Child's Health Primer For Primary Cla.s.ses.

by Jane Andrews.

PREFACE

As this little book goes to press, Ma.s.sachusetts, by an act of its legislature, is made the fourteenth state in this country that requires the pupils in the primary, as well as in the higher grades of public schools, to be taught the effects of alcoholics and other narcotics upon the human system, in connection with other facts of physiology and hygiene.

The object of all this legislation is, not that the future citizen may know the technical names of bones, nerves, and muscles, but that he may have a _=timely=_ and _=forewarning=_ knowledge of the effects of alcohol and other popular poisons upon the human body, and therefore upon life and character.

With every reason in favor of such education, and the law requiring it, its practical tests in the school-room will result in failure, unless there shall be ready for teacher and scholar, a well-arranged, simple, and practical book, bringing these truths down to the capacity of the child.

A few years hence, when the results of this study in our Normal Schools shall be realized in the preparation of the teacher, we can depend upon her adapting oral lessons from advanced works on this theme, but now, the average primary teacher brings to this study no experience, and limited previous study.

To meet this need, this work has been prepared. Technical terms have been avoided, and only such facts of physiology developed as are necessary to the treatment of the effects of alcohol, tobacco, opium, and other truths of hygiene.

To the children in the Primary Schools of this country, for whom it was prepared, this work is dedicated.

CHAPTER I.

JOINTS AND BONES.

[Ill.u.s.tration: L]ITTLE girls like a jointed doll to play with, because they can bend such a doll in eight or ten places, make it stand or sit, or can even play that it is walking.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Jointed dolls._]

As you study your own bodies to-day, you will find that you each have better joints than any dolls that can be bought at a toy shop.

HINGE-JOINTS.

Some of your joints work like the hinges of a door, and these are called hinge-joints.

You can find them in your elbows, knees, fingers, and toes.

How many hinge-joints can you find?

Think how many hinges must be used by the boy who takes off his hat and makes a polite bow to his teacher, when she meets him on the street.

How many hinges do you use in running up-stairs, opening the door, b.u.t.toning your coat or your boots, playing ball or digging in your garden?

You see that we use these hinges nearly all the time. We could not do without them.

BALL AND SOCKET JOINTS.

All our joints are not hinge-joints.

Your shoulder has a joint that lets your arm swing round and round, as well as move up and down.

Your hip has another that lets your leg move in much the same way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The hip-joint._]

This kind of joint is the round end or ball of a long bone, which moves in a hole, called a socket.

Your joints do not creak or get out of order, as those of doors and gates sometimes do. A soft, smooth fluid, much like the white of an egg, keeps them moist and makes them work easily.

BONES.

What parts of our bodies are jointed together so nicely? Our bones.

How many bones have we?

If you should count all your bones, you would find that each of you has about two hundred.

Some are large; and some, very small.

There are long-hones in your legs and arms, and many short ones in your fingers and toes. The backbone is called the spine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Backbone of a fish._]

If you look at the backbone of a fish, you can see that it is made up-of many little bones. Your own spine is formed in much the same way, of twenty-four small bones. An elastic cushion of gristle (gris'l) fits nicely in between each little bone and the next.

When you bend, these cushions are pressed together on one side and stretched on the other. They settle back into their first shape, as soon as you stand straight again.

If you ever rode in a wheelbarrow, or a cart without springs, you know what a jolting it gave you. These little spring cushions keep you from being shaken even more severely every time you move.

Twenty-four ribs, twelve on each side, curve around from the spine to the front, or breast, bone. (_See page 38._)

They are so covered with flesh that perhaps you can not feel and count them; but they are there.

Then you have two flat shoulder-blades, and two collar-bones that almost meet in front, just where your collar fastens.

Of what are the bones made?

Take two little bones, such as those from the legs or wings of a chicken, put one of them into the fire, when it is not very hot, and leave it there two or three hours. Soak the other bone in some weak muriatic (mu ri at'ik) acid. This acid can be bought of any druggist.

You will have to be careful in taking the bone out of the fire, for it is all ready to break. If you strike it a quick blow, it will crumble to dust. This dust we call lime, and it is very much like the lime from which the mason makes mortar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Bone tied to a knot._]

The acid has taken the lime from the other bone, so only the part which is not lime is left. You will be surprised to see how easily it will bend. You can twist it and tie it into a knot; but it will not easily break.