iv GOOD HEALTH 



realized that children should be instructed not by methods 

 of dogmatic assertion but rather by knowledge of the 

 facts on which such assertions rest. I have also been 

 convinced that, in so far as possible, the facts should 

 relate to the child's own life and environment; in other 

 words, that children should be taught through experi- 

 ment and personal experience. This, therefore, is the 

 plan of the series. 



The present volume gives detailed instruction in mat- 

 ters of personal health: what to do in caring for eyes, 

 ears, teeth, finger nails, hair, etc.; why we keep clean; 

 how to get pure air into a room and impure air out of 

 it; why this is needed, as proved by experiment, etc. In 

 each case the child himself is made to demonstrate the 

 need. This method of instruction is indeed a dominant 

 characteristic of the series as a whole. Each book has 

 been prepared with the conviction that children are influ- 

 enced by facts which result in definite courses of reason- 

 ing. Assure a child that unwashed people, crowded into 

 unclean rooms, breathing impure air, and drinking im- 

 pure water are more likely to be ill than clean people in 

 clean rooms, breathing pure air, and drinking pure water, 

 and he may or may not believe you ; but explain to him 

 the nature of those microbes which endanger life through 

 water, air, and food ; show by actual facts how the death 

 rate has been raised and lowered ; demonstrate by indi- 

 vidual example the laws of contagion, and we shall con- 



