Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1863-05-30


gentle exercise but which also contains
a variety of general information in reference
to hygicnic matters.
IMPURE AIR--C ARBoNIc ACID
Among the poisonous gases which infcst
our atmosphere, carbonic acid deserves
special consideration. The principal result
of all respiration and combustion, it exists
in minute quantities everywhere, but when
1t accumulates to the extent Of one or two
per cent, it seriously compromises health.
L have seen the last half of an eloquent
sermon entirely lost upon the congregation /;
carbonic acid had so accumulated that it
operated like moderate dose of opium.
No peroration would arouse them. Nothing
but open windows could srart lifc's currents.
In lectures before lyccums | pttrn have q
quarrel with the managers about ventila-
ton. There is, even among the more in
tcligent strange indifference to the sub.
jcct.
The following fact graphically illustrates
the influence of carbonic acid ON human
life:
A young Frcnchman. NJ, Deal, finding
his hopes of cutting figure in the world
rather dubious resolved TO commit suicide :
but that he might not leave the world with
out producing a sensation and fourishing
in the newspapers he resolved 20 kill him
self with carbonic acid. SO, shutting him
self up in a close room, he succeeded III his
purpose, leaving TO the world the following
account, which was found near his dead
body the next morning:
Il have thought it useful, in the interest
of science, to make known the effects of
charcoal upon man. l place lamp,
candle and watch on my table, and COM
mence the ceremony.
1T is quarter past ten. ! have just
lighted the stove the charcoal burns feebly
Twenty minutes past ten. The pulse
is calm, and beats at its usual rate.
Thirty minutes past ten. A thick yapor
gradually fills the room; the candle in near
! ~ cXtinguished; begin to feel a violent
headache; my eyes fill with tears; feel
"A general sense Of discomfort; the pulse is
| agitated.
Forty minutes past ten. My candle has
gone out; the lamp still burns; the veins
at my temple throb as if they woulG burst ;
feel very sleepy; | suffer horribly in the
stomach; my pulse is at eighty.
"Flfty minutes past ten. ! am almost
stifcd; strange ideas assail me. q.
can scarcely breathe. :. shall not go
far. There are symptoms of mad
ELEVEN O'clock can scarcely write. :.
My sight 10 troubled. :. . My lamp
is going out E. did not think it
would be such agony to die. Ten.
:"
Here followed some quite ilegible char
acters. Life had cbbcd. The following
morning he was found on the floor
I The steamer Londonderry left Liverpool
for Sligo on Friday, December ed, 1S4s,
with two hundred passengers, mostly emf
grants. 4 storm soon. came on. The
steerage cabin, which was eighteen feet
long, eleven wide, and seven high. The
matches were closed, and a tarpaulin fastened
over this only entrance to the cabin
/ The poor creatures were now condemned
to breathe the same air over and over again.
/ Then followed dreadful scent. The groans
. of the dying, the curses and shricks Of those
not vet in the agonics of death, must have
been inconccivably horrible. The struggling
mass at length burst open the matches, and
the mate was called to gaze at the fearful
/ spectacle. Seventy-two were already dead,
many were diving, their bodies convulscd.
/ the blood starting from their nostrils, eyes
and ears.
1t does not appear that the captain de-
.
he was simply ignorant of the fact that air
which has passed to ana fro in the lungs
becomes deadly poison.
The victims of the Black Hole in Calcutta
and of the steamer Londonderry. with the
thousand other instances in which immcdi-
ate death has resulted from carbonic acid.
are terrible examples in the history of human
suffering; but these cases are all as nothing
compared with those OF the millions who
nightly skep in unventilated rooms from
which they escape with life, but not without
serious injury. As medical man, | have
visited thousands of sick persons, and have
not found one hundred of them in pure
atmosphere. l have often returned from
church seriously doubling whether | had
not committed. sin in exposing my self to
its poisonous air. There are in our great
cities churches costing fifty thousand dollars;
in the construction of which not fifty dollars
were expended in providing means for ven
tilation. Ten thousand dollars for ornament,
but not ten dollars for pure air Parlors
with furnace-heat and number of gas burn
ers leach of which consumcsas much oxygen
rs several mem are made rs close rs possible
and party Of ladies and gentlemen spend
half the night in them. In 1861 | visited
legislative hall. The Legislature was in ses-
sion. remained half an hour in the most
impure air | even attempted to breathe. Ii
the laws which emanated from such an at
mosphere were good, it is a remarkable in
stance OF the mental and moral rising above
II depraved physical. Our school houses
are, some OF them, SO vile in this respect
that would Perier TO have my son remain
in utter ignorance of books, rather than
breathe, during six hours of every day, so
poisonous an atmosphere Theatres and
concert rooms are so foul that only reckless
people can continue to visit them.
MOISTURE IN THE ATMOSPHERE.
1t is the common belief that dry atmos
phcre is most favorable to the consumptive.
Many medical authors have advanced this
assumption. 1t is, nevertheless, an error.
In the British Isles and in France outside
the cities and manufactures, the mortality
from pulmonary diseases is much less than
among the agricultural CLASSES of this coun
try. And ON the western shores OF this con-
tinent consumption is comparatively un-
known.
Our disadvantage in this comparison is
attributable, in considerable part, to the
lack of humidity in our atmosphere. With