The Necessity of Pure Air for Health. 265 

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mean a bare statement, I want scientific proof with 

 properly authenticated data. On the other hand I have 

 abundant proof, some of which I have already given, of 

 the dangers of sleeping in over-crowded, badly ventilated 

 rooms. I do not say sleep in the direct draught of the air 

 but I maintain, to sleep properly covered in flannel 

 garments and a blanket, with several windows open, will 

 do no harm, nay will positively do good, for only under 

 such conditions is sleep nature's sweet restorer. But 

 with closed windows one perspires freely, one breathes 

 foul air, awakens with a dull heavy feeling, more 

 exhausted than on going to bed. Night air is not 

 dangerous if proper precautions are taken. 



In this connexion I wish particularly to draw atten- 

 tion to a most objeflionable way of sleeping, I regret to 

 say, commonly pra6lised by the people here, due no 

 doubt, to the presence of the mosquito. I mean sleeping 

 with the arm bent over the head and face as a guard, and 

 then covered with a sheet or blanket. The inner side of 

 the covering soon becomes laden with moisture, and for 

 hours the person is breathing air that has only just 

 passed out of his lungs, containing a diminished quantity 

 of oxygen and loaded with carbonic acid gas and 

 organic matter. The person is self-poisoned, reduced in 

 health, rendered less able to resist disease. The lungs 

 are weakened, so becoming more liable to be inflamed 

 and the individual wakes unrefreshed day after day. 



So also children and others in double beds should not 

 sleep face to face, for then they breathe air that has only 

 just passed out of each other's lungs. 



In this colony the mortality per 1,000 has varied from 

 32 to 25 per annum in the last few years. 



