34 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



haps to the age of puberty, and then drop into the 

 consumptive's grave. Will parents never awake to 

 the enormity of this evil ? 



Small, ill-ventilated sleeping-rooms, in which re- 

 breathed air is ever present, are nurseries of con- 

 sumption. These are not found alone in cities and 

 large towns, or among the poor and lowly. Well- 

 to-do farmers' daughters and sons in the country, 

 those who live among the mountains of the New 

 England States, where God's pure air is wholly 

 undefiled, are often victims of consumption. 

 How is this explained? Look into their bed- 

 rooms ; examine into their daily habits of life ; and 

 the cause is made plain. Old-fashioned fireplaces 

 are boarded up ; rubber window-strips and stoves 

 have found their way into the most retired nooks 

 and corners of the land ; and the imprisoned moun- 

 tain air in country dwellings is heated to a high 

 point, and breathed over and over during the days - 

 and nights of the long winter months. It is cer- 

 tainly true that girls in the country take less exer- 

 cise in the open air than those residing in cities. 

 They appear to be more afraid of pure, cold air 

 than city girls. Consumption is not less rare among 

 females in the country than in cities, in the present 

 age. It was not so formerly. The declarations of 

 grandmothers and old physicians go to show that, 

 fifty years ago, consumption was hardly known in 



