by some experi- 
ments of Dr. Sargent’s in a paper already referred 
to. He found that the average lung capacity 
when corsets were worn was 134 cubic inches. 
When corsets were removed the test showed a 
lung capacity of 167 cubic inches—a gain of 33 
cubic inches. That is, the woman who wears cor- 
sets cripples her lungs to the extent of one-fifth 
of their entire capacity. Nature endeavors to 
make up this loss by an increased rapidity of the 
heart’s beat and more frequent respirations, but 
this is at the expense of greater and unnecessary 
wear and friction of the machinery. Palpitation 
and shortness of breath follows, and the woman 
is obliged to give up everything that is worthy of 
the name of exercise. Through this failure of 
the suction power of the heart there are dispro- 
portionately large lower limbs and an accumula- 
tion of adipose below the waist. This condition 234 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
is much more common in women than in men, 
and is due to the lack of power of the heart to 
draw the blood back from the lower limbs to the 
center of the body, against the influence of gravity. 
Hence the blood tends to linger in the extremi- 
ties and oxidation of the tissues is interfered with. 
But most harassing of all are the distressing 
symptoms caused by the irritation of the nerve 
centers by the accumulation of carbonic acid, and 
the retention of other excrementitious matter in 
the blood—symptoms fully as distressing as those 
caused by true organic lesions. 
The anterior surface of the body should in 
the median line present a gentle curve from the 
upper end of the breast-bone to the brim of the 
pelvis, the convexity of the curve coming about 
the umbilicus. An inward curve of this line is a 
deformity artificially produced. 
The pressure on liver and stomach, great as 
it is in standing, is increased in sitting. The 
diaphragm, not being able to expand laterally, 
expends its crippled power on the liver and 
stomach. In writing or sewing the wearer bends 
against the upper end of the corset steels; this 
pressure, in turn, is expended upon the lower 
end. So that in bending forward even the very THE RIBS REMOVED, SHOWING RELATION OF THORACIC TO 
ABDOMINAL VISCERA. 
A. Trachea. B. Heart. C. C. Lungs. D. Liver. E. Stomach. F. Small 
intestines. G. Large intestines. H. Bladder. THE EFFECTS OF CORSETS. 
237 
loose corset is brought against the yielding parts 
of the body. We 
have seen that the 
original design of 
the corset was to 
give undue promi- 
nence to the hips 
and abdomen; but 
the lower end of the 
corset presses the 
abdomen inward, so 
that the contents are 
pushed in the only 
direction left, that is, 
down on the uterus 
and other pelvic vis- 
cera. 
The array of dis- 
eases caused by the 
corset and which 
makes “ woman the 
chief support of the 
doctors,” is suffi- 
ciently startling. 
Lung and heart dis- 
eases, intercostal 
ANTERO-POSTERIOR SECTION OF BODY. 
i. Liver. 2. Stomach. 3. Large intes- 
tines. 4. Small intestines. 5. Rectum. 6. 
Uterus. 7. Bladder. 238 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
neuralgia, dyspepsia, congestion of the liver, 
ulcer of the stomach, diarrhea or constipation 
as the case may be, floating kidneys, falling of 
the womb and painful menstruation, thinness of 
the blood, and diseases of the nervous system, 
verging on to nervous prostration. But why con- 
tinue the list? These are a few of the pictures of 
the familiar friends of us all. This, over against 
the testimony of all travelers, that whenever 
» 
women give free play to their lungs and stom- 
ach they grow as large or nearly as large as 
men. 
We have seen some of the physiological results 
of wearing even a loose corset. There remains 
nothing further than to consider the results, from 
what Dr. Fanton says is a woman’s ultimatum— 
the aesthetic. 
The Greek is universally conceded to be the 
ideal type of beauty. The waist proportion of 
the Venus de Milo is 47.7 per cent., while that of 
the Grecian man is 46.4. In proportion to her 
weight, the hips of the modern woman exceeds 
that of a man’s by four inches, and a woman of 
the same height as a man exceeds in hip girth 
by six inches. A woman’s liver is proportion- 
ately heavier than that of a man. If the VENUS DE MEDICI. THE EFFECTS OF CORSETS. 
241 
muscles which pass from the thorax to the pelvis 
Were left unrestrained and properly developed, 
the artistic proportions would be preserved, and 
the waist of the woman would then be propor- 
tionately larger than that of man. These ideal 
figures of the Greek women show a torso bounded 
by outward curves softly melting into one another 
until the broadest part is reached at the hips, 
thence again declining to the feet, the line from 
the armpit to the ankle being one of the chief 
lines of beauty in sculpture. We have seen also 
that the line of the front of a woman’s body 
formed an outward curve, and no trace of a 
waist line is to be found. 
A deformity is defined as any considerable 
deviation of the body from the natural form, as a 
clubfoot, a humpback, or a furrowed waist. No 
good artist will paint the laced figure. The sub- 
ject must first hide with draperies what the artist 
considers a hideous deformity. 
The pity of it is, if woman for all these years 
has purposely sacrificed health to the corset in 
order to increase the beauty of her form and 
enhance her charms, and has only succeeded in 
producing a horrible distortion! In addition to 
the deformity, there is a loss of suppleness in the 242 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE 
natural torso, and by damaging the health, a loss 
of facial beauty. By the diminution of the 
physical capacity which it causes, it lessens the 
MAN. 
WOMAN. 
mental ability, while it increases the mortality. 
It renders woman more impressionable than 
strong, transforming her into a feeble dependent. 
Whatever course of action the woman rolling in EFFECTS OF CORSET AND 
TIGHT LACING, 
THE SAME PERSON AFTER 
TRAINING, THE EFFECTS OF CORSETS. 
245 
wealth may elect to pursue, the woman who is 
obliged to do any kind of work cannot afford to 
cripple her resources in this way. 
When she affirms that she cannot sit up or go 
without the support afforded by a corset, she pre- 
sumes to affirm that she is the one creature that 
has been launched upon the world so ill-con- 
structed that a prop is required to support its 
weight. Man donned the corset for the same 
reason that woman originally did, to increase 
the beauty of his figure, but finding it in his 
way he threw it off, and now gets along much 
better without it. 
