THINGS WORTH KNOWING. 257 



amount used in the whole United States, which would make fifteen 

 million ounces of sirup, or about fourteen million grains of mor- 

 phia. Setting aside the direct cost of this nostrum, it would be 

 scarcely possible to estimate the damages which the people of the 

 United States sustain indirectly from its use. 



Ventilation of Sleeping 1 Rooms. 



If two persons are to occupy a bed-room during the night, let 

 them step on a weighing scale as they retire, and then again in the 

 morning, and they will find their actual weight is at least a pound 

 less in the morning. Frequently there will be a loss of two or 

 more pounds, and the average loss throughout the year will be a 

 pouna of matter, which has gone off from their bodies, partly from 

 the lungs and partly through the pores of the skin. The escaped 

 matter is carbonic acid and decayed vegetable, animal matter or 

 poisonous exhalation. This is diffused through the air in part and 

 part absorbed by the bed-clothes. If a single ounce of wool-cotton 

 be burned in a room, it will so completely saturate the air with 

 smoke that one can hardly breathe, though there can only be one 

 ounce of foreign matter in the air. If an ounce of cotton be burned 

 every half hour during the night, the air will be kept continually 

 saturated with smoke, unless there be an open window or door for it 

 to escape. Now the sixteen ounces of smoke thus formed is far 

 less poisonous than the sixteen of exhalations from the lungs and 

 bodies of two persons who have lost a pound in weight during the 

 eight hours of sleeping; for while the dry smoke is mainly taken 

 into the lungs, the damp odors from the body are absorbed both into 

 the lungs and into the pores of the whole body. Need more be said 

 to show the importance of having bed -rooms well ventilated and of 

 thoroughly airing the sheets, coverlets and mattresses in the morn- 

 ing, before packing them up in the form of a neatly made bed ? 



Position in Sleep. 



The better position to occupy in sleep is on the right side. Thii 

 gives the contents of the stomach a chance to pass out more readily 

 than, if lying on the left side or on the back. If you sleep on thr 

 left side the contents of the stomach pass up instead of down, in 

 which case gravitation hinders instead of aids in the work. If you 

 have eaten a hearty meal and go to sleep on the back, the weight of 

 the food rests on the great vein near the back-bone and hinders the 

 flow of blood. Some physiologists claim that it is better to sleep 

 with the " head to the North," both in health and sickness. The 

 pillow should be only thick enough to allow the head to be on a 

 line with the shoulder when lying^ on the side, that is, to be a very 

 little above a horizontal line, for tnen it is easier for the heart to 

 throw the blood to the head through the arteries, while there would 

 be- a little incline to favor the descent through the veins. 



