



Produced by Charlene Taylor, John Campbell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)









  TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

  Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.

  Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
  corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
  the text and consultation of external sources. Misspellings in
  the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.




  PRINCIPLES OF
  PUBLIC HEALTH

  A SIMPLE TEXT BOOK ON HYGIENE
  PRESENTING THE PRINCIPLES FUNDAMENTAL
  TO THE CONSERVATION OF
  INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY HEALTH

  BY THOS. D. TUTTLE, B.S., M.D.

  SECRETARY AND EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF
  THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH OF MONTANA

  [Illustration: (publisher's colophon)]

  YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
  WORLD BOOK COMPANY
  1910




CONSERVATION OF HEALTH

  "Our national health is physically our greatest asset. To prevent
  any possible deterioration of the American stock should be a
  national ambition."--THEODORE ROOSEVELT.


_The conservation of individual and national health is the keynote
of these books_

PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC HEALTH

  By THOS. D. TUTTLE, M.D., Secretary and Executive Officer of the
  State Board of Health of Montana. Illustrated. Cloth. vii + 186
  pages. List price 50 cents, mailing price 60 cents.

PRIMER OF HYGIENE

  By JOHN W. RITCHIE, of the College of William and Mary in
  Virginia, and JOSEPH S. CALDWELL, of the George Peabody College
  for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee. Illustrated. Cloth. vi + 184
  pages. List price 40 cents, mailing price 48 cents.

PRIMER OF SANITATION

  By JOHN W. RITCHIE. Illustrated. Cloth. vi + 200 pages. List
  price 50 cents, mailing price 60 cents.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY

  By JOHN W. RITCHIE. Illustrated in black and colors. Cloth. vi +
  362 pages. List price 80 cents, mailing price 96 cents.


  WORLD BOOK COMPANY
  CASPAR W. HODGSON, _Manager_
  YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK


  _Copyright, 1910, by World Book Company. All rights reserved_




INTRODUCTION


The earliest history of remote ages describes methods employed in
combating disease, and down through all the centuries the struggle
against infection has been going on. The science of health as
applied in recent years reveals wonderful progress in the avoidance
of disease, and in the control of the violent epidemics by which
in the past nations were almost exterminated. Modern methods of
hygiene and sanitation as applied to public health have robbed
smallpox and diphtheria of their death-dealing power; cholera and
yellow fever have been forced to retreat before the victorious
hosts of applied medical science; tuberculosis, the greatest foe
of human life, is slowly but surely receding before the determined
efforts of modern preventive medicine.

By nature man is endowed with resistive power sufficient to ward
off most forms of disease, provided he keeps his health at a normal
standard by right living. If, however, he allows his health to
become impaired by reason of overwork, bad habits, wilful exposure
to contagion or unhealthful surroundings, he readily falls a prey
to disease.

The author of _Principles of Public Health_ has here set forth the
general rules of life by the observance of which every adult and
every child not only can do much to preserve his own health but
also can prove himself a prominent factor in raising the standard
of public health. A campaign of education is demanded to arrest the
enormous loss of life which is carrying so many to untimely graves,
and the instruction given in this volume will be of inestimable
value in teaching people how to avoid avoidable disease.

The author has not attempted to deal with all the diseases that
may be classed as preventable; as the work is intended for use in
the public schools, only such diseases are mentioned as it seems
fitting to present to school children. To teach our children a
proper respect for their own health and for the community welfare
is to fit them for the best citizenship.

  E. A. PIERCE, M. D.

  PORTLAND, OREGON




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


The author wishes to express his sincere appreciation of the
valuable assistance rendered in the preparation of this work
by Dr. S. T. Armstrong, of New York City; Dr. H. Wheeler Bond,
Commissioner of Health, St. Louis, Missouri; Dr. H. M. Bracken,
Secretary and Executive Officer of the State Board of Health of
Minnesota; J. S. Caldwell, Professor of Biology, George Peabody
College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee; R. J. Condon,
Superintendent of Schools, Providence, Rhode Island; Mrs. Nona B.
Eddy, of the Public Schools of Helena, Montana; Dr. F. M. McMurray,
of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City; Miss
Jessie B. Montgomery, Supervising Critic in Training School, State
Normal School, Terre Haute, Indiana; Dr. E. A. Pierce, Secretary
and Executive Officer of the State Board of Health of Oregon.




