THE CULTIVATOR. 
37 
manufacturing science should progress. The mere cul¬ 
ture of the land is nothing, except it is conducted on the 
best possible principles. To plough and manure—to 
sow and reap—to break up and lay down land—to breed 
and to rear stock, and to farm, and labor on a farm, 
merely as they who have passed away did, is.no great 
merit. This is merely to exercise an imitative talent. 
The resources of the mind ought to be brought to the 
labor ; and profiting not only by experience, but in learn¬ 
ing by experiment, we may hope to see improvement 
progress in an equal ratio in agriculture as in mechanics; 
and the knowledge, that the stores of experimental phi¬ 
losophy affords, be applied to this, the most useful of all 
the arts, because it produces the raw material,on which 
the human race is fed and clothed. When the mere 
operative farmer knows the value of science, he will 
then see that it is the best auxiliary to the production of 
agricultural wealth; and learn the secret, why his better 
informed neighbor, who has devoted some attention to 
such pursuits, has beat him in the cause of enterprize.” 
—Chester Chronicle. ^ 
---- 
The Importance of Pure Air, 
To health, is in a manner unknown to the mass of 
mankind, and we believe it has been but partially 
known, even to the learned, until recently. And even 
where its importance has been known, due regard has 
not been had to secure its blessings. . The purity of 
the air is destroyed by animal respiration, by puirify- 
ing animal and vegetable matters, by stagnant waters, 
and even, we believe, by becoming stagnant itself, 
under a warm temperature. Impure air exercises its 
deleterious influence upon the human system, in all 
damp or illy ventilated rooms—in the neighborhood 
of all putrifying animal and vegetable matters—of low 
marshy situations, and of stagnant waters—and in 
crowded close rooms, whether these rooms he jails, 
school-houses, work shops, temples of religious wor¬ 
ship, or temples of fashionable folly. 
Gen. Mann, the secretary to the Massachusetts 
Board of Education, whose recent lectures in our city 
were listened to with the highest admiration, by thou¬ 
sands of hearers, has recently published a pamphlet, 
pointing out the defects in our school-houses, and 
suggesting correctives. Two of the prominent evils 
which are too common, are bad location , and the want 
of ventilation, or a due provision for securing to the 
pupils the constant advantages of pure air. As. we 
shall make this report the subject of another article, 
we shall content ourself, for the present, with notic¬ 
ing such facts as go to illustrate the importance of 
pure air to health. 
“ It seems generally to have been forgotten,” says our 
author, “ that a room designed to accommodate fifty, 
one hundred, and, in some cases, two hundred persons, 
should be differently constructed from one intended for 
a common family of eight or ten only. In no one par¬ 
ticular is this difference so essential as in regard to ven¬ 
tilation. There is no such immediate, indispensable ne¬ 
cessary of life, as fresh air. A man may live for days, 
endure great hardships, and even perform great labors, 
without food, without drink, or without sleep; but de¬ 
prive him of air for only one minute, and all power of 
thought is extinct; he becomes as incapable of any in¬ 
tellectual operation as a dead man, and in a few minutes 
more, he is gone beyond resuscitation. Nor is this all ; 
but just in proportion as the stimulus of air is withheld, 
the whole system loses vigor. As the machinery in a water 
mill slackens when the head of water is drawn down; 
as a locomotive loses speed if the fire be not seasonably 
replenished; just so do muscle, nerve and faculty, faint 
and expire, if a sufficiency of vital air be not supplied 
to the lungs. * * * * 
“The common or atmospheric air, consists mainly of 
two ingredients, one only of which is endued by the Cre¬ 
ator with the power of sustaining animal life. The 
same part of the air supports life and sustains combus¬ 
tion; so that in wells or cellars, where a candle will go 
out, a man will die. ' The vital ingredient, which is called 
oxygen, constitutes only about twenty-one parts in a hun¬ 
dred of the air. The other principal ingredient, called 
azote, will not sustain life. This proportion is adapted, 
by omniscient wisdom, with perfect exactness, to the 
necessities of the world. Were there any material dimin¬ 
ution of oxygen, other things remaining the same, every 
breathing thing would languish, and waste, and perish. 
