ye wr Ew Reading with a Purpose A Series of Reading Courses Biology... . . . . Vernon Kellogg ENGLISH Lerenarons oan WW. NACA Carlton TEN Pivorar Figures oF History Ambrose W. Vernon SoME GREAT AMERICAN Books . Dallas Lore Sharp FroNTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE . . .Jesse Lee Bennett EArs To HEAR: A GuipE For Music LovERs Daniel Gregory Mason SocroLogy AND SociAL ProsLeEms Howard W. Odum Tue PrysicAL Sciences . . . Edwin E. Slosson ConrFLIcTs IN AMERICAN PuBLic OPINION William Allen White and Walter E. Myer . PsycHoLoGY AND ITs Use . Everett Dean Martin . PerLosopry . . . . . Alexander Meiklejohn . Our CHILDREN . . oR OMY. O\Shed RELIGION IN EVERYDAY Lior . Wilfred T. Grenfell TeE Lire oF CHRIST. . . . . Rufus M. Jones THE APPRECIATION OF SCULPTURE . . Lorado Taft Tae Europe oF Our Day . Herbert Adams Gibbons TrE PoeTRY OF OUR OWN TIMES ; Marguerite Wilkinson Tee UNITED STATES IN RECENT TIMES Frederic L. Paxson . PLEASURE ¥roM Pictures . Henry Turner Bailey AmericaN Epvcation . . . William F. Russell . ARCHITECTURE cra, . . Lewis Mumford . THE MODERN Essay . . Kamel McChord Crothers AMERICANS FROM ABROAD . . John Palmer Gavit Tre FrencH REvoLuTION AS ToLp IN Ficrion ; William Stearns Davis . THE Practice oF Pourrics . . . Raymond Moley Tue MopErN Drama . . . . Barrett H. Clark . Tee WESTWARD MARCH OF AMERICAN SETTLEMENT Hamlin Garland THE STARS En, . . Harlow Shapley . THE FOUNDERS OF THE Rerusuic Claude G. Bowers TrHE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES Paul Scott Mowrer Reading with a Purpose . TweNTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS William Lyon Phelps A STupY OF ENGLISH DRAMA ON THE STAGE Walter Prichard Eaton . Goop ENGLISH . . . . . Virginia C. Bacon ADVENTURES IN FLOWER GARDENING Sydney B. Mitchell . FRENCH LITERATURE . . . . . . Irving Babbitt . THE Youné Cro . . . . .Bird T. Baldwin GEOGRAPHY AND Our NEED OF IT . J. Russell Smith . Pivorar FIGuRres oF SCiENCE . Arthur E. Bostwick . GEORGE WASHINGTON . . . Albert Bushnell Hart . PrEnistroric MAN . . George Grant MacCurdy . THE HuMaN Bopy anD Its Care . Morris Fishbein Courses in Preparation Economics ena esd Walton He Hamilion MenNTAL HyGiENE . |. | Frankwood E. Williams INTERIOR DECORATION . . . Harold D. Eberlein . Living RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD Robert Ernest Hume . Enxcrisa History Wood YC George Hy Locks THE ROMANCE OF MODERN EXPLORATION Fitzhugh Green CAPITAL AND LABOR . . . .John Andrews Fitch Prices: cloth, 50¢ each; paper, 35¢ each Special prices for quantity orders Reading with a Purpose No. 47 The Humor Body and Its Care By MORRIS FISHBEIN, M. D. CHICAGO AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 1929 2, ple CoryriGHT, 1929, BY THE £2; Lpp Th AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Rapp 86 East Raxporeru Srt., CHICAGO PUBLISHED JANUARY, 1929 pUBLIC EAL * BRABY PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. WHY THIS COURSE IS PUBLISHED “YT is impossible for any one to take proper care of his body without some knowledge of the manner of its construction and the nature of its function.” This course has been prepared for those who wish to know more about the human body. It comprises a brief introduction to the subject and a guide to five readable books. The books should be available in any general library or may be obtained through any good bookstore. If you wish to continue your reading in this field, the librarian of your Public Library will be glad to make suggestions. If you desire to increase your knowledge of other subjects, you are referred to the other courses in this Reading with a Purpose series and to your Public Library. THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION THE AUTHOR R. MORRIS FISHBEIN is, according to students who are studying the history of medicine under his supervision at Rush Medical College, “a second Oliver Wendell Holmes.” Those who have read his books, or his newspaper columns, or his articles in leading American maga- zines, or who have heard him lecture will know the meaning of this comparison. Wit, humor, scientific reasoning, sound judgment, often annihilating satire combine to make up his style. Dr. Fishbein is editor of the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL AssociaTioN, of Hyeria, man- aging editor of mine special magazines in the field of medicine published by the American Medical Associa- tion, and chief editor of the QUARTERLY CUMULATIVE Inpex Medicus. He is author or co-author of several books on medicine, written both for the laity and for the medical profession. Dr. Fishbein received the degree of doctor of medi- cine from Rush Medical College in 1912 and then be- came associated with Drs. Ludvig Hektoen and E. R. LeCount in pathology, publishing with them several papers of a