THE HOME IN RELATION TO HEALTH 373 



in stoves and furnaces and in lamps and special torches. We 

 need to learn both how to use it and how to protect ourselves 

 from it, and we need to know what to do when it gets beyond 

 control, for the danger to people and life is quite as great as the 

 danger to property. The treatment of burns and wounds is in- 

 cluded in another important branch of home education, that is, 

 the subject of giving first aid in case of injury. Some reference 

 has already been made to the treatment of bleeding, wounds, 

 and scratches (section 155), and of drowning. 



281. The home and the community. The health of a com- 

 munity depends to a certain degree upon the considerateness of 

 each individual and upon the extent to which all cooperate— 

 matters largely decided by what goes on in the home. Spitting, 

 for example, in so far as it has anything to do with health, sel- 

 dom hurts the person who does it, but most people will do in this 

 respect very much as they learned to do as children. The same 

 may be said of throwing things on the sidewalk or out of the 

 window, where they may become a source of injury to other 

 people. In many cases people mean to do the right thing but do 

 not know just what is right. Thus parents often send off to 

 school children who should be kept at home because the "slight 

 cold" or "sore throat" may turn out to be diphtheria, which is 

 passed on to other children. People sometimes break quaran- 

 tine simply because they do not understand the importance 

 to other people's children of the isolation of a germ carrier. 

 Rules regarding vaccination, requests from the authorities to 

 have the eyes or teeth examined, and similar efforts of health 

 authorities to promote the welfare of individuals and of the 

 group would have the hearty support of all if they only under- 

 stood the reasons for such efforts. Education in regard to new 

 discoveries is thus an important factor in family and com- 

 munity health. 



282. Standards for homes. We have gradually developed 

 standards for homes in this country and in other countries in 

 which modern science is being applied, and we find it convenient 

 and helpful to compare groups of homes as to the results they 



