192 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



day after day and night after night in small, pent up rooms, with no thought 

 or care to secure the least ventilation ; and how suggestive the fact that scores 

 are being mown down by the fell hand of that most ruthless destroyer, cruel 

 consumption. Speak of lowering a window and the poor misguided victim 

 will detail the terrible dangers of the night air and of wind currents. As Dr. 

 Oswald well says, *' Before we can hope to fight consumption or stay its terri- 

 ble progress, we must get rid of this night air superstition. But if night air 

 were bad why contaminate it still further by pouring into it the poisonous 

 refuse from our own breath? Equally erroneous and dangerous are the popu- 

 lar views as to air currents. Better by far let the air currents pour in upon 

 you, which will rarely harm you if you are properly clad and not already 

 enfeebled by neglect of these very rules, than to convert your rooms into a black 

 hole of Calcutta. I have no doubt but that hundreds are destroyed by breath- 

 ing vitiated air, where one is sent to the grave by both the other causes com- 

 bined. While I do not believe that strong air currents, even of night air, will 

 do us perceptible harm if our bodies are healthy and well protected, still I 

 would not recommend subjecting our bodies to direct air currents, as we can 

 secure ample ventilation without this. A near neighbor at my old boyhood's 

 home was a man of fine physique. His wife was even stronger and more 

 vigorous than was her husband. They lived in a small, close house with low 

 chambers. Eleven beautiful children were born into the family. These chil- 

 dren, especially the older ones, were remarkably strong and vigorous as infants. 

 As they grew older, all were, we might almost say, packed into the small 

 chambers each night to sleep, with no care or thought to ventilate the room. 

 They all became early the victims of that relentless disease, consumption. 

 The oldest alone grew to maturity. Now she with six others are in their 

 graves, while only four remain, and they are all feeling the strong hand of 

 this same dread malady. This is only aii exaggeration of what exists in almost 

 every neighborhood. Pure air is the free gift of our beneficent Father; and 

 yet thousands are starving for the need of it, and this, too, in our country 

 homes where the lift of a window simply would supply this pressing need. We 

 ought all to feel as did the man who, upon going to bed at night, felt the air 

 of his room to be oppressive, and so got up, and as he supposed, kicked out 

 the window. He then retired and slept most refreshingly. In the morning 

 he found that he had kicked through the mirror of the bureau. 



In every bed-room one of the windows should be open day and night, and 

 should be protected from the storms by shutters. The size of the opening 

 should be gauged by the number sleeping in the room, and by the temperature 

 and character of the weather. The doors of the sleeping room should be open 

 unless there are transoms, and in summer all of the windows and inside doors 

 of the house should be wide ajar. In times of sickness this advice as to thor- 

 ough ventilation is all the more pertinent. Ill ventilation and supernumerary 

 nurses, or sympathizers are often too much for the most skillful physician and 

 nature combined. In cases of serious sickness, for other reasons than that of 

 ventilation, there should only be one person in attendance, unless more are 

 required to care for the invalid. Who has not seen, in every community, the 

 most flagrant disregard of this rule. Some favorite person is sick, and a half 

 score of anxious neighbors are hanging about the bed-side, robbing the sick- 

 room of the needed oxj-gen, and unwittingly doing their best to hurry their 

 friend to that beyond where suffering shall be no more. We are often told 

 that that physician who understands and insists on good nursing has won the 

 best skill of the art. Such an one will esteem good air as of more value to 



