REBREATHED AIR. 31 



laws upon which life and health depend cannot 

 always be violated with impunity. 



Among the many detrimental influences to which 

 human beings are subjected, no one is greater than 

 rebreathed air. Whilst there are tens of thousands 

 who suffer through this agency involuntarily, there 

 are other tens of thousands who might, if they 

 would, escape from its baneful influence. There is 

 bad air in churches, lecture-rooms, theatres, school- 

 rooms, parlors, bed-chambers, etc., which ought not 

 to be present ; or if, when occupied, the air of these 

 rooms must become vitiated, then they ought never 

 to be occupied. Certainly, enough has been written 

 regarding ventilation to arouse public attention to 

 its importance ; but, after all, little heed is given to 

 the matter in buildings, public or private. 



Let us reflect a moment upon rebreathed air. 

 What is it ? It is, strictly speaking, one of the ex- 

 crementitious products of the human organism. It 

 is a mixture of gaseous bodies which have entered 

 the system, .been subjected to chemical changes, 

 then rejected as a waste product. 



Rebreathed air is th only excrementary matter 

 thrown off by men or animals which is not posi- 

 tively abhorrent to all the senses ; which is not cast 

 away and shunned by all classes, the ignorant 

 and the learned, the cleanly and the uncleanly, the 

 civilized and the savage. A delicate and fastidious 