W ere there much more of it, it would stimulate the system, 
accelerating every bodily and mental operation, so that 
the most vigorous man would wear out in a few weeks 
or days. * * * About four parts of the twenty-one 
of vital air are destroyed at every breath; so that, if 
one were to breathe the same air four or five times over, 
he would substantially exhaust the life-giving principle 
in it, and his bodily functions would convulse for a mo¬ 
ment and then stop. As the blood and the air meet each 
other in the lungs, not only is a part of the vital air de¬ 
stroyed, but a poisonous ingredient is generated. This 
poison constitutes about three parts in a hundred of the 
breath thrown out from the lungs. Nor is it a weak, 
slow poison; but one of fatal virulence and sudden ac¬ 
tion. If the poisonous parts be not regularly removed, 
(and they can be removed only by inhaling fresh air,) 
the blood absorbs them, and carries them back into the 
system. Just according to the quantity of poison forced 
back into the blood, follow the consequence of lassitude, 
faintness or death. The poisonous parts are called car¬ 
bonic acid. They are heavier than the common air. and 
as the lungs throw them out at the lips, their tendency 
is to fall towards the ground or floor of a room, and if 
there were no currents of the air, they would do so.—- 
But the other parts of the air, being warmed and rari- 
fied by the lungs, are lighter than common air, and the 
moment they pass from the lips, their tendency is to rise 
upwards towards the sky.” 
More strongly to demonstrate the deleterious influ¬ 
ence of breathing foul air, Gen. Mann addressed to 
Dr. Woodward, of the Lunatic Hospital at Worces¬ 
ter, the following with other queries. A portion of 
Dr. W.’s reply follows. 
“ Second query .—What general effects will he produced 
upon the health of children, by stinting their supply of 
fresh air, through defects in ventilation V’ 
“The blood,” says the doctor, in reply, “as it circu¬ 
lates through the vessels in our bodies, accumulates a 
deleterious principle called carbon, which is a poison 
itself, and must be discharged frequently, or it becomes 
dangerous to life. In the process of respiration or 
breathing, this poisonous principle unites in the lungs 
with a proportion of the oxygen of the air, and lorms 
carbonic acid, which is expelled from the lungs at each 
expiration. The proportion of oxygen in the air re¬ 
ceived into the lungs, is about twenty-one in the hun¬ 
dred : in the air expelled, about eighteen in the hundred; 
—the proportion of carbonic acid in the inhaled air is 
one part in the hundred, in the exhaled air about four 
parts in the hundred. By respiration, an adult person 
spoils, or renders unfit for this vilal process, about one 
gallon of air in a minute. By this great consumption 
of pure air in a school-room, made tight and filled with 
scholars, it will be easily seen that the whole air will 
soon be rendered impure, and unfit for the purpose for 
which it is designed. If we continue to inhale this con¬ 
taminated air, rendered constantly worse the longer we 
are confined in it, this process in the lungs will not be 
performed in a perfect manner; the carbon will not all 
escape from the blood, hut will be circulated to the brain, 
and produce its deleterious effects upon that organ, to 
which it is a poison. If no opportunity be afforded for 
its regular escape, death will take place in a few mi¬ 
nutes, as in strangulation by a cord, drowning and im¬ 
mersion in irrespirable air. The cause of death is the 
retention and circulation Of this poisonous principle, in 
all these cases. 
“ If a smaller portion is allowed to circulate through 
the vessels than will prove fatal, it produces stupor, 
syncope, and other dangerous effects upon the brain and 
nerves. In still less quantity, it produces dullness, 
sleepiness, and incapacitates us for all mental efforts 
and physical activity. The dullness of a school, after 
having been long in session in a close room, and of a 
congregation, during a protracted religious service, are 
often attributable to this cause mainly, if not solely .— 
Both teacher and scholar, preacher and hearer, are often 
greatly affected in this way, without being at all sensi¬ 
ble of the cause. Fifty scholars will very soon conta¬ 
minate the air of a school-room at the rate of a gallon a 
minute. 
