THE HOME IX RELATION TO HEALTH 369 



portant for each one of us to learn enough about food to be able 

 to order meals when away from home with the assurance that 

 they will satisfy bodily needs as well as the appetite. 



Since food naturally contains the materials necessary to main- 

 tain the life of bacteria, we can keep it from spoiling or decom- 

 posing only by placing it under conditions that are not favorable 

 to the growth of these organisms. In practice we have the 

 choice between keeping our food very hot or very cold. We are 

 not, as a rule, ready to cook our food immediately ; we there- 

 fore turn to low temperature as an aid in preserving food from 

 the destructive action of bacteria. We must be careful, how- 

 ever, not to assume that well-preserved food from the refrig- 

 erator is necessarily free from injurious microbes. We can see 

 that any organisms that may have been present before the food 

 was cooled are still there and are still capable of growing and 

 of multiplying when a suitable temperature is restored. It 

 is also necessary to keep refrigerators perfectly clean and free 

 from neglected food particles that may retain bacteria. This 

 principle applies, of course, to all cupboards, pantries, lunch 

 boxes, or other places in which food is kept temporarily or 

 permanently. 



279. Sleep and rest. We spend, on the average, a third of 

 our lives in bed. W^e should therefore have, comfortable beds, 

 with suitable coverings, and quiet sleeping places, well venti- 

 lated and easily kept clean. It is not only a hardship but a real 

 privation, so far as health is concerned, to have to sleep in 

 crowded quarters, or in rooms that are littered with materials 

 and tools related to the day's work or with all the apparatus for 

 preparing and eating food. Of course we can put up with many 

 discomforts and inconveniences, especially when we are young 

 and full of energy ; but from the point of view of the common 

 welfare we should not accept as necessary or permanent the 

 bad conditions in which so many families live. 



Sleeping porches, window shelves, and other arrangements for 

 outdoor sleeping became quite popular for a time, after it was 

 discovered that an abundance of fresh air is an important condi- 



