The Iola register., 1881-10-28
Pure Air and Health.

1t is hard for one to ''keep up his
spirits" in certain states of the weather,
and some poor wretches attempt to
remedy this by pouring spirits down." ="
1t is not the degree of heat or cold, OF
drvness or moisture, which gives to the
air a depressing or bracing influence;
neither can it be any change in the
proportion of nitrogen or oxygen,
for this is invariable. Some have at
tributed it to the amount of ozone that
happens to be present, q word that is
used to indicate modification of oxy-
gen, developed by electrical action in
thunder storms, and the existence of
which is detected by peculiar smell in
tho atmosphere. There are persons
who are kind of living barometer. and
they tell you they can "feel it in their
bones" when the wind is about to
change or thunder storm is impend-
ing. Rheumatic people are particular
ly gifted in this respect.
The indispensableness of pure air in
order to the enjoyment of high health
was not much appreciated in days gone
by, and this branch of knowledge has
become much more important in its SCI
.entific aspect since the Introduction OF
plumbing and elaborate sewerage and
cellar furnaces and double windows and
anthracite coal burning ard gaslighting
and numberless other Improvements
which have come in with the advance of
civilization. But vet. just for the want
of that knowledge, we read of ''great
plaques that depopulated whole dis
'tricts almost in day, and the system
attic exclusion of fresh air from the sick
chamber sent myriads of people to their
graves who would have escaped if they
had only been left to the curative re-
sources of nature. 1t is noticeable
fact that the most efficient remedies
adopted in our day for the cure Of fevers,
such as fresh air and sunlight, ice and
cold water, stimulants and nOurishing
food, were not very long ago resolutely
denied the suffering patient. no matter
how strongly his instincts might crave
them. l well remember how, in former
days, the professional bLeeder in Phila-
,delphia was habitually called in to sap
the fountain of life whenever the stream
began to move slowly. ..-- .-
There are certain classes of persons
who are peculiarly exposed to deleterious
atmospheric influences, and it is not
easy to see how this evil can be avoided.
when the work to be done is of such a
mature as to require that the room
should always be kept closed and the
atmosphere is likely to become charged
with noxious gases and poisonous dust
and irritating tilaments, the workman
can hardly expect to fill out the full
measure of his days. The atmosphere
of an ordinary factory is bad enough,
and I do not wonder that prominent
English manufacturer once said that he
could not bear to punish or even awak-
en- the little children in his employ
when they fell asleep in the mill. How
they manage to keep awake at all in
such a mephitic atmosphere is a mystery,
for the incessant clatter Of the machin-
cry. when one is used to it, operates as
. a soporifc 1t is true that the human
system has strange facility in adapt
ing itself to untoward surroundings, and
the heart will keep on beating when one
might suppose that it must soon col
lapse and stop forever.
Those who labor habitually in the
open air have a much stronger assur-
ance of health and longevity, although
they may be exposed to great mutations
of heat and cold, and the body will &C
custom itself to these changes more
readily than it can to any unwholesome
elements in the air. Even an extreme
artificial heat is not always prejudicial
to the health. as may be seen in the
brawny frames of the men who toll and
sweat over the pudding furnaces of a
foundry. The heat seems to pass
through them and ooze out at their
faces, without doing any special harm,
and they are quite sure to be in no dam
ger from the presence of any malarious
germs in the atmosphere.
Students and writer's. who pass their
days in close and confined apartments,
bending all the while over their desks,
neglectful of outdoor exercise. must
expect, sooner or later, to pay the bitter
neralty. In order to do healthy intel
lectual work one must keep himself in
healthy condition. If this law were
mere generally regarded the world
would be spared many a lugubrious
pOCIl, duu uWuOlCSOiuC GdlC, dLu WCdIl-
some treatise and stupid sermon.
The depressing and baleful effects of
unventilated halls and churches and
school rooms are better understood
than they were in days past. There is
still great room for Improvement. as
may be seen in the soporific attitude of
many of our crowded congregations,
and the heavy talk that falls from the
lips of many public speaker, and the
wandering eye of many poor child,
who strives in vain to fix his thoughts
upon the swimming page. How often,
in the midst of sermon. have longed
to stop and cry out, "Open the win
dows! let in q little fresh air!' No
preacher can reach the hearts or the
heads of his congregation when he is
obliged to address them through a
medium of carbonic acid gas. Let the
army of sections throughout the land
take Dote of this.
We all know what mischief the air
can do when it goes off on one of its
swift and awful Journeys and rides on
the wings of the tornado and the hurri-
cane; but this is 4 work of destruction
over which man has no control, and for
which of course he is not responsible.
t. 80 bou,ox,o,. Union tho ofrosnboro n