CHAPTER LXXXVIII 



BREATHE CLEAN AIR 



ONE breathes into his lungs about 300 cubic feet 

 of air every twenty-four hours; and exhales from 

 the lungs, in the same time, the same amount of 

 carbonic acid and watery vapor. 



The whole population of the world breathes, dur- 

 ing every twenty-four hours, about four hundred 

 and fifty billion cubic feet of air, and exhales from 

 the lungs the same amount of carbonic acid and 

 watery vapor. 



To breathe is to live; not to breathe is to die. 

 One not breathing for three minutes is dead. Stop 

 the whole population of the earth from breathing 

 three minutes, and not one lives to tell the story. 



The oxygen of the air breathed into the lungs 

 purifies the blood and keeps burning all the fires 

 of life. The carbonic acid thrown out is a deadly 

 poison. To breathe it over is death. 



But Nature is not willing that her children 

 should breathe poison; she therefore keeps her at- 

 mosphere pure. As fast as the billions of gallons 

 of the acid are poured into the atmosphere, the 

 vegetable world seizes it, picks it all out, and de- 

 vours it as food. The atmosphere is thus always 

 kept clean and sweet for man and beast. 



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