258 TiMEHRI. 



particles of food as bread, particles of hair and even the 

 spores of certain diseases in special cases. For these 

 also the remedy is more fresh air. 



Parke says " The importance of pure air cannot be 

 " exaggerated for of all causes of death in usual a6lion 

 '• none is so potent as foul air." Not only does it 

 produce disease of itself but it reduces the general condi- 

 tion of the body and so predisposes to all diseases. 

 That the death-rate and the density of population 

 (impure air) are related, is as firmly established as any 

 other fundamental principle of sanitary science. In 

 towns and habitations if the density of the population is 

 high, there is always a high death-rate, and this is not for 

 one disease alone but for all diseases. The dire effects 

 of the Black hole of Calcutta, and the deaths of 260 out 

 of 366 Austrian prisoners taken at the battle of Auster- 

 litz and confined in a small space, shew how fatal impure 

 air is in a startling manner. The supply of oxygen was 

 diminished, and the people were poisoned by the organic 

 matter given off from each other's lungs and skin. It is 

 rarely that the world is startled by such shocking atroci- 

 ties, but, after all, the atrocity is one of degree only, and 

 the world, I suppose from ignorance and unbelief, for the 

 most part, looks calmly on while about one-fourth of its 

 deaths are caused by impure air. In the Black hole of 

 Calcutta 146 persons were confined in one small room, 

 with only space to stand and a small window for ad- 

 mission of fresh air, for one night, and of these 123 died 

 before morning and many of the survivors succumbed to 

 putrid fever. Howard's work, one hundred years ago, 

 resolved itself into obtaining fresh air for prisoners. So 

 frightful was the result of its impurity that prisoners, 