The first sensations of a woman who has worn 
a corset for years and then endeavors to go with- 
out one, certainly is that she will flop over at 
the waist. She feels as if the breast-bone in 
her body had suddenly been taken away from 
her. And this feeling simply confirms one of 
the evil effects of the corset. We saw the 
admirable arrangement produced by the cross- 
ing of the fibers of the three layers of abdom- 
inal muscles in every direction ; that the trunk 
is kept from falling forward, not by the muscles 
on its anterior, but on its posterior surface ; 
and that there were six layers of them. Now, 246 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
exactly the same thing occurs here that would 
occur if a surgeon should place an arm in a splint 
and leave it for an indefinite length of time. The 
muscles are restrained from action and they waste 
away. Precisely so with the muscles of the back : 
the corset holds the trunk in a rigid position ; 
there is no opportunity for a play of the muscles. 
In addition to this, a woman’s ordinary occupa- 
tions with the needle or the pen bring into action 
the muscles in the front of the shoulders; so that 
with a semi-paralysis of those groups which 
should hold the shoulders back, there is an over- 
action of the ones which draw it forward, hence 
round shoulders and prominent shoulder-blades. 
There is but one remedy: the corset must come 
off and stay off. For even if a woman had one 
hour’s systematic training, and one hour’s exercise 
in the open air every day, without corsets, it 
would not atone for the ten to fourteen remain- 
ing hours in which the corset is worn. 
The evil effects of corsets are intensified by the 
bands of the skirts; the latter drag on the 
hips and weigh the woman down with heavier 
than maternal burdens. Where there is no in- 
terference with the respiratory process the uterus 
rises and falls with every breath. The move- A GERMAN PEASANT WOMAN. 
EFFECTS OF CORSET AND TIGHT 
BANDS ON AN AMERICAN WOMAN 
OF SAME AGE. HYGIENIC DRESS. 
249 
ment of the uterus assists in the circulation of 
the blood in the pelvis. The veins in the lower 
extremities are provided with tiny valves which 
have been likened to the locks in a canal; they 
dam it up for a few seconds’ time that it may gain 
greater force and propelling power later. These 
valves greatly assist in propelling the blood back 
to the heart, but no such provision is made in the 
pelvis. Since the constriction about the waist 
interferes so greatly with the return of the blood 
from the lower extremities, how much greater will 
be the stagnation of venous blood in the pelvis, 
where the propulsive power is more inadequate ! 
Let a woman who has taken off her corsets 
and adopted loose and suitable clothing, or even 
clothing which is loose and not very suitable, 
record a careful measurement of the chest under 
the arms, at the ninth rib and at the waist, together 
with the state of the general health. At the end 
of a year, without having gone to a gymnasium, 
without medicine, change of scene, or rest, she 
will find that all these measurements have in- 
creased and there has been a marked improve- 
ment in her health. 
But she will have gained vastly more if she has 
spent that year in a gymnasium, taking those 250 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
exercises which are especially adapted to strength- 
ening the muscles of the back and chest. If a 
gymnasium is inaccessible she should take those 
same exercises systematically at home. 
The stout woman’s last feeble argument is that 
she must wear a corset to support the bust. 
There are many admirable hygienic corset-waists 
on the market that are sufficiently stiffened with 
cords to answer every purpose. If you will take 
off your corsets and take the proper kind of exer- 
cise, that mass of adipose tissue which now spoils 
your figure will disappear. 
The skirts should be fastened to this corset- 
waist, so that the support shall come from the 
hips at the brim of the pelvis and not from the 
shoulders. The dress skirt is best supported in 
the back by being attached to the belt of the 
basque. So soon as a woman is conscious of 
the weight of her skirts, there is some failure in 
the mode of supporting them. In order to hold 
up a heavy skirt which is not fastened to the waist 
the skirt band must be so tight as to be abso- 
lutely injurious. Were the band sufficiently loose 
not to interfere with the vital mechanism during 
active exercise, it would produce an uncomfortable 
sense of dragging on the hips. HYGIENIC DRESS. 
251 
In exercising, even in walking, a woman is again 
placed at a disadvantage by the weight and 
length of her skirts. In walking, the length of 
the step should be proportionate to the length of 
the limb, which comes from the unconscious 
swing at the hip. The chief exertion in walking 
is caused by the raising of each foot and leg to 
the point at which it goes forward and downward. 
By this artificial shortening of the step, it 
requires much more muscular effort to walk the 
same distance. In addition to this, there is the 
resisting friction of the skirts, which, increased as 
it is by the slightest wind, has been likened to the 
pleasant process of eternally walking through a 
long field of grass. 
The essential for winter clothing is that it must 
be light, loose, warm and equally distributed over 
the body. We have seen that much of the 
energy of the body is spent in maintaining the 
equable temperature of the body. If exposed to 
a cool atmosphere, the human body at once 
begins to lose heat by radiation, by evaporation 
of surface moisture, and by conduction or the 
direct conveyance of heat to the particles of air 
immediately in contact with it. When the body 
is clothed, the rate of conduction depends on the 252 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
conducting power of the dress, so that the heat 
of the body is conserved by warm and moderate 
clothing. 
Proper underclothing prevents the excessive for- 
mation of surface perspiration, and prevents sud- 
den evaporation, which is one of the great causes 
of the chilling of the body. During exercise 
there is an increase of the heat production, hence 
the necessity of perspiration with evaporation 
from the surface of the body to maintain the 
average bodily temperature. But after the exer- 
cise has ceased evaporation continues until the 
body is chilled. Now, while wool is more 
impervious to cold than cotton or linen, it is also 
a poor conductor of heat. So that the vapor 
from the surface of the body becomes entangled 
in its meshes, and the large amount of heat which 
becomes latent when the water was vaporized is 
again given out. On the contrary, the perspira- 
tion passes through cotton or linen and evapo- 
rates from the external surface without condensa- 
tion, and the loss of heat then continues. Be- 
sides excluding the cold or heat, as the case may 
be, and preserving the normal bodily tempera- 
ture, an electrical action is caused by the friction 
of the wool against the skin, which promotes the HYGIENIC DRESS. 
