The weekly Butte record., 1863-07-04
Sleeping in q Draught of Night Air.
BIZ DR. C. B. WISDSHIP. .

Arise, Methuselah, and build thee house,
for thou shalt live yet FIVE hundred years
logger" and that the cid gentleman Replied
" If I am to live but FIVE handred years longer,
it is not worth while to build ne a house,
will sleep in the open air, as have been used
10 do
Fanciful as the above anecdote may be, es-
pecially the angel part Of it, have no doubt
that Meihuselah did practice sleeping in the
open air as one means of preserving health.
and consequently of prolongiug life. In mod
ern times, q similar custom associated with re
markable longevity, is said TO have been pur-
time be arrived at maturity until be had at.
tained his hundred and eighty-sixth year-an
age not very much inferior TO that attributed
to Methuselah, if we admit that until the time
of Abram year did not exceed months.
Among the more than two thousand instan-
ces recorded of persons living to an age Of be.
tween one hundred and two hurdred and sevs
en-, it would be exceedingly interesting to know
how many of the number enjoyed the inestima-
ble advantages of constant. unlimited supply
of fresh air, during their thirty-three per cent,
Of life passed in sleep. But on this point the
biographers have been almost invariably silent.
Long life is only partly an inheritance-never
wholly so and when we hear of individuals
living far beyond the ages of their parents and
grand parents, we may well suspect that they
acquired a surplus of life by the persistent OBJ
servance of some pet rules, which had rarely
been adopted by ordinary mortals and firm
ly believe that sleeping in moderate draught
of the night air has frequently been one Of
them. To obtain such draft, it is not neces-
sary to do as it is said kentigern and Methu-
selah did-lie on the ground with the arch of
Heaven for a roof as that might be a danger
Gus practice in any malarious locality. We
have merely TO have all the windows Of our
sleeping apartment open to such an extent as
to insure thorough ventilation, in order TO re-
alize all the benefits of sleeping literally out of
II
not all the possible disadvantages of camping
out"
l know it is populer prejudice, supported
by high medical authority, that exposure 10
night air " is perilous for ordinary persons.
The grand error is made in concluding that it
is necessarily SO under all circumstances. l
doubt if there is one individual among a thou
sand confirmed invalds who could not, even in
the winter time, speedily, safely, and very ad
vantageously acquire the ability to endure
perceptible draught Of might air." and wheth-
er the brunt of it be received by the face or
the back of the head, the latter being as little
susceptible to the influence of draft as the
other under an equal amount of exposure.
The evils resulting from breathing, night
after night, an atmosphere becoming more and
more tainted as the morning approaches, prob
ably equal, if they do not exceed, those result
ing from the Incorporate use of spirituous
liquor. Indeed, it is questionable whether q
craving for stimaants has not been occasional
ly created by this abominable yet prevalent
custom Of keeping the windows of sleeping
apartment either entirely closed Or opened but
crack" They should be widely opened
every night throughout the year. unless the
weather is intensely cold, or the wind unusual
ly violent, or some other valid reason existing
for mitigating a draught.
Wa
surprising reduction would be quickly mani
Tested in the frequency of morning headache,
nausea, chronic catarrh, Influenza, measles.
scrOfula, consumption, scarlet fever, small pox,
typhus fever, felon, withrow, erysipelas, and
many other disorders which are more often in
dacei by an infected atmosphere than any
other cause.
But what shall persons do who live in the
vicinity of the Pontine Marshes in Italy, or
the rice swamps in South Carolina, where, as
we are told, a few whifs of the night air have
caused considerable illness? Sleep in draught
not the less, bat at a proper elevation from
the ground. If ten feet be not sufficient for
the requirements of health, try twenty, thirty,
fifty, hundred, or whatever point shall be
found by experience to secure immunity from
sickness. 1t may not be generally known,
that the peculiar poisons of malarious regions
tend downward-it hugs the earth; the wind
may carry it up and over hill thousand feet
high, but yet the poison will rarely exist to a
huriful extent beyond very limited distance
from the ground. The importance Of even SO
slight an elevation as fifteen feet, was striking
ly illustrated in yellow fever district of the
West Indies. 1t was ascertained by scientific
investigators officially appointed, that there
was three times as much sickness in the first
story Of dwellings as there was in the second.
In another locality of the same region, it was
found that the air within six feet of the level
of q marsh was so pestiferoGs, that few mo-
meuts' exposure TO it at night was almost GER
tain to produce fatal attack Of yellow fever !