Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-04-07
WHAT WE BREATHE.

The Scientific american says:-We
have all heard of the Black Hole at Cal
cutta. 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 Hy-
giens," says :-''In less than an hour
many of the prisoners were attacked
with extreme difficulty in breathing;
several were delirious, and the place was
filed with incoherent rawlings, in which
the cry for water was predominant. This
was handed to them by the sentinels, but
without the effect of allaying their thirst.
In less than four hours many were suffo-
Gated or died in delirium. In five hours
the survivors. except those at the gate,
were frantic and outrageous. At length,
most of them became insensible. Eleven
hours after they we're imprisoned, twcn-
ty-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, says the
London Co.oper0tor the difference be-
tween them and the one at Calcutta is
that they are not crammed quite SO full
of human beings In a word, then, we
may say a sleeping apartment should
be large, lofty and airy. 1t is poor
economy for health to have large and
spacious parlors, and small, ill-ventilat-
ed bedrooms Fashion, however, is a
reigning deity in this respect, and will,
no doubt. continue to bear sway. notwith-
standing our protest against her do
minion.
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 q 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 conse.
quently into your body, your system
those poisonous PARTICLES and noxIous
exhalations which the bodies around you
have refused, and which have been cas-
into the atmosphere by their lungs, be
cause the health of their bodies required
them to be thrown off.
If the "timorously nice creatures wh'
can scarcely set foot on the ground,
who are so delicate that they run dis
tracted at the crawling of a worm. fyins
of bat, or squeaking of mouse, coul!
see what they breathe at the midnigh
carousal, the very polite ball, and brigh
theater, they would never be caught il
such company again. Nay, if they coul
see what they breathe in their own dwell
ings, after the doors and windows hav
! been closed little while they woul
soon keep open houses. More sicknes
is caused by vitiated air than can b
named 1t is one of the most prominen
causes of scrofula, which is but anothe
name for half the diseases that attac
the human body. 1t vitiates and destroy
the whole fountain of life-the blood
In the sick room it often augment
the disease, or renders it incurable.
the physician comes in and opens VIII
dow, or door stands ajar for momen
the good nurse, OF the tender mother, {
the kind wife, or the loving sister, wi
fly up and close it as though the life
the sick were at stake. All this is wei
meant kindness, but really cruel.
If you would have health, breath
fresh air; open your windows ever
moring, and often during the day; leav
off your mufflers from the chin. Fc
twenty years l was accustomed to neve
going out without handkerchief tie
closely around the mouth, and for nearl
that period have left it off l have ha
fewer colds and suffer far less from char
ges of climate than previously. Let tt
air into your bedrooms; you cann'
have too much of it, provided it does NJ
blow directly unon Won