Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Page 171-1942 – “We must not sit in damp clothing,”

Score – Minor

Children should be taught to have square shoulders.

Page 46-241 – “How distressing it is, to a sensitive mind, to see young persons, only eight or ten or twelve years of age, becoming round shouldered, is to be deformed;”

Score – Minor

Why 17 – Round Shoulders 1 (What 13) Poor posture causes round shoulders.

Page 46-242 - "Do you know, reader, what causes round shoulders, particularly in the young?” (243) – “Much depends, no doubt, on sitting a long time - from day to day in a bad position.” (245) – “we sit a great portion of our time with the shoulders thrown forward to far, we compress the soft cartilaginous ends of these bones, and the cartilages gradually yield and are absorbed, .....

Thus we are made, at length, round shouldered.”

Page 48-251 – ‘This remark is particularly applicable to the habit of bending forward at study.” Comment – This applies to children more than adults. See above.

Score – Verified

Why 18 – Round Shoulders 2 (What 13)

Round shoulders stop the proper use of the arms.

Page 47-247 – “we can not use the arms so freely on account of it.”

Score – Unverified

Why 19 – Round Shoulders 3 (What 13)

The lungs can not work properly if we have round shoulders.

Page 48 - 248 – “While we are becoming round-shouldered, we are compressing and cramping the chest, and preventing free motion of the lungs.”

Comments – Cyclists have one of the best oxygen uptakes of sportsman.

Score - Unverified

Why 20 – Round Shoulders 4 (What 13) Tuberculosis is caused by round shoulders.

Page 73-384 – “Nor is there any other class of persons so much injured by long sitting in a crouched posture, - such as restricts the action of the respiratory organs." (383) “about 75,000, die of consumption, and the other kinds of lung diseases which prevail.”

Score – Unverified

Why 21 – Round Shoulders 5 (What 13)

The heart is compromised with round shoulders.

Page 218-1131 – “The heart is compressed by bending the body forward and making a joint .... It is thus wedged between the lungs, on one hand, and the stomach and liver, on the other; and its contractions and expansions are performed with more difficulty....”

Page 48-249 – “This deformity (round shoulders), when considerable, is an annoyance to the heart, the stomach, the brain, and all the internal machinery.

Score - Unverified

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Why 22 – Round Shoulders 6 (What 13) Atherosclerosis is caused by round shoulders.

Page 222-1151 – “The heart sometimes becomes ossified or bony. ... owing to confinement or compression …. the aorta ... becomes ossified ..... is liable to be broken by violence, and to cause sudden death.”

Score – Unverified

Why 23 – Round Shoulders 7 (What 13)

Stomach and bowel disease are caused by round shoulders.

Page 74-386 – “He who sits too long in a crouching or bent position, whether at school or elsewhere, is liable to have the function of digestion, also, more or less impeded. ..... flatulence, acidity, chronic disease of the stomach and liver, and by diarrhoea and costiveness.”

Score - Unverified

Why 24 – Round Shoulders 8 (What 13) Singing is compromised by round shoulders.

Page 49-257 - "for a bent tube - and the wind pipe is a tube - is not as good a medium for the transmission of sound, as every good singer well knows, as a straight one. And bent the windpipe must be, inevitably, when the head and shoulders are pitched forward in the manner I have described."

Score – Unverified

What 14 – Holding a Baby

A baby should not be held in an erect, semi-erect position or lain down other than horizontal. Page 218-1132 – “And yet nurses are exceedingly fond of holding them in an erect or semi-erect position.”

Page 219-1134 - "when they are laid down, ....where not only the head but the shoulders are too high and the body bent"

Score – Unverified

Why 25 – Holding a Baby (What 14)

A baby, in any position other than horizontal, will compress the heart.

Page 218-1132 – “The work of compressing the heart often begins with the beginning of life. ....

The head and lungs, more fully developed than the rest of the system, cannot be well sustained by the feeble parts below, .... And yet nurses are exceedingly fond of holding them in an erect or semierect position.”

Page 219-1134 – “the heart is compressed.”

Score – Unverified

What 15 – Sitting Child

Children should rarely sit.

Page 219-1135 – “The young should sit very little.”

Score – Unverified

Why 26 – Sitting Child (What 15)

Children in a sitting position will cause round shoulders and compress the heart.

