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KEEPING WELL |
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Muscular exercise and an abundance of fresh air seem to be the principal factors in determining physical well-being. For those whose life must be passed indoors to a large degree, it is therefore desirable that physical exercise should be constantly cultivated. It may consist in walking, riding, rowing, athletic games, gymnasium exercise, or a variety of other useful measures. Unless something of this kind is systematically pursued, it will be very difficult to maintain uninterrupted good health.
The daily bathing of the entire body is especially useful for indoor workers. The skin disposes of much of the waste material of the body. Those who are constantly engaged in out-of-door work usually find that the skin readily responds to the task which is imposed upon it, and the general activity of the organism also encourages easy performance of function of the other excretory organs, the lungs, kidneys, and intestines. The indoor worker is often deprived of this constant stimulus, and the daily bath will be of assistance in keeping the skin in condition to perform its necessary work. Its temperature must be largely a matter of choice. The indiscriminate use of cold baths is neither wise nor satisfactory.
Recreation
Amusements, aside from physical exercise, are not to be neglected; music, the drama (when it is clean and instructive, which unfortunately is often not the case at the present time), interesting or amusing lectures, various indoor games, and many other forms of wholesome recreation are useful adjuncts in the consideration of the means for promoting health.
Occasional vacations have a most important sanitary value. No one who has followed the development of the movement for giving brief periods of rest during the summer, whether by the seashore, at the mountains, or in the country, to our tired and sick men, women, and children of the city, our brethren and sisters, especially to the poor, and those whose homes are not very bright or cheerful, can fail to realize what this means, even from the physical standpoint. If the employers and capi- |
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