research character. He also served as house-physician in the Durand Hospital of the Mc- 9 10 Reaping Wire A Purpose "Cormick Institute for Infectious Diseases before go- ing into editorial work and teaching. As a writer, he has mastered the technique of “sep- aration of powers.” He can be the satiric, diabolic, annihilating colleague of Mencken or he can be, as he is in this reading course, the suave, dignified and scientific medical man. THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS CARE: ..» SCIENCE IN A FIGHT i HEALTI, NE of the most seiking iba of the O twentieth century has been the rise of in- terest in health. The philosophers of man- kind have for twenty centuries written epigrams, aphorisms and proverbs indicating with absolute unanimity their well settled conclusion that health is the most important factor for happiness in human existence. Only recently has man begun to take the necessary steps to secure that highly desirable at- tribute for all mankind. Indeed, in his survey Our Times, Mark Sullivan considers the work of preven- tive medicine the greatest of all the accomplishments of man, since it has freed human beings from the fear of disease. The pest hole that was Panama has today a death rate lower than that of most of the states in our own country. Hundreds of years ago the person without the scars of smallpox on his face was the exceptional person in the community. Today the one who carries such scars is a monument to the stupidity of his par- ents, because vaccination against smallpox prevents this disease. If Chicago had a death rate for typhoid 11 . “8 ol 0%. 9 00's hpi’ 3d viv, 1a Reapine Wire A Purpose fever today similar to the one it had in 1895, there would have been 60,000 cases of typhoid fever in Chicago instead of less than 200, which was the record “for the iby ryring 1928. Such diseases have been ‘controlled throtigh. the application of community 4 hygidne on} a ilakge ‘scale, through the control of sewage disposal, water supply, milk supply and the sanitation of food. Such community sanitation problems differ, however, from those that concern the individual himself. EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW HIS BODY Obviously it is impossible for any one to take proper care of his body without some knowledge of the manner of its construction and the nature of its function. The human body is a combination of cells bound together in various systems, such as the mus- cles, the bones, the circulation of the blood, the nervous system and the digestive tract. These in- terlocking cogs of the human machine are controlled by the mind or brain to a considerable extent, but many of the functions are automatic. Within quite recent years scientific evidence has been developed which indicates that an interlocking chain of glands which pour their secretions directly into the blood— the glands of internal secretion—act also as regula- _ tors of what might be called the automatic system, including the blood pressure, the heart beat, breath- Tae Human Boppy anxp Its Care 13 ing, and the dilating and contracting of the blood vessels. Careful consideration reveals moreover that the entire works will usually get along satisfactorily if left largely alone, particularly since there is within the cells the power of repair—an ability that does not exist, for instance, in such machinery as can be found in automobiles or even in dynamos. It is perhaps the function of the brain of man to make it possible for him to realize when things go wrong, and to take such steps as are within his power to correct the deviation. THE WAR ON THE MOSQUITO One of the effects of the reforms in hygiene and sanitation and of the highly advanced state of medical knowledge has been to increase the expectancy of life \ of a child born in the United States from thirty-five to fifty-eight years. This is near to the seventy years which Biblical legend ascribes as the term of man. By the application of the knowledge discovered rel- ative to the spread of disease by germs and by the insects that carry the germs, disease is today con- trolled largely on a community scale. Investigations which showed that the mosquito transmitted yellow fever and malaria permitted sanitarians to discover means for eliminating and controlling the mosquito. The oiling of swamps in which mosquitoes breed, the use of screens which prevented their entrance into the homes, and the isolation of persons with these 14 Reaping Wire A Purpose diseases so that they could not be bitten by mosqui- toes lowered greatly the incidence of these diseases. In fact, by such methods General William C. Gorgas, who cleaned up Panama and who was surgeon-general of our army during the World War, was able to elim- inate yellow fever from the entire civilized world so that today it is found only in a few places in South America and in Africa. INOCULATION AGAINST DISEASE Another accomplishment of science has been to raise the resistance of the individual to certain in- fectious diseases by inoculating him with mild forms of the disease or by transferring to him the resistance against the disease built up in the body of an animal or in the body of another man. For instance, vacci- nation against smallpox, typhoid fever, diphtheria and scarlet fever is today fully established as a means of raising specific resistance. In some cases, as in that of smallpox, the individual is inoculated with a mild form of the disease. In the cases of diphtheria and scarlet fever, he is injected with a preparation which causes his blood to form antisubstances against these diseases. In measles, and in infantile paralysis, prevention is aided by the injection of blood taken from a person who has recently recovered from these diseases and who has built up in his own blood resis- tance against them. The mechanisms by which the Tar Human Bopy anp Its Care 15 human body resists infectious diseases are thus so intricate that it is doubtful whether any writer for the public has been able to explain these mechanisms in language sufficiently nontechnical to be understood by the average man. In these processes physics, chemistry, physiology, biology, bacteriology and immunology are merely a few of the sciences in- volved. Moreover, evidence is quite sufficient to prove that the habits of life, such as diet, bathing, exercise, rest, fatigue and everything included under personal hygiene, bear an intimate relationship to the ability of a human being to resist disease. The very air one breathes and which surrounds the body in daily life has something quite definite to do with one’s physical state. Whether the air is hot or cold, dry or moist, still or moving, seem to be matters of the greatest significance. More and more, human beings are at- tempting to control the controllable factors concerned with resistance to disease. As they control these factors, life expectancy will be still further increased, because the present opinion is that the conditions which now carry off human beings are largely asso- ciated with bad habits of living. SITES OF EVIL The chief factors in death after forty-five years of age are heart disease, pneumonia, high blood pres- 16 Reaping Wire A Purpose sure, cancer, brain hemorrhage and kidney disease. Among the causes of these conditions, so far as known, are infections sustained early in life, particularly of the nose, throat, tonsils and sinuses, infections of the teeth, and spots of infection elsewhere in the body from which germs are carried to the heart, the kid- neys and blood vessel walls. These early infections are themselves associated with poor personal hygiene, with overcrowded living conditions, with residence in damp places and with undue exposure to the ele- ments. Any of these factors, as can easily be realized, is controllable only by social and economic movements which are only secondarily within the province of medicine. Upon pneumonia much research is being done, and it is reasonable to believe that it will be conquered eventually, because the germ cause is known, and it remains only for science to find a technique for in- creasing specific resistance. Cancer is today almost as great a mystery as it was twenty-five years ago. Indeed, there are some scientists and philosophers who insist that senility or old age is a sort of cancer of the entire human body. The degenerative diseases, however—resulting from the wearing out of tissues— come on gradually, but are easily detectable by simple tests such as can be made by any competent physician. Knowing that the human being is more controlled by sentiment than by sense, the campaign for prevention Tue Human Booy anxp Its Care 17 of these diseases includes what is known as the peri- odic physical examination with the suggestion that each human being have a complete physical examina- “tion on his birthday. Any one who owns a good motor car is likely to take it into the shop at least once every three months for a general examination and for correction in their early stages of any de- veloping defects. It seems logical, therefore, to urge that a similar procedure be adopted with the human body—as valuable a machine as any motor car. BIRTH DETERMINES SPAN OF LIFE With all this, however, one must take into account the fact that it is the kind of body conferred on a man by his ancestors which is of the greatest impor- tance in determining his length of life. Highly tech- . nical researches made by Raymond Pearl* and others "indicate that the length of life is a matter of heredity and that, barring accident and severe infection, the total years of a man’s life are somewhat well de- termined