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Show ! ' t 1 i i i I I 1 I I I I 1 1 1 1 I I I I I 'I i 1 HOW TO KEEP WELL DR. FREDERICK R. GREEN Editor of "HEALTH" i t-n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 n 1 1 1 1 n 1 1 1 1 n 1 1' ((c), 192ti. Western N':v.spaper Union.) MAKING NEW ARMS IF IT Is true, ns a philosopher said, that "he Is a henefactor to mankind man-kind who makes two blades of grass I grow where one gr.ew before," what shall we say of a surgeon who makes two arms grow on a crippled boy where none grew before? One of the strange and inexplicable freaks of nature is the occasional birth of children Willi no arms. What causes these rare deformities no one knows. Popular belief is that they are due to parental impression; that the mother, a few months before the birth of the child, lias had some strange and startling experience. But usually the explanation is found after the' child's birth and Is changed to match the deformity. In the case of a Chicago boy, while the explanation was insullieierit, there was no question about the deformity. The unfortunate baby was born without with-out any arms and even without any signs of arms. Yet at the age of twelve he was an unusually bright boy and, strange to say, had shown marked ability In drawing. How could he draw? He learned to hold a pencil , between his right cheek and shoulder. He could not only draw but write. He learned to hold a scroll saw with his right foot and so saw out wooden toys. Holding a stick between his cheek and shoulder and hitting the keys with the stick, he became an expert ex-pert typist. Certainly, such a boy deserved de-served help. His principal grievance was that he had no sleeves in his shirt and coat. He wanted arms like other boys. At twelve he was carefully examined exam-ined by a surgeon who fount! no signs, externally, of even rudimentary arms. But the X-ray showed on each side, buried under the skin, a small piece of bone only about three inches long, all there was of the arm bones. On these as a foundation the surgeon began be-gan to make him new arms. The fragments of bone were freed from the skin, except at the upper end. The muscles were loosened and wrapped around the little bones and the whole covered with skin flaps. After the operation wounds healed the shimps were exercised and the muscles mus-cles developed until, now six years after the first operation, the boy has two stumps, one five and one-fourth and the other six and three-quarter inches long, to which artificial arms have been fitted. He is now attending the Art institute and learning to be an artist. And what do you think made him happiest when he got his new arms? The fact that, in eating his lunch at school, he could hold a fork and spoon In his artificial hands and eat like other boys and not "lap like a kitty." SUMMER CAMPS THE eight years since the war and especially the last five years have seen a tremendous development of the summer camp Idea. How much of this was due to the experience of 4,000.000 men in the training camps during 1017 and 1918 it is impossible to say. But it Is certain that thousands of young men. dwellers all their lives in houses, found the outdoor life of the training camps not only more healthful but also far more enjoyable than any they had ever known. Another probable factor in developing develop-ing a fondness for outdoor life has been the automobile, which has taken millions outdoors and has given them a taste for the joys and benefits of camping out. A third factor has been the work of anti-tuberculosis associations, which have urged outdoor camps not only in the summer but all the year round, as the best and surest way of recovering from tuberculosis or consumption, which is essentially a house disease. But besides all these reasons, summer sum-mer camps for boys and girls have developed de-veloped a remarkable popularity, not as a means of curing disease but as a definite way of preventing It. For the growing child who spends eight or nine months In the school room, there is nothing so beneficial or which aids so much in the health, growth and development de-velopment of the child as two months out of doors in the woods, where, under un-der trained instructors, the child can learn not hook knowledge but practical practi-cal subjects, such as swimming, diving, div-ing, canoeing, nature study of birds, trees, flowers and animals and can Come home in the fall brown, strong and healthy, ready for the next winter's win-ter's school work. The present-day school system, whether public or private, lias a gap from the time school closes in the spring until the time when it opens in the fall. To many parents this Is a period of worry and anxiety. Many fathers and mothers today are too busy to give much attention to their children during the summer. The result re-sult is that for two or three months the child is left practically without any supervision. The summer camps (ill this gap. The child for two months Is kept busy and happy. Its health and diet are cared for by experts, It learns many tilings it could never learn at school and it comes home in the fall stronger, healthier and happier than It was in the spring. |
