OPEN AIR AND HEALTH. 217 



seated a corpulent lady with full face, shrill voice, and labored res- 

 piration. The lady on the right was of lean, slender, dried-up figure; 

 on entering the omnibus she had coughed; after taking her seat she- 

 held her handkerchief to her mouth and fairly changed color when the 

 one opposite, wheezing, took her place and called out for "Air, air ! " 

 exclaiming that she would surely be smothered if the window were 

 to remain closed. " But I," objected the other, " should get my death 

 of cold if the window were opened." The conductor, who for some 

 time stood undecided what to do, received this piece of Solomonic 

 advice from one of the passengers: "Open the window," said he, in 

 a deep voice, " and then one of them will die ; then close it, and the 

 other will die, and so at last we shall have peace." 



This ending of the scene I state for completeness' sake only, and I 

 add to it, by way of transition to the subject of the present essay, a 

 conversation with a farmer which grew out of the occurrence. 



On expressing to this sun-bronzed young man my regret that, in 

 this self-styled " age of intelligence," the fear of colds and of draughts 

 should be steadily increasing, and that it should really be producing 

 the very effects it is meant to guard us against, namely, coughs and 

 colds, he fully agreed with me, but took credit to himself for having 

 risen above such notions. "We farmers," said he, "no longer believe 

 that rust in grain comes from cold ; for we know that it results from the 

 development of noxious germs which, emitted by barberry-bushes and 

 decaying stalks, are carried about by the wind." 



This idea was of interest to me ; for the farmer's account of the 

 origin of " rust " put me in mind of certain throat and lung complaints 

 that, developing unnoticed, gradually lead to positive disease, and the 

 causes of which we physicians are daily more and more clearly tracing 

 to inhalation of impure, vitiated air ; hence, instead of speaking of con- 

 sumptive lungs or tuberculous lungs, we should, rather, speak of " de- 

 cayed "lungs or " dust" lungs. Stone-cutters are not assured by life- 

 insurance companies, because it is known that the stone-dust settles in 

 their lungs, undermining them, producing ulcerations and reducing the 

 average life of the men to thirty-six years. Other " dusty occupations," 

 so to speak, are less dangerous, but of certain callings and of certain 

 classes of working-men we often hear it said that they are seldom free 

 from " dry " cough. The reader, though he or she may have little to 

 do with dust, will perhaps have taken home from the ball a very fair 

 case of " dust-lung " caused by the dust of the dancing-floor. If they 

 will not believe this, let them examine their expectoration the day 

 after the ball. He who has good lungs may without fear inhale dust; 

 he will dance most of it out again ; but not so a delicate girl, whose 

 lungs are compressed in a tight corset : when with dust-laden mucus 

 she spits blood, do not say she has "taken cold." No, it is heating 

 that has caused it. 



Heating, too, and not cold, far less "trouble with teeth," is to 



