1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



373 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A. I. R OOT. 



And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 

 frround, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 

 life; and man became a living soul. — Gen. 2 :7. 



The especial point in the above text that 

 I wish to consider just now is where God 

 breathed into man's nostrils the breath of 

 life, and man became a living soul. That 

 expression, "breath of life," often comes 

 into my mind, especially when I have been 

 shut up where I could not get good air; after 

 I get outdoors in the air where it is pure and 

 cool, and take in big long breaths, thanking 

 God with every breath I take for good strong 

 lungs and good fresh air with vitality and 

 constitution to stand the breeze or draft, 

 then it is that these words come into my 

 mind, "and breathed into his nostrils the 

 breath of life." 



You have, perhaps, read of the increasing 

 number of deaths from tuberculosis, espe- 

 cially pneumonia; and you have read that our 

 ablest physicians say they have made no 

 headway in combatting the disease in the 

 • last thirty or forty years. They have made 

 some big strides in the way of prevention, 

 but nothing in the way of remedy through 

 the use of drugs or medicines. I believe 

 some success has attended the use of oxy- 

 gen ; but oxygen is air, so it can hardly be 

 called a drug or a medicine. I believe, how- 

 ever, that physicians are meeting with bet- 

 ter success in letting patients have more 

 outdoor air than they have been in the habit 

 of allowing them, even when they are pretty 

 near to death. When Mrs. Root was so low 

 a year, ago the principal thing in the way of 

 her recovery was that she could not sleep 

 day or night. She begged piteously to 

 have the windows open the way- she had 

 been having them all her life— I mean in the 

 night time ; but the doctors said that, in her 

 weakened condition, it would be almost sure 

 to make trouble— that is, if any of the win- 

 dows near the bedside were opened. We 

 had them open more or less in adjoining 

 rooms, but she wanted the wintry air to 

 blow right in on her face, I believe the 

 nurses were a little more willing to give her 

 the cold air direct from outdoors than were 

 the doctors. But even I myself did not dare 

 to take the responsibility of throwing the 

 windows open wide when it was both damp 

 and cold. After we had got rid of the doc- 

 tors (and nurses too) we had all the air we 

 wanted, and it gave her new life, as I rather 

 expected it would. Now, I know it is a dif- 

 ficult matter to decide just the amount of 

 outdoor air a patient can stand. People 

 have been killed time and again by sudden 

 drafts. But our good friend Terry says it 

 was because they had gotten into wrong 

 habits. Had they been sleeping every night 

 with cold air blowing right over their faces 

 they would certainly have been in much less 

 danger from a sudden draft. We can harden 



ourselves to sleep in cold rooms just as we 

 bee-keepers become immune gradually to 

 the poison of the bee-sting. It is a serious 

 matter to disagree with a family physician ; 

 and one should be very careful about even 

 suggesting that the doctors are wrong or did 

 not understand their business. I believe 

 just now, however, that all physicians are 

 prescribing more fresh air, and colder air, 

 than they ever did before. Of course, I 

 asked the nurses a great many questions. 

 One day at dinner I asked if there was any 

 remedy for the whooping-cough. The nurse 

 replied with bright vivacity : 



"Yes, sir. Send the patient outdoors." 



"But," I suggested, "suppose it is zero 

 weather. ' ' 



"Bundle him up and keep him outdoors 

 as much as possible." 



"But," I protested, "suppose it is damp 

 and rainy as well as cold." 



' ' Keep the patient outdoors just the same. 

 Give him some work that will keep him 

 warm, in the open air, but keep him out- 

 doors in some way all day long ; and if you 

 can manage to have him sleep outdoors at 

 night also, all the better." 



Now, the above regimen is exactly what 

 they are recommending for consumptive 

 patients at the present time. A lady in our 

 town who was threatened with consumption 

 has been sleeping all this past winter out in 

 an open veranda, and I am told she has 

 received great benefit in so doing. T believe 

 almost everybody agrees it is better to sleep 

 outdoors ; and the question often comes up, 

 " Can we not make our sleeping-room just 

 as good as outdoors by opening all the doors 

 and windows ? " Of course, this is for sum- 

 mer. In the winter we might open all the 

 windows pretty wide, but hardly the doors 

 also. I am inclined to think that, although 

 a well- ventilated sleeping-room may do very 

 well, it is not quite equal to the open air. 

 When our ancestors came into the forest 

 and put up their log cabins they had venti- 

 lation in spite of themselves. I can dis- 

 tinctly remember seeing the stars shine 

 through between the shingles over my bed 

 in the loft, and a good many times there was 

 a covering of snow on the blankets in the 

 morning. It did not do any harm, and prob- 

 ably did me a lot of good. I know for one 

 thing it gave me an appetite for the milk 

 and honey that I so greatly enjoyed about 

 that time. 



After our ancestors built some better 

 houses, with lathed and plastered rooms, 

 their ventilation was, perhaps, not quite so 

 good; but with the open fireplace or the big 

 stoves that came later, their rooms were 

 pretty well ventilated, even if no particular 

 pains were taken. When radiators and other 

 appliances for warming took the place of 

 the stoves there was more need of ventila- 

 tion, but nobody seemed to think of it : and 

 I am inclined to think nine-tenths of the 

 people nowadays sleep in tight bedrooms 

 with doors and windows all closed, and no 

 thought of ventilation. Quite a number 

 have told me that they never open a window 