CONTENTS


      PART I--THE FIGHT FOR HEALTH

  CHAPTER                                                    PAGE

       I.  CONSTANT DANGER OF ILLNESS                            1

      II.  THE NECESSITY OF CARING FOR THE BODY                  4

     III.  HOW CLOTHING AFFECTS HEALTH                           9

      IV.  THE USES OF FOOD                                     14

       V.  CARE OF FOOD--MEATS                                  18

      VI.  CARE OF FOOD--MILK                                   22

     VII.  DECOMPOSITION OF FOOD                                30

    VIII.  HARM DONE BY IMPROPER COOKING                        34

      IX.  HOW NEATNESS, CHEERFULNESS, AND GOOD MANNERS
             PROMOTE HEALTH                                     37

       X.  DANGERS FROM POOR TEETH                              41

      XI.  NECESSITY FOR PURE AIR AND HOW TO SECURE IT          45

     XII.  REST ESSENTIAL TO HEALTH                             51

    XIII.  CARE OF THE EYE AND EAR                              56

     XIV.  CARE OF THE SKIN                                     60

      XV.  COMMON POISONS TO BE AVOIDED                         64


      PART II--THE ENEMIES OF HEALTH

     XVI.  DISEASE GERMS                                        73

    XVII.  ENCOURAGEMENT OF DISEASE BY UNCLEANLY
             HABITS                                             75

   XVIII.  FLIES AS CARRIERS OF DISEASE                         79

     XIX.  HOW DISEASE GERMS GET INTO WATER                     85

      XX.  TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE THROUGH THE AIR              89

     XXI.  INSECTS AS CARRIERS OF DISEASE                       92

    XXII.  HOW TO KEEP GERMS OUT OF WOUNDS                      95

   XXIII.  TRANSMISSION OF DIPHTHERIA                          100

    XXIV.  THE CURE OF DIPHTHERIA                              108

     XXV.  HOW TYPHOID FEVER GERMS ARE CARRIED                 113

    XXVI.  HOOKWORM DISEASE AND AMOEBIC DYSENTERY              120

   XXVII.  HOW SCARLET FEVER IS CARRIED                        123

  XXVIII.  MEASLES AND WHOOPING COUGH DANGEROUS
             DISEASES                                          128

    XXIX.  HOW SMALLPOX IS PREVENTED                           131

     XXX.  WHY VACCINATION SOMETIMES SEEMS A FAILURE           138

    XXXI.  CONSUMPTION, THE GREAT WHITE PLAGUE                 142

   XXXII.   HOW CONSUMPTION IS SPREAD AND HOW PREVENTED        150

  XXXIII.  HOW CONSUMPTION IS CURED                            157


  APPENDIX--SUMMARY OF ANATOMY                                 163

  SUGGESTIONS TO THE TEACHER                                   182

  INDEX                                                        183




PART I

THE FIGHT FOR HEALTH




CHAPTER I

CONSTANT DANGER OF ILLNESS


Every boy and girl confidently expects to grow into a strong and
healthy man or woman. How often we hear a child say, "When I am a
man," or "When I am a woman;" but I have never heard a boy or a
girl say, "If I live to be a man or woman." When you think of what
you will do when you are grown into men or women, it never occurs
to you that you may be weak and sickly and therefore not able to
do the very things that you would most like to do. This suggests
that sickness is not natural, else the thought that you may perhaps
become sick would enter your mind. As a matter of fact, most
sickness is not natural.

[Sidenote: The fight for life]

There is a constant struggle going on in the world. You see a fight
about you every day among the animals. You see the spider catch the
fly, the snake catch the frog, the bird catch the insect, and the
big fish catch the minnow; and you have heard of wars where men
kill one another.

The greatest enemies that men have to fight, however, are not
other men, or wild animals, but foes that kill more men, women and
children every year than were ever killed in the same length of
time by war. These foes are small, very small, but you must not
think that because things are small they are not dangerous. We
call these foes _disease germs_.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. Looking at cells through a microscope.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2. Some skin cells as seen through a
microscope.]

