Health Hints – circa 1910

From my grandmother’s encyclopedia and Dr. George J. Fisher…

First of all, why are you in need of health hints? “Most of the sickness of to-day is preventable, and is due primarily to carelessness in living habits.” No “thrill of abounding health” if you don’t pay attention to your habits.

Breathe the good stuff

There were no such things as oxygen bars but there was the good old fashioned night air.

Sleep with the windows open, but be protected from the direct wind. Night air is not only not harmful, but absolutely healthful. … Bad air depresses all the organs of the body. Houses, working places, offices, hotels, trains, are abominably ventilated. Keep on the lookout or you will be constantly poisoned.

Not to alarm you or anything. You certainly don’t want to hyperventilate in your working place.

Move it

Even the people who prescribe barley water for everything knew about the benefits of exercise.

Of course outdoor exercise is best. Hill climbing is splendid, especially for a weak heart. … Baseball and tennis for the vigorous, golf and horseback riding and wheeling for the more mature, are excellent.

Wheeling is a metalworking process, but I don’t think that’s what the doctor meant. Maybe biking or taking your wheel barrow out for a spin?

The stimulating bath

The day’s work should be followed by a short, refreshing bath. Nothing will prove so cheering as this. When depressed or irritable, a bath will oftentimes drive dull care away.

That’s why there’s so much depression these days—too many morning showers and not enough evening baths.

Well-cooked diet

There’s no food pyramid, but there is an exhortation to not eat too much. And recipes found elsewhere in the encyclopedia support the doctor’s assertion to cook your food, and then cook it a little bit longer still.

…meat is only required in quantities by persons who work vigorously with their muscles. … To eat well-cooked foods, plenty of vegetables, liberally of fruits and cereals and sparingly of meat and pastries, all well masticated when eaten, is the wisest course. It is foolish to be too fanciful in the choice of foods and to punish oneself in eating raw foods and unpalatable mixtures. … Salads and highly seasoned dressings should be eaten with caution.

So no taco salads people!

We’ve been overworked for over a century

This is a day when men and women are constantly overworking. Some housewives and many business men never know when to stop. Consequently, they constantly overwork and never get fully rested. They are tired and often don’t know it. They wonder why they are peevish and irritable. The truth is their blood is filled with fatigue products, their nerves are tired and insensible.

General hints for accidents

Keep your cool and keep everyone calm. It’s good advice in any situation. And get out and expose yourself to a few things.

It is well for one to get accustomed to the sight of blood. … It is a good practice to witness an operation occasionally, or to assist in dressing a wound for the purpose of schooling oneself.

Maybe take your kids to an accident scene and let them assist the paramedics. It’s never too early to start. You’ll be seen as a paramount parent.

Keep the good booze and tinctures ready

Whiskey of a good quality is valuable for many conditions, especially in case of snake bite, when it is a specific. Care should be used in giving it to children.

You’ll want tinctures of peppermint and ginger. Holiday cookies will not suffice. You’ll need the tincture of arnica, too, and no one has ever made a cookie from that.

You’ll keep your spirits up in an accident if you have spirits of ammonia and camphor at hand. Ammonia is even good taken internally. “It is a strong stimulant as an inhalant and can also be administered internally, the dose being 10 to 30 drops in sweetened water.” The camphor is taken internally at “1 to 20 drops on sugar. It is good to overcome gas in the bowels.”

Vaseline was still being used to treat burns when this entry was written. And please don’t ask why one would give someone ammonia internally because the conditions for taking these treatments is not given, only the dosages.

If someone is poisoned just give them olive oil. “In nearly all cases of poisoning, olive oil, if available, can be given in large doses, namely, a pint or more, as it neutralizes most poisons except phosphorus.”  (Unless you were living in Spain in May of 1981, and the olive oil you purchased wasn’t really olive oil.)

Emphasis is mine in the quote below.

For poisoning from acids, such as muriatic, oxalic, acetic, sulphuric (oil of vitriol), nitric, or tartaric, use soapsuds, magnesia, limewater, whiting, plaster scraped from the wall, milk, oil, and baking soda.

How on earth would anyone know if they suffered from muriatic poisoning? I do know that you could get oxalic poisoning from eating too much sheep’s sorrel, but, alas, I have no plaster to scrape from my wall, so don’t be eating that weed when you’re at my house. Eat the French sorrel instead. If you’re craving something sour, ask and I’ll show you where to find it.

When drugs were legal

You could legally overdose on any of the following: chloroform, ether, opium, morphine, laudanum, and soothing sirups. The treatment?

Provide plenty of fresh air, induce artificial breathing, apply ammonia to nostrils, give cathartics, and stimulants, such as coffee, brandy, and strychnine.

Yep, strychnine. In case they just tried to off themselves, so you might as well give them a little extra help.

Avoid being forced to vomit or smell ammonia by following the advice I can provide now that I have finished reading the entire section on poisons. Don’t such on matches or swallow the heads of matches. Don’t lick or drink paint of any kind. Avoid swallowing the pits of stone fruits. Avoid eating anything cooked in copper. Don’t eat the rat poison, Paris green, wallpaper or artificial flowers. Remember, for your general health and well-being, avoid raw foods.