“ Suppose a school-room to be thirty feet square and 
nine feet high, it will contain 13,996,000 cubic inches of 
atmospheric air. According to Davy and Thompson, 
two accurate and scientific chemists, one individual re¬ 
spires and contaminates 6,500 cubic inches of air in a 
minute. Fifty scholars will respire 325,000 cubic inches 
in the same time. In about forty minutes, all the air of 
such a room will have become contaminated, if fresh 
supplies are not provided. The quantity of carbonic 
acid produced by the respiration of fifty scholars, will 
be about 750 cubic inches in an hour.” 
So far on air becoming vitiated and unfit for breath¬ 
ing, by reason of its having been taken upon the lungs. 
The extract which we make below, from the report 
of the English poor-law commissioners, shows other 
causes of the air becoming deleterious and poisonous 
to a fatal extent. Every individual has a deep inte¬ 
rest in knowing the 
“ SOURCES OF FEVER. 
“ It is a matter of experience that, during the decom¬ 
position of dead or organic substances,” says the report, 
“ whether vegetable or animal, aided by heat and mois¬ 
ture, and other peculiarities of climate, a poison is gene¬ 
rated, which, when in a state of high concentration, is 
capable of producing instantaneous death, by a single 
inspiration of the air in which it is diffused. 
“Experience also shows that this poison, even when 
it is largely diluted by admixture with atmospheric air, 
and when, consequently, it is unable thus to prove sud¬ 
denly fatal, is still the fruitful source cf sickness and 
mortality, partly in proportion to its intensity, and part¬ 
ly in proportion to the length of time and the constancy 
with which the body remains exposed to it. Facts with¬ 
out number, long observed, such as the great amount of 
sickness and mortality in marshy districts, the fevers 
and dysenteries incident to armies on their encampment 
on certain localities, several hundred men being some¬ 
times seized with disease in the course of a single night, 
and great numbers dying within twenty-four or thirty 
hours; the dreadful destruction which frequently took 
place in ship’s crews, in ships in which cleanliness had 
been neglected, and especially in which the bilge water 
had been allowed to collect and putrify, sufficiently at¬ 
tested the presence, in certain situations, of deadly poi¬ 
son. But this poison was too subtle to he reduced to a 
tangible form. Even its existence was ascertainable 
only by its mortal influence upon the human body; and 
although the induction commonly made as to its origin, 
namely, that it is the product of putrifying vegetable 
and animal matter, appeared inevitable, seeing that its 
virulence is always in proportion to the quantity of ve¬ 
getable and animal matters present, and to the perfect 
combination of circumstances favorable to their decom¬ 
position, still the opinion could only be regarded as an 
inference. 
“ But modern science has recently succeeded in max¬ 
ing a most important step in the elucidation of this sub¬ 
ject. 
“ It has now been demonstrated by direct experiment, 
that in certain situations in which the air is loaded with 
poisonous exhalations, the poisonous matter consists of 
vegetable and animal substance in a high state of pu- 
trescency. If a quantity of air in which such exhala¬ 
tions are present be collected, the vapor may he con¬ 
densed by cold and other agents: a residuum is obtain¬ 
ed, which on examination is found to be composed of 
vegetable or animal matter, in a state of high putrefac¬ 
tion. This matter constitutes a deadly poison. A mi¬ 
nute quantity of this poison, applied to an animal pre¬ 
viously in sound health, destroys life, with the most in¬ 
tense symptoms of malignant fever. If, for example, 
ten or twelve drops of a fluid containing this highly pu¬ 
trid matter, be injected into the jugular vein of a dog, 
the animal is seized with acute fever; the action of the 
heart is inordinately excited, the respiration becomes 
accelerated, the heat increased, the prostration of 
strength extreme, the muscular power so exhausted 
that the animal lies on the ground, wholly unable to stir, 
or to make the slightest effort; and after a short time it 
is actually seized with the black vomit, identical in the 
matter evacuated with that which is thrown up by a 
person laboring under the yellow fever. By varying 
the intensity and the dose of the poison thus obtained, 
it is possible to produce fever of almost any type, en¬ 
dowed with almost any degree of mortal power. 
