practical papers—the Atmosphere. 371 
live and breathe, and of this we require a most bountiful and con¬ 
stantly renewed supply. Each hour we drain these rich treas¬ 
ures from the air, and return what is poison to us, but the wel¬ 
come food to all growing plants, which grateful for our liberality 
abundantly repay the loan in gifts of vital oxygen. It is this 
which carries health on its wings, and like an aerial scape-goat, 
bears from our dwellings the seeds of disease. How many of 
our houses, with their double windows and air-tight com¬ 
partments are made simply the depositories of carbonic acid gas, 
in which children languish and men and women linger out a 
painful though brief existence ? 
When shall we learn to extend a hearty welcome to the sweet airs 
of heaven, which, even when chilled with winter’s frosts, bear to our 
firesides treasures no wealth can buy. We have but to open to 
the waiting guest and treat him with hospitable warmth, after his 
cold voyage from other climes, and daily, his will prove an angel’s 
visit, leaving blessings which shall render home an Eden. When 
will the architects of our dwellings, churches and school houses re¬ 
member that the good Father has given us an ocean of diluted 
oxygen from 40 to 100 miles in depth, and offers this world of 
treasure a free gift to the dwellers of earth ? 
