Civics and Health | Page 2

wildwood play, saw sermons in stones and books in
the running brooks. We moderns find a drama in the fateful lives of
ordinary mortals, sermons in their physical salvation from some of the
ills that flesh is heir to, and books--like this of Dr. Allen's--in striving
to teach mankind how to become happier, and healthier, and more
useful members of society.
Dr. Allen is undoubtedly a reformer, but of the modern, not the ancient,
type. He is a prophet crying in our present wilderness; but he is more
than a prophet, for he is always intensely practical, insisting, as he does,

on getting things done, and done soon, and done right.
No one can read this volume, or even its chapter-headings, without
surprise and rejoicing: surprise, that the physical basis of effective
citizenship has hitherto been so utterly neglected in America; rejoicing,
that so much in the way of the prevention of incapacity and
unhappiness can be so easily done, and is actually beginning to be
done.
The gratitude of every lover of his country and his kind is due to the
author for his interesting and vivid presentation of the outlines of a
subject fundamental to the health, the happiness, and the well-being of
the people, and hence of the first importance to every American
community, every American citizen.
WILLIAM T. SEDGWICK
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS

PART I. HEALTH RIGHTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. HEALTH A CIVIC OBLIGATION 3
II. SEVEN HEALTH MOTIVES AND SEVEN CATCHWORDS 11
III. WHAT HEALTH RIGHTS ARE NOT ENFORCED IN YOUR
COMMUNITY? 23

IV. THE BEST INDEX TO COMMUNITY HEALTH IS THE
PHYSICAL WELFARE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN 33

PART II. READING THE INDEX TO
HEALTH RIGHTS
V. MOUTH BREATHING 45
VI. CATCHING DISEASES, COLDS, DISEASED GLANDS 57
VII. EYE STRAIN 72
VIII. EAR TROUBLE, MALNUTRITION, DEFORMITIES 83
IX. DENTAL SANITATION 89
X. ABNORMALLY BRIGHT CHILDREN 104
XI. NERVOUSNESS OF TEACHER AND PUPIL 107
XII. HEALTH VALUE OF "UNBOSSED" PLAY AND PHYSICAL
TRAINING 115
XIII. VITALITY TESTS AND VITAL STATISTICS 124
XIV. IS YOUR SCHOOL MANUFACTURING PHYSICAL
DEFECTS? 139
XV. THE TEACHER'S HEALTH 152

PART III. COÖPERATION IN MEETING
HEALTH OBLIGATIONS

XVI. EUROPEAN REMEDIES: DOING THINGS AT SCHOOL 159
XVII. AMERICAN REMEDIES: GETTING THINGS DONE 166
XVIII. COÖPERATION WITH DISPENSARIES AND
CHILD-SAVING AGENCIES 174
XIX. SCHOOL SURGERY AND RELIEF OBJECTIONABLE, IF
AVOIDABLE 184
XX. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION FOR WORKING PAPERS 190
XXI. PERIODICAL PHYSICAL EXAMINATION AFTER SCHOOL
AGE 201
XXII. HABITS OF HEALTH PROMOTE INDUSTRIAL
EFFICIENCY 208
XXIII. INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE 218
XXIV. THE LAST DAYS OF TUBERCULOSIS 229
XXV. THE FIGHT FOR CLEAN MILK 252
XXVI. PREVENTIVE "HUMANIZED" MEDICINE: PHYSICIAN
AND TEACHER 268

PART IV. OFFICIAL MACHINERY FOR
ENFORCING HEALTH RIGHTS
XXVII. DEPARTMENTS OF SCHOOL HYGIENE 283
XXVIII. PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL HYGIENE IN
NEW YORK CITY 296
XXIX. OFFICIAL MACHINERY FOR ENFORCING HEALTH

RIGHTS 302
XXX. SCHOOL AND HEALTH REPORTS 310
XXXI. THE PRESS 322

PART V. ALLIANCE OF HYGIENE,
PATRIOTISM, AND RELIGION
XXXII. DO-NOTHING AILMENTS 329
XXXIII. HEREDITY BUGABOOS AND HEREDITY TRUTHS 335
XXXIV. INEFFECTIVE AND EFFECTIVE WAYS OF
COMBATING ALCOHOLISM 343
XXXV. IS IT PRACTICABLE IN PRESENTING TO CHILDREN
THE EVILS OF ALCOHOLISM TO TELL THE TRUTH, THE
WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH? 357
XXXVI. FIGHTING TOBACCO EVILS 363
XXXVII. THE PATENT-MEDICINE EVIL 369
XXXVIII. HEALTH ADVERTISEMENTS THAT PROMOTE
HEALTH 378
XXXIX. IS CLASS INSTRUCTION IN SEX HYGIENE
PRACTICABLE? 384
XL. THE ELEMENT OF TRUTH IN QUACKERY; HYGIENE OF
THE MIND 391
XLI. "A NATURAL LAW IS AS SACRED AS A MORAL
PRINCIPLE" 398

INDEX 405

CIVICS AND HEALTH


PART I. HEALTH RIGHTS

CHAPTER I
HEALTH A CIVIC OBLIGATION
In forty-five states and territories the teaching of hygiene with special
reference to alcohol and tobacco is made compulsory. To hygiene alone,
of the score of subjects found in our modern grammar-school
curriculum, is given statutory right of way for so many minutes per
week, so many pages per text-book, or so many pages per chapter. For
the neglect of no other study may teachers be removed from office and
fined. Yet school garrets and closets are full of hygiene text-books
unopened or little used, while of all subjects taught by five hundred
thousand American teachers and studied by twenty million American
pupils the least interesting to both teacher and pupil is that forced upon
both by state legislation. To complete the paradox, this least interesting
subject happens also to be the most vital to the child, to the home, to
industry, to social welfare, and to education itself.
Whether the subject of hygiene is necessarily dull, whether the statutes
requiring regular instruction in the laws of health are violated with
impunity, whether health principles are flaunted by health practice at
school,--these are questions of immediate concern to parents as a class,
to employers as a