Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-05-07
For the Spectator. |

We give ourselves the pangs we feel Sick
ness is not providental affliction, nor judg-
ment but the natural, legitimate, inevitable
effect of violating those laws of physiology, un
der the government of which man is placed
Sickness and health are as much effects of eau.
ses as the rising of the sum- or the fall of rain.
The causes are in our own hands, and the effects
(diseases) show how we apply them. 1t is my
honest conviction that, if we obeyed the organic
laws of our creation, we should never be sick
and would not die until ripe old age crept slow
ly and imperceptibly upon us like the gradual
departure of evening twilight-our power
gradually weakening till, like the expiring lamp,
life goes out itself. Now, one among the most
fearful violations of the laws of nature, and one
| which is making desolating ravages upon hu-
man life, equal to intemperance is the practice
of occupying ill-ventilated sleeping apartments,
churches school-rooms, &C., thus depriving
ourselves almost wholly of that element in ma
ture (oxygen) which exists in the air that we
breathe, which is of vital importance to life and
health. The object of respiration is: frst to
generate animal heat, which is effected by the
oxygen, which exists in the air in the proper
tion of twenty-one parts Of oxygen to seventy
eight parts of nitrogen with very small pOr-
tion of carbonic acid gas; second, the conversion
of chyle into blood; third, to relieve the body
Of carbon and hydrogen. The adequate amount
Of atmospheric air for person per minute is
about eight cubic feet The necessity of more
air than is actually taken into the lungs, arises
from the fact, that the expired air mixes with
and vltiates the surrounding element that has
not been inhaled. The question naturally arises
here: 10 what extent may the air be vitiated
and still sustain life?' Now, physiologists tell
us that each respiration imparts to the air eight
and half per cent. of carbonc acid. Birman
says that air which contains four per cent. of
carbonic acid is unfit to BREATH hence the i'm
portance of well ventilated rooms. When we
take into consideration the fact that room,
thirty feet square and eight feet high, contains
1900 cubic feet of air, that this room will seat
sixty persons allowing eight cubic feet of air to
each person per minute, that they would vitiate
the air in fifteen minutes, and that the air In
ordinarysized sleeping apartments will be rem
dered impure by two persons in fifty minutes,
we see our folly and it is the height of folly.
We see many persons calking up the windows,
closing up every little aperture through which
the healthy winter air might enter, thus depri-
wing themselves of that element that gives them
life, health and beauty, and make for their con-
stant companions, headaches, liver complaints,
coughs, and multitude of nervous affections.
How inconsistent We instinctively shun ap-
proach to the dirty, the squalid and the diseas
ed, and use no garment that may have been
worn by another. We open sewers for matters
that offend the sight, or the smell, and contain
mate the air. We carefully remove impurities
from what we eat and drink, filter turbid water,
and fastidiously avoid drinking from cup that
may have been pressed to the lips of another.
| On the other hand, we resort to places of as
| sembly and draw into our mouths air loaded
| with effiuvia from the lungs skin and clothing
| of every individual in the promiscuous crowd
exhalation offensive to certain extent from the
most healthy individuals, but when arising from
living mass of skin and lungs, in all stages Of
evaporation, disease and putridity, prevented
by the walls and ceiling from escaping they
are when thus concentrated, III the highest de-
gree deleterious and loathsome. 1t isa shame
full fact that our school-rooms are much of the
character of the black hole of Calcutta, where
one hundred and twenty three persons perishet
for the want Of pure air. We see many teach
ers cruelty shutting children up in air-tigh
rooms-thus depriving them of that element Sc
essential to life, health and happiness ano
which the God of Nature has given us in such
great abundance, and has made no provision
for less quantity than we inhale in the oper
air to meet the wants Of the system, causing
them to be restless, to complain of languor anG
headache for a want of an adequate supply O
oxygen to the lungs, and when practiced for {
series of years it, undoubtedly, shortens then
lives, gives rise to consumptions, and other ia
tai diseases, and in my opinion is, to all intent
and purposes, murder. This is only one of tht
many injudicious practices of men and women
Take warning-the whole human family is fast
sinking into effeminacy w. p. M.
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