AIR AND AIR SPACE FOR ROOMS. 859 



room. The escape and entrance of quantities of air are indispensable 

 for the removal of the noxious products thrown off from the living 

 body, and for the renovation of the atmosphere. This is to be accom- 

 plished, consistently with warmth and comfort, by artificial ventila- 

 tion. 



Besides this motion of the respired air, and its replacement by 

 fresh air, a certain actual breathing space should be allowed for each 

 person occupying private sleeping apartments, or for those attached 

 to barracks, workhouses, prisons, and, especially, to hospitals. The 

 day rooms being more or less constantly opened may be smaller. The 

 practice of architects and builders, up to a recent date, was to allow 

 not less than 800 cubic feet of space for each person ; but this is too 

 little, especially in infirmaries and hospitals, in which 1200 cubic 

 feet per head are not considered too much, and for military hospitals 

 in warm climates, as much as 2500 cubic feet per head have been rec- 

 ommended. The importance of sufficiency of breathing space and of 

 ventilation, in sleeping apartments, can hardly be overrated, especially 

 when we reflect that, even in health, the bedroom is occupied, from 

 first to last, nearly 8 hours out of the 24, or nearly one-third of our 

 existence. In hospitals and infirmaries, the same room is too fre- 

 quently occupied both day and night. 



The deterioration of health, from neglecting to sleep in a pure air, 

 is shown in many ways. Many competent authorities attribute the 

 deposition of tubercle in the lungs, i. e., the early stage of phthisis, 

 partly to inadequate respiration, and to imperfect oxidation of the 

 constituents of the blood and tissues. Consumption appears to have 

 been engendered in the Quadrumana confined in the small overcrowded 

 monkey-houses of the London and Parisian Zoological Gardens ; but 

 after increased accommodation arid proper ventilation were secured to 

 those animals, tubercular disease almost disappeared from amongst 

 them. The small, close, sometimes doubly-glazed houses in Wales, 

 contrast with the open dwellings of the inhabitants of Skye, and so 

 does the prevalence of consumption in the former, with its rarity in 

 the latter, districts. At an infant school at Norwood, a great mor- 

 tality occurred amongst the children, clearly dependent on imperfect 

 ventilation. Similar experience might be derived from every large 

 town in the kingdom, provided facts were always duly recorded and 

 understood. In the infant hospital at Dublin, 2944 children died 

 during four years, under a system in which ventilation had been 

 utterly neglected ; whilst in a similar period, during which many im- 

 provements in this respect were made, the mortality fell to 279. 

 Sometimes the injury may consist in a lowering of the strength of the 

 system, which exposes it to the attacks of impending epidemic or 

 zymotic diseases. The effete matters retained in the blood, must de- 

 teriorate the fluids of the body, or, escaping into the air, they may 

 form an organic nidus for the development of some diseases, or they 

 may ferment, become putrescent, and so favor the multiplication and 

 spread of poisonous fomites. Such effete matters may even undergo 

 decomposition within the bod}^. The lowered condition of health thus 

 induced, favors the continuance of the evil practice of breathing im- 



