392 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



importance to the weak and debilitated, for by many eminent authorities it is con- 

 sidered that the presence of an unduly large proportion of carbonic acid in the air is 

 one of the chief causes of consumption. It is known that if one per cent, of carbonic 

 acid exist in a room the air is unfit for a healthy person, and it must obviously be 

 much more so for any one with a tendency to chest disease. A single room should 

 never perform the two offices of bed-room and sitting-room. The temperature should 

 be kept pretty uniformly at from fifty-five to fifty-six degrees. In some hospitals 

 for consumption it is much higher, but we cannot help regarding this as a mistake, 

 for the wards get stuffy and the patient weak and languid. There is too great a 

 tendency to regard consumption as a hothouse plant. An abundant supply of light 

 and fresh air would be much more to the purpose. In winter there should be a fire 

 in the bedroom lighted some hours before bed-time ; and it is a good plan to have 

 a Louvre ventilator, two feet square, in the door, with access of fresh air from an 

 open window on the adjoining staircase. This should be open day and night, but it 

 may be partly closed in severe cold weather in winter. This method of always 

 obtaining fresh air by an open window has many advantages, one of the chief being 

 that the air so entering is obtained from the upper strata, and not from a level with 

 the street. Moreover, a fire in an open fireplace is one of the best of ventilators. - In 

 h-ummer when no fire is necessary, the bedroom window should be left open for u 

 couple of inches at the top. Even children run no risk of catching cold provided 

 only that they have plenty of bedclothes. The importance of early accustoming 

 those with weak chests to sleep in fresh air cannot be over-estimated. 



In cases where there is a tendency to consumption but yet no actual disease of 

 the lungs, any exercise which will develop the chest muscles will prove highly bene- 

 ficial. Walking, which implies a certain activity of the arms, undoubtedly does 

 good, but still it hardly brings the right muscles into play. When we speak of 

 walking we of course mean sharp walking, for those funeral processions in which 

 girls at school are forced to take part are in no sense of the word exercise. A carefully 

 selected system of gymnastics is more likely to do good, and one of the best things a 

 young man can do is to go to a gymnasium for an hour or two daily and get himself 

 put through a regular course of training. He cannot well do it for himself, but 

 should have some one to guide and instruct him. If the gymnasium is out of doors 

 so much the better ; at all events, it should be thoroughly ventilated. Should the 

 season of the year or the weather not permit of out-door amusements, dumb-bells at 

 home or some well-contrived apparatus for arm and back should be daily used in the 

 house, and with open windows. Boxing is capital exercise for boys. Rowing, 

 running, and riding, if not carried to excess, will do much to expand the chest. Even 

 in advanced consumption horse exercise may be taken with advantage. For 

 families who are fortunate enough to live near a river or lake, there is nothing for 

 the girls better than rowing a light boat or sculling. It expands the chest, 

 throws back the shoulders, and straightens the back. Many a sculpturesque 

 figure will acknowledge her debt to her boat for her beauty. A few weeks' 

 instruction in swimming will take away all sense of danger from the 

 amusement. Under a judicious system of training an undeveloped man, even 

 though he may be feeble, narrow-chested, and sickly, may become active, full-chested, 



