The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-03-15
NECESSITY OF PURE ALB IN SCHOOL
ROOMS.

The Importance of air space rests
upon the absolute necessity of pure air
for healthy respiration. For various
practical purposes, the limits OF space
vary from 300 to 1900 cubic feet And
no deUiatiom should be made on &C
count Of children
With regard to this point, MI. John
Simon we'll observes: ut is to be de-
sired that laws and regulations as to
overcrowding should not proceed on
the assumption that children Ito any
great extent) require less breathing
space than adults. Against any such
assumption two facts have been con-
sidered: First, that even healthy chill
dren, in proportion to their respective
bodily weights, are about twice as pow
full as adults in deteriorating the air
winh they breath; secondly, that the
children will almost invariably have
certain eruptive and other febrile dis
orders to pass through, from which
adult life is comparatively exempt, and
in which the requirement Of space IS
greatly increased. And, having regard
to these two considerations, think it
best that children and adults should be
deemed to require equal allowances OF
air and ventilation.
Moreover, it should be observed that
the mere space allowance should in no
Case detract from the absolute necessl-
ty of means for renewal, and the small
or the space, so much the more certain
should be this provision. If 800 cubic
feet only be allowed, the air mist be
changed, at the least, every twenty min
utes. TO neutralize the deleterious
properties of respired air, and to re-
plenish it, every person requires 1000
cubic feet of fresh air hourly, and with
less provision than this contamination
is sure to follow.
The epidemic influences or constitu-
tiOn which some authors are wont to
describe as conditions precedent to the
activity of epidemic diseases, and which
are believed to be periods of predispo-
sing receptivity Of specific poisons, are
due in no small degree to the prevail
ing condition of school rooms and their
COngeners. AS q rule, the older these
conditions, the longer the period of
time in which they have been tolera-
ted, the more depressed the vital pow
ers of their occupants and the greater
their predisposing receptivity. Be
sides, the depressed state of the organ
ism under such conditions is not only
predisposing to epidemic diseases, but
the liability to and the danger of all
diseases is thereby intensified; and
doubtless, much that is attributed to
the season of the year supposed to be
predisposing to scarlet fever, measles,
Whooping-cough, diphtheria, and some
other common affections of children,
is due to the same cause. It is, at any
rate, very remarkable that the begin
ming of the autumnal school term
should be simultaneous with or speed
lily followed by the siclzly term. There
is surely something more tnan a mere
coincidence in these relations; they
stand much more like cause and effect.
Besides the danger from active and
fatal diseases from exposure to the
conditions which have been described,
all psychologists recognize the infu-
ence of depressing agents on the human
organization in bunting the sensibili-
ties, obtunding the intellect, promoting
stupidity, idiocy and physical deformi-
ty. And in this relation, at least, the
survival of the fittest" often has a
painful Significance, not alone confined
to the present generation, but recogniz-
ing the accepted law of inheritance,
well calculated to shock the sensibili-
ties in anticipation of the future.
A. N. BELL, M. D.
-~.~. -
The DISCIPLINE OF THE WILL.
81 Ebn