The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-07-19
Popular Fallacies.

Night AIR and damp weather are nelu
in great horror by multitudes of persons
who are sickly or of weak constitutions;
consequently, BY avoiding the night air,
and damp weather, and changeable
weather, and weather that is considered
too hot or too cold, they are kept within
doors the much largest portion of their
time, and as a matter of course con-
tinue invalids, more and more ripening
for the grave every hour; the reason is,
they are breathing an impure atmos-
phere nineteen-twentieths of their whole
existence.
As nothing can wash us clean put
pure water, so nothing can cleanse the
blood, nothing can make health-giving
blood, but the agency of pure air. So
great is the tendency of the blood to be-
come impure in consequence of waste
and useless matters mixing with it as it
passes through the body, that it requires
hogshead of air every hour of our lives
to unload it of these impurities; but in
proportion as this air is vitiated, in such
proportion does it infallibly fail to re-
lieve the blood of these impurities, and
impure blood is the foundation of all
disease. The great fact that those who
are out doors most, summer and winter,
day and night, rain or shine, have the
best health the world over, does of itself
falsify the general impression that night
air or any other outdoor air is I'M
healthy as compared with indoor air at
the same time.
Air is the great necessity of life; so
much so, that if deprived of it for mo-
ment, we perish; and so constant is the
necessity of the blood for contact with
the atmosphere, that every drop in the
body is exposed to the air through the
medium of the lungs every two minutes
and half of our existence.
Whatever may be the impurity of the
outdoor air of any locality, the indoor
air of that locality is still more impure,
because of the dust, and decaying and
odoriferous matters which are found in
all dwellings, Besides, how can indoor
air be more healthy than the outdoor
air, other things being equal, when the
dwelling is supplied with air from with
out?
To this very general law there is one
exception, which it is of the highest i'm
portance to note. When the days are
hot, and the nights cool, there are peri
DDS of time within each twenty-four
hours, when it is safest to be indoors,
with doors and windows closed; that is
to say, for the hour or two including
sunrise and sunset, because about sun
set the air cools, and the vapOrs which
the heats of the day have caused to as
cend far above us, condense and settle
near the surface of the earth, so as to
be breathed by inhabitants; as the night
! grows colder, these vapors sink lower,
and are within a foot or two of the
earth, so they are not breathed. As the
sun rises, these same vapOrs are warm
ed, and begin to ascend, to be breathed
again, but as the air becomes warmer,
they are carried so far above our heads
as to be innocuous. Thus it is that the
old citizens of Charleston, S. c., re-
member, that while it was considered
| important to live in the country
during the summer, the COM
mon observation of the people origin
ated the custom of riding into town, not
in the cool of the evening or of the
morning, but in the middle of the day.
They did not understand the philosO-
ply, but they observed the fact that
those who came to the city at midday
remained well, while those who did so
early or late suffered from it.
But if it is deadly to sleep out of doors
all night in a malarial locality, would it
be necessarily fatal to sleep in house
in such a locality? 1t would not. 1t
would be safer to sleep in the house, es-
pecially if the windows and doors were
closed. The reason is, that the house
has been warmed during the day, and if
kept closed, it remains much warmer
during the night indoors; consequently,
the malariais kept by this warmth so high
above the head, and so rarelied, as to
be comparatively harmless. This may
seem to some too nice distinction alto
gether, but it will be found throughout
the world of Nature that the works of
the Almighty are most strikingly beau
tiful in their minlttig, and these minutig
are the foundation of His mightiest
manifestations.
Thus it is, too, that what we call fever
and ague might be banished from the
country as general disease, if two
things were done. l. Have fire kin
died 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. 2. Let fire be kin
died in the family room a short time
before shutdown; let every member of
the family repair to it, and there remain
until supper is taken.
In both cases, the philosophy of the
course marked out consists in two
things: First, the fire rarefes the ma
laria and causes it to ascend over the
breathing point. Second, the food taken
into the stomach creates an activity of
circulation which repels disease.-HaWs
JoarnaI Of Health.
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