[Sidenote: The nature of a germ]

The germ is a very, very small body; it is the smallest living
body that we know. Later we shall learn that our bodies are made
up of cells, and that these cells are extremely small--so small
that it takes a very powerful microscope to see one of them. The
germ is still smaller than the cells in our bodies, and it is
made of a single cell. There are a great many kinds of germs in
the world. Fortunately, most of them are not harmful. Some germs
cause disease, but there are other germs that not only are not
harmful, but are actually helpful to men. Among the helpful germs
are those that enrich the ground, and these should be protected;
but all germs that cause disease should be destroyed as rapidly
as possible. These germs are fighting all the time against our
health. They are not armed with guns and cannon, neither do they
build forts from which to fight; but they get inside our bodies and
attack us there.

[Sidenote: How to fight germs]

There are three principal ways by which we fight disease germs:
_first_, by keeping our bodies so well and strong that germs
cannot live in them; _second_, by keeping germs out of our bodies;
_third_, by preventing germs from accumulating in the world--that
is, by killing as many of them as possible.

If it is possible to keep so well and strong that disease germs
cannot live in our bodies, you will naturally infer that there are
other causes of sickness besides disease germs. That is true, for
there are a great many things beside germs that cause our bodies to
get into such a condition that disease germs can enter and grow and
make us ill. We sometimes call this a "run-down" condition. Before
we begin, then, to study the germs that cause disease, we must
learn how to keep our bodies strong and ready to fight these germs.

  =Questions.= 1. What evidence have we that sickness is not
  natural? 2. Name some of the fights going on in the animal world.
  3. What can you say of the amount of illness caused by germs? 4.
  Tell what you have learned about germs. 5. Name three ways of
  fighting germs.

  =Remember.= 1. Most sickness comes from failure to observe
  Nature's laws. 2. We must keep up a constant fight against germs
  that cause sickness. 3. We fight germs by killing as many of them
  as we can, and by keeping our bodies so strong that if a disease
  germ enters it cannot grow.




CHAPTER II

THE NECESSITY OF CARING FOR THE BODY


[Illustration: FIG. 3. The organs of the body.]

[Sidenote: How the body is like an automobile]

These bodies of ours are built somewhat like automobiles. An
automobile is made up of a framework, wheels, body, gasoline tank,
engine, and steering-gear. The human body has much the same form of
construction. We have a frame, which is made of the bones of the
body. We have arms and legs, which correspond to the wheels of the
automobile. We have many little pockets in our bodies in which fat
is stored, and these little pockets answer to the gasoline tank
of the automobile. We have an engine which, like the automobile
engine, is made up of many parts; and we have a head or brain, that
plays the same part as the steering-gear of the automobile.

The automobile has a tank in which is carried the gasoline
necessary to develop power for the machine. If the gasoline gives
out, the engine will not run, and before the owner starts on a
trip, he is always careful to see that the tank is well filled.
In the same way, if we do not provide new fat for the pockets in
our bodies in which the fat is stored, our supply will soon give
out and our bodies will refuse to work, just as the engine of the
automobile will refuse to work when the gasoline is used up.

[Sidenote: What cells are like]

The automobile is made of iron and wood and rubber, and each bit
of iron and wood and rubber is made up of tiny particles. The body
is made of bones and muscles, covered with skin, and all these are
made up of very fine particles that we call cells. Every part of
the body is made of these fine cells. The cells are so small that
they can be seen only with a powerful microscope. If you look at
your hand you cannot see a cell, because it takes a great many
cells to make a spot large enough for you to see. In Figure 1 you
see a boy looking through a microscope, and beside him you see a
picture of what he sees. This picture does not look like the skin
on your hand, neither does it look like the skin on the boy's hand;
but it is nothing more nor less than a piece of skin taken from
that boy's hand, and it looks just as a piece of skin from your
own hand would look if you were to see it through a very strong
microscope.

[Sidenote: Why cells must not be killed]

The whole body is made up of just such little cells as you see in
Figure 4, and each cell is alive and has a certain work to perform.
It is very important that we keep these cells from dying and that
they perform the work for which they are intended, for if these
cells die or fail to act, the body becomes sick or dies.

[Illustration: FIG. 4. A cell. (a) Cell body; (b) nucleus; (c)
nucleolus.]

You can scratch some of the paint from your automobile and the
machine will work just as well as ever. Apparently no harm has been
done, but an opening has been made through which moisture and germs
can enter and cause the wood to rot and the iron to rust. You can
remove certain parts of the automobile and still the machine will
do its work; but you cannot take away too much of any one part
without weakening the automobile, and if certain parts are missing
(such as the sparker, the battery, or the steering-gear), the
usefulness of the machine is destroyed. So it is with the body. You
can scratch off some of the skin and not do any apparent harm, but
you have made an opening through which germs may get into the body.
You can remove certain parts of the body, such as the arm or leg,
and still the body will do efficient service. But there are certain
parts of the body that are necessary to life, just as certain parts
of the automobile are necessary to the usefulness of the machine.
You cannot remove the heart and live; you cannot remove the brain
and live.

