The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-06-01
What We Breathe.

WnaJ we Brentnes
The Scientific American says, we have
all heard of the Black Hole at Calcutta.
1t was a room eighteen feet square. In
this room one hundred and forty-six
persons were confined. 1t had but one
window, and that a small one. DIR.
Dunglison, in his Elements of Hygiene
says In less than an hour, many of
the prisoners were attacked with ex.
treme difficulty of breathing; several
were delirious, and the place was filled
with incoherent rawlings, in which the
was handed to them by the sentinels,
but without the effect of allaying their
thirst. In less than four hours many
were suffocated or died in violent de-
lirium. In five hours the survivors, ex-
cept those at the CRATE, were frantic and
outrageous. At length, most of them
became insensible Eleven hours after
they were imprisoned, twenty-three only
Of the one hundred and forty-six came
out alive, and these were in highly
putrid fever
There are many "blscll holes" like
this used for sleeping rooms, says the
London Co-operator, the difference be-
tween them and the one at Calcutta is
that they are not crammed quite 50 full
of human beings. In a word, then, we
may say sleeping apartment should be
large, lofty, and airy. 1t is poor econ
omy for health to have large and spacious
parlors, and small, ill-ventilated bed
rooms. Fashion, however, is a reigning
deity in this respect, and will, no doubt,
continue to bear sway notwithstanding
our protest against her dominion.
You will scarcely drink after another
person from the same glass, yet you will
breathe over and over the same air
charged with the filth and poison of
hundred human bodies around you.
You cannot bear to touch dead body
because it is so poisonous and polluting
but you can take right into your lungs,
and consequently into your body, your
system, those poisonous particles and
noxious exhalations which the bodies
around you have refused, and which
have been cast into the atmosphere by
their lungs, because the health of their
bodies required them to be thrown off.
If the timorously nice creatures who
can scarcely set foot on the ground"
who are SO delicate that they run dis
tracted at the crawling of a worm, flying
of bat, or squeaking of a mouse, could
see what they breathe at the midnight
carousal, the very polite ball, and bright
theatre, they would never be caught in
such company again. Nay, if they could
see what they breathe in their own
dwellings, after the doors and windows
have been closed little while, they
would soon keep open houses. More
sickness is caused by vitiated air than
can be named. 1t is one of the most
prominent causes of scrofula, which is
but another name for half the diseases
that attack the human body. 1t vitiates
and destroys the whole fountain of life
the blood.
In the sick room it often augments
the disease or renders it incurable. If
the physician comes in and opens a win
dow, the good nurse, or the tender
mother, or the kind wife, or the loving
sister, will fly up and close it as though
the life of the sick were at stake. All
this is we'll meant kindness, but really
cruel.
If you would have health, breathe
fresh air; throw open your windows
every morning, and often during the
| udy leave Oh Tue ulullleIS lTOn Ine
chin. For twenty years l was accus-
toned to never going out without a
handkerchief tied closely around the
mouth, and for nearly that period have
left it off. 1 have had fewer colds and
suffered far less from changes of climate
than previously. Let air into your bed
rooms you cannot have too much of it,
provided it does not blow directly upon
you.
Many students are injured by vitiated
air in their studies. These are small,
and when the doors and windows are
closed, the atmosphere soon becomes
loaded with noxious vapors. The man
is intent upon his subject, he scarcely
knows whether he breathes or not, much
less does he think of what he breathes
Many, also, are seriously injured by the
manner of heating their studies. All
close stoves should be avoided. The
good, old-fashioned, open, large Chin
ney, with fire place sufficiently capa-
cious to receive the wood with but little
chopping, is much preferable to the stoves
and CRATES and the whole paraphernalia
of modern fuel-saving inventions.