Subjects for Debate.—(1) Does the Chinese woman deform her body less than the Caucasian woman and suffer less from it? (2) Does as much disease originate in the dining room as the barroom? (3) Are drugs a necessary evil? (4) Does pride cause as much illness as ignorance? (5) Is it ever right to neglect the health? (6) Does the mind or the way of living have more effect upon the health?
Disuse and Degeneration.—Many persons in civilized countries cherish a vain hope of having sound muscles without habitual use of them, pure blood without deep breathing, a strong circulation in an inactive body, a fresh skin without keeping the body sound, a hearty appetite without enough physical labor to use the food already eaten, steady nerves with a part of the body overworked and a part stagnating from disuse. Their flabby muscles, pale skins, highly seasoned food to arouse appetite, narcotics to deaden irritable nerves, and the wide use of drugs as a fancied substitute for right living all show the attempt to be a miserable failure. If the parents leading such a life escape with fairly good health and average length of life, they leave a few unhealthy children in whom physical degeneration is plain. Complete, balanced living only prevents degeneration. Although there are cases of illness which are not necessarily a disgrace, disease usually originates in weakness of character or lack of common sense. The snob who thinks himself above physical labor, the dupes who at the bidding of avaricious fashion mongers think more of clothes than of a free body, the narrow, unbalanced man, who concentrates all his energies on one ambition, the short-sighted one who worries, all grow into a diseased state.
- [Footnote: mark the women of your middle classes. I did not attempt to study your
leaders of society, for they are much alike the world over—the same fuss, the same display of jewels and finery, the same scandals, the same uselessness. Your women do not diversify enough. If they are good cooks, they stop there; perhaps another is a good housekeeper, another can sew finely; but doing one thing makes narrow-mindedness. In Japan we strive to do many things. The worry troubles of your women, it seems to me, come largely from improper eating and overeating. I have sat at many of your tables and there is too much food on them and too much variety. First, women overeat, then they doctor, then they starve, and then they become nervous. A woman's diet, especially a mother's, should always be simple. Cut down eating and increase variety of labor and exercise. My own people live that way with a result that we have better feminine bodies, better skins, and better tempers than your women. I like the brightness of your young women. Perhaps you will take the hideous hats off them some day, find a substitute for the bad corset, and let them wear clothes that are loose, yet are soft and clinging. They are bound up in their clothes too much now and their judgment of colors and combinations is not good. Their clothing is either garish or very dull in hue. The simplest girl in Japan knows how to harmonize color with herself.—Mother's Magazine, November, 1907.]