[Sidenote: How cells are killed]

You are probably thinking that it must be easy to kill such a
little thing as a cell; and so it is. Cells can be killed by too
much heat or too much cold. When you skin your hand, you kill many
cells, and at the same time make an opening for germs to get in and
cause sickness. You can kill cells also by starving them, for they
must have not only enough food, but the right kind of food. If you
feed your bodies on nothing but candy, pie, and cake, most of the
cells will refuse to perform their work and many of them will die.
These cells must have also an abundance of air, and the air must be
pure and fresh. If you breathe the air that others have breathed or
that contains poison of any kind, you will soon find that you are
not feeling well. This simply means that so many of the cells are
being starved for fresh air, that not enough strong ones are left
to do the necessary work. You can kill these cells by overwork, for
they must have a proper amount of rest. If you go to school all
day long and then sit up until midnight every night, you must not
expect the cells of your body to keep strong and well. You can kill
these cells by the use of certain things that act as poisons to
them, such as tobacco, beer, wine, or whisky.

  =Questions.= 1. In what way is the body like an automobile? 2.
  What are cells like? 3. Why must cells not be killed? 4. Name
  five ways by which we kill cells.

  =Remember.= 1. Each part of the body is important to the welfare
  of the whole body. 2. Each part of the body is made up of very
  small particles that we call cells; each cell in the body is
  alive and has a certain work to perform. 3. Cells are very easily
  weakened and killed. 4. There are five principal ways by which
  we kill the cells in our bodies: by too much heat or cold; by not
  giving them the proper kinds of foods; by not giving them enough
  fresh air; by giving them too much work to do; and by poisoning
  them.




CHAPTER III

HOW CLOTHING AFFECTS HEALTH


[Illustration: FIG. 5. Warm, dry clothing necessary for health.]

[Sidenote: Why the body should be equally covered]

The body should always be kept at as nearly uniform a temperature
as possible. In order to do this we wear clothing. Clothing keeps
out the heat on a hot day, just as it keeps the heat in and the
cold out on a cold day. The clothing should be equally heavy on
all parts of the body. It is not right to wear a thick dress over
your chest and leave your shoulders and arms bare, or nearly so.
People who do this are killing a great many cells by letting part
of their bodies become chilled while the rest is warm, probably too
warm.

[Sidenote: Why clothing should not be too heavy]

The clothing should be just heavy enough to keep the body warm.
If you wear such heavy clothing indoors that you are constantly
perspiring, your underclothes become damp, and when you go out,
even though you put on your overcoat, your body becomes chilled. If
you begin to sneeze, that is Nature's way of telling you that you
are killing many of your cells by too much cold.

People sometimes get warm from exercising, and then take off their
coats. They should have removed their coats before they began to
exercise. If you take off your coat after you are too warm, your
body becomes chilled. Baseball pitchers know this, and if you watch
a good pitcher, you will see that he always puts on his sweater as
soon as he stops pitching, even though he is very warm. He knows
that if he cools off too quickly, he will become stiff and sore and
cannot pitch good ball.

[Sidenote: When a draft is dangerous]

Sometimes a person sits in a warm room until he begins to perspire
freely. Then he opens a window and sits in the draft. Under
ordinary conditions, the cool wind alone would chill the body, but
now the rapid drying of the perspiration makes the body cool still
more quickly. The sudden chill causes the person to take cold,
which is simply another way of saying that he has killed many cells
and caused others to fall sick, so that they cannot perform their
work. We cannot get too much fresh air. Drafts do not hurt us if
we are thoroughly wrapped up; but it is very dangerous to allow
the wind to strike the body when it is not well protected, and
especially when it is damp with perspiration.

[Illustration: FIG. 6. Properly prepared for wet weather.]

