Hazards of the Air 205 



elaborate and convincing experiments that the 

 slow poisoning, which under these conditions 

 we suffer, is self -poisoning, due to the high 

 temperature and accumulated moisture of 

 the air. These interfere with the necessary 

 burning up of refuse products within the body 

 and prevent the usual and continually neces- 

 sary excretion through the lungs and the skin 

 of poisonous stuff of our own making. If we 

 cannot get rid of this in these ways we 

 inevitably suffer. 



It has been shown by an experiment with a 

 man in a box, who is allowed to get self- 

 poisoned in this way, that if the air be cooled 

 and the moisture removed so that the lungs 

 and skin may both give off their poison-laden 

 vapors, the man at once freshens up, his 

 headache passes and he is quite recovered 

 without any more oxygen or any less carbonic 

 acid in his miniature chamber. 



Now this does n't mean that oxygen, and 

 plenty of it, is n't necessary for the welfare 

 of man, or that an excess of carbonic acid is 

 not bad for him. But it does mean that some 

 of the most striking bad effects of ill ventilated 



