The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-12-02
temperature OF Inc Beareom.

be healthy. and the colder the better.
This Is an entirely erroneous notion.
Cold air is not necessarily pure air. 1t
may be cold enough TO chill the very
marrow Of ones bones and yet full OF
hoxious gases. To sleep in such room
Is exceedingly unwholesOme, for the
cold, dead air may be saturated with
accumulated pOisons, which will be
drawn into the lungs and Incorporated
in the system. Il would be far safer TO
sleep directly in the open air, or even
in draft, if well wrapped up, than in
such an atmosphere.
But il the cold air is not confined and
vitiated, it is still not good plan to
sleep in a cold room. In deep slumber
the vital forces are less able than in
waking hours TO resist unfavOrable sur
rounding conditions, and the uncon-
Scious sleeper may be exposed, in his
helplessness. to a trial of his powers of
endurance which would severely tax
his strength when at his best. The
clothing may be insufficient in case of
a Sudden fall of temperature. or it may
be partly thrown off and the body be-
come chilled before the sleeper is aware
of il. There can he no doubt, we think,
that in these and similar ways many
constitutions not oVer-strong, and even
those which are naturally robust, are
seriously impaired, and the way opened
for that terrible malady, consumption,
10 begin its deadly work.
But even worse than a cold sleeping
room is a room that is warm in the
early part of the night, and gradually
becomes colder as the night advances.
1t is always, says a recent writer, y mat
ter of great moment to maintain an
equable temperature in the bedroom.
Great changes of temperature, danger
Gus 10 the most vigorous persons. are
especially perilous TO the aged and fee
bic. and to children. 1t has been noted
that when the great waves of winter
cold come on, old people begin to drop
off with startling rapidity. 1t is like an
epidemic of old age. With more pro-
priety it may be described as a NOR
tally induced by sudden changes in the
temperature of the sleeping-room. The
sleep that should have been one of rest
and refreshment becomes a sleep of
death. The fatal process by which it
becomes so is set forth by the writer
referred to:
The room in which the enfeebled
person has been sitting before going to
bed has been warmed probably up to
summer heat; light meal has been
taken before retiring TO rest, and then
the bedroom is entered. The bedroom
perchance has no fire in it, or if fire
be lighted, provision is not made to
keep it alight for more than an hour or
two. The result is that in the early
part OF the moraing, from three to four
O'Clock. when the temperature of the
air in all parts is lowest, the glow from
the fire or stove which should warm the
room has ceased, and the room is cold
to an extreme degree. In country
houses the water will often be found
frozen in the hand-basins or ewers I'M
der these conditions. Meanwhile the
sleeper lies unconscious of the great
change which is taking place in the air
around him. Slowly and surely there
is a decline of temperature to the ex-
tent. it may be, of forty degrees on the
Fahrenheit scale; and though he may
be fairly covered with bedclothes, he is
receiving into his lungs this cold air, by
which the circulation through the lungs
is materially modified. The condition
of the body itself is at this very time
unfavoTable for meeting any emergency.
In the period between midnight and six
in the morning the animal vital
processes are at their lowest ebb."
The proper temperature to be main
tanned in a sleeping-roOm is between
sixty and sixtv-ivc degrees Fahrenheit.
For persons in very feeble health it may
be necessary to raise it to a somewhat
higher point; but in ordinary cases
there should be as little variation rs
possible from the limits named.
IL order that this even temperature
ma e ~ecureI, it is extremely desira-
bic that some method of ventilation
should be employed which does not re-
Quigc the windows TO be left open.
MANY persons cannot sleep in an I'M
ventilated room and as choice of evils,
much prefer the pure might all" in
troduced through open windows to that
which has been charged with bodily eX-
halations in closed apartment.
" Night air." as Florence Nightingale
puts r. lis the only air we have at
night and it is better to have it pure
than impure. If windows must be de-
pended on for ventilation in cold wealth
er il is advisable and necessary to open
them only very little way-iust a
crack at the top and b0ttom-so as TO
make the change of air gradual. A
better way still is to place a board,
three inches wide and as long as the
width of the window, under the lower
sash. This leaves an opening between
the sashes. which is said to impart
rolling motion to the air in the room,
efiecting a change of air without mate
rally lowering the temperature. But
it is always best TO provide for indirect
ventilation. in such way that while
there shall be constant exchange OF
pure for impure air, the danger of drafts
and chill shall be reduced to the min
imum.
There is room for great improvement
in these simple but far too little thought
of precautions for the preservation of
health and against the peril Of sudden
death. As the cold weather approach
es. would it not be worth while to
"think on these things" and see if the
sleeping apartments in our homes, in
which so large a share of our lives is
passed, cannot be made more healthful
and safe for ourselves and our loved
ones?-EJdD3i'ter and Ctr0HtcIe.