[Sidenote: Why damp clothing is dangerous]

Damp clothing chills the body very rapidly and kills many cells.
Indeed, if a single one of the germs that cause pneumonia were to
enter your lungs while you were wearing damp clothing, it would
grow so rapidly that you might have pneumonia in a very little
while. That is why it is important to change your shoes and
stockings as soon as you get them wet, and to take off immediately
any clothing that becomes damp. It is hard for boys and girls to
keep their feet dry in the winter and spring months, and rubbers
are a nuisance; but if you expect to grow into the strong man or
woman you picture yourself becoming, you must take care to wear
your rubbers. Otherwise you may become weak and sickly, and never
be able to do the things you hope to do.

The feet are not the only part of the body that needs to be kept
dry. A wet coat is just as harmful as wet shoes and stockings;
hence, you should always carry an umbrella or wear a raincoat when
you go out into the rain. Umbrellas are unhandy for boys and girls
to carry, but if you will remember that thousands of little cells
in your body are being injured when you get wet and chilled, you
will be willing to take your umbrella.

[Sidenote: When to wear an overcoat]

In cold weather the same amount of clothing should not be worn in
the house and outdoors; for this reason, we have overcoats. If you
wear your overcoat in the house, you will become overwarm and your
underclothing will then become damp with perspiration; when you go
outdoors into the cold air, this dampness will have just the same
effect as would dampness that comes from outside.

[Illustration: FIGS. 7 and 8. If you keep your overcoat on in the
house, your underclothes become damp from perspiration, and when
you go outdoors your body becomes chilled.]

As soon as the weather gets cold, put on your overcoat every time
you go outdoors, and take it off as soon as you come into the
house. This is troublesome for boys and girls to do, because they
want to run in and out of the house so often; but on the other
hand, think of all the cells you will kill if you do not do this,
and you will certainly consider it worth while to take off your
coat and put it on again.

  =Questions.= 1. How does keeping the body equally covered protect
  the cells? 2. Give reasons for not wearing too heavy clothing. 3.
  When is it safe to sit in a draft, and when dangerous? 4. What
  is the danger of keeping on wet shoes or other damp clothing? 5.
  When and why should overcoats be worn?

  =Remember.= 1. Clothing should be just heavy enough to keep the
  body warm all the time. 2. Never take off your coat or sit in
  a draft when you are too warm. 3. Since wearing damp clothing
  causes a great deal of sickness, change your clothes as soon as
  they become wet or damp. 4. Do not forget to take your umbrella
  when it is raining and to wear your rubbers when the ground is
  wet. 5. In cold weather wear your overcoat when you are outdoors,
  but take it off when you come into the house.




CHAPTER IV

THE USES OF FOOD


We kill a great many of the cells in our bodies by starving them;
either we do not give them enough food or we do not supply the
right kind of food.

[Sidenote: Why the body needs new cells]

Not only must we feed the cells in our bodies, but we must be
constantly making new ones, for in all our work or play, awake or
asleep, we are constantly using up certain cells. These cells are
used to make the body go, just as the engine uses coal to form the
steam that gives it power to run. Boys and girls grow fast and, of
course, if they expect to become well men and women, they must make
a great many new cells all the time, in addition to those used in
doing the work of the body. If we are to make new cells we must
have the right kind of food with which to make them.

[Sidenote: How the body keeps itself warm]

We want to do something besides make new cells; we want to keep
warm and well the cells we already have. No amount of clothing
would keep you warm if you were not making heat inside your body
all the time, any more than you could make a telephone post warm
by putting your coat on it. Therefore it is necessary to have food
that makes heat in the body, in addition to food that builds cells.

We eat a great many kinds of foods, and all that we eat is used
either for building new cells or for producing heat in the body.
Thus we can divide all our foods into two classes--building
material and heat-producing material. The type of building material
is lean meat, and the type of heat-producing material is fat meat
and starches, such as potatoes and bread. Milk contains much
building material as well as heat-producing material. That is why
a baby grows and keeps warm while he takes nothing but milk.

[Sidenote: The building foods]

Lean meat is the best of all building foods. Eggs are largely a
form of lean meat, and hence constitute a good article of food for
building purposes. Certain vegetables contain a large per cent of
building material; this is especially true of dried beans and peas.
Wheat flour and corn meal (particularly when made of whole wheat
and unbolted meal) contain much building material.

It is possible for one to live and grow when eating only vegetable
matter. But the boy or girl who tries to become a strong man or
woman by eating only vegetables will be disappointed; these are
mostly heat-producing foods and will not make strong bodies.
Experience has proved that the best results are obtained by eating
what is called "a mixed diet," that is, a diet composed partly of
lean meats and partly of fats and vegetables.