253 
capillary circulation and stimulates the glands of 
the skin. On first putting on a woolen under- 
garment this friction may be very irritating and 
annoying to the wearer, but after a few days or 
weeks it passes off, to be followed only by a 
delightful sense of warmth. In our cold and 
changeable climate the most comfortable under- 
garment is the “ combination woolen undersuit,” 
which reaches from neck to ankles and has long 
sleeves. An additional good feature which many 
of these garments have is that they are double 
over the chest and abdomen, thus affording addi- 
tional protection to the vital organs. Much 
greater warmth is afforded where the undersuit is 
moderately tight fitting. Such a suit, for the rea- 
sons above given, should be worn the entire year, 
the grade of weight being adapted to the season. 
The feet are the part of the body to come into 
direct contact with the greatest degree of cold, 
whether on the floor of the house or the pave- 
ment of the street. Hence it is a matter of 
prime importance to the entire body that the 
feet should be properly clad. That we are 
dependent on the feet for the power of locomo- 
tion and exercise, without which the whole body 
loses tone and languishes, would be a sufficient 254 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
reason for seeking the welfare of these impor- 
tant members. Care must be taken to have the 
stocking sufficiently loose and long; since wool 
shrinks so greatly in wash- 
ing, the greatest fault of 
the stocking is apt to be 
that it is too short. A 
tight stocking interferes 
with the circulation and 
causes a cold foot, just 
as a tight glove causes 
a cold hand. If the foot 
is already bound by a tight 
stocking, it will avail little 
that the shoe is of the 
proper shape and size. In 
order to hold up the stock- 
ing, a garter, whether 
above or below the knee, 
must be sufficiently tight 
to interfere with the cir- 
culation, and is a pro- 
lific cause of cold feet. That article of dress 
should be relegated to ancient history. The 
stockings should be supported by suspenders from 
the shoulders or corset waist, never from the waist. 
STOCKING SUPPORTERS. HYGIENIC DRESS. 
255 
The shoe, being made according to the shape of 
the normal foot, should be sufficiently large, but 
at the same time tight enough at the instep to 
prevent the foot from slipping forward in the 
shoe, thus artificially producing the effects of a 
pointed and narrow shoe. The heel should be 
flat and large. While a French kid shoe is 
delightful for house wear or for summer time, 
for street wear, in the winter, a heavier leather 
with thicker soles is required, as a protection 
against cold and damp. On a winter’s day an 
instructive study for the elevated car is the 
comparative weight of the covering for man’s 
and woman’s feet. 
The street dress for winter should be warm 
enough to prevent a feeling of chilliness, and yet 
light enough to prevent rapid walking from 
being fatiguing. A woman should never be con- 
fined to the house simply on account of inclem- 
ent weather. For this reason she must con- 
sider her wardrobe incomplete without rubbers 
and some form of “ Mackintosh.” But on no 
account, when she comes into the house, must 
she sit down before she has removed her damp 
skirts. 
The decollete evening dress is both unphysio 256 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
logical and ugly. The entire arm and upper half 
of the chest are exposed, while the low bodice is 
held in place by shoulder-straps. In order to 
maintain the equilibrium of the body temperature 
the body should be equally clothed. If the decol- 
lete dress were constantly worn it would be bad 
enough from a physiological standpoint, but the 
skin would grow accustomed to exposure; it 
would be a severe process of hardening, follow- 
ing the custom of the ancient Spartans; many 
would doubtless succumb, as they do now, but 
the survivors should be remarkably hearty. It 
is the covering up of a part and the uncover- 
ing it that is the most certain way to chill the 
surface. The heavy street dress is worn all 
day; then the woman of fashion takes off her 
dress that is now so extremely high and close- 
fitting around the neck, throws a loose wrap 
over the bare neck and shoulders, and goes 
out into the chill air of a winter’s night. She 
dances in overheated rooms, and at some hour 
in the early morning returns home. Again she 
has wantonly taken life and health in her hands 
in order to display her charms. What, then, shall 
be said of the woman who is foolish enough by 
this mode of dress to display a rough and DECOLLETE DRESS, EVENING DRESS. 
259 
blotched skin, scraggy neck, and poorly-shaped 
arms ? 
But not only is there to be considered the 
danger of laying the seeds of disease from pass- 
ing into cold air while the body is too thinly 
clad, but also the fact that to maintain the heat 
of the body in winter without the aid of warm 
clothing requires a great expenditure of nervous 
energy, which in turn is the equivalent of a 
large amount of life force. Not only is it 
imprudent, but positively injurious to exhaust 
unnecessarily the powers of the body, when 
mere mechanical appliances like clothing will 
obviate this continuous expenditure of vital 
energy. 
Another way that clothes save the wear and tear 
of our bodies is by diminishing the amount of heat 
the system must produce by the oxidation of the 
elements of food. The more thickly clad we are 
the less urgent becomes the appetite for food, 
because the loss by cooling and consequently the 
loss of heat to be supplied by food is diminished. 
According to Epicurus, the philosopher differs 
from the unwise man in this, that while both seek 
pleasure, the former has learned how to deny 
himself certain enjoyments which will cause him 260 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
pain and vexation hereafter ; whereas a foolish 
man seeks only the immediate enjoyment, regard- 
less of future pain which may far outbalance to- 
day’s gratification. 
By this decollete style of dress a medium-sized 
or short woman has just so much decreased her 
apparent stature, as the neck of the dress is cut 
low. This effect is all the more striking if the 
dress is not white. 
A much more becoming dress, and one that 
adds to the apparent height of the wearer, is one 
that is high at the back of the neck and is cut 
out in front so that it forms a graceful curve 
downward to the median line. 
Instead of a covering of fur as a protection 
against the cold, to the human animal was given 
the power of reasoning and judgment, known as 
intelligence, and artificial coverings which could 
be nicely adapted to changes of temperature. 
