2 i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



blame when the first-born child of inexperienced young married peo- 

 ple becomes feverish, or has a cough, and these symptoms are only 

 aggravated when the innocent victim is treated with "teas" and 

 mixtures, kept in an overheated room, and loaded down with bed- 

 clothes. 



That our children were intended by Nature to live in fresh, open 

 air, and that the old wives' regimen of keeping warm, living in-doors, 

 and of warm drinks, is the cause of the fearful mortality of young 

 children, is a truth that was not unknown one hundred years ago, but 

 which must still be repeated over and over again. 



The reader will allow me to recite the case of a patient of mine. 

 A year ago, during his honey-moon, I congratulated him, and told 

 him that a dry cough with which he was troubled was curable, pro- 

 vided he took care to live in the open air as much as possible, in- 

 uring himself to cold, sleeping in well-ventilated chambers, free from 

 dust, etc. But this advice was hardly relished by the young pair. 

 In October they hired rooms in a house that had just been built ; its 

 " dampness " they remedied by keeping up fires steadily ; the win- 

 dows were hardly ever opened, as the house stood on a windy corner, 

 and the husband was growing more and more sensitive to cold; for 

 this reason, too, he seldom went out-of-doors. In November he took 

 to the bed, was again about, but he gradually declined, to the last 

 hoping to recover. 



Different was the course followed by Mr. H , who, emaciated 



and troubled with a cough, had a haemorrhage after contracting a "se- 

 vere cold." He went into the country, took as much exercise as he 

 could in the open air, and returned home with only a slight cough. 

 At home he every morning took a warm bath with affusions of cold 

 water, avoided rooms with bad air, etc. In six months he was free 

 from his cough, appeared to be well nourished, and no longer had 

 any fear of taking cold. 



If the reader will dispassionately compare these two cases, he will 

 agree with me that the first patient, who had never had haemorrhage, 



fell a victim to the action of foul air, while H used to say, " I 



must give to my diseased lungs, above all things, fresh air, as the prime 

 necessary of life." Animals never take cold, even in winter; there- 

 fore among men it must be a result of wrong habits if air does any 

 harm. We know that gold-fishes quickly perish when fresh w T ater is 

 not provided for them ; and when we were boys we used to consider 

 it cruelty to animals if we made no openings for ventilation in the 

 boxes in which we kept cockchafers. 



Now, these openings answer to the windows in our houses ; doors 

 are meant to be closed, windows to be opened. It has long been held 

 that closed windows are the principal cause of consumption. I would 

 make the proposition more general, by substituting " defective venti- 

 lation" for "closed windows." It is very pleasant to be sheltered by 