[Sidenote: The heat-producing foods]

Of the heat-producing foods, fat is the most powerful. Most of the
fat that we eat is used immediately for producing in the body heat,
and therefore power, but a part of it is stored up for future use.
We see it in all healthy young persons. It is this stored-up fat
that gives the body its rounded form. When any one has been sick he
is thin, because, to produce heat and power while he was sick, he
has had to use the fat stored up in his body. To have such a supply
of fat is like having a bank account to draw on when out of work.
We might call the deposits of fat in our bodies our health banks.

Fat meat is not the only form in which we eat fats; we eat them
in a great many other ways. Certain vegetables, such as beans,
contain an oil that forms fat. Ripe olives contain a great deal
of fatty oil. Butter is a very important form of fat, and cream
contains a large amount of it.

[Sidenote: Cost of suitable foods]

In selecting our foods we should think of two things: _first_, the
value of the food as a heat-producer or as a building material;
and _second_, the cost of the food. We may like butter much better
than bacon, but we should remember that, pound for pound, bacon has
a greater nourishing power than butter, and a pound of bacon will
cost far less than a pound of butter.[1]

Vegetable foods produce heat by means of the starch which they
contain. All vegetables contain starch. This starch is changed
into a kind of sugar in the body, and when thus changed it is used
to produce heat and power. All vegetable foods do not have the
same heat-producing power. There is more heat-producing power in
a pound of oatmeal than there is in ten pounds of cabbage. Ten
cents' worth of dried beans will produce more heat in the body
than will a dollar's worth of lettuce. Thirty cents' worth of corn
meal will do more building in the body than will a piece of mutton
worth a dollar and a half; but you would have to eat a large amount
of corn meal in order to secure the building effect that would
result from eating a small quantity of mutton. In most fruits the
only nourishing quality is in the sugar they contain. This sugar
produces heat in the body just as starch does.

[Sidenote: The real value of advertised foods]

You will see some foods advertised as possessing a wonderful
nourishing power. Do not let such statements deceive you, for no
food can have a greater nourishing power than the things from which
it is made. If the particular food advertised is made from wheat
flour, its nourishing power is just the same as that of an equal
quantity of wheat flour. If it is made from corn meal, it can have
no greater nourishing power than has the meal itself.

We have learned something about the materials necessary in food and
why they are needed. We must now learn why foods that contain these
materials sometimes do not give us as good results as we might hope
for.

  =Questions.= 1. What use does the body make of new cells? 2. How
  does the body keep itself warm? 3. Name two uses that the body
  makes of food. 4. What foods are especially useful for making
  cells? 5. What foods are chiefly used for making heat? 6. Select
  articles of food for two meals of equal nourishing value, one
  meal to be expensive and the other inexpensive. 7. How would you
  determine the real value of any food?

  =Remember.= 1. Foods are used to make heat and power in the body
  and to make the body grow. 2. The foods that make the body grow
  are called building materials, and lean meat is the best kind
  of building material. 3. The foods that produce heat and power
  in the body are called heat-producing materials, and fats and
  starches are the best heat-producers. 4. All vegetables contain
  starch, some of them contain a fatty oil, and most of them
  contain some building material. 5. You can get as much building
  and heat-producing material from cheap foods as you can from
  expensive foods.




CHAPTER V

CARE OF FOOD--MEATS


[Sidenote: Value of meat as a food]

Meat is one of the most important articles of our diet. It
furnishes essential materials for building cells, and it furnishes
fat for making heat and power in the body.

[Illustration: FIG. 9. A double menace to health; the
slaughterhouse is dirty, and the filth is drained into a stream.]

[Sidenote: Characteristics of good meat]

Since meat is so important an article of food, we should be very
careful to see that it is handled in a way to keep it always
perfectly clean. We should make sure that it comes from animals
absolutely free from any kind of disease, and that no germs have
been allowed to develop poisons in it.

[Sidenote: How meat may be kept clean]

While people know that they ought to pay attention to these things,
as a matter of fact they do not do it. They take very little
interest in the way the meat that they are to eat is handled, and
very few ever go to the slaughterhouse or into the back room of the
butcher shop to see whether things are kept clean or not. Some
people say, "Oh, we do not like to go there because it is such a
horrid place." If these places were kept clean, as they should be,
they would not be "horrid." And if the people who buy the meat
would occasionally visit them, these places would be kept clean.

[Illustration: