material, in exposed garbage, in hogpens, poultry yards, or any other places which permit of the accumulation of filth. Fly suppression in camps can be successfully accomplished only by doing away with their breeding places. Screens, fly traps, sticky fly paper, and poisons are all useful in waging war against flies, but are not in themselves sufficient. The fundamental rule to be enforced is that of absolute cleanliness of the camp and its surroundings. Human excreta, horse manure, garbage, and other wastes must be kept protected from flies. As flies seldom travel more than 500 yards from their breeding places, the location of stables, hogpens, and chicken yards in their relation to the camp is of great importance, and they should be placed as far away as practicable. Hogpens, especially, must be placed a long distance off-one-quarter of a mile being advisable. PERSONAL HYGIENE. Diet. In order that a diet shall be sustaining it must be properly balanced and contain a sufficient quantity of the constituents that have been found to be essential to life. These constituents consist of (1) nitrogenous substances; (2) starches and sugars; (3) oils and fats; (4) condiments; (5) water and salts; (6) accessory food substances. The daily quantity of each required is expressed in calories or heat units. A man doing hard work needs from 3,500 to 5,000 calories a day. A pound of meat, a loaf of bread, and a quarter pound of fat contain about 3,500 calories. Some men can get along on less while others consume more, but this is the average amount eaten. Many persons overeat. The tongue becomes coated, there is a bitter taste in the mouth, the bowels are constipated, there is lassitude, drowsiness, and often severe headache. When overeating is persisted in for a long time it may produce obesity, gout, and degeneration of the walls of the blood vessels, leading to apoplexy, paralysis, heart and kidney disease. This is especially the case if large quantities of meat are consumed. The food should be varied from day to day. If this is not done, the diet becomes monotonous and distasteful. The nitrogenous substances, such as meat, eggs, proteins of milk, the gluten of wheat and certain vegetables, are tissue builders or flesh formers. Oils and fats, both vegetable and animal, together with starchy food, such as bread, potatoes, rice, beets, etc., are force or heat producers. Meat should be cooked with heat sufficient to kill any animal parasites that it may contain. Cooking also softens the tissues which hold the muscle fibers together, it makes meat more tender, appetizing, digestible, and improves its flavor. Fruits are needed to furnish vegetable acids which are required to form carbonates necessary to preserve the alkalinity of the blood. Mineral salts are also essential. Rickets and bent bones in children are due to the absence of lime salts, and for this reason they should be given plenty of cereals, such as oatmeal and rolled oats, to prevent such conditions. Vegetables and fruits in the raw state should be thoroughly washed before being eaten, to remove any injurious germs which may be present. This should be done with the utmost care before eating radishes. lettuce, watercress, and celery, as dysentery, typhoid fever, and intestinal parasites have often been conveyed by them. 74 Pellagra is believed to be due to a diet which contains an insufficient amount of nitrogenous elements. The food of many persons in the South consists only of starches, sugars, and fats, such as corn bread, molasses, grits, rice, potatoes, fat hog meat, etc. Goldberger has produced pellagra among convicts by feeding them exclusively on such articles. In this connection should be mentioned certain accessory food substances (vitamines, etc.), which are substances widely distributed in food products. If a one-sided diet is eaten, an insufficient amount of these elements is consumed and severe results follow. A diet of polished rice will produce beriberi, but a man living on rice with the outer coating left on will not develop the disease; moreover, if a man is sick with beriberi and he is given rice bran he will recover, if the disease has not progressed too far. There is a substance in the pericarp, or outer layer, of a grain of rice which prevents beriberi. When the rice is polished this substance is removed with the outer layer, and the lack of it causes the disease. Milk. Milk is a complete food in itself, as it contains nitrogenous elements in the form of albumen and casein, fat as cream, milk sugar, salts, and water. As it is usually consumed in the raw state and as it is an animal product, great care should be exercised to see that it is clean and free from disease germs. There are three classes of milk on the market: Certified milk, inspected milk, and market milk. Special precautions are taken to prevent the contamination of certified milk, which should not contain The best method. over 10,000 bac- FIG. 74.