Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-11-12
How Shall we Sleep?
Open Windows Demanded by K egard
for Health.

during the night through open
windows, seems to be question
whose parctical solution involves a
wide range of differing opinions.
There are those who carefully ex-
clude every breath of ''night air."
already imprisoned within their
dwellings. There are those who,
follow the other extreme, sleep with
open windows when their thermome-
ter is among the eighties, and when
it sinks below zero. AS usual,
happy medium between these ex-
tremes involves the best conditions
for physical well-being. A supply
of pure air is as essential during the
day as during the night. All sensi-
bic people who understand the prin-
ciples Of respiration will agree to,
this assertion. At the same time
great care should be taken that the
fresh air admitted should be as free
from dampness as possible, that 1t
should not be allowed to enter in such
quantities as to produce sudden
and great difference in the tempera-
ture of the sleeping room, and that
no draughts formed by its ingress
should disturb the repose, and in
jure the health of the sleeper. If
these conditions are faithfully observ-
ed, there will be few nights during
the year when it is not perfectly
safe as well as essential to health to
sleep with an open window. Com
mon sense and sound judgment must
regulate the quantity of out side air
required, whether the inlet shall be
the crack formed by raising the sash
above a board fitted to the lower
part of the window frame, wheather
the upper sash shall be let down a
few inches, or whether the outer air
shall have full play through the wide
open window. There may be sys-
TEN of ventilation that will fully
answer the required purpose to car
ry off all the impure, and bring in a
fresh supply of pure air raised to the
desired temperature. We have
never seen any ventilating system OF
action that would procure anything
but partial results, and the old-fash-
ioned way of regulating the supply
of pure air by judicious use of
windows is about as effectual as any
that has since been invented. We
would not advocate the absolute
fashion of sleeping in cold rooms on
feather-beds, under a mass of bed
cloths that keeps the body overhead
ed and irritated with pnrspiration,
while the lungs are drawing in the
vital air at a temperature that makes
one shiver to think of. Even this
contrast in temperature is not half
so enervating and diseaSe-provoking
as the modern fashion of sleeping in
furnace-heated houses, where a blank
ct is superfous in cold winter wealth
er, and every avenue for the entrance
of fresh air is almost hermetically
sealed.
The Westminster "Review" quotes
a from Miss Nightingale some
very sensible remarks on the subject
of night air. Her accomplishments
as a scholar, and her experience as a
nurse, give great weight to her views
on this important subject. She says
the dread of night-air is an extraor-
binary fallacy. What air can we
breathe at night but a night air |
Our only choice lies between pure
night-air from without, or foul night
air from within. 1t is unaccounta-
BILE that most people prefer the lat
ter. What would they say if it is
proved to be true that one-half of |
the diseases that we suffer from is
occasioned by people sleeping with
their windows shut An open win
dow during most nights in the year
can never hurt any one. In great
cities night air is often the purest
and best that can be obtained dur
ing the twenty-four hours. There
fore, in town it would be better, if
either must be done, to shut the win
dows during the day than during
the night, for the sake of the sick.
The absence of the smoke and the
quiet of the streets make the night
,he best time for airing the patients.
A physician considered as high medi-
,al authority on consumption and
climate, asserts that the air in Lon
lon is never so pure as after 10
o'clock at night.
An immense amount of fresh air
S required for healthy respiration.
The average respiration of a man is
estimated at twenty-four cubic in
,hes and the average number of res
oirations during minute is twenty.
four hundred cubic feet of
lir pass through the lungs of an or
iinary man in twenty-four hours.
And yet, knowing these facts, we
hut up our houses and go to sleep
without a thought for the supply of
the life-producing oxygen, as nes-
for the well-being of the
lelicate tissues of the lungs as food
S for the renewal of the tissues of
he body. If we had to buy pure
lir as we do precious stones, we
hould soon appreciate its worth.
Because it is ''free as air." we are
to take the pains and care
% regulate our windows for its judi
,ious supply, and carelessly breath
| tainted atmosphere which brings
disease and the thousand ills to
which flesh is heir as the penalty for
The transgression of physical laws.
"GABRIEL CONROY."
Bret Harte's first novel begins as seri-
i in Scribner's for November, and opens
With the following description of the sier-
as in winter
Snow. Everywhere. As far as
he eve can reach-ffty miles, look
ng southwark from the highest
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