causes fatigue. Fatigue is caused by the presence in the blood of certain poisonous 

 matters which result from activity, especially from muscular activity. Hence manual 

 labourers usually need longer hours of sleep than brain-workers, for only during sleep 

 are these matters cleared out by the body. 



Rest without sleep does not suffice to remove fatigue, and the fallacy that 



I 



CHANGE OF OCCUPATION IS REST 



has cost many overworked people very dear. 



Quiet is essential to refreshing sleep, because any noise, even though the sleeper 

 may not hear it consciously, stimulates the brain. 



Light, too, is a stimulus, and interferes with complete repose. People who live 

 near a trunk or car line or in some crowded city constantly wake in the morning 

 feeling almost as weary as when they went to bed, because the repairing process, so 

 active during sleep, has been interrupted by recurring noises or flashing lights. 



Pure air is another essential to recuperative sleep. Only in the coldest weather 

 should the bedroom windows be closed ; have them open to their fullest extent if you 

 desire good health ; and sleep on the porch, if possible, six months out of twelve. 



Warmth is indispensable to good sleep. Don't overload the bed with heavy quilts 

 or " comforters " ; a hot-water bottle is far more wholesome, and its contents are 

 conveniently at hand for toilet purposes in the morning. 



Down coverlets, when ventilated, are delightful bed-coverings. It can be hardly 

 necessary, in the twentieth century, to caution against the use of feather beds. They 

 are in every way unwholesome, enervating, impossible to " air " properly, and perfect 

 carriers of infection. 



Reasonable comfort is most generally provided by modern bedrooms. Knobbly 

 " flock " mattresses are comparatively rare, having been replaced by purified wool or, 

 better still, by horsehair. Where the expense of wool or hair cannot be afforded, a 

 bed filled with chaff, which is so cheap it can be easily renewed at intervals, is much 

 to be preferred to " flocks," which are too often made from filthy and imperfectly 

 purified rags and shreds of old cloth clothes. Active measures to prevent the further 

 manufacture of this form of cheap but most insanitary bedding have been taken in 

 the Old Country, as the result of the exposures published by the indefatigable Chief 

 Sanitary Inspector of Glasgow, Mr. Peter Fyfe. 



THE HYGIENE OF DAILY WORK 



in factories and workshops has now received attention for a hundred years, although 

 much still remains to be done to secure entire satisfactory conditions for workers; 

 in many cases, on account of their own indifference to the subject. 



But the provision of ideal conditions for the performance of domestic duties has 

 lagged far behind; women continue to estimate the worth of their service by the 

 fatigue experienced, and pride themselves, not upon their intelligent adoption of 

 improved appliances as they come on the market, but upon their ability to produce 

 good results at an extravagant expenditure of time and energy, without employing 

 conveniences to be purchased for a few cents or, at most, a few dollars. 



SUCH CONDUCT IS UNINTELLIGENT AND BLAMEWORTHY. 



Naturally, each woman has her own particular problems and must study the 

 conditions of her own duties in order to decide where a saving of energy can be 

 legitimately effected, and in which direction "steps can be saved" to the greatest 

 advantage. 



WORK IS BENEFICIAL WHEN PROPERLY PERFORMED. 



Without exercise muscles soon become flabby, and flabby muscles are associated 

 with all sorts of physical discomforts, besides a passing stiffness when called upon 

 to exert themselves. Far more injurious than flabby muscles, however, is a flabby 

 brain. Nerves deteriorate for want of exercise more rapidly even than muscles. 



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