The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-10-05
What we Breathe.

The Scientific American says We have !
all heard of the Black Hole at Calcutta. 1t
was room eighteen feet square. In this
room one hundred and forty-six persons
were confined. 1t had but one window, and
that small one. DR.. Dunglison, in his
" Elements of Hygiene" says $50 In less
than an hour many of the prisoners were at
tackled with extreme difficulty of breathing;
several were delirious, and tho place was
filled with incoherent rawlings, in which the
cry for water was predominant. This was
handed to them by the sentinels, but with
out the effect of aliaying their thirst. In
less than four hours many were sunocated
or died ia delirium. In five hours the sur
vivors, except those at the gate, were fran.
tic and outrageous. At length, most of
them became insensible. Eleven hours
after they were imprisoned, twenty three
only of the one hundred and forty elk came
ont alive, and these werein highly patrid
| fever"
There are many black holes +" like this
used for sleeping rooms, says the London
| Go operator ; the difference between them
aud the ore at Calcutta is that they are not
crammed quite SO full of human beings. In
a word, then, we may say sleeping apart
ment should be large, lofty, and airy. 1t
and spacious parlors, and small, i'll venti-
lated. bedrooms. Fashion, however, is a
reigning deity in this respect, and will, no
doubt, continue to bear sway, notwith-
standing our protest against her domin-
ion.
You will scarcely drink after another
person from the same glass, yet you will
breathe over and over the same air, charg-
ed with the filth and poison of a hundred
! human bodies around you. You cannot
bear to touch dead body because it is 80
poisonous and polluting; but you can take
right into your lungs, and consequently in
to 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 q foot on the ground" who
are so delicate that they run distracted al
) the crawling of a worm, flying of bat, OF
, squeaking Of a mouse, could see what they
( polite ball, and bright theeter, they wonlG
t never be caught in such company again
Nay, if they could see what they breathe
4 in their own dwellings, after the doors an(
t windows had been closed o little while
Q they would soon keep open houses Nor
r be named. 1t is one of the most promi
2 nent causes of scrofula which is but an
t other name for half the diseases that at
tack the human body. It vitiates aud de
8 stroys the whole fountain of life-tht
blood.
4 In the sick room it often augments tn
s disease, or renders 1t incurable. If tn
physician comes in and opens a window, o
t a door stands ajar for moment, the goot
nurse, or the tender mother, or the kint
d wife, or the loving sister, will fly up ant
!, close it as though the life of the sick wer
at stake. All this is well-meant kindness
- but really cruel.
}. If you would have healthe, breath fresl
q air; open your windows every morning
8 and often during the day leave off you
9 muf1ers from the chin. For twenty year,
d was accustomed to never going out with
out handkerchief tied closely around tn
" mouth, and for nearly that period have lef
it off. have had fewer colds aud suffer ia
@ less from changes of climate than previous
d II. Let the air into your bedrooms yo
: cannot have too much of it, provided j
does not blow directly upon yon.