The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-05-01
i The Air We Breathe at Night.

We have all heard of the Black Hole at Cal
cutta Itswas room eighteen feet square. In
this room one hundred and forty-six persons
were confined It bad but one window, and
that q small one. DR.. Dunglison, in his "Ele-
ments Of Hygiene" says: "In less than an
hour many. of the prisoners were attacked with
extreme difficulty of breathing; several we're
delirious, and the place was filled with incohe-
rent rawlings, in which the cry for water was
predominant. This was handed 70 them by
the sentineis, but without the effect of allaying
their thirst. In less than -four hours many
were sufocRted or died in delirium. In i've
hours the survivors, except those at the gate,
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 "black holes" like this used
for sleeping rooms the difference between
them and the one at Calcutta is that they are
not crammed quite so full of human beings. In
word, then, we may say sleeping apartment
should be large, lofty and airy. 1t is poor
economy for health to have large and spacious
Fashion, however, is 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 a hundred human bodies around
you. You cannot bear to touch a dead body
because it is so polluting; but you can take
right into your lungs, and consequently into
your body, your system, those poisonous partl-
cles and noxious exhalations which the bodies
around you have refused, and which have been
cast into the atmosphere by their lungs, be-
cause the health of their bodies required them
to be thrown of.
If the "timorously nice creatures who can
scarcely set foot on the ground, "'who are 80
delicate that they run distracted at the crawl
ing of a worm, flying of a bat, or squeaking of
a mouse, could see what they breathe at the
midnight csrousal, 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 had 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 foun-
tain of life--the blood.
In the sick room it often augments the dis
ease, or renders it incurabe. If the physician
comes In anil opens window, or door stands
ajar for moment, the good nurse, or the ten
der mother, or the kind wife, or the loving sis
ter, 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;
open your windows every morning, and often
during the cay; leave off your muftiers from
the chin. Let the air into your bedrooms; /;
you cannot have too much of it, provided it
does not blow directly upon you.