Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-05-11
GQlortrstrr 7aiIp Spp.
lFrom Halls Journal of Health. I
SLEEPING TOGETHER.

II man were to see quarter of an inch of
worm put III his cup of coffee he could not
drink It, because he knows that the whole Gun
would be impregnated If very small amount
OF some virulent poison be introduced into
glass OF water, the drinking of it might not
produce instant death, but that would not
prove that it was not hurtful, only that there
was not enough of it to cause destructive
result Immediately.
We sicken at the thought of taking the
breath of another the moment it leaves the
mouth, but that breath mingles with the air
about the bed in which two persons lay and it
Is rebreathed, but not the less offensive is it in
reality, on account of the dilution except that
it is not taken in its concentrated form, but
each breath makes it more concentrated. One
sleeper corrupts the atmosphere of the room
by his own breathing, but when two persons
are breathing at the same time, twelve or four
teen times in each minute, each minute ex-
tracing all the nutriment from gallon of
air, the deterioration must be rapid indeed, es-
pecally in small and close room. A bird
cannot live without large supply of pure air
A canary bird hung up in curtained bead
stead where two persons slept died before the
morning
Many infants are found dead in bed, and it
Is attributed to having been overlaid by the
parents; but the idea that any person could
lay still for moment on baby, or anything
else of the same size, is absurd. Death was
caused for the want of pure air.
Besides, emanatons, aerial and more or less
solid, are thrown out from every person
thrown out by the process Of nature, because
no longer hit for life purposes, because they are
dead and corrupt-but if breathed into another
living body, it is lust as abhorrent as if we
took into our mouths the matter of a sore or
any other excretion.
The most destructive typhoid and putrid
feyers are known to arise directly from a num-
Der Of persons living in the same small room.
Those who can afford it should therefore ar
range to have each member of the family
sleep in a separate bed. If persons must sleep
in the same bed they should be aboutthe same
age, and in good health. If the health be much
unequal, both will suffer- but the healthier one
the most-the invalid suffering for want of en-
tirely pure air.
So many cases are mentioned III standard
medical works, where healthy, robust infants
and larger children have dwindled away and
died in few months, from sleeping with
grandparents or other old persons, that it is
useless to cite special instances in proof
1t would be constitutional and moral good
for married persons to sleep in adjoining
rooms, as general habit. 1t would be a Ger.
tain means of physical inauguration, and of adj
vantages in other directions, which will readi-
ly occur to the reflective reader Kings and
queens and the highest personages of courts
have separate apartments. 1t is the bodily
emanations collecting and concentrating under
the same cover which are the most destructive
of heath-more destructive than the simple
contamination of an atmosphere breathed in
common.