Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-04-27


Air.tight bedrooms are among the evils Of
civilization. We do not mean to say they
are quite air.tight, but they come so near to
it that health is much impaired by sleeping
in them. The poorest economy is to have
largo, airy parors, and small, ill-ventilated
bedrooms; and yet nothing is more common.
In the bedroom We spend from seven to eight
consecutive hours-on an average, one-third
part of our lives The demand Of air for
respiration to a single person is seven cubic
feet minute. Suppose, now, our bedroom
does not contain more than six hundred cubic
feet the supposition is perfectly natural, for
VIC can find hundreds Of such sleeping-rooms
around u.s.
A person goes into one Of these rooms
with the door closed. How long will this air
last him2 Even if we suppose the sleeping.
room to contain one thousand cubic feet,i twould
last its occupant only two hours and half.
What is he to breathe the other FIVE or six
hours2 Carbonic acid gas in other words
deadly poison aud, what is still worse, as
our beds are located nearer the floor than the
ceiling Of the room, and this gas, from its
greater density than air, falls 10 the bottom,
the poor sleeper gets the larger share Of the
poison To augment the evil frequently
there are two or three persons, with one or two
cats or dogs, and plants, together with an air.
tight stove, or pan Of Goals in the same room.
We were recently called to visit person
attacked with severe neuralgia pain, and gen.
eral debility The patient was found in the
evening in a small room, with gas-stove,
and gas burning blue in it. The air, upon
entering the room, was pestiierous, resem-
bling sulphuretted hydrogen. The gas was
bad the air so foul, that one could not
breathe comfortably in it. The question was
asked " Do you know this air is poisonous 7"
The reply was, could not tell what makes
my lamp "a kerosene lamp was on the table,
burn so dimly. When the gas is lighted in
the stove, the lamp begins to grow dim, and
soon it nearly goes OUT
The secret was out thore was not air
enough to support combustion. Yet, in this
room, the patient sat and slept Was 1t any
marvel that debility and neuralgia soon super.
voned2 Was it not miraculous that life did
not become extinct
BY recent analysis of air made by the
New York Health Board, the following in
teresting facts were disclosed The proper
ton of carbonic acid gas ranges as high as
seven parts in a thousand. When two parts
of carbonic acid gas are present in any room,
there is no feeling of coseness or vicious air,
but that is the limit of healthful proportion.
One hundred persons would in two hours
vtiato 1000 cubic feet of air to the danger
Gus proportion Of one per cent. Every gas
jet produces as much carbonic acid gas as five
persons In public school he found chill
dren inhaling an atmosphere in which there
were from three to four parts of carbonic acid
gas Ia the theatres, he found the thermo-
meter ranging from 50 to % degrees, and
the observation was generally made in the
center of the pit. What it would be in the
gallery, where the hot air from the whole
house came rolling up? An examination Of
dust found on the cornces of theatres dis
closed the fact that it was principally COM
posed of vegetable matter, which, after being
consumed by animals and passing from their
bodies, was taken up by the feet Of pedestri-
ans and carried into the threatre, where, be-
yond a doubt it was to an extent inhaled by
the audience Good Health.