de
to the light when doing any work during the day; if you sit facing the
light it strains your eyes.
The strain of the eyes is a very common failure with growing girls,
although very often they do not know it, and headaches come most
frequently from the eyes being strained; frowning on the part of a girl
is very generally a sign that her eyes are being strained. Reading in
bed brings headaches.
Teeth
Bad teeth are troublesome, and are often the cause of neuralgia,
indigestion, abscesses, and sleepless nights. Good teeth depend greatly
on how you look after them when you are young. Attention to the first
set of teeth keeps the mouth healthy for the second teeth, which begin
to come when a child is seven and these will last you to the end of your
life, if you keep them in order.
If one tooth is allowed to decay, it will spread decay in all the
others, and this arises from scraps of food remaining between the teeth
and decaying there.
A thorough Scout always brushes her teeth inside and outside and between
all, just the last thing at night as well as other times, so that no
food remains about them to decay. Scouts in camps or in the wilds of the
jungle cannot always buy tooth-brushes, but should a tiger or a
crocodile have borrowed yours, you can make your teeth just as bright
and white as his are by means of a frayed-out-dry, clean stick.
_Learn how to make camp tooth-brushes out of sticks. Slippery elm or
"dragonroot" sticks for cleaning teeth can be got at chemists' shops as
samples._
MEASUREMENT OF THE GIRL
_It is of paramount importance to teach the young citizen to assume
responsibility for her own development and health._
_Physical drill is all very well as a disciplinary means of development,
but it does not give the girl any responsibility in the matter._
_It is therefore deemed preferable to tell each girl, according to her
age, what ought to be her height, weight, and various measurements (such
as chest, waist, arm, leg, etc.). She is then measured, and learns in
which points she fails to come up to the standard. She can then be shown
which exercises to practice for herself in order to develop those
particular points. Encouragement must afterwards be given by periodical
measurements, say every three months or so._
_Cards can be obtained from the "Girl Scouts" Office, which, besides
giving the standard measurements for the various ages, give columns to
be filled in periodically, sho
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