But “ free will ” may prove a curse as well as a 
blessing. 
It has been said that the work of the creation 
was in a constantly ascending scale. First to be 
created were the fishes of the sea, then the birds 
of the air, the beasts of the field, then man. 
And woman was the last and crowning piece of DECOLLETE EVENING DRESS. 
261 
the creation. And yet for centuries this superior 
creature has been distorting and deforming the 
various parts of her body, instead of having her 
clothing adapted to the form and development of 
the body as nature had made it. 
“ April ist. This is the day upon which we are reminded of 
what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.” 
—Pudd'nhead Wilson’s Calendar. VENUS DE MILO. CHAPTER VI. 
Work, Recreation, Rest, and Sleep, in a Rational Combination as 
a Preservative of Good Temper and Good Health—A Defi- 
nite Occupation a Physical Necessity—Number of Hours 
Allotted to Brain Work—Signs of Overwork—Physiological 
Necessity for Recreation—Number of Hours Required for 
Sleep—Health a Duty from an Ethical Point of View. 
‘ From toil he wins his spirits light, 
From busy day the peaceful night; 
Rich from the very want of wealth, 
In Heaven’s best treasures, peace and health.” 
—Gray. 
“ Prevention is better than cure, and far cheaper.” 
—John Locke. 
We have seen that the anatomical structure of 
the bodies of women and men is the same; that 
in the early days of Greece, in the dawn of Chris- 
tianity, and in the savage races of to-day, where 
the style of dress and the mode of life is the 
same, that women are as large and vigorous as 
men. Since the mind and body of both are 
governed by the same laws of physiology, we 
must conclude that if a definite and fixed occu- 
pation is necessary as a basis of morals in man, it 266 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
is no less so in woman. If the young man out of 
college, with no definite employment, find that 
“ easy is the descent to Avernus,” the young 
woman out of school just as surely finds that 
“idleness is the hotbed of hysteria, manifested 
in all manner of vaporish complaints, of many ills 
and evils, of inanity, if not of insanity.” 
When a girl leaves school, which she should con- 
sider the very alphabet of her education instead 
of the end of it, she should prepare herself for 
some definite occupation, some life work, just as 
her brother does. The vast majority of American 
women are obliged to do some sort of work in 
order to support themselves or help support their 
families. In addition, the conditions of social 
life in America are such that the woman of 
wealth to-day may be penniless to-morrow. 
There is yet a third class of women who are not 
obliged to work in order to support themselves, 
but who work from preference. And, indeed, the 
world has at last opened its eyes to the fact that 
all women cannot be ivies, because there are not 
oaks enough to go around. And what if your oak 
should be struck by lightning and you were left 
trailing on the ground to be trampled on ? 
For her physical well-being every woman should WORK A PHYSICAL NECESSITY. 
267 
have some definite work which she is obliged to 
do, the doing of which will afford her pleasure, 
and which at the same 
time will arouse her am- 
bition. As an element of 
health, Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton places next to 
freedom of locomotion and 
individual independence, 
the necessity of remuner- 
ative employment and 
pleasant mental occupa- 
tion. 
Let every girl get the 
best possible education 
that her circumstances 
will permit. And the word 
education is used here in 
its full and broadest ety- 
mological significance, that is—to nourish the 
body, to develop the physical powers, to lead 
out and train the mental powers, to enlighten 
the understanding, to discipline the intellect, 
to form and regulate the principles and charac- 
ter, so to round out and to perfect both mind and 
body as to prepare and fit it for any calling or 
THE IVY AND THE OAK. 
“ She twined herself around 
the strong, resolute man as the 
slender vine clings to the mighty 
oak for protection and support.” 
—Popular Novel. 268 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
business, or for any activity and usefulness in life. 
Keep ever before you the fact that the develop- 
ment of the mind and body go hand in hand, for 
these two are co-workers. In Greece both the 
philosopher and gymnasiarch gave instruction at 
the academy and lyceum. 
A classical education added to a vigorous body 
greatly enlarges the list of occupations from 
which a woman may select her life work. It 
opens up innumerable avenues of enjoyment 
otherwise closed, and last but not least, it 
broadens the spirit, making the possessor more 
charitable and a better citizen. 
Dr. Beard gives to the varied brain workers a 
value of life of fourteen years above the average. 
The brain-working classes are less disposed to 
worry, less apprehensive of indefinite evils, and 
less disposed to magnify minute trials than those 
who live by the labor of their hands. 
In all avocations the cry comes up that 
women are underpaid for doing the same work as 
men. Heretofore they have not been equally 
well prepared for the work undertaken; now they 
are obliged to live down the reputation of doing 
an inferior quality of work. First, be thoroughly 
well equipped for the work you would undertake, WORK A PHYSICAL NECESSITY. 
269 
be it that of a cook or of a learned profession; 
then show by the way you do your work that 
you are a master workman. You will eventually 
become indispensable and can command your 
own price. 
If you would be a success in your occupation, 
you must first nicely gauge your own physical 
ability. This you will do by a knowledge of your 
hereditary family history and your family phy- 
sician. No woman who has weak lungs or in 
whose family there is a tendency to consumption 
should become a seamstress or a clerk in a store. 
Choose rather some active occupation that will 
call you out of doors as much as possible. Then 
comes the question of intellectual education and 
mental ability ; undertake nothing that you are 
not well equipped for. To aim higher than is 
possible to reach is to waste strength in useless 
effort. 
All occupations and professions are so over- 
crowded that competition is exceedingly keen ; 
add to this that your work is going to be more 
strictly scanned from the very fact that you are 
a woman, and it is evident that in order to be an 
assured success you will need every possible 
advantage on your side. For it has been wisely 270 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
said that in order to succeed equally well a 
woman must do better work than her male com- 
petitor. 
Again, in selecting an occupation, it must be 
one for which you have a taste or natural bent, 
an employment the very act of which will be a 
source of constant enjoyment to you, in the do- 
ing of which you become oblivious to everything 
else, even your own existence. It is an aphorism 
that no man can do well unless he takes a pleas- 
ure in what he is doing. With a distaste for the 
occupation selected, it becomes a very drudgery. 
