December - The Temple of Health.. Things Worth Knowing About Common Communicable Diseases. Note on the Application of Solvents to Social Nuisances.. List of Bulletins and Circulars for Popular Distribution... Issued by the Division of Publicity and Education Entered as Second-class Matter March 20, 1914, under the Act of August 24, 1912 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 27 28 WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? The thing that makes life most worth living is that it is constantly beginning again. Morning after night, spring following winter, in constantly recurring cycles, bring tonic and inspiration and the joy of living. A new year is opening, full of possibilities. The land is ice-bound now but the ice will melt and the ground will thaw and the green shoots will come up," first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." The crop that will spring from the seed hidden away in the ground in May will depend partly on the sun, and the rain and the wind, but chiefly on the skill and the patience and the devotion of the farmers who cultivate it. So it is with our crop of human beings. New York is proud of its orchards and its dairy farms, its vineyards and its grain fields; but, as was once said of New England, its greatest crop is men. In the production of this crop cultivation counts for as much as in the harvest of the fields. We call the arts of this cultivation, Hygiene and Sanitation. The plant must have the right soil about its roots and the fresh air and sunlight must bathe its leaves and branches. It must be watered by the rain and fed with fertilizer. So our bodies must have the air to breathe and the food to build themselves up and make good the constant waste that is a part of life. The best New Year's resolution we can make in New York State this year is the resolution to care for the health of the people better than ever before. The Department of Health when it was reorganized in 1914 made the statement that " Twenty-five thousand lives can be saved in New York State within the next five years." Already, by the end of 1914 the reduction in the death rate amounted to a saving of 4000 lives and the incomplete data for 1915 indicate a still greater proportionate reduction. In 1916 we should reach the full figure of 5000 lives a year saved from the ravages of preventable,disease. The people of the State must do their part if these lives are to be saved. Help us to make the ideal of Health a vital part of the life of every school and every home,- help us to spread knowledge of the simple ways in which Health may be safeguarded and increased, and we shall reap a rich harvest of happy and efficient human lives. JANUARY January is, on the average, the coldest month of the year in New York State. We are likely to have much snow in the northern counties with bright clear days following the snowfalls. The long evenings give a good chance to catch up with one's reading, to see what is running in the magazines, and to get new light on the meanings of the Great War and its lessons for us in America. Out of doors in the daytime there is much that is worth while. To many of us the trees are never more beautiful than when the graceful and characteristic tracery of their bare branches is seen against the winter sky. There is a good book on Studies of Trees in Winter by Annie O. Huntington, which describes the special peculiarities of the various trees at this season. The study of tracks on the snow is another fascinating occupation. Did you ever suspect there could be so many kinds of animals and birds in a little patch of woods as there are tracks after a fresh snowstorm? Fresh air At this time of year it is important to remember that healthy human bodies cannot possibly be cultivated unless they are given plenty of fresh air. The air of stuffy and stale - smelling rooms is very obviously unpleasant and probably really harmful too, so some of the scientific people who have been lately studying the question tell us. The worst trouble about our houses in winter, however, is that they are too hot. It seems strange to think of catching a cold because one has been too hot; but that is just what happens. Benjamin Franklin said, “people who live in the forest, in open barns, or with open windows do not catch cold," and he was right. It is the man who stays in a hot room and lowers his resistance to disease and then goes out into the chilly air who will have colds and pneumonia. Overheated living rooms are bad for us in every way. In a warm room the temperature of the surface parts of the body rises, the blood pressure falls, the pulse becomes more rapid. We feel heavy and dull and sleepy and disinclined to work. The temperature of the living room or the schoolroom should never be above 70° in winter, except for old people or invalids. The windows of the sleeping room should be kept open at night all the year round. The temperature regulating reaction of the body is one of its most delicate and beautiful mechanisms. The blood vessels of the skin expand and bring the blood to the surface to be cooled off when we tend to grow too warm, and contract and keep the blood in the inner parts of the body when we tend to grow too cold. This power is trained by exercising it. Cool but not chilly living rooms, clothing that is warm enough but not too warm, cold baths if the body reacts after them with a healthy glow,all these things train the blood vessels of the skin and of the nose and throat and help the body to fight off any danger of impending disease. Evening stars: Venus and Jupiter; Saturn (after Jan. 4). Partial eclipse of the moon, Jan. 20, 2.55 A. M. to 4.24 a. M. "As birds flying He scattereth the snow, and the falling Diphtheria antitoxin first used by N. Y. City 2. Sun.... John H. Finley inaugurated President Uni- 3. ... Mon... Father Damien, friend of the lepers, born |