262 TiMEHRl. 



these onl}' yg per i,ooo were from phthisis. What a 

 contrast ? 



So also in animals can the effects of impure air be 

 proved. As for example in the Old French Cavalry there 

 was a mortality of from i8o to 197 per 1,000 horses 

 annually but by enlarging the stables, increasing the 

 ration of pure air. it was reduced to 68 per 1000. There 

 was a similar experience in English Cavalry Barracks : 

 now in the new stables the mortality is only 20 per 

 1,000, and of these, half are due to accidents. Such 

 diseases as glanders and farcy are looked upon as due 

 to negle6l. So important is fresh pure air considered 

 now for horses, that it is brought, in properly constru6led 

 stables, dire6lly under the animal's head so as at once 

 to dilute the produfts of respiration. Curious, is it not, 

 to think that such diseases in horses are looked upon 

 as due to negle6l, while out here deaths in man produced 

 by comparable diseases, inasmuch as they are preven- 

 table, are assigned to occult influence beyond control. 

 One, is told if you are to die, you will die ; and during the 

 late epidemic of measles that has raised the death rate 

 very much all through the colony, little or no attempt 

 has been made to check the spread of the disease by 

 isolation. And I have known cases where the spread of 

 the disease through a family has been encouraged because 

 it is better for children to ** get it over." I am told. 

 Such awful heresy is fatal to true progress. No disease 

 can be stamped out while this idea prevails. 



In England the annual death rate from phthisis has 

 been reduced during the last 30 years by one-third, and 

 this is due entirely to an improved knowledge of what is 

 meant by pure air. The ventilation of houses has been 