In looking ahead over the possible vista of years 
during which you must continue at this same 
work, you grow disheartened and success be- 
comes impossible. 
And finally, in selecting an occupation be sure 
that the income from it will be sufficient for your 
absolute maintenance. Remember the axiom of 
Lord Lytton, “ The chief part of one’s expendi- 
ture is the unforeseen.” 
Having selected an occupation for which you 
are in every way adapted, in preparing for it do 
not overdrive and carelessly expose yourself. 
Be at least as thoughtful for your own future as 
the horse-trainer is for his horse. Always bear A DEFINITE OCCUPATION. 
271 
in mind that the first requisite to success in life 
is to become a good animal. Let your powers 
be trained to act harmoniously, so that there 
need be no waste of effort in any direction. 
Let not that woman who is going to become 
the head of a household think that she at least 
has no need of any particular preparation. It 
is one of the greatest fallacies of the day that 
women are born housekeepers, as too many 
unhappy homes in America testify. House- 
keeping is a distinct and a very arduous occupa- 
tion. On the woman of the family falls most 
heavily the burden of social competition ; she 
must be able to turn a small income to the best 
account, by dexterity to make something out of 
nothing. It has been well said: “ It needs the 
head of a diplomat to get hold of the money, 
and the wisdom of a commissary general to 
dispense it to the best advantage.” 
Assuredly for the physical well-being work is 
excellent in moderation. If you would accom- 
plish anything worth while in the world, and be 
fit to live with, don’t try to see how much 
you can do in twenty-four hours. You may 
succeed in running the machine at such a rate 
for one year that it will be so worn out by 272 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
friction that it will have to be laid aside for five 
years, if not for all time, before it can be used 
again. Try to break a tough cord and it is hard 
work, but keep it stretched to its utmost and it 
becomes an easy matter. 
Brain work to be beneficial must be regulated 
with the utmost care. During the exercise of 
the brain there is always an increased blood 
supply to it. If the exercise is continued too 
long there is a tendency for the blood to remain 
in too great quantity, due to the exhaustion of the 
nerve cells which are no longer able to control 
the vessels. During sleep the blood supply to 
the brain is diminished, and the cells recover 
themselves. But if this hyperaemia of the brain 
be persistently kept up, sleep becomes impos- 
sible, the brain cells have no opportunity to be- 
come repaired, and their activity is diminished. 
Richardson says (Long Life and How to 
Reach it, by John G. Richardson), “Making all 
allowance for differences, even in the prime 
of their mental and physical vigor, few individ- 
uals can exceed six, and for most persons pru- 
dence would direct not more than four or five 
hours of close mental application, without seri- 
ously endangering their health.” NUMBER OF HOURS FOR BRAIN WORK. 
273 
No real advantage is gained by eight to ten 
hours of daily study, since the memory and 
reasoning power become so exhausted that the 
assimilation of ideas becomes slower and more 
difficult. When in his prime Walter Scott 
declared that six hours a day was all that he 
could profitably spend upon his literary com- 
positions. In later years, because of pecuniary 
embarrassment, he worked beyond this limit, and 
as the result of excessive labor, his last years 
were spent in hopeless imbecility. 
Every individual runs a physical bank account, 
and every day she adds to, at the same time that 
she draws from it. But that it may be run on a 
satisfactory basis the average daily expenditure 
must not exceed the daily income. Further 
than this, everyone must have a reserve fund of 
strength in her body bank to meet emergencies, 
such as accidents, contagious diseases, periods 
of enforced overwork, etc. 
Just as a firm may trade beyond its capital 
without any but the best intentions, so a woman 
may work beyond her strength, but the stability 
of the firm or of the individual is imperiled. 
Slight disturbing causes are more readily felt and 
their effects more serious. 274 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
As by means of a bill an individual is enabled 
to anticipate her income and draw upon capital, 
otherwise beyond her reach, so by stimulants a 
woman is enabled to draw upon her reserve fund. 
But unless these loans to herself are repaid, 
bankruptcy in the end is inevitable. A woman 
is physically exhausted ; by means of a stimulant 
she accomplishes to-day work that otherwise 
would have been impossible. Her expenditure 
has exceeded her income. She has used to-day 
force that belonged to to-morrow. The process 
is not illimitable. Her capital is impaired—she 
becomes invalid. The bankruptcy is usually 
precipitated by some accident, some exposure, or 
a failure of the vital powers to accommodate 
themselves to severe changes of the weather. 
The unforeseen, unexpected expenditure works 
the woman’s physical wreck. 
It is not simply that a woman can live through 
a life which would have served her half as long 
again, and die worn-out because her physiologi- 
cal capital was spent long before its time, but 
that she may continue to exist bedridden for 
many years, or perhaps just able to drag around, 
or her last years may be spent in an insane asylum. 
Signs of overwork show themselves in irrita- SIGNS OF OVERWORK. 
275 
bility, with a sense of exhaustion, the irritability 
being due to an exhaustion of the nerve centers. 
Work becomes irksome. There are periods of 
depression and melancholia which recur at 
shorter and shorter intervals, and continue for a 
longer time. There is slight loss of memory, 
together with inability to concentrate the mind 
upon any given subject for any considerable 
length of time, although the power of thought 
and judgment is not impaired. There are 
sleepless nights, ringing in the ears, fatigue from 
the slightest exertion, an irregular action of 
the heart with palpitation, and a frequent 
desire to urinate. Various forms of pain and 
neuralgias occur. There may as yet be no loss 
of flesh or impairment of the appetite. But 
this condition of cerebral anaemia furnishes 
the possessor with a pair of blue spectacles 
through which the intelligence must look, and 
which throw their own color over everything. 
