PERSONAL HYGIENE APPLIED By JESSE FEIRING WILLIAMS, A.B., M.D. ILLUSTRATED PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY 1922 Copyright, 1922, by W. B. Saunders Company Reprinted October, 1922 MADE IN U. 8. A. PRESS OF W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY PHILADELPHIA PREFACE THE aim of this book is to improve the quality of human life. It is evident from the title that this aim seeks its goal by means of hygiene, but it should be clear also that no mere recitation of informational hygiene can be justified if the aim is to be achieved. To improve human living one must not only set forth the rules of health but also one must bring them in contact with that deep and ever-flowing source of human action where ideals, ambitions, attitudes, prejudices, hopes, and aspirations are born. To find the scientific rule for health is not more important than to touch the mainspring to action that will give life and meaning to the rule discovered. The interest in health today is very great. In proportion to its importance and in relation to past appreciations health is not overvalued. But we should be careful not to appraise it too highly as an isolated value. Oftentimes we make it too prominent as an end; then it protrudes too much and mars the whole of life. To recognize that it is of meaning and significance only in its relation to other values is tremendously important today. Three of the finest things in life-heroism, creative work, and childbearing are often injurious to health. To avoid battle for the right, or to forsake productive work, or to miss parenthood because of the toll in health that these things take twists and warps life and mixes values woefully. The sacrifice of health in personal, selfish, and unsocial ways can never receive sanction. Contrariwise, the scars from the "strenuous and dangerous activities of helping to create" a new rule of right and justice, "a new harmony or a new child" are symbols of the divine. Health is more than perfect digestion, more than perfect bodily functions. To find what more it is constitutes an important part of the problems of hygiene. |