296 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The requirements of children are but little less. Air that has 
been breathed is rendered unfit for further use, temporarily, be¬ 
cause it has lost a portion of its free oxygen; has become charged 
with carbonic acid to one hundred times the former volume of that 
ingredient, and has become impregnated with an animal vapor such 
as offends the nostrils in every crowded room. The presence of 
carbonic acid is made„the test of impurity, but animal effluvia con¬ 
stitutes a terrible factor of sickness. Could some process be de¬ 
vised to separate the vile components from the better air, as we 
winnow the chaff from grain, without exposing children and adults 
to the breezy process used as an illustration, that would be the sum 
of excellence in ventilation; but no such scheme has yet been put 
into practical form. 
The best device only aims at diluting the foul air confined in an 
occupied room, by the introduction of currents from the outer at¬ 
mosphere; hence, a much larger suppfy than is needed for breath¬ 
ing is necessary for the preservation of health. Evidence has been 
accumulated from many states illustrating the evil consequences of 
breathing impure air. One authority says, after twenty years study 
of the subject, “ many cases of consumption, heart disease, and 
kindred evils, originate in the foul air of school rooms ani other 
crowded places. Dr. McCormac contends that cousumption and all 
tubercular diseases result from breathing air already vitiated by 
respiration. Life cannot be enjoyed nor realized in its highest ex¬ 
cellency, unless a sufficiency of pure air is supplied at all hours, 
sleeping and waking, and^the scholar or literary man, whose seden¬ 
tary occupation and brain labor make special demands upon the vi¬ 
tal power, should be in an exceptional degree cared for by a supply 
of oxygenated air. 
DEFECTS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 
“ France wants good mothers,” was the doctrine of Napoleon, 
reviewing the necessities of his‘empire. Thai want must be real¬ 
ized by every nation, and is theoretically recognized in this coun¬ 
try; but our school system, which is oppressive to both sexes, is 
specially injurious to girls at the age when they are approaching 
womanhood. Excessive labor, mental or physical, imposed upon 
children, retards and deteriorates development; but there are sea¬ 
sons when the brain work of the school room would alone prostrate 
