HEALTH LESSONS
BOOK I
BY
ALVIN DAVISON, M.S., A.M., Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY IN LAFAYETTE COLLEGE
NEW YORK ❖ CINCINNATI ❖ CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
Copyright, 1910, by
ALVIN DAVISON.
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London.
HEALTH LESSONS. BK. 1.
W. P. 6
PREFACE
Scarcely one half of the children of our countrycontinue in school much beyond the fifth grade. It isimportant, therefore, that so far as possible the knowledgewhich has most to do with human welfare should bepresented in the early years of school life.
Fisher, Metchnikoff, Sedgwick, and others have shownthat the health of a people influences the prosperity andhappiness of a nation more than any other one thing.The highest patriotism is therefore the conservation ofhealth. The seven hundred thousand lives annuallydestroyed by infectious diseases and the million otherserious cases of sickness from contagious maladies, withall their attendant suffering, are largely sacrifices on thealtar of ignorance. The loving mother menaces the lifeof her babe by feeding it milk with a germ content nearlyhalf as great as that of sewage, the anemic girl sleepswith fast-closed windows, wondering in the morning whyshe feels so lifeless, and the one-time vigorous boy goesto a consumptive's early grave, because they did not know(what every school ought to teach) the way to health.
Doctor Price, the Secretary of the State Board of Healthof Maryland, recently said before the American PublicHealth Association that the text-books of our schools showa marked disregard for the urgent problems which enter[Pg 6]our daily life, such as the prevention of tuberculosis,typhoid fever, and acute infectious diseases.
Since the observing public have seen educated communitiesdecrease their death rate from typhoid fever,tuberculosis, and diphtheria from one third to threefourths by heeding the health call, lawmakers are becomingconvinced that the needless waste of human life shouldbe stopped. Michigan has already decreed that everyschool child shall be taught the cause and prevention ofthe communicable diseases, and several other states arecontemplating like action. This book meets fully thedemands of all such laws as are contemplated, and presentsthe important truths not by dogmatic assertion, but byciting specific facts appealing to the child mind in sucha way as to make a lasting impression.
After the eleventh year of age, the first cause of deathamong school children is tuberculosis. The chief aim ofthe author has been to show the child the sure way ofprevent