CHAPTER III.

PREVENTIONS OF ATMOSPHERICAL, METEOROLOGICAL, AND CLIMATIC DISEASE.

I.

PERSONAL RULES FOR PREVENTIONS.

Rules for the Various Seasons.

THE first personal rule for preventing diseases from seasonal influences should be based on the facts collected by Mr. Milner, and epitomized at pp. 526-7. It should be remembered that the body becomes heavier during the summer months, lighter during the winter months, and that the changes from gain to loss are abrupt, the gain beginning about the end of March, and the loss in September.

The practice springing from this knowledge should bear on foods. The proportions of all foods should increase somewhat, in September, and be maintained so as to meet waste up to March. The kind of food that requires to be most increased is that which sustains the animal warmth. Starchy foods, such as potatoes and rice; fatty foods, such as butter, and animal fats and oils; and saccharine foods, such as common sugars, jams, and honey, may be increased in quantity. On the other hand, with the turn of the month of March such foods may be decreased, and may be taken in much more moderate quantities during the succeeding months up to September.

Owing to the circumstance that during the heat of summer there is very free perspiration and extreme loss of water from the body, there is often great loss of water weight, and the body seems to lose both in substance and weight. The fact leads many to consider that because of the apparent wasting, excess of food, and of rich food, is called for. This is an entire mistake. In

warmth the body requires less food, though it may require a little more watery drink. In warmth rich foods are not digested and assimilated, and a great deal of the dyspepsia and bowel derangement in the summer season arises from over-feeding, in ignorance of these facts.

Attention to clothing should also be connected with these general changes of season. As September advances, additional clothing should be assumed, and should be fully maintained until the season of waste. It is good practice to continue the warm clothing well into the period of return of the gaining season, and indeed not to make any important change until April has passed away. The warmth obtained by clothes should not be attended by great weight of clothes. The warm winter clothing should be porous and light; the knitted Shetland woollen clothing is the best example that can be given of what is required. During the summer months the light clothing should also be of porous texture.

During the wasting months the bodily exercise should be less severe than in the gaining months, and excessive strains or sudden demands on the bodily powers should be particularly avoided. This same rule extends to mental exercises. Both rules are of special importance in regard to the young, and equally in regard to those who have passed the meridian of life.

During the wasting period longer hours of sleep and rest are required than in the warmer months when the disposition of the body is to gain in weight. All through the winter season half as much sleep again is necessary compared with what is wanted in summer. Other things being equal, six hours of sleep on midsummer night are equal to nine on midwinter night. Prolonged hours of sleep in summer are prejudicial; short hours of sleep in winter are prejudicial. These rules are peculiarly applicable to the young and to the old.

The temperature of the bath should be regarded in respect to season, if any variation be desired. As a general thing, it is good practice to find an agreeable temperature for the body and to keep to that all the year round. But those who like to have a cold bath for a portion of the year should limit that portion to the seasons when the body is naturally gaining weight, the cold bath being very hazardous during the months when the process of waste is in progress. A strong, man in the prime of life may bear it for some years and feel a pleasure in the reaction; but

even he is easily chilled by it when his nervous system is depressed, and he is never wise in holding rigidly to the practice. To the young, the old, and the feeble, and to the members of the female sex at all ages, the practice is an unsafe one. From May to September the cold bath may be permissible, but as soon as the wasting period begins the temperature of the bath water should be raised, so as not to produce a chill when entering it.

Rules for Special Seasonal Changes.

Let it be remembered that there are six special periods characterized by special conditions of atmospheric temperature and moisture; namely, a first period of dampness and cold; a second of cold; a third of dryness and cold; a fourth of dryness and warmth; a fifth of heat; a sixth of dampness and warmth. Let it also be remembered that each of these periods is marked by particular diseases.

The above rule applies to London in so far as accurate investigation has up to this time been pursued. But probably in most civilized parts of the world a similar division is equally traceable.