Page 219-1135 – “(By sitting) they will acquire the habit of sitting in a crouched or stooping position …. compressing the heart.”

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Score – Unverified

What 16 – Elbow on Desk

Young people should not sit at a desk with one elbow on the desk.

Page 50-262 – “You will always find them, when at a desk, leaning upon it, with one shoulder - usually the right - more or less elevated than the other”

Score – Unverified

Why 27 – Elbow on Desk (What 16)

Scoliosis is produced by resting an elbow on the desk.

Page 49-258 – “Few things more common among the young of modern times - especially among the young of the female sex - than spinal complaints. (261) – “Those of either sex, who have rounded shoulders, frequently have crooked spines in addition.”

Page 50-262 – “You will always find them, when at a desk, leaning upon it, with one shoulder - usually the right - more or less elevated than the other. ..... And if one shoulder is higher or lower than the other, there must be, at the same time, a curve or twist in the spine, in the same proportion. And then, again if the spine is curved above, there will be a corresponding curve below.”

Page 50-263 – “This delicate spinal marrow or cord will not bear continual pressure; but in all permanent curvatures, there is more or less of compression. This may have, and I can hardly doubt does have, something to do in the production of those spinal complaints which everywhere abound,”

Score – Unverified

Why 28 – Elbow on Desk (What 16)

Scoliosis compromises the function of the internal organs.

Page 50-264 – “Distorted spines press upon the organs of the chest and abdomen in the wrong places, and have some small tendency to derange their function.”

Score - Verified

What 17 – Braces

Braces are of no help for muscular weaknesses.

Page 55-289 –“As for most persons who are in tolerable health or who are merely feeble, delicate, or indolent, the application of laces, braces, or straps to them, is wholly and forever wrong. And the greater the delicacy and weakness, general or local, the worse, in the end, the evils which result.” Comment – Braces do have a function in weakness especially if combined with physiotherapy, but the basic rule is true that support will weaken the muscles.

Score – Minor

Why 29 – Braces (What 17)

Using braces for muscular weaknesses will only further weaken the muscles.

Page 55-289 –“the worse, in the end, the evils which result (weakness) from applications which are intended to brace or strengthen.”

Score - Verified

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

What 18 – Bony Deformities

Holding a limb in the correct position will correct a bony deformity.

Page 71-373 – “putting ourselves in proper shape, and keeping ourselves so. This will cause a pressure on certain parts to such an extent that what is called absorption will take place in one direction, and accumulation in the other.”

Score - Unverified

What 19 – Standing

Young people should not stand for long times.

Page 51-269 – “If we stand all day at our employment, especially before the period of maturity, the foot must be deformed almost inevitably.”

Score – Unverified

Why 30 – Standing (What 19)

Prolonged standing will cause deformities in young people.

Page 52-270 – “in a large manufacturing establishment in Great Britain, .....The children were stunted and pale; their flesh soft and flabby; many had bent limbs; in most the arch of the foot was flattened; and several were pigeon-chested, and had curvatures in the spinal column.” (272) – “one thousand of every two thousand children with flattened - that is deformed - feet; to have many with bent limbs; many stunted; and ninety affected by rickets.” (273) – “It is not in cotton mills alone, nor yet in other places exclusively, where the operatives are obliged to stand all day long, that deformities are to be found.” (275) – “We should not forget that the bones do not get hard at their extremities, and throughout their whole extent, till about the twenty-fifth year, in males, and the twenty-second, in females.”

Comment – It was a correct observation that children in factories had rickets, but not from standing.

Score - Unverified

What 20 – Education

Children’s training should not start early.

Page 380-1990 – “No error, .... is more frequent, or pregnant with worse consequences, than that of the premature excitement and development of the nervous system.”

Score – Unverified

Why 31 – Education (What 20)

Early training of children will injure the brain and nervous system.

Page 381-1994 – “The world is coming to learn that, not only does all this precocity injure the brain and nervous system, but the whole man.”

Score – Unverified

What 21 – Learning to Walk

Babies should not be encouraged or helped to walk.

Page 54-284 – “We either hold him or encourage movement of his own, for which his joints have not yet sufficient strength. Or he must be taught to walk by means of a go-cart, or some other mechanical contrivance. A thousand crooked legs have been made in these ways;”

Page 69-358 – “Of course it will not be expected, by any, that I would recommend haste about walking.”