HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 33. 



health. To strive to maintain the highest state ol health 

 and efficiency in life is not only a wise course, but it is due 

 recognition of an obligation to the interests of those in one's 

 own family and in the community. 



Any excessive irritation of a nerve, whether by causes 

 within the body or outside of it, results in pain. The mind 

 locates the cause of the trouble in that part of the body 

 where the particular nerve affected is distributed. Pain 

 in any part of the body may be considered as nature's 

 warning of something wrong there, and a call of distress 

 from that part. Without the nerve to give this warning, 

 the mind would have no knowledge of the danger. 



But so interlaced are the various nerve terminals, and so 

 slowly is the power of interpreting sensations acquired, that 

 oftentimes the one who is suffering may be entirely wrong 

 as to the place and cause of the ailment. Even the trained 

 and experienced physician is at times baffled in his attempts 

 to diagnose a case correctly. Any intelligent treatment 

 of one who is ill is out of question until the cause of the 

 ailment is known. The skilled physician seeks to restore con- 

 ditions in the body of the patient favorable for those bodily 

 processes necessary to health. 



A watch, however perfect it may be in its workmanship, 

 is of little value as a time-piece when any one of its train 

 of wheels is improperly adjusted and does not move harmoni- 

 ously with the others. No one part of the body can fail 

 in performing its function (its particular work) without 

 harm to the body as a whole. These failures may result 

 from causes external to the body. A cinder "in the eye," 

 a bit of food lodged in the larynx, an infected sliver under 

 the finger nail, may cause derangements in the workings 

 of the body as a machine even as a bit of dust when in the 

 wheel-work of a watch. Medicines are given as an aid in 

 restoring natural conditions in the body. In cases where 