Distressing dreams and unrefreshing sleep allow 
the brain little opportunity for either rest or 
repair. The mind becomes as sensitive as the 
skin after a blister. And the calm, vigorous 
mental labor is superseded by feverish anxiety, 
wearing responsibility, and vexing chagrin. 276 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
The human body is provided with two senti- 
nels or guardians of its welfare. The first of 
these is Fatigue. This sentinel calls for a halt in 
order that the body may have time for needed 
repair. Force your way past this sentinel and 
continue on your way, and the next sentinel after 
the stage of exhaustion is past is Pain. And as 
Fatigue has pointed to the. need of repair, Pain 
points to threatened or active injury to nerve 
tissues. Neuralgia or pain in the nerves is 
caused by mental pain in the brain cells. When 
they are well fed and fresh, the individual enjoys 
a feeling of bien-etre and energy; when ill fed 
and exhausted, the contrary conditions of dis- 
comfort and languor exist. Anstie has called 
neuralgia “ the cry of the nerves for food.” 
When the brain is well supplied by a powerful 
circulation, and a rich blood supply from a good 
digestion furnishes it with an abundance of pabu- 
lum, the cares of life are born with equanimity 
and cheerfulness. One of the most unerring 
signs of failing health is the inability to with- 
stand the pressure of these same daily cares. 
When the cares that formerly sat lightly on the 
shoulders become a well-nigh unsupportable 
burden, a state has been reached where the mind SIGNS OF OVERWORK. 
2 77 
reacts on the body. Sudden grief or fright pro- 
duces cold by arresting the circulation ; and it 
may be retarded by anxiety. This result is 
brought about in a two-fold manner, the action 
of the heart itself is slowed, and through the 
nerves the caliber of the minute arteries is 
diminished. Instead of loading the body with 
clothing, the “ chilly ” should search out the 
physical cause of their coldness. 
It is readily evident that worry is bred of 
exhaustion, but if indulged in it becomes a fixed 
habit, and the mind rapidly becomes settled in a 
state of gloom. 
There’s many a trouble 
Would burst like a bubble, 
And into the waters of Lethe depart, 
Did we not rehearse it 
And tenderly nurse it, 
And give it a permanent place in the heart. 
There’s many a sorrow 
Would vanish to-morrow 
Were we but willing to furnish the wings. 
So sadly intruding 
And quietly brooding 
It hatches all manner of horrible things.” 
Of all the mental attributes the emotions are 
the most exhausting. It is not the natural and 
reasonable intellectual work that injures the brain. 278 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
but the various emotions: ambition, anxiety, dis- 
appointment, the hopes and fears, the loves and 
hates of our lives, that wear out the nervous sys- 
tem and endanger the balance of the brain. A 
woman can spend more of her strength in five 
minutes of unnatural mental excitement than in 
a day of calm, steady brain work. 
The center of the emotion of felicity is 
situated in the great ganglia of the sympathetic 
nervous system, lying near the stomach and on 
the heart. The opposite condition of a sinking 
at the stomach and a pain at the heart is known 
to everyone; while the seat of melancholy is 
situated under the lower ribs. 
Richardson gives as the necessary requisites to 
secure felicity (B. W. Richardson, Felicity as a 
Sanitary Research), “ First and most important, 
eight hours of sleep in the twenty-four ; next to 
sleep, moderate and wholesome mental work : it 
strengthens the mind, it softens grief, it lessens 
care ; third, physical work; fourth, strength of 
body. In other words, felicity is another word 
for health, and depends on the good working of 
the animal system.” 
When a woman is too exhausted to go any 
longer, she is very apt to rest by sitting down SIGNS OF OVERWORK. 
279 
and doing some necessary mending, instead of 
extending at full length on a couch or bed, and 
so being able to relax the wearied muscles of 
the back and arms and the back of the neck. 
Remember the Arabian proverb, “ It is better, 
that is, more restful, to be sitting than standing, 
better to be lying than sitting, better to be asleep 
than awake.” 
The woman who is ambitious to accomplish 
the most and best work possible will find that 
one hour’s rest at a fixed hour every afternoon 
will do far more for her than stimulants, and 
instead of breaking down under her work it will 
enable her to hold her own. In order to obtain 
the greatest good from this hour’s rest, she must 
first have it understood by her friends and ser- 
vants that during this time no one is to come to 
her room. Knowing that she will have no calls 
upon her breaks the qui vive which she is 
under for the rest of the day. Then, disrobing 
just as if it were night, she will lie down to sleep 
in a darkened room. On making her toilet after 
this, she will feel refreshed and invigorated and 
able to enjoy her work instead of “ dragging 
around.” 
The daily siesta is good, but not sufficient. 280 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
History shows that the laws of all nations have 
prescribed a certain number of days of rest, or at 
least change of occupation, and that these days 
were fixed at more or less regular intervals. This 
was partly from a religious point of view, but it 
was also partly from a hygienic standpoint. The 
necessity of an interruption of the regular work 
has always been admitted and prescribed. Cer- 
tainly as much care is due the human family as is 
given to horses. While this rest or change of 
occupation is essential to the well-being of every 
one, the failure to observe this law of nature is 
most severely visited upon the dwellers in cities 
who follow an intellectual or sedentary pursuit. 
For in both cases they are shut up in the con- 
fined air of a house, and the too-continuous 
application is apt to be followed by an impair- 
ment of digestion and loss of appetite and sleep. 
On the other hand, statistics show that the heavi- 
est percentage of insanity falls on farmers’ wives. 
The supposed cause of this is the monotony of 
their occupations. 
The recourse to stimulants by day in order 
to accomplish the ordinary day’s task, and seda- 
tives at night to enable the individual to sleep, is 
both pernicious and irrational. The inert nerve NECESSITY FOR RECREATION. 
281 
centers have no reserve of energy to give out, so 
it is worse than useless to stimulate them. In 
this class of cases alcohol cannot possibly be 
harmless. Over-stimulation of the lower centers 
is the evil to be avoided, and alcohol never in- 
creases the power of the higher centers; it only 
irritates them and in the long run interferes with 
their nutrition. On the other hand the nerve 
centers are at too low an ebb to be able to react 
from the depressing effects of sedatives, which to 
these individuals are positively injurious. The 
aim must be to promote nutrition, and the only 
way to do this is to naturally exercise the part to 
be nourished. A man’s body, like his clothing, 
wears out in certain places first, and not alto- 
gether. Some organs degenerate from under- 
employment, others from over-use. 
