National Republican., 1877-10-29
Hygienic Hints.

recent article in HAIRS Journal of Heall
explodes some popular fallacies regarding night
air and damp weather, and proves that t.dooI
air must in any event he better than that
inside. There are multitudcs of weakly con.
stituted individuals and chronic invalids
whose complaints are real or fancied, who en-.
tertain an insuperable horror of night air and
changeable weather, and for whom the atn,os.
phere Is always too damp, too hot or too cold
lhese delicate people, therefore, remain housed
most Of the time, and, as n matter Of course,
continue invalids till death gathers them "a
premature graves, for the simple reason that
through all their earthly existence they ar,
per,istcntly poisoning their systems by breath.
ing none but an impure atmosphere. Air is se
essentially the great necessity of life that II
deprived of II for a single rloment We perish
so constant Is the necessity of the blood fni
contact with the atmosphere that every dror
i'll the body is exposed to the air through tho
medium of the lungs every two and hall
minutes of our lives. As nothing can
PURIFY THE OUTSIDE
OF our systems but clean water, so nothing can
cleanse the blood but the agency of pure air.
II is generally conceded that impure blood 10
the foundation OF all our diseases, and SO great
is the tendency Of the blood to become impure
in consequence of being mixed with waste
and useless matters rs IL passes through tho
veins-that 1t requires n hOgshead of air every
hour to unload it of these impurities; but just
IN proportion rs the air Is vtiated, In the samo
ratio does it inevitably fail to cleanse the life-
giving current.
Whatever may be the impurity Of the out
door air of any locality, the indoor atmosphere
Of that same spot must be still more impure,
because of the dust and oloriferous and decay
ing matters which are inevitable to all dwell
ings. Besides, how can the air inside-all
things being equal-be more healthy than that
outside, when the dwelling itself is supplied
with air from without?
THE sELF-EvIDENT FACT
that those who are most out of doors through
summer and winter, rain or shine, night and
day. enjoy the best health the world over
proves conclusively that night air or any
other air Is better breathed in its primal
purity rather than vitiated condition. To
this general law, as to all others, there are, Of
course, exceptions as, for instance, when tho
| days are hot and the nights cool, there are pc
riods within each twenty-fou hours when It
| is safest to be housed, with doors and windows
closed-that is for an hour or two including
sunrise and sunset. The reason Is this be-
fore sunset the air cools and the vapors which
the heats Of the day have caused to ascend far
above us condense and settle so near the Garth
as to be breathed by the Inhabitants. As
THE NIGHT GROWS COLDER.
these vapors sink lower and lower to within
| iooe o' WV VI tuo tAithy WHcEb tntN nOb
breathed. Then as the sun rises these same
vapors are warmed and begin to ascend where
they may be brcathed again; but as the air be.
comes warmer they are carried so far above
our heads as to be once more innocuous. Tho
article which we quote proves further that
what we call fever and aguc might be Lam
ished from those localities Of which II is the
bane If two simple rules were observed: First.
Have fire kindled every morning at daylight
from spring to fall in the family room, to
which all the family should repair from their
chambers, and there remain until breakfast Is
taken. Second. Let fire be built in the fam
| lily room short time before sundown, and let
| every member of the household again remain
there till supper has been eaten. The philoso-
ply Of the course in both cases consists of two
things, viz : that the fire nrefes the malaria
and causes II to ascend above the breathing
point and that the food taken into the stomach
creates an activity of circulation which repels
disease.