The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-10-27
Popular Fallacies.

Night air and damp weather are held
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, and they are kept
within doors the much largest portion of
their time, and as matter of course
continue invalids, more and more ripen-
ing 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 but 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 become i'm.
pure in consequence of waste and useless
matters mixing with it as it passes
through the body that it requires hogs
head of air every hour of our lives to I'M
load it Of these impurities; but in pro-
pOrtiOnas this air is vitiated, in such pro-
portion does it infallably fail to relieve
the blood of these impurities, and impure
thI Mood is the foundation of all disease
The great fact that those who are out o..
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 unhealthy as COM
pared 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 he 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 periods
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 sunset the air
cools, and the vapors which the heats of
the day have caused to ascend far above
US, condense and settle near the earth,
so as to be breathed by the inhabitants;
as the nights grows colder, these vapors
sink lower and are within foot or two
of the earth, so they are not breathed.
AS the sun rises these same vapors are
warmed 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 Charlestown,
5. c., remember, that while it was con-
sidered important to live in the country
during the summer, the common observa-
ton of the people originated 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 do not under.
stand the philosophy, 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.
All strangers at Rome are cautioned
not to cross the Pontine marshes after
the heat of the day is over. Sixteen of
ships crew, touching at one of the
West India islands, slept on shore sew
eral nights, and thirteen of them died
of yellow fever in few days, while of
two hundred and eighty who were freely
ashore during the day, not a single case
of illness occurred. The marshes above
named are crossed in six OF eight hours,
and many travellers who do it in the
night are attacked with mortal fevers.
This does, at first sight, seem to indi-
cate that night air is unwholesome, at
least in the locality of virulent malarias,
but there is no direct proof that the air
about sunrise and sunset is not that
which is productive of the mischief.
For the sake of eliciting the observa-
tons of intelligent men, we present our
theory on this subject.
A person might cross these marshes
with impunity, who would set out on
his journey an hour or two after sun
down, and finish it an hour or two after