And this indicates the kind of recreation to be 
sought after. That is, to be healthful, recreation 
must be as its name implies, a process of recreat- 
ing or reconstructing. An animal to be beauti- 
ful must possess symmetry. Anyone who de- 
votes herself to an intellectual or sedentary pur- 
suit must at the same time provide exercise for 
the body ; while the woman who is engaged in 
manual labor must develop the mind by reading 282 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
and study. To class “fancy work” among the 
recreations for women is one of the machina- 
tions of the Evil One. It is a labor and a very 
severe one, and should be classed with hand 
sewing. It calls the same muscles into play 
and is productive of the same evils. It recre- 
ates nothing, but leads on to exhaustion, and if 
continued long enough produces a paralysis 
similar to “ writers’ cramp.” The woman of 
sedentary occupation must have for her recrea- 
tion something which will keep her on her feet, 
and call into play the various muscles of the 
body; while the housewife, who has been doing 
heavy manual labor, wants to make herself com- 
fortable in an easy chair and forget her cares 
in a book or paper. The one class of women who 
can safeiy indulge in “ fancy work ” is that un- 
fortunate class to whom the keen enjoyment of 
recreation is hopelessly denied, that is, the class 
who have no occupation. 
The first thing which is necessary for a woman 
with a literary or sedentary occupation—and to 
the latter class belong clerks—to convince herself 
of is, that her feelings are no safe guide as to the 
amount of muscular exercise that is necessary to 
maintain full and sustained health. The system NECESSITY FOR RECREATION. 
283 
accommodates itself to the neglect of sufficient 
exercise, so that not only may a desire for exer- 
cise cease to be a fair measure of its needs, but 
positive exhaustion may attend a much less 
amount of exercise than is necessary to a contin- 
uance of sound health. However strong a 
woman may feel in spite of her neglect of exer- 
cise, she must know that she is playing a dan- 
gerous game, which can only end in disease. 
Among women there is no other one source of 
disease and early death more prevalent than this 
habitual neglect of exercise. 
Care must be taken that this recreation, which 
is at first an enjoyment and relaxation, is not 
turned into labor. The moment that anyone 
strains every nerve to excel in a game, that 
moment it ceases to be a relaxation. In order to 
obtain the greatest benefit there should be the 
greatest variety possible in the kind of recrea. 
tion, to relieve the monotony and also to bring 
into action all the muscles of the body. 
Pleasure days tend to offset the tedium of 
monotonous toil, as gymnastic exercises tend to 
counteract the influences of sedentary occupa- 
tions. The Greeks and Romans both recognized 
the necessity. The Greeks had their monthly 284 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
holidays, beside their annual revels and great 
national festivals. The early history of the Ro- 
mans shows that the rulers themselves provided 
the means of public amusements. At the time 
of the death of Septimus Severus, 211 A. D., the 
capital alone had six free amphitheaters and 
twelve to fourteen large public baths, where the 
poorest were admitted gratis, and no one else 
could complain of the half cent entrance fee to 
the luxurious thermae. 
It is a well-known fact that any one kind of 
crops will exhaust the best soil, but few people 
recognize the necessity for a change of occupa- 
tion and recreation in order to produce the best 
mental and physical results. Joyless drudgery 
drains the springs of health. There is a mental 
starvation due to the lack of recreation, as well as 
the physical due to the lack of bread. The 
French aristocrats, noted for the gayety of their 
pastimes, in spite of dietetic and other sins, fur- 
nish a remarkable list of longevity. Persons of a 
cheerful disposition are generally long-lived, and 
anything tending to counteract the influence of 
worry and discontent directly contributes to the 
preservation of health. Despair can paralyze the 
energy of the vital functions like a sudden 285 
NECESSITY FOR RECREATION. 
poison, while hope fulfilled has cured may a dis- 
ease. Ennui has never made a human being 
better or more industrious. The first Napoleon 
relieved the monotony of camp life with Olympic 
festivities, and in return could rely on his men to 
endure fatigues that would have killed the bar- 
rack slaves of his enemies. Fun and laughter 
are the most effective cordials of the Materia 
Medica, and tired humanity owes a deep debt to 
the guild of humorists. 
‘ Hang sorrow ! care will kill a cat, 
And therefore let’s be merry.” 
A horse cannot gallop as many hours as it can 
walk, and a daily task is the sum total of what 
man or beast can do compatibly with health. 
To combine a day of toil with a second of 
amusement in one twenty-four hours does not 
give the proper allowance for sleep, and cannot 
be done without injury to the individual. 
The amount of sleep required by the healthy 
adult is proportionate to the waste of vital 
strength, whether muscular exercise, intellectual 
labor, or emotional prodigality. The medical 
authorities of to-day are pretty well agreed that 
eight hours of sleep is the minimum required for 286 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
the maintenance of health. And all concede 
that the brain worker requires more sleep than 
the laborer. 
During sleep the brain is in a comparatively 
bloodless condition. Dr. Caldwell records the 
case of a woman at Montpelier, who had lost 
part of her skull by disease, the brain and part of 
its membranes lying bare. When she was in a 
deep and sound sleep the brain lay in the skull 
almost motionless, when she was dreaming it be- 
came elevated, and when she awoke it became 
suffused with blood and seemed inclined to rise 
through the cranial aperture. (Psychological 
Journal, vol. v, p. 74.) 
Every muscle or group of muscles has a dis- 
tinct representative in the nervous system, to a 
certain extent in the spinal cord, and to a better 
determined extent in the brain itself. Experi- 
ments in blood pressure show that a change in 
the circulation takes place within the skull after 
every particular movement vigorously performed. 
In other words, a brain response is called out by 
every muscular movement. 
Every moment after the feeling of languor 
presents itself is a strain upon the nerves and 
muscles, which will sooner or later invalidate for AMOUNT OF SLEEP REQUIRED. 
