164 P1TTSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



made so by artificial means, or -whether it be encased so as 

 to prevent its natural expansion for the admission of air, 

 there necessarily follows the same diminution of energy in 

 the performance of the function of respiration. 



380. The effect of imperfect respiration upon the blood, 

 and upon the energy of life, is the same, whether it come 

 from want of room in the lungs to receive the air, or from 

 want of oxygen in it. Those who breathe impure and 

 corrupted air, and those who live in small and ill-ventilated 

 rooms, show the same languor and feebleness, the same want 

 of muscular power and buoyancy of spirit, as those who are 

 suffering from consumption, or who have deformed or dimin- 

 utive chests. 



381. The object of sleep is to restore the exhausted ener- 

 gies, and give us new life for labor in the morning. But 

 for want of sufficiency of air, this balmy restorer often fails 

 in some measure of fulfilling its purposes ; and, in some in- 

 stances, it comes very far short of it. In small and crowded 

 chambers, the sleep is not sound and refreshing, and the 

 sleeper awakes in the morning unrefreshed, indisposed to get 

 up, and irresolute in regard to labor. 



382. The laborers who slept in the narrow attic of the 

 shanty ( 361, 362, pp. 156, 157) assured me that they 

 awoke in the morning almost as weary as when they went to 

 their chamber ; they felt no vigor nor elasticity ; they were 

 not refreshed by their sleep ; they felt a slight nausea, and a 

 sinking about the heart, and some headache, after they rose ; 

 and they ran, as soon as possible, out of doors, to breathe 

 the fresh air. After being in the open air a while, they re- 

 covered their comfortable feelings, and then had some appe- 

 tite for their breakfast. Even then they had not the muscular 

 vigor, nor the power for labor, which they would have had 

 if they had been well supplied with air during their sleep. 

 It is a mistaken economy to give laborers, or others who aro 

 expected to use their powers, such small lodging apartments. 

 I have felt the same languor and sickness after sleeping in 

 the cabins of boats, and have seen the passengers rush to the 



