192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



BREATHE PURE AIR. 



By the Rev. J. W. QUINBY. 



QNE of the saddest sights of our civilization is the spectacle of 

 w disease and pam which confronts us on every side It is 

 rare indeed to find even an individual perfectly well, to say noth- 

 ing of families and communities. But why is it ? 



Barbarians and savages do not so suffer. May it not be in 

 part, because civilized communities do not sufficiently avail them- 

 selves of the sanitary influences of the air and light ^ It is in the 

 hope of helping to answer this question that the followino- notes 

 ot personal experience are herewith given. 



A few years ago I read an article in i\^^ Popular Science 

 Monthly which seemed to prove the value of pure air as a pre- 

 ventive of ^ colds." The theory suggested was that colds may be 

 caused by the loss of a certain equilibrium between the oxyo-en in 

 the lungs and the carbon in the blood. It is true that this may 

 follow overeating, and so overcharging the blood with food ele- 

 ments ; but more frequently, it was thought, the lack of pure air 

 By acting upon this theory almost incredible results were said 

 to have been reached. The writer of the article alluded to 

 claimed that he had easily brought himself into a condition in 

 which It seemed impossible to take cold. He could sit in thin 

 clothing m winter at an open window. The ordinary causes of 

 colds, such as wet feet, overheating, and the like, seemed power- 

 less to produce their usual results. 



With these statements in mind, I remembered some curious 

 facts of my own experience in the army in 1862 and 1863. I was not 

 strong, and indeed was hardly fit to be in the army at all. And 

 when I found myself exposed all day long to a steady rain,'and at 

 night to the outdoor air, with no fire, no change of clothing, no 

 shelter but a canvas covering open at both ends, through which 

 the rain dripped constantly, it seemed certain that the " death o' 

 cold '' so often predicted must surely follow. Why it did not 

 follow was more of a mystery then, however, than it is now. For 

 I was in a place where the art of man no longer excluded one of 

 the prime principles of health. I breathed pure air because I 

 could not help it. During a service of fifteen months, with severe 

 exposures, but fresh air constantly, the same immunity from colds 

 prevailed. I remembered, too, that when I came home from the 

 army the blessing and the curse— at least one of the curses of 

 civil life— came back together. I had comfortable rooms to eat, 

 breathe, and sleep in on the one hand, but very soon colds, sore 

 throats, and related troubles on the other. This was the se'cond 

 count in the argument for pure air. 



