Hygiene in General : The Fifteen Rules of Hygiene

How to Live; Rules for Healthful Living
by Irving Fisher, Eugene Lyman Fisk, M.D.

(Page 6 of 14)

Section I

The aids to health discussed in the preceding chapters may be summarized in specific formulas classified under the four heads, Air, Food, Poisons, and Activity, corresponding to the four chapters, and under fifteen sub-heads, corresponding to the fifteen sections.

1. Air.
   • 1. Ventilate every room you occupy.
   • 2. Wear light, loose and porous clothes.
   • 3. Seek out-of-door occupations and recreations.
   • 4. Sleep out, if you can.
   • 5. Breathe deeply.
2. Food.
   • 6. Avoid overeating and overweight.
   • 7. Eat sparingly of meats and eggs.
   • 8. Eat some hard, some bulky, some raw foods.
   • 9. Eat slowly.
3. Poisons.
   • 10. Evacuate thoroughly, regularly and frequently.
   • 11. Stand, sit and walk erect.
   • 12. Do not allow poisons and infections to enter the body.
   • 13. Keep the teeth, gums and tongue clean.
4. Activity.
   • 14. Work, play, rest and sleep in moderation.
   • 15. Keep serene.

The application of these rules to one's daily life must be varied with each individual. The most practical method is for the individual to begin the improvement he would seek by constructing a typical day's program in which time is provided for, say, breathing and other exercises in bed, bath, toilet, walk to business, meals, amusement, etc., with special notes and memoranda as to the particular faults of omission and commission to be corrected. One might also, as Benjamin Franklin records in his autobiography, keep a daily record for a week as to how nearly the program is lived up to. By dint of such and other stimuli, the transition in habits can be made, after which the "rules"

cease to be rules, as carrying any sense of restriction, and become automatic like putting on or taking off one's clothes.

Section II - The Unity of Hygiene

The Rules Interrelated

The above rules embody our preachment on individual hygiene. We have stated them as fifteen separate kinds of procedure. In actual life, however, our acts can not be so separated. The neglect or observance of one rule carries with it, to some extent, the neglect or observance of other rules. For instance, one can not take muscular exercise without, to some extent, taking breathing exercises. Swimming serves as a means of cleanliness, of skin gymnastics, of general exercise and of amusement. A game of tennis implies the practise, to some extent, of at least five of the fifteen rules.

The human body is a "harp of a thousand strings," which are intended to harmonize. If one of them is out of tune, it is likely to cause discord throughout, while to tune up one helps the harmony of all.

Medical Specialists

Any one ailment has a far-reaching effect throughout the system. It is because of this far-reaching effect that the "one idea" specialist in medicine has so often thought his particular specialty to be the one and only gateway to all therapeutics and hygiene. The oculist is liable to look at all ailments as related to the eyes; the dentist as related to the teeth; the mental hygienist as related to wrong attitudes of mind. If we examine their claims, we find that they are usually right in their affirmations, though wrong in their denials. It is their affirmations in which we are here interested. They find that the ailments within their own special province extend in unsuspected ways, and to a surprising degree into seemingly remote fields; and that to remedy the special defect which they can treat, will often go a long way toward remedying numerous other ailments.

Remote Effects of Ailments

It has already been noted that eye-strain leads to an astonishing number of serious nervous affections, and that corrective eyeglasses will often work wonders for remedying those ailments and improving the general health. There may be other unhygienic conditions equally responsible for these symptoms, and the correction of which may produce equally wonderful improvement. Vertigo may be due to eye-strain, or it may be due to wrong posture or to pressure of wax on the ear-drum. Diabetes may be aggravated by too much sugar, by infected tooth-sockets, or by too much worry. Tuberculosis may be due jointly to indoor-living, lack of exercise, wrong diet, wrong posture, sexual excess, alcohol, nerve-strain, and numerous other preconditions, besides infection with the tubercle bacillus. The social evil can be fought not only directly by attack on prostitution, and by appeals to self-control and moral ideals, but also indirectly by diminishing the consumption of alcohol and other drugs, for alcohol not only produces abnormal sexual desire but reduces the strength of will by which that desire is repressed. Forel asserts that the social evil can not be controlled until the use of alcohol as a beverage is abolished.

Popular Delusions

It is not uncommon for people to attribute their ailments to the less important rather than the more important cause, and so fail to get the best benefits of hygiene. Many people bemoan the fact that they sat in a draft and "therefore" caught cold, when what they most needed was not to keep out of drafts but to keep in such condition that drafts would do them good, not harm. Benjamin Franklin, a century ago, believed, what we now know to be true, "that people who live in the forest, in open barns, or with open windows, do not catch cold, and that the disease called ‘a cold’ is generally caused by impure air, lack of exercise, or overeating."

So-called "Overwork"

Most people who are "overworked" are, more properly speaking, simply the victims of bad air, bad diet, poisons, or worry. They believe that because they are tired it must be work which is hurting them. The man who breaks down in middle life commonly imagines that he has ruined his health by overwork. The college girl thinks she has ruined her health by study. All these "overworked" people prove their case by showing that they improve in health when given a vacation. This simply shows that a bad condition can often be remedied by improving the general health in any way whatever, even if the primary source of the difficulty is not reached. They are undoubtedly working beyond their working capacity; but their working capacity is only a fraction of what it would be if they took exercise, were not constipated, did not eat too much, abjured alcohol, or ceased to worry continually. If they lived hygienically in these respects, the work which was a drag might be an inspiration. A physician of wide experience says that every day men come to him broken down in health, invariably telling him that they have overworked; and yet upon questioning them he finds that none of them works as hard as he. Their breakdown was due to the terrible load of unphysiological habits which they had been carrying - a load so great that scarcely any work could be carried in addition.

An All-round Regime

Other examples might be given of ascribing ailments and disabilities to the less important instead of the more important causes. The error is almost always made of resting the blame on only one cause. In consequence most health-seekers make the mistake of making only one correction in their daily regime of life. One will cease alcohol drinking, another will give up tobacco smoking, another will give up coffee; a third will cease using all "red meats," another turns vegetarian, another adopts a raw food diet; another takes up outdoor sleeping; another adopts a daily game of golf; another embraces a mental healing cult; another takes up mastication. But great and permanent results require the adoption of an all-round, well-balanced regime.

Copyright 1915 by Funk & Wagnalls Company
New York and London, 1916