NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



151 



Caries* department. 



USES AND ABUSES OF AIR— VENTILA- 

 TION OF DWELLINGS. 



"Buds arc brertkiiig, birds are waking, 

 Time our very breath is taking, 

 We are jocund, we are drooping; 

 Shout a. welcome, Spring is coming." 



We all rejoice in the approach of sprintr, with 

 its sunshine and showers, its birds and its flowers; 

 but perhaps it would be more warmly greeted if it 

 did not so generally deprive us of the elasticity of 

 mind and vigor of body which have given zest to 

 the enjoyments of autumn and winter, and substi- 

 tute for them a listlessness and languor whicii in- 

 capacitates for either mental or physical activity, 

 and tends to make us weary of ourselves and all 

 about us. Shall we ascribe this effect to the ener- 

 vating influence of the warmth and humidity of the 

 atmosphere, and there rest without inquiring wheth- 

 er something may not be done to prevent or dimin- 

 ish this lassitude, inaction, and consequent suffer- 

 ing ? 



An abundant supply of pure air for the lungs, we 

 believe, would tend greatly to diminish this evil. 

 If you doubt this, we will refresh youi memory 

 with a few physiological facts, and support our 

 opinion by quoting a few acknowledged authorities 

 in medical science, showing their estimate of the 

 pernicious effects of foul air upon the system, and 

 the importance of thorough ventilation of our 

 houses. 



The blood, in passing through the system, parts 

 with its oxygen, and absorbs so much that is foreign 

 and injurious to the health, that it would in a short 

 time become so clogged and impure as to cease to 

 nourish the system, were it not that in passing 

 through the lungs the blood is exposed to the action 

 of the air which we inhale in breathing, from which 

 it receives fresh oxygen, while it throws off its im- 

 purities in the form of carbonic acid gas. Of course 

 when this arterialization is imperfectly effected in 

 consequence either of the deficient quantity or poor 

 quality of the air we breathe, the blood remaining 

 impure cannot properly nourish the body, and the 

 health must suffer. 



During the winter the coldness of the air is so 

 exciting and invigorating to the lungs and the en- 

 tire system, that a smaller volume of air is needed 

 for their support; but when the excitement from cold 

 subsides, if its place is left unsupplied, the system 

 flags, the appetite fails, and lassitude, headache, 

 etc., are the result. Extra care should be taken, 

 therefore, to supply the lungs with an abundance 

 (if wliolesome air; by active exercise out of doors, 

 forcing them to receive a large amount of the 

 "breath of lifa," and especially by thorough venti- 

 lation of the dwellings, (the sleeping apartments 

 particularly, ) prevent the inhalation of confined and 

 deteriorated air. 



In one of the "Tracts for the People," published 

 by J. S. Redfield, N. Y., entitled, "Uses and 

 Abuses of Air," the author, in his introductory re- 

 marks, says: "Impure air is indeed one of the 

 scourges of mankind, being the direct cause of very 

 many, and an aggravation of all the diseases inci- 

 dent to the human frame. No age or sex is ex- 

 empted from its influences, but especially are they 

 obnoxious to its evils who have adopted or complied 

 with the modern ideas of civilization and refine- 

 ment." 



Dr. Arnott, of England, says: "Our inquiries give 

 us the conviction thattlie immediate and chief cause 

 of many of the diseases which impair the bodily 

 and mental health of the people, and bring a con- 

 siderable portion prematurely to the grave, is the 

 poison of atmospheric impurity, arising from the 

 accumulation in and around their dwellings of the 

 decomposing remnants of the substances used for 

 food, and in their arts, and of the impurities given 

 out from their own bodies." 



In 1832, at Norwood school in England, where 

 there were 600 pupils, scrofula broke out extensive- 

 ly among the children, and carried off great num- 

 bers. This was at once ascribed to bad and insuffi- 

 cent food. Dr. Arnott was, however, einph)yed to 

 investigate the matter, and immediately decided 

 that the food was "abundant and good," assigning 

 ^^defcctive ventilation, and consequent atmospheric 

 impurity," as the true cause. A^entilation was ac- 

 cordingly applied by his direction; the scrofula 

 soon disappeared, and eleven hundred children are 

 now maintained where the six hundred, before a 

 proper system of ventilation was adopted, were 

 scrofulous and sickly. 



The celebrated French physician, M. Baude- 

 locque, asserts that "it will invariably be found on 

 examination, that a truly scrofulous disease is 

 caused by a vitiated air, and it is not always neces- 

 sary that there should have been a prolonged stay 

 in such an atmosphere. Often a few hours each 

 day is sufficient; and it is thus they may live in the 

 most healthy country, pass the greater part of the 

 day in the open air, and yet become scrofulous be- 

 cause of sleeping in a confined place, wheiethe air 

 has not been renewed." 



"Sir J. Clark," says the author we first quoted, 

 "who has written the best monograph on consump- 

 tion in our language, regards the respiration of a 

 deteriorated atmosphere as one of the most power- 

 ful causes of tuberculous cachexia, that is, the con- 

 stitutional affection which precedes the appearance 

 of consumption." 



Dr. Say states, "I consider the heated and im- 

 pure atmosphere of worksliops, and a similarly un- 

 wholesome state of the dwellings of the poor, as 

 the cause of a large number of diseases in child- 

 hood, of inflammation of the lungs, of the febrile af- 

 fections to which children are so subject, and of 

 those chronic disorders of the bowels which are so 

 apt to terminate in mesenteric disease." Again he 

 says, "The chief caus3 of the great mortality from 

 pulmonary consumption, is the defective ventilation 

 of houses, shops, and places of work." 



One of the series of "Health Tracts," entitled 

 "Breathing Pure Air," estimates that at least 

 50,000 of those who die annually in the United 

 States, under the age of five years, might be saved, 

 if the time-honored but pernicious practice of half 

 smothering children, whether sleeping (>r awake, 

 in shawls and blankets, to exclude the free, pure, 

 unadulterated air of heaven, could be abolished. 

 And adds, "Thousands and tens of thousands of 

 others, whoje lives extend beyond this period, are 

 yet suffeiers from tlie same cause; and though their 

 natural force of constitution may enable them to 

 live a little longer than those whose constitutions 

 are more feeble, yet are they not more to be pitied !" 



It was not our intention when we conunenced 

 this article to quote so largely from others, but if 

 you will read and practice, we think you will never 

 regret that for once our space was so occupied. 