“It is proved further, that when this poison is diffused 
in the atmosphere, and is transported to the lungs in the 
inspired air, it enters directly into the blood, and pro¬ 
duces various diseases, the nature of which is materi¬ 
ally modified, according as the vegetable or the animal 
matter predominates in the poison. In the exhalations 
which arise from marshes, bogs, and other uncultivated 
and undrained places, vegetable matter predominates; 
such exhalations contain a poison which produces, prin¬ 
cipally, intermittent fever or ague, or remittent fever 
“The exhalations which accumulate in close, ill-ven- 
tilated, crowded apartments, in the confined situations of 
densely populated cities, where no attention is paid to 
putrifying and excrementitious substances, consist chiefly 
of animaF matter; such exhalations contain a poison 
which produces continued fever of the typhoid charac¬ 
ter. There are situations, as has been stated, in which 
inspiration of it is capable of producing instantaneous 
death; there are others, in which a few inspirations of 
it are capable of destroying life in from two to twelve 
hours; and there are others again, as in dirty and ne¬ 
glected ships, in damp, crowded and filthy jails, in the 
crowded wards of ill-ventilated hospitals, filled with 
persons laboring under malignant surgical diseases, and 
some forms of typhus fever in the crowded, filthy, close, 
unventilated, damp, undrained habitations of the poor, in 
which the poison generated, although not so immedi¬ 
ately fatal, is still too potent to be breathed long, even 
by the most healthy and robust, without producing fe¬ 
ver of a highly dangerous and mortal character. 
“ But it would be a most inadequate view of the per¬ 
nicious agency of this poison, if it were restricted to the 
diseases commonly produced by its direct operation.— 
It is a matter of constant observation, that even when 
not present in sufficient intensity, to produce fever, by 
disturbing the function of some organ, or set of organs, 
and thereby weakening the general system, this poison 
acts as a powerful predisposing cause of some of the most 
common and fatal maladies to which the human body is 
subject. 
“The deaths occasioned in this country by diseases 
of the digestive organs, for example, by inflammations 
of the air passages and lungs, and by consumption, 
form a large proportion of the annual mortality. No 
one who lives long in or near a malarian district, is ever 
for a single hour, free from some disease of the diges¬ 
tive organs. By the disorder of the digestive organs, 
the body is often so much enfeebled, that it is wholly 
incapable of resisting the frequent and sudden changes 
of temperature to which the climate is subject; the con¬ 
sequence is, that the person thus enfeebled, perishes 
by inflammation set up in some vital organ, and more 
especially in the air-passages and lungs, or by consump¬ 
tion, the consequence of that inflammation. If, then, as 
is commonly computed, of the total number of deaths 
that take place annually over the whole surface of the 
globe, nearly one-half is caused by fever in its different 
forms, to this number must be added the number who 
perish by the diseases caused by the indirect operation 
of this poison.” 
The preceding extracts will serve to explain in what 
way air becomes poisonous to health,—will account 
for the faintings that often take place in crowded 
close rooms, and the indisposition that not unfrequent- 
ly follows the visiting such assemblies. They are full 
of instruction for the every day business of life ; and 
although we have recently pointed to some of the pre¬ 
cautions which tii se facis urge upon us, yet the im¬ 
portance of the subject to health, will justify our re¬ 
peating them. They admonish us, 
1. To make our school-houses more roomy,—to 
adapt them to perfect and frequent ventilation—to 