In the period of dampness and cold, extending in this country from the last week in October to the third week in December, the best preventive rules consist in keeping, as far as possible, in a dry and warm atmosphere; in excluding moisture from the house, especially from the bedroom; and in avoiding bodily contact with damp clothes and bedding. In this period the body should be kept warmly and lightly clothed, and the feet should be well shod. What is called waterproof clothing is, however, best avoided, except in the form of a very loose cape. A good umbrella is much safer and better than a waterproof. The diet should be sufficient but unstimulating.

In the period of cold, extending from the end of December to the third week of February, a period in which throat and chest diseases begin to be easily developed, and in which diseases of the respiratory organs show the greatest mortality, the chief rule is to keep up the animal temperature by good food, and complete avoidance of depressing alcoholic drinks, to conserve animal warmth by warm clothing, and to conserve nervous power by taking a full allowance of sleep. These three rules should be rigor

ously observed by the strongest men if they mean to retain their strength, and by the weaker if they mean to retain their life.

In the third period, that of dryness and cold, extending from the last week of February to the second week of April, the depression of body is greater than at any other time. The condition. of dryness and of cold is most exhausting in itself, and caps, if I may so say, the two preceding periods of exhaustion. It is the nervous system now that suffers, and diseases dependent on nervous depression are dominant. The practical rule in this season is to maintain the animal warmth; to avoid night air; to avoid excess of every kind; to avoid great trials of strength, physical and mental; to live well; and, to take abundant rest. The lessons of school-children ought to be considerably reduced during this season.

In the fourth period, that of dryness and warmth, extending from the third week of April to the fourth week of June, life is beginning to return, and the healthiest season of the year is presented. The practical rules now are gradually to lighten the clothing, to reduce the hours of sleep, to reduce food, and reasonably to increase work, mentally and bodily. At this time the best work of the year ought to be carried out, in private as well as in public life.

In the fifth period, that of heat, extending from the end of June to the end of August, affections of the alimentary canal, bowel complaints, and some affections of the head have to be guarded against. The clothing should be light and porous, the hours of sleep reduced to a moderate minimum, and the hours of exhaustive labor of mind and body fairly limited.

The most important rule at this season relates to diet. The diet should be moderate in quantity, should be well cooked, should be mainly a cold diet, and should always be composed of fresh food. The greatest care should be taken that the water used as drink should be fresh and pure. Acid and effervescing drinks are inadvisable, and all alcoholic beverages are most pernicious, from being the most common promoters of liver and intestinal disorder. Indulgence in fruit is permissible, so long as it is moderate, when the fruits are quite fresh and are neither under nor over ripe.

A further important rule in this season is to protect the head from the direct rays of the sun. In sending out infants and children the strictest attention should be paid to this precaution.

In the period of dampness and warmth, extending through September and three parts of October, a healthy seasonal time is presented. In this season the simple rules of practice are to avoid damp, and to pursue so regular a diet that the danger of intestinal disturbance, still present, may be avoided. This is a period in which good bodily and mental work can be carried out with facility. It is an excellent period for travel and for recreation out of doors.

Rules Irrespective of Seasons. Protection from Damp.

In all seasons it is essential to insure protection from damp. Damp beds have always been considered dangerous, and linen that has not been put to the fire to air and take off damp is usually avoided. A great deal more than these measures, which in their way are excellent, calls for attention. The damp house is the source of greatest danger. All precautions should be taken to keep atmospheric damp from the house. The stone or brick work of the building should not be porous, so as to hold moisture; the walls of rooms should not be covered with material that will absorb and hold moisture; the basement should be perfectly dry, so that from it damp and impure air do not rise into the rooms. above. Properly, the basement of every house ought to be raised from the earth underneath by an arch, so that air can flow beneath it. Cellarage under a house should be well ventilated and kept dry. The roofs and gutters of the house should be made water and damp proof in their relations to the interior of the building. As a certain rule, when moisture streaks the walls and banisters of a house, and looking-glasses are easily dimmed by moisture, the house is unfit for habitation.

The soil on which a house is built modifies, naturally, the facility for saving the house from the bad effects of atmospheric moisture. The choice for selection of site should be a porous or gravelly soil, through which the water can percolate rapidly and make free escape. This may be considered the most perfect site. Houses constructed on clay or impervious soils are unfortunately placed in this respect, but the dangers can be largely prevented