Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-07-01
vsnsilate the school Room.

vsnsilate the School Room. u
The Board of Trustees of the Louisville
KY, pu bile schools appointed recently a
committee of medical gentlemen to ex-
anime their school buildings with refer
ence to the air space. They found the
average air space of the ward-school
buildings only 173 cubic feet per pupil.
We extract the following important
fscts and considerations from their val
liable report.
Having now ascertained the exact
number of pupils attending the public
schools, and the amount of air space al
Istted TO each one, the question next
arises--is this amount ofspace sufficient
to supply the children with fresh air?
Does this amOnnt allow OF the perform
ance of healthy respiration? Or, on The
other hand, must the pupils at each in
halation inspire the germs of disease?
The question involved is serious one,
and shall be carefully ans Eered. .s..sa
As no one doubts the imperative
necessity of good ventilation in all build
ings, let us asc, rtain what quantity OF
air individuals, crowded together, must
have, in order that it may be life-re-
newer instead of a death-bearer.
DIR. Bostic an eminent Psychologist,
makes the following estimate: Suppose
that each respiration occupies three sec
onds, or twenty respirations minute, a
quantity of air rather more than two and
three-fourth times the whole contents OF
lungs will be expelled in a minnie, or
about four Thousand times their bulk in
twenty -four hours. The quantity re-
spired during this time amounts to six
hundred and sixty-six and half cubic
feet.
DIR. Harris, in his work on ventilation,
says, ''in close apartment of six hum
dred cubic feet, person could not spend
six consecutive hours without injury to
his health"
DIR. Arnctt maintains that twenty
cubic feet of air per minute are not too
much. .si-.
Dr.. Theo. S. Bell, who has devoted
much time to the consideration of our
subject, remarks as follows: $40 p
''Each sedentary person confined in a
room for hours, should have not less than
from one Thousand five hundred to two
thousand cubic feet of air space. Less
than this would do harm; more would
be beneficial
The prison inspectors of England re-
commended that every prisoner should
have one thousand cubic feet of air.
The United States army regulations
call for eight hundred feet of air space
per man in hospitals.
An act of the British Parliament re-
quirss that the Legislative Hall shall
afford six hundred cubic feet to each
member. ..--s.s
The English Government, in erecting
new barracks, allows seven hundred
cubic feet of space to each soldier.
Surgeon General Hammond, as the
result of his experience during the late
war, reports that it is better for the sick
and the wounded to lie in the open
fields, exposed to the inclemencies ofthe
weather, than be over-crowded in hos
pitfalls.
DIR. Southwoed Smith and Guy, both
eminent as medical philosophers, having
carefully examined the printing offices
and rooms in which large numbers of
jOurneymen tailors worked, they found
invariably that where there was less
than five hundred cubic feet sfspace for
each man, turbercular diseases and pull
monary hemorrhages were the rule;
where over five hundred cubic feet and
under six hundred cubic feet, catarrhal
affections and pulmonary hemorrhages
prevailed; where over six hundred feet,
health was enjoyed,
DIR. Hammond, late Surgeon General
U. S. A, says that barracks for conval-
rsceDts, which are occupied but part of
the day, should have six hundred cubic
feet of air space allotted 10 each man.
Testimony from all the eminent phys
ioIugists in the world might be given to
the above facts, as they all
that the healthy development
of both mind and body, is i'm the same
ratio as the fresh air supplied. Il
Gentlemen, these are serious facts, and
shoult be pondered well. You are de-
stroying the vitality ofyour little ones by
depriving them of fresh air an article
that nature has supplied most bountiful.
ly. You are slowly but surely soaring
your own hearts, for the untimely loss
Of your children before maturity will
whiten your heads with sorrow. We
know that many will say to themselves |
hat this Is ali eXaggeration-that their !
children are healthy-that their sons
thrive: that their daughters have no
signs of decay; that the schools are all
hat can be desired. Because the pupil
ire not stricken down in the schoul-rOOm;
because they appear apparently well
Turing play hours; because their eye is
lot dimmed and their features pinched,
Ifter attending session at school,
10 not fiatter yourself that they are not
harmed. Though the ill-effects Of over
may be developed secretly and
lowly, they are none the less TERRIBLE
thousands of children die yearly from
ndemic diseases, owing to the fact that
heir vitality has been previously low
red by yovercrowding In badly ventilated
partments.
Let all who are responsible for the
ealth Of children in schools, teachers
measure their school rooms,
nd ksotc u they Gford sir hundred cs-
10 feet Of air space to each pupil. ]