by his birth. Hence the proper care of the human machine is concerned not so much with total years as with physical qualifications and free- dom from pain and disease during those years. Of course, all of the years of man’s life at an advanced age are not an unmixed blessing. It is not so much the years as what one can do with them. *The Rate of Living by Raymond Pearl, Knopf, 1928, $3.50. # 18 Reaping Wire A Purpose FOOD—FRIEND AND ENEMY Much of the freedom of the human being from disease depends on what he eats and how he disposes of it. Numerous studies have shown that for every human being there is an optimum weight for health. Not all of us are either Greyhounds or Newfoundlands in our body build. The American represents a com- bination of numerous races and peoples and we have among us the tall, thin product of England; the round and broad German, and short and active French; the stalwart Norwegian and the excitable Latin. Certainly it is the height of folly to think that such varied people should all attempt to develop a certain body form. Nevertheless, it is the tendency of fashion to demand such conformation and the re- sults not infrequently are the symptoms of ill health. Studies made by one of the greatest life insurance companies have shown that overweight after middle “life is definitely associated with a shortening of life. As expressed by an Indiana farmer, pigs would live longer if they didn’t make such hogs of themselves. The human being as he passes middle age tends to + diminish at either end and to increase about the mid- dle. Unquestionably the factor of body weight is significant. All of the books on hygiene published in recent years discuss its importance. In the books here recommended one has been selected as represent- ing the consensus on this point. Tue Humax Booy axp Its Care 19 THE ROAD TO HEALTH The human being is a credulous animal and women are even more credulous than men. Superstitions re- garding health have been prevalent since the beginning of time and strange follies for the control of disease are constantly working, like a dangerous ferment, to disrupt man’s intelligence. Hence hygienists work energetically to overcome the wild accusations made by superstitious people and the claims of those who . profit commercially by opposing scientific medicine. The physical culture movement has meant much for the advancement of mankind so long as it has been kept within rational bounds. Its tendency has been, however, to adopt all-or-nothing policies regard- ing breathing, diet, starvation and outdoor exercise which are likely to do as much harm as good. The most ancient and established maxim in the field of hygiene is moderation in all things. It is well known that any force which is potent for good may also be potent for harm. Among the peculiar follies of the physical culture movement none is so preposterous as the notion that breathing of one type or another is significant in the causing of disease or in the cure of various complaints. Breathing may be to a large extent controlled, but it is also to a considerable ex- tent automatic. All systems of breathing—abdominal, rhythmical, deep breathing and other schemes, are irrational. Nobody should live for his lungs alone. 20 Reaping Wite A Purpose The cold bath fanatic is a menace to his associates, because he is not satisfied to indulge himself in his fad, but endeavors, as do all faddists, to convince his friends. Cold baths taken in the morning stimulate the nerve endings in the skin and drive the blood from the surface, to which it returns with a rush when the person comes out of the bath and rubs himself briskly with a towel. This is pleasant and invigorating, but it throws a considerable burden on the organs of adjustment and may be harmful to those whose organs do not respond readily. Exercise is useful for stimu- lating the reactions of the body systems. But ex- ercise does not mean marathon races or hundred mile walks! The road to health does not lie in the excep- tional performance but in well conducted and suitably regulated physical activities. The fanatics who sub- _ sist largely on hay, grain and oats are not all either thoroughbreds or jackasses. The vegetarians, the whole-wheat fanatics, the fresh fruit followers, the dangerous combination theorists and other food fad- dists do more harm than good. The rational view is that all the things eaten by man are of value taken in proper amounts at proper times. Starvation cultists do as much harm as any others. An occasional rest period may be helpful to the human digestive tract, but long abstinences from food place burdens on the digestion which are not its due. So irregular and fallacious are American habits of diet that every Tae Human Bopy anxp Its Care 21 Babbitt is willing to listen to his neighbor’s