328 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



uninjured. There was carbonic acid there. It was concentrated, condensed, 

 made heavy, and settled on the surface Avhere the dog breathed it; but tlie man's 

 nostrils being four or five feet higher took in none of it. Frora these facts two 

 practical lessons of very great importance to human healtli and lif^ are drawn. 



First. There is more need of ventilating a chamber in winter than in summer. 



Second. There is no advantage, as to health, in sleeping in a very cold 

 room — cold enough to have ice formed in it during the night. Thousandth 

 of persons who have gone to bed in perfect health at nig])t have Avaked 

 up next morning Avith pneumonia — that is, inflammation of the lungs — and have 

 died in a i'ew days, because the room Avas too cold for them, to say nothing of 

 the debilitating effect of breathing an atmosphere more or less loaded Avith car- 

 bonic acid gas, which deprived the system of its ability to resist the approach 

 of disease. Had the room been Avell A'entilated, the attack Avould haA^e been less 

 severe, or there might haA'C been none at all, because the breathing of a pure 

 air Avould have given poAver to ward off any ordinary attack of sickness. Hence 

 they are the most conclusive reasons for building houses, or remodelling them, 

 80 as to haA^e the utmost f\xcilities for \'entilation. 



Really every chamber should have two systems of ventilation — internal and 

 external — so that either may be employed according to the season of the year, 

 and the health and \-igor or peculiarity of the sleepers. The internal A'cntila- 

 tion — that is, openings aboA'e the fireplaces — for feeble persons, or for very cold 

 weather, or in the autumn; the external — that is, through the AviudoAvs from 

 all out-doors — for the A'igorous, and in moderate Aveathcr. 



To some persons in any latitude, and to all in some sections of the coxmtry, 

 it is certain suffering to sleep with an open AviudoAv, especially in Aiagust and 

 September; and by understanding the reason of this fully, the necessity may be 

 remoA'ed from some families of selling out, or of building elsewhere. 



Before changing a residence on account of its being unhealthful, it should 

 first be noticed Avhether it is connected with any special season of the year, 

 Avith any special part of the house, or any particular habit of the persons Avbo 

 are attacked ; in other words, does the sickness appear during the atitumnal 

 months 1 Does it appear among that part of the family sleeping on the same 

 side of the house — on the northern side for example — keeping the rooms always 

 more or less damp, or in that part of the building nedfiest to some pond, or 

 marsh, or sluggish stream, or Avhether, of several persons sleeping on the same 

 side, only those are attacked Avho sleep with their windows open .' 



As a general rule young children, invalids, infirm and old people, should 

 liaA'e their chambers during the night A-entilatcd from M'ithin, and so should 

 all families living in bottoms on Ioav lands, near ponds, sluggish streams, marshes, 

 or recently cleared lands, especially during the autumnal mouths, or Avhero 

 there is more or less chill and fever, fever and ague, etc. The reason for this 

 is, that from these localities miasm constantly rises and comes through the 

 open windows upon the sleeper, who breathes it into his lungs corrupting and 

 poisoning his Avhole blood in a night. 



^lany cases are given in standard medical publications where persons sleeping 

 in certain parts of a building suddenly became ill, although they formerly had 

 good health, and had occupied the same chambers, and had slept Avith open 

 Avindows all the time. But a change of dAvelling, or a determination to buikl 

 elsewhere, should not be hastily made by the farmer, for some standing water 

 may have been drawn off recently for a mere temporary pui'pose — the repairing 

 of a mill-dam for example — and when reflooded, so as to eoA-or the Avet, muddy 

 bottom several feet in Avater, the sickness Avill immediately disappear, or a belt 

 of timber between the dAvelling and some standing miasm-produeing water 

 may haA'e been cut doAvn ; if so, a substitute should be provided by planting a 

 thick hedge of sunfloAvers, or other rapidly groAving and luxuriant vegetation. 



