The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-06-05
WEAK LUNGS,
En-. N- % AND
AND NOW TO MAKE THEM
STRONG.

The Atlantic Monthly for June opens
with an article by DR.. LlolEw1s on weak
Lungs. and How to make Them Strong"
which is mainly plea for systematic and
GENTLE exercise, but which also contains a
Variety of general information in reference
to hygienic matters.
IMPURE AIR-CARBONIO ACID.
Among the poisonous gasses which in
test our atmosphere, carbonic acid de-
serves special consideration. The princi-
pal result of all respiration and combus-
ton, it exists in minute quantities every
where, but when it accumulates to the ex-
tent Of one or two per cent it seriously
compromises health. / have seen the
last half of an eloquent sermon entirely
lost upon the congregation; carbOnic acid
had so accumulated that it operated like
a moderate dose Of opium. No prerora-
ton would arouse them. Nothing but
open windows could start life's currents.
In lectures before lyceums often have a
quarrel with the managers about ventil-
alton. There is, even among the more
intelligent, strange Indifference to the
subject.
The following fact graphically illus
trates the influence of earbonic acid on
human life:
A young Frenchman, NJ. Deal, finding
his hopes of cutting figure in the world,
rather dubious, resolved to commit sui
eide; but that he might not leave the world
wi.hOuJ producing sensation and flourish
ing in the newspapers, he resolved to kill
himself with carbOnic acid. So, shutting
himself up in close room, he succeeded
in his purpose, leaving to the world the
following account, which was found near
his dead body the next morning:
81 have thought it useful, in the inter
est of science, to make known the effects
of charcoal upon man. place lamp, a
candle and watch on my table, and COM
mence the ceremony.
&c 1t is a quarter past ten. l 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 va
por gradually fills the room; the candle is
nearly inguished; / begin to feel vio-
lent headache; my eyes fill with tears; l
feel a general sense of discomfort; the
pulse is agitated.
Forty minutes past ten. My candle
has gona out; the lamp still burns; the
veins at my temples throb as if they would
burst; feel very sleepy suffer horribly
in the stomach; my pulse is at eighty.
FIFTY minutes past ten. l am almost
stifed strange ideas assail me. :. . |
can scarcely breathe. shall not go
far. There are symptoms OF mad
ness.
ELEVEN O'Clock. I can scarcely write.
=. My sight is troubled. My
lamp is going cut | did not think
it would be such agony to die. :.
Here followed some quite illegible char
acters The following morning he YVES
found on the floor.
The steamer Londonderry left Liverpool
for Sligo on Friday, December Cd, 1853,
with two hundred passengers, mostly emf
grants. \ storm soon came on. The
captain ordered the passengers into the
steerage cabin, which was eighteen feet
long, eleven wide, and seven high. The
matches were closed, and tarpaulin fast
ened over this only entrance to the cabin.
The poor creatures were now condemn
ed to breath the same air over and over
again. Then followed q dreadful scene.
The groans of the dying, the curses and
shrieks of those not yet in the agOnies OF
death, must have been inconceivably hOr-
rible 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 dying, their bodies convulsed, the
blood starting from their nostrils, eyes and
ears.
1t does not appear that the captain de-
signed to suffocate his passengers, bnt
that he was simply ignorant of the fact
that air which has passed to and fro in the
lungs becomes q deadly poison.
The victims of the Black Hole in Cal
cutta and of the steamer Londonderry,
with the thousand other instances in which
immediate death has resulted from car
bonic acid, are terrible examples in the
history of human suffering; but these Ca
ses are all as nothing compared with
those of the millions who nightly sleep in
unventilated rooms, from which they es-
cape with life, but not without serious in
| Jury. As medical man l have visited
| thousands of SICK persons, and have not
found one hundred of them in pure at
mosphere. I have often returned from
church seriously doubling whether had
not committed a sin in exposing myself to
its poisonous air. There are in our great
cities churches costing fifty thousand dol
lars. in the construction of which not fifty
dollars were expended in providing means
for ventilation. Ten thousand dollars for
ornament, but not ten dollars for pure air
Parlors with furnace-heat and number
of gas-burners (each of which consumes
as much oxygen as several men, are made
as close as possible, and party of ladies
and gentlemen spend half the night in
them. In 1861 l visited a legislative hall
The legislature was in session. l remain
ed half an hour in the most impure air
ever attempted to breathe. If the laws
which emanated from such an atmosphere
were good, it is remarkable instance Of
the mental and moral rising above de.
PRAYED physical. Our school houses are.
some of them, so vile in this respect, that
would prefer to have my son remain in
inter ignorance of books, rather than
-, . 1.,,;vp civ hOurc Of evarv dow or