sugges- tion as to what he should eat. KEEPING ABREAST OF MEDICINE The consideration that has been given to the human body has taken but little account of some of the newer discoveries in the field of medicine. The ultraviolet rays, sunlight, cod liver oil, the vitamins, the calories and similar words have become known to all of us because of the tremendous publicity given to them in recent discussions on health subjects. One is tempted to insert at this point the ancient proverb, “Be not "the first by whom the new is tried.” The progress of science is rapid and it is almost impossible for any one to keep abreast of all its innovations. The safe path is to be assured that new methods are necessary. New techniques for prolonging life should have been thor- oughly tested in the laboratories and practices of the experienced before any attempt is made to utilize them in the routine of daily life. TO BOOKS FOR HEALTH FACTS The books that are being mentioned in this reading course are merely the beginning of a new literature on health. They have been selected to elaborate the points made in this preliminary discussion and to afford to any reader safe and stimulating guides to the care of the human body. 22 Reapine Wire A Purpose The progress of preventive medicine and of per- sonal hygiene is so rapid, however, that the reader can hardly keep abreast by the reading of books alone. For this reason the American Medical Association issues a monthly periodical called Hygeia, which in- cludes not only original contributions by various authorities in the health field, but also editorial dis- cussions of health problems, reviews of new books on health and a department of “Questions and Answers” in which the problems of readers are given special consideration.* It has been argued that physicians and scientists are not capable of writing about health and hygiene in terms that people can understand, and that it is going to be necessary for fiction writers and essayists to learn enough about these scientific subjects to enable them to interpret satisfactorily for the public the commoner facts about health. All the books here recommended have been written by physicians or scientists who have developed a literary technique which makes it possible for them to write in language that any one can understand. The dramatization of medicine and of science con- stitutes another field, including the great biographies and autobiographies of medical men, the picturesque works of DeKruif, the story of Panama and of the *Editors’ Note: Hygeia will be found in the periodical rooms of most public libraries. Subscription $8.00 a year. Tae Humax Bopoy axp Its Care 23 medical corps in great wars. The individual man may, through a study of the care of his own body, learn much of the way in which science protects man in the mass against the deadly plagues that have devastated humanity in the past. This book has been planned for those who wish not only to learn personal PersonaL HYGIENE APPLIED By Jesse Feiring Williams hygiene, but also to relate the securing of health to ideals, ambitions, hopes and aspirations. The first five chapters are devoted to such subjects as the meaning of health, the health problem, intelligence and ideals, the approach to knowledge of health and of science and the proper attitude toward life. Health is defined as that quality of life that renders the individual fit to live most and to serve best. Doctor Williams is not con- tent to give an account of the foundations and meth- ods of medicine alone. He carries the war into the enemy’s camp and presents brief but adequate criti- cisms of all the cultists and of the strange methods of one-track healing that they propose. Other chapters of his book are devoted to the hygiene of the various parts of the body classified under systems such as the respiratory, circulatory and digestive. The book is marked throughout by an extraordinary rationality. The author has an instinct for sound, proved facts and his book may be recommended as a safe guide. 24 Reaping Wire A Purpose In the preface of this volume, Professor Hender- son points out that it is another addition to the at- tempt to take medicine out of the realm of mysticism and bring it into the public view. This book is one for every educated man or woman who wants to know something about the work- ings of his own body, who wants to realize some of the tremendous accomplishments of modern medicine, and who wishes to acquaint himself in the field of medical science. After a consideration of normal physiology, discussing each one of the systems and important organs of the human body, Doctor Hag- gard provides chapters on intelligence, posture, fatigue, body temperature, and the effect of climate, reproduction, growth and development, and venereal disease. The book