﻿46 ATMOSPHERE IN RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE AND HEALTH. 



The poisonous matter emanating from the skin of healthy people 

 and animals^ if thrown back upon the body by accidental or artificial 

 means, causes death in a short time, not only in the case of rebreathing, 

 but in cases where the pores of the skin are stopped, as by gold leaf or 

 plaster of paris. Sheep have died in large numbers after being dipped 

 in a resinous compound. The i)oison returned upon the body by the 

 stoppage of the pores by finely divided soot may be a cause of the 

 excess of cancer in chimney sweeps. Dirty bedding used after having 

 been rolled up for two months has given fever. 



The relation of the organic matter of respiration to disease can not be 

 doubted, and, indeed, it seems probable that much of the mortality of 

 infant and adult life may be due to the rebreathing of poison excreted 

 by breath and skin. These are known to be, mediately or even some- 

 times directly, a great cause of consumption, pneumonia, and bronchi- 

 tis. The recent experiments on the development of typhoid fever by 

 the respiration of sewer gas lead naturally to the inference that other 

 poisons besides that of sewer gas may play a very important part in 

 laying the system open to the attack of disease germs either from 

 within or from without the body. The chemistry of the expired breath 

 deserves full investigation in many different cases and circumstances. 



Gaseous emanations from sewers, drains, cesspools, and foul refuse 

 cause diarrhea, vomiting, and prostration, or a low state of health. 

 Children are more susceptible than adults, and when they breathe the 

 gases largely diluted may suffer from languor, sore throat, and diar- 

 rhea. These results may be due simply to chemical or inorganic poi- 

 soning. Where the specific organism is present, typhoid, epidermic 

 diarrhea, or diphtheria may result. Well- managed sewage farms do 

 not seem to cause illness in their neighborhood. Sodden and neglected 

 farmj^ards, on the other hand, are both common and pernicious. A 

 great deal of illness, affecting both man and animals, arises from them. 

 Thus "circulation," as in sewage farms, versus "stagnation," as in farm- 

 yards, shows its great superiority, even where other circumstances are 

 apparently adverse. 



The air close to certain crowded burial grounds has had a very bad 

 effect on people living near them -, it has greatly aggravated any disease 

 from which they suffered. 



The effluvia from decomposing corpses produces dysentery, diarrhea, 

 or a low fever, and in some circumstances diseases of a more severe 

 character. 



SULPHURIC AND HYDROCHLORIC ACIDS. 



Sulphuric and hydrochloric acids exist to a small amount in the atmos- 

 phere, but are not easily discovered except when brought down to the 

 ground dissolved in mist or rain. Hydrochloric acid is one of the most 

 soluble gases known, water at ordinary temperature absorbing five 

 hundred times its volume. At Eothamsted, about 23 miles from Lon- 

 don, the sulphates in rain were 0.0027 in the summer and 0.0032 in the 



