Part 11

MOTHER: Why would it not be best to let it remain in the house?

PERCY: Because it would decay and make us ill.

MOTHER: Well, it is the same way in the house we live in. All the food we eat can not be used, and some parts of the body are wearing out all the time. If the waste stayed inside, we should become ill. In the skin there are thousands and millions of little tubes called pores, which help carry away the waste. If you become very warm, you say you are “sweating,” or per-spir´ing; that is, drops of water come out all over your body. They come through the pores, or little holes in the skin. But we sweat, or perspire, all the time, whether we can see it or not. If the pores of the skin were stopped up, a person would soon die. If the skin is very dirty, the sweat can not get out, and it stays inside. To show you how many pores there are, you may look at this little piece of paper, which is just one inch square. In such a space on the limbs there are five hundred pores. On the trunk of the body, forehead, back of the hand, and on the foot, one thousand; and on the palm of the hand and sole of the foot there are twenty-seven hundred. Each of these little waste-pipes is one-fifth of an inch long. If they were placed one after another, wise men tell us we would have two or three miles, and perhaps even more, of waste-pipes for the body. What do you suppose would happen if they were choked up, and all the waste should remain inside?

AMY: We would become ill.

MOTHER: We surely would. Sometimes we call it “taking cold.” If we cool off too quickly when warm, or get our clothes wet and do not put on dry ones, or in a warm spring day put on thin clothes, all these things stop the waste-pipes, and we “catch cold,” have a sore throat, and we may have a fever, which shows that the waste is being burned up inside; and the house becomes burning hot.

PERCY: Then the pores must be kept open all the time if we would be well.

MOTHER: Yes; but there is another way than those I have told you by which they get choked up. The waste-pipes leave the dirt they carry out of the body on the skin, for that is as far as they can carry it. The master of the house must see that the skin is kept clean, so the pipes will not be choked.

ELMER: Then he ought to wash it often.

MOTHER: I think so, and not only some parts, but the whole house needs a good scrubbing with soap and warm water as often as twice a week, and if he will then take a bath of some kind each day, that will keep the skin clean and healthy. Even rubbing the whole body once a day with a damp towel and then with a dry one, will keep the waste-pipes open, so they can do good work, if there is a thorough scrubbing twice a week, as I have said. We should also be careful to wear clean clothing next to the skin, for there is about a quart of waste matter carried through the pores every day. Can you think of any other ways in which the skin is useful besides being a covering and carrying away the waste?

HELEN: It helps us feel different objects. Those who are blind learn to do many useful things by the sense of touch.

MOTHER: Yes, we learn many things by this sense. You know when you show anything to a baby it stretches out its little hands to “feel” of the object. How do you think such poisons as alcohol and tobacco affect this covering of the body?

AMY: They must make more waste in the body, and so the skin has more to do.

PERCY: I think it must fill it full of poison.

ELMER: Does alcohol make the skin look red, mother?

MOTHER: Yes; that is why a man who drinks beer or other drinks containing alcohol, has such a red face. Sometimes his nose is called a “rum blossom.” The alcohol makes the blood-vessels larger than they should be, and so his nose and face become very red. Bad food is also hurtful to the skin, for it can not be clear and healthy if the blood is not clean. Pimples and sores are caused by bad blood, and they show that better food is needed in the body.

AMY: But you haven’t told us what the roof of the body house is, mother.

MOTHER: Have you ever seen a house with a thatched roof--I mean one covered with hay or straw instead of iron or shingles?

ELMER: Oh, yes, we saw some when we were out in the country!

MOTHER: Well, the roof of the house we live in is more like that than like a shingled roof.

PERCY: Now I know what you mean: the body-house has a roof of hair.

MOTHER: And it is a most beautiful covering, too. Each hair grows in a little pocket, which is furnished with a tiny bag of coloring matter and a bottle of hair oil. These give color to the hair, and keep it soft and smooth. If we put much oil on the hair, it causes the oil bottles in the skin to dry up. There is no dressing so good as that which is made in the skin. We should brush and comb the hair carefully, to keep it shining and healthy.

People sometimes lose this beautiful thatch, and we say they are “bald-headed.” In very old people it turns gray or white, and it is like a beautiful, silvery crown. The Bible says that “a hoary head is a crown of glory.” Very small, new houses sometimes have no thatch at all, but as they get larger and older, one grows, and at first it is fine as softest silk. The Bible says that even the hairs of our head are all numbered or counted by our heavenly Father. From this we may see how much He loves and cares for us.

THE CUPOLA

ELMER: Have you seen the cupola on the new house in the next street, mother?

MOTHER: Yes; it is very pretty. It is quite common now to build cupolas on large houses. But I was thinking, as you came in, of the cupola, or tower, on the house we live in. Can you think what it is?

PERCY: It must be the head.

MOTHER: That is right, but, unlike the cupola of a common house, which is used but little, the head is the best room of all, and the others would be of little worth without it. It is here we find the master, the one who gives orders to his servants, the muscles, and directs all they do.

In large business houses you sometimes see a room having on the door the word “Office,” and you know if you have business there, that is the place for you to go to find the manager. We might call the head the office room of the body, for it is here the manager is always found if at home.