is as soundly informative as any volume of public health education thus far available. It has unfortunately not the readability or the philo- sophical point of view of the recently published work of similar character by Logan Clendening. Com- pared, on the other hand, with such volumes as Living Machinery by A. V. Hill and Physiology by V. H. Mottram,* also offered for the general reader, it is a monument of lucidity. The matter of public health WaaTt You SHOULD Know ABoutr HEALTH AND DisEAsE By Howard W. Haggard *Living Machinery by A. V. Hill, Harcourt, 1927, $3.00. Physiology by V. H. Mottram, Norton, 1928, $3.00. Tue Human Bopy axp Its Care 25 education is apparently still so young in Great Bri- tain that the English writers have not learned to talk in less than four syllables. Doctor Haggard has written for the child as well as for the adult and ap- parently realizes that the average adult intelligence is not so far above that of the normal American child. Throughout the volume, the actual information rel- ative to the workings of the human tissues is asso- ciated with practical discussions of infectious disease, metabolic complaints and similar subjects. An ex- cellent index makes this book a safe guide for the lay- man; in fact, practically a home book of health. Here is a joyous presen- tation of things known and thus far believed about the human body. The book is written with the historical approach. It presents an outline of physiology, makes clear the structure of the body, the mechanisms of the stomach, the heart, the lungs and the circula- tion. Doctor Clendening shows how the human being with a proper appreciation of his body may derive from it a considerable amount of satisfaction, of comfort and of pleasure, and also how he may avoid much of the discomfort and disease that not infre- quently assails him. Concluding chapters concern analysis of these processes and of tissue repair. This book sparkles with epigram and humor. It concerns itself with scientific literature and with normal hygiene. Occasionally, in striving for lightness, Ture Human Bobpy By Logan Clendening 26 Reaping WirH A Purrose occasionally in his attempt to startle the reader, the author takes a point of view with which scientists in general may not agree, but on the whole the book is to be depended on as a reasonably safe guide to knowledge of the human body. In this volume are col- Your WEIGHT AND lected eighteen essays on HOY 0 Oo lr the factors governing weight written by special- ists who have given special study to the various phases of the problem. The book does not give a certain weight for every person of a certain height, but takes into account individual differences of breadth and thickness along with age and height. The right weight for an individual is that which permits him to enjoy perfect health. The last half of this book is written by Professors Flora Rose and Mary Henry who take up the general subject of nutrition, discuss the various food and energy requirements, and provide a series of menus for the fat and the lean. The book aims at being a rational presentation of the weight problem. Since Professor Jastrow Recen Monn left the University of Wis- IT consin, where he or By Joseph Jastrow gn ere he was f more than thirty years professor of psychology, he has been devoting himself in large part to education of the public in psychologic Tae Humax Bopy axp Its Care 2M matters through syndicated newspaper articles. Be- cause of his scientific background and his years of experience and sound judgment, he is probably the most reliable of all the writers on psychology in the popular field. Most of the present volume seems to have been made up from the collection of newspaper articles in organized form. Through this organization, and by means of a suitable index, the average reader will be able to find an answer to almost every psychologic question that may disturb him. He will find the an- swer moreover in a succinct form and in a manner of expression which makes it exceedingly readable. I doubt that I have seen anywhere a sounder con- sideration of certain modern fads than appears in the chapter entitled “The Cult of Beauty,” with a sub- heading “Beauty, Behavior or Brains?” The psychology of lip-revival, of cosmetics and rouge, and the psychology of sport are a few of the topics that make this not only a useful but a most inter- esting book. BOOKS RECOMMENDED IN THIS COURSE Personar Hycrene Arpriep.Jesse Feiring Williams Saunders, 1928. $2.00 WaaT You SHourp Know Aout Heavra ano Disease... .. Howard W. Haggard Harper, 1927. $5.00 Pue Homan Booy............ Logan Clendening Knopf, 1927. $5.00 Your WereaT axp How 10 ConTROL IT Morris Fishbein, Ed. Doubleday, 1927. $5.00 KeeriNe MENTALLY FIP... ....... Joseph Jastrow Greenberg, 1928. $3.50 wii C029423740