-Milk bottles being filled and capped by machinery, teria to the cubic centimeter. The dairies are subject to frequent inspection; the cows must be tested for tuberculosis and be examined by veterinarians at frequent intervals. The stables must be well ventilated and of sanitary construction. The animals must be kept clean and be well cared for. The bag and udder should be washed before each milking. No manure should be allowed to remain around the building. The attendants must wear white clothing and must take frequent baths, and their hands and nails must be kept scrupulously clean. They must not be suffering from any communicable diseases or harbor the germs of such diseases. The milk must be carefully drawn from the cow so that no dirt will get into it. It should be immediately cooled thereafter, placed in sterile bottles, and kept at a temperature not above 50° F. until used. Inspected milk is milk obtained under the same precautions, except that the requirements for cleanliness are The not quite so rigid. The number open pail admits the dirt; the covered of bacteria per 1 cubic centimeter may be as high as 100,000. Market milk includes all other milk. It should be pasteurized before using. It is also safer to pasteurize inspected milk. The process of pasteurization is described on page 190. FIG. 76. Two kinds of milk pails. pail keeps much of it out. If a family has a cow, everything about the stable should be kept as clean as possible. The walls should be whitewashed and no manure should be allowed to remain in the building, but should be placed outside in a covered barrel or manure box (see fig. 39) and removed from the premises at least once a week. The cow should be brushed FIG. 77.-Four grades of milk as indicated by the dirt test. One outside the building to remove all dust and dirt. A farmer will spend considerable time brushing his horse, but will never think of brushing his cow. The udder and teats should be thoroughly washed and dried with a clean cloth before milking. The milk pail should not be used as a container for the water needed for washing the cow. The milker should carefully wash his hands before beginning operations. No one with sores on his hands, or who is suffering from a communicable disease, or is caring for a person suffering from such a disease should milk a cow, as the germs of disease may be conveyed to the milk and infect other persons. Milk from animals with sores on their teats should not be used, as severe sore throat may be caused thereby. The milk should be strained through a cloth and kept in a cool place free from dust. The milk pail should be scalded out with boiling water and drained without wiping. Alcoholic Liquor. Alcohol is a narcotic poison. Its action upon the human body is injurious and often leads to fatal results. The sale of liquors containing it should be as carefully restricted as that of morphine, cocaine, and other poisons, and it should not be permitted to be sold at nearly every street corner, as it is at present in many places. Alcohol is especially dangerous, as it seldom immediately kills, and to the casual observer appears to produce no permanent harm, but it should be remembered that persons who are addicted to the use of alcohol are more liable to contract diseases, as this poison lowers the vitality of the body and diminishes its power of resistance when attacked by the germs of disease. The symptoms produced by alcohol are similar to those caused by the inhalation of ether or chloroform. There is a first stage of excitement, in which the person experiences a feeling of well-being; he is talkative and imagines that he is making a good impression upon those who are present. He loses his self-control, and his judgment and sense of propriety, duty, and responsibility are impaired. There is a lack of muscular coordination, as shown by the staggering gait, thick speech, and tremblingands. In the second stage there is delirium, general weakness, and depression, followed in the third stage by paralysis, profound sleep, insensibility, coma, and sometimes death. Any of these symptoms may be present, depending upon the amount of alcohol taken and the susceptibilty of the person to the action of the poison. The continued use of alcohol may produce chronic inflammation of the stomach, liver, kidneys, heart, and other organs of the body. The drooping lip, bleary eyes, reddened nose, dilated veins, and muscular tremor of the chronic drunkard are well known. The effect on the nervous system is startling, for besides causing disease of the lower centers, conducting fibers and nerves, the higher centers are severely injured, as is shown by the number of persons committed to asylums suffering from alcoholic insanity. It is estimated that one-fifth of the persons admitted to these institutions have been made insane by alcohol. In other cases, persons of weak mentality, who might otherwise live fairly useful lives, are pushed over the brink and rendered insane by alcohol, the temptation to indulge in which such persons are unable to resist, resulting in their becoming charges upon the State through their inability to support themselves. |