244 ATMOSPHERE IN RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE AND HEALTH. 



A r APOR AND ORGANIC MATTER FROM LIVING BODIES. 



The lungs and skin together give off about 30 ounces of vapor in the 

 day, or about 550 grains an hour, enough to saturate about 90 cubic 

 feet of air at 63° F. Estimates naturally differ as to average amounts, 

 but Professor Foster states that the water given off from the lungs in 

 the day is about 1.5 pounds and from the skin 2.5 pounds. Vapor in a 

 room ought not to exceed 4.7 grains per cubic foot at 63° F., or 5 grains 

 at 65°. This vapor is practically not pure, for it is associated with 

 minute portions of organic gases and solids, and condenses with them 

 upon the walls, ceiling, and furniture, whence it emerges again with 

 organic dust when these are warmer than the air of the room. 



Organic matter is given off from the lungs and skin, of which neither 

 the exact amount nor the composition has been hitherto ascertained. 

 The quantity is certainly very small, but of its importance there can be 

 no doubt. It darkens sulphuric acid, decolorizes permanganate of 

 potash, and makes pure water offensive when drawn through it. Col- 

 lected from the air by condensation of vapor in a hospital, it is found 

 to blacken platinum and to yield ammonia; it is therefore nitrogenous 

 and oxidizable. It has a very fetid smell and is only slowly oxidized 

 by fresh air. It is molecular or particulate; it contains epithelium and 

 fatty matter from the mouth and pharynx, sometimes effluvia from 

 the stomach. Damp walls, moist paper, wool, and feathers are capable 

 of largely attracting or absorbing it. Experiment shows that it bears 

 a nearly constant proportion to the carbon dioxide in inhabited rooms, 

 so that this gas is conveniently taken as an indicator of the amount of 

 the organic matter in the air. Since this organic matter has been proved 

 to be highly poisonous, 1 even apart from carbon dioxide and vapor, we 

 may safely infer that much of the mischief resulting from the inspira- 

 tion of rebreathed air is due to the special poisons exhaled from the 

 body, their fatal effect being accelerated by the depression of vitality 

 caused by the gaseous products of respiration and by the want of 

 oxygen. Air thus organically vitiated and confined in places long 

 inhabited, which are subject to continual condensation on their sur- 

 faces, without proper cleansing, appears to play a very large part in 

 the propagation of disease in man and animals. 



The quantity of particulate organic matter given off has been esti- 

 mated at 30 to 40 grains for each adult. This is certainly sufficient 

 for the nutriment and sustenance of a very large number of micro- 

 organisms, which may grow, in the presence of moisture, upon it and 

 upon other dust deposited upon the walls, floor, and ceiling. Water 

 through which breath has been passed, and kept at rather a high 

 temperature, gives off an unpleasant smell, and putrefaction is set up. 2 

 It does not appear to be definitely ascertained whether the breath and 



1 Dr. A. Ransome and others. 

 s Carpenter; Douglas Galton. 



