The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-11-28
School House Ventilation as affecting
the health OF Children at School.
ADDRESSED TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS BY An
OLD TEACHER.


reform the buildings used for school
houses, churches and public halls These
are built, and though they stand up and
testify to the lack of scientific skill in
all who have planned them, and though
they are only so many witnesses of the
disorders and diseases which they create,
] propose to leave them as they are in
Z all essential regards like the temperance
: reformer leaves the hopeless topper to
fvesout his days, yet like him, l would
save the future if | can. Oxygen,
hydrogen and carbonie acid gas are ta-
ken into our lungs at every breath,
but these elements are not thrown from
the lungs in the same pure proportions.
/ During the process the air we have in
hailed is constantly losing its oxygen
/ whilst that we are exhaling is becoming
over charged with carbonic acid gas.
/ This effect and deadly poison, spreads
itself rapidly in the room where breath
ed. Add to this the foul matter thrown
off by insensible perspiration, and keep
in mind that every minute an adult per-
/ son renders from four to FIVE cubic feet
of air as unfit for re-entering the lungs
as human excrement is unfit to re-enter
the stomach, and we gain glimpse of
the necessity of ventilation.
/ We may understand from this illus
tration the fainting of feeble persons in
crowded assemblies, and the asphyxia
of those who suffer from descent into
/ deep wells. These are cases of direct
poisoning, not from taking arsenic, or
! from eating unhealthy diet, but from
breathing impure AIR. He would be a
cruel parent who would starve his child
by Withholding food, drink, and raiment
when he possessed all these in abund-
ance. but is he not equally cruel to his
offspring who places them in such stu
ations as to starve them by withholding
a supply of that which costs nothing
poured out to the depth of so miles all
around our earth--pure air.
To preserve health is as important as
to educate, for we cannot have sound
minds without sound bodies, or sound
minds in unsound bodies.
If to 5 cubic feet of the air found
in a school room is destroyed every
minute by each pupil, it is not a hard
problem to find how soon the whole of
it would become unfit to breathe, if no
| fresh air were admitted, and it becomes
apparent that constant supply of fresh
air and constant expulsion of contami-
mated air from the school room, the
church room and the town hall is the
only condition upon which pure air can
be breathed in these places. The same
supply and expulsion is needful in
dwelling houses, but here there are
fewer persons to breathe out the oxygen
and the means of ventilation are. more
generally in proportion to the exhaus-
| ton, but even in our dwellings the sub
jects needs thought and Investigation.
The poisoned air which has been
robbed of its oxygen rises first to the up
per part of the room and is more or less
diffused among the entire atmosphere Of
the room while heated, but when cooled
to the temperature of the outside air
it falls to the lowest point attainable.
Upon this we'll ascertained fact the
methods of ventilation must be based,
and now the inquiry arises, how best to
| ;t FL,
BUILDINGS NOW ERECTED.
The opening of windows and doors, is
the remedy, but it is only the less of two
evils This dangerous and injurious
remedy mitigates the evils of bad air,
by creating others. 1t produces colds,
coughs, and infammatory complaints,
chile the air still remains impure, Of
fensive and highly deleterious; sufficient
ly so, to affect the delicate constitutions
OF children, to blight their elasticity to
create languor and indifference, and de-
stroy or impair that healthful physical
action on which depends the vigor and
energy of mature life. The grave con-
sequences of long continued exposure
to an atmosphere only little below the
standard of natural purity, although
not Immediately destructive of life, is
very injurious. The effects of such an
atmosphere are often SO insidious as
hardly to attract the notice of the best
observer. The Herald of last week no.
tices the illness of,
wM. II. BROWN
the, efficient superintendent of the New
Lexington free schools. His case is
that of bleeding from the lungs. This
is one of those inhammatory effects due
to the inroads made upon naturally
vigorous body by the long exposure to
air, perhaps only small degree below
the natural standard of purity. 1t is
perhaps a fair example of wasting of
human life in the service of those who
pay him $50 per month for depriving
himself of pure air, while he consents
to breathe the same contaminated at
mosphere which is dealt out to their
children and their teachers. Many of
the children sent to school and supplied
with every appliance promotive of their
welfare, except pure air, soon loose the
ruddy hue of perfect health and acquire
the sallow and depressed countenances
found in oyerworked factory operations,
or the tenants of mines unvisited by the
sun or the air.
The child thus treated becomes Ian
guild and dull and constantly demands
increased exertion from the teacher,
while the requirements of the age de-
mand the opposite results.
THE OLD FASHIONED FIRE PLACE
with its open chimney is superseded by
other more economical methods of heat
ing, and ventilation has been allowed to
take care of itself. We now produce
heat at the expense of ventilation and
congratulate us on the saving Of fuel.
But we will soon find human life and
| health paving the penalty of such econ