287 
life, and finally bring its victim to a premature 
grave. Habitual deficiency of sleep will under- 
mine the strongest constitution. King Alfred, 
Spinoza, Kepler, Victor Alfieri, Mme. de Stael, 
and Schiller, killed themselves with restless 
study. Beethoven and Charles Dickens prob- 
ably prepaid the debt of nature by their habit 
of fighting fatigue with strong coffee. On 
the other hand Mirabeau, Goethe, and James 
Quinn often slept from twelve to fourteen 
hours. 
The Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage says, “ Because 
Napoleon only slept three hours a night, hundreds 
of students have tried the experiment; but 
instead of Austerlitz and Saragossa, there came 
of it only a sick-headache and a botch of a reci- 
tation.” And adds that he himself requires 
nine hours of sleep out of the twenty-four, 
eight at night and one in the afternoon. “If 
the world abuses us at any time, we go and 
take an extra sleep, and when we wake up 
all the world is smiling on us. If we come to 
a knotty point in our discourse, we take a 
sleep, and when we open our eyes the opaque 
has become transparent.” 
James Payn, the novelist and correspondent, 288 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
considers that for literary people ten hours of 
sleep is essential. 
Study the habits of our slow-plodding, sturdy- 
bodied, European cousins and learn of them to 
mingle rest and recreation with work. No one 
goes at such a pace as the ambitious American, 
and so he finds only time enough to sip his 
enjoyments in a concentrated form. Recre- 
ation of the mind is too often bought at the ex- 
pense of an overwearied body. This, instead of 
strengthening and refreshing the overworked 
nervous system, but fatigues it in a new direction. 
Experience has proven that even the most intel- 
ligent minds, although they seem lucky in the 
upward struggle, suddenly give out just as suc- 
cess is within their grasp. 
“ Neurasthenia ” or nervous prostration first 
saw the light in the United States, and was 
christened by Beard an American disease that is 
absent from no household where the inmates use 
their brains. Who does not know the varied 
premonitory symptoms of this disease? the pres- 
sure of the head, feeling sometimes as if bound 
by a hoop, the pain in the back of the head and 
neck, ringing in the ears, sensitiveness to light, 
irritability, palpitation of the heart, cold AMOUNT OF SLEEP REQUIRED. 
289 
extremities, and various sensations of fear and 
oppression. 
When the locomotive goes too fast and is not 
allowed proper time to rest between its trips, 
from the rapidity of the revolution of the wheels 
the axle becomes heated to such an extent that 
fire breaks out, which if not stopped may con- 
sume the train. But by turning off the steam, 
the motion of the engine, which has been whirl- 
ing the train to destruction, is stopped. 
To secure the best results and refreshing sleep, 
regularity in the hour of retiring should be 
observed. And active brain work must not be 
continued until bedtime, else the brain will be 
so active as to banish sleep from the pillow. 
The vigorous use of a flesh-brush, a few minutes 
of gymnastic exercise, a hot plunge, or a hot foot- 
bath, are no mean hypnotics. And it is only 
during sleep that the brain is absolutely at rest. 
When the fall of mercury makes one bring out 
her winter clothing, there should be a heavy 
blanket placed between the sheet and hair mat- 
tress. Since hair is an excellent conductor of 
heat, it is very hurtful to have the body, the 
temperature of which falls during sleep, in direct 
contact with it. Women who are subject to 29O 
HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
rheumatism and neuralgia should prevent the 
touch of cold, unsympathetic sheets, by sleeping 
in woolen nightgowns, as the inhabitants of 
foreign countries do. On getting into bed on a 
cold winter’s night, the sensation produced 
should be that of delightful warmth stealing over 
the body, which is most conducive to pleasant 
and refreshing sleep. 
“ Now blessings light on him who first invented 
this same sleep! It covers a man all over, 
thoughts and all, like a cloak ; it is meat for the 
hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, 
and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that 
purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and 
the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, 
the fool and the wise man even.” (Cervantes.) 
Health gauges to a great degree the capacity 
for work as well as for happiness. So that by 
keeping our own health at its highest point of 
efficiency, we are able to do the most possible for 
the benefit of the community, by giving them 
the benefit of the best efforts that we are able to 
put forth. So that from a mere ethical point of 
view the care of the health becomes a most 
important duty. To this end there must be a 
careful study of all the laws of health. THE SLEEPING ARIADNE. HEALTH AN ETHICAL DUTY. 
293 
Evidences of sound health are : first, individual 
adaptability or the capacity of the individual to 
easily adapt herself to extremely opposite con- 
ditions of existence; second, endurance, or the 
capacity to do a considerable amount of bodily 
or mental labor for a short time without suffering 
fatigue, or to be able quickly to recover from the 
fatigue; third, to be able to control the emo- 
tions ; fourth, to be able to resist morbific influ- 
ence, that is, a capacity on the part of the sound 
organs of excretion to quickly eliminate all 
poisons from the system. 
The signs of debility are just the reverse: first, 
deformity, obesity, or leanness ; second, personal 
inadaptability, that is, when physical or mental 
discomfort is caused by such slight provocations 
as change of food, clothing, or climate ; third, lack 
of endurance, so that a long rest is required to 
repair the fatigue incident to slight exertion ; 
fourth, lack of control of the emotions; fifth, a 
proclivity to morbific influences, so that the indi- 
vidual succumbs to every contagion or miasm 
that she encounters. 
“ A sound and vigorous body is a great help to 
clear thinking and sound reasoning, and a great 
incentive to right action. An enfeebled consti-  HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
294 
tution is a poor preparation for the race of life. 
When we consider what inroads are made upon 
the happiness of man by reason of pain and suf- 
fering, what limitations are placed upon his work 
on account of physical weakness and disease 
which might have been prevented by proper hy- 
gienic instruction, we shall realize more fully the 
importance of the subject.” (Prof. A. E. Jones, 
Annals of Hygiene, January, 1889.) 
“ The proper study of mankind is man,” and 
yet, with the accumulated wisdom of the centur- 
ies, how infinitely less does the average woman 
know about herself than any other subject! 
“ If you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” 
(John xiii. 17.) 
THE END