Doctor Jim Talks about Soap
When Jimmy reached home that afternoon, he was mighty glad to find that Uncle Jim had come on one of his flying visits. Uncle Jim was a busy doctor in Boston, and did not come as often to see his namesake and the rest of the Martin family as Jimmy wished he would.
Uncle Jim smiled down on the three young Martins, and said:
“You are a healthy looking lot of youngsters. How do you do it? Plenty of sleep, good food, and fresh air?”
“All that,” said mother. “And lots of soap and water.”
“Ah,” said Doctor Jim. “There’s a whole lot in what you said last. If everybody would use plenty of soap and water, we doctors wouldn’t have so much to do.”
“What do you mean, uncle?” asked Jimmy.
“Dirt, Jimmy, dirt. Dirt and disease go hand in hand, and soap is an enemy to dirt. Many homes are so dirty that they are breeding places for disease germs; many people are also, and carry disease germs around.”
“Yes, and give them to the clean people,” said mother.
“Alas, yes,” said the doctor. “Clean people can’t always escape. It would be a fine thing if troublemakers could see what happens to others through their carelessness in time to put a stop to it.”
“Let’s imagine Sammy Jones,” said the doctor. “Sammy hasn’t been taught to use soap and water. He doesn’t keep his body clean, his clothes are soiled. He eats his food with dirty hands, he doesn’t brush his teeth. Altogether, Sammy is a walking invitation to disease germs to come and grow on him, and in him. They accept the invitation! Sammy doesn’t do a thing to get rid of them. By and by, some of them begin to make trouble, and Sammy is a sick boy. Worse than that, he passes on his measles or his scarlet fever or diphtheria to some of his playmates, and the first thing the doctors know, they have an epidemic of measles, or scarlet fever, or diphtheria.
“We folks who keep our bodies and mouths clean, and wash our hands before eating, can never guess how many diseases we dodge every day.”
“Does soap kill germs?” asked Jimmy.
“Many soaps do kill a number of germs, though perhaps not all kinds of germs. But if we scrub our hands well with soap we can be quite sure that there are no germs left on them to worry about. Soap surely gets rid of a lot in the dirt it removes.”
“How about dishes?” asked mother. “They should be washed free from disease germs. Will soap and water do that?”
“Yes,” said Uncle Jim. “If a good soapsuds is used in water hot enough to remove grease, and if the dishes are rinsed in scalding water.
“It is a big question in a city like this,” went on Uncle Jim, “whether the public is safe from disease or not in the containers which carry their food and drink. I wonder if glasses are always washed thoroughly at the soda fountains where you youngsters may go to get ice-cream soda? People do have sore throats sometimes, and lots more people are likely to find their throats getting sore if they have used cups or dishes not properly washed after the sore-throat people have used them. Restaurants that are careful about such things wash their dishes in big machines with boiling water, and soap or soap powder. Every good milk company washes its bottles clean before they are refilled with milk. If they did not, some serious diseases might be carried to us through milk in bottles which some unclean or unhealthy people had handled.”
“Another way in which cleanliness is a blessing,” said mother, “is in the nice fresh odor of clean bodies and clean clothing. Crowds are pretty bad when the people in them haven’t used soap and water.”
“I often think,” said the doctor, “that we owe to soap a great deal of our success in life. When we start out in the morning after a bath, in clothes which we know are fresh and clean, we have a lot more energy for our work than if we feel conscious of dirty bodies and soiled clothing.”
“And now,” said mother, “we will all wash our hands and have some clean food in clean dishes on a clean tablecloth!”
Look around you.
First at your own desk or your schoolroom. Then you may look at the street through which you walk home. Keep your eyes open for ways in which health may be made more sure for you and your town through better attention to cleanliness. Could you help in any way? Could your classmates, by working togethter? You will be surprised at the number of ways in which you and your classmates can work for better health through cleanliness, if you will keep your eyes open to see them.
In what way is soap an enemy to disease?
If disease germs lodge in your throat and make it sore, may it be your fault? How may it be due to carelessness of other people?
Do you make a practice of scrubbing your hands with soap whenever you wash them? Are half-washed hands safe?
Tell how dishes should be washed and wiped in order to be free from germs.
Internet Links to Help you on your Way
Oral Hygiene
Learn to Brush and Floss your Teeth
Personal Hygiene
Splash! A story about washing my Hands?
I'm Starving! (Food Hygiene)
Invisible World (of Microbes)
Germs around Us
Have we always been so clean? Read Rural Hygiene by Florence Nightingale and find out.
Where would you like to go next? 
