The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-09-27
The Value Of the Fresh Air.
Philadelphia Record.

Among IQo Sup6TSIlIlOuS OIL IIit
past, those which relate to bodily all
nents are likely to live longer than
almost any others. There are certain
theories with regard to air, light and
water which seem to have been in
vented by the Spirit of Evil expressly
to keep poor humanity from enjoying
the health that is its right. Many
people seem to regard fresh air as an
aggressive enemy, and bright sun
shine as an emissary OF disease. They
shut up the doors and windows of Il
slck-room as tightly as possible, and
pull down every shade to keep a dim,
funeral gloom around the patient by
dap and night. 1t is not many years
since water was as religiously withheld
from fever patients as if it was an ac-
tive poison. If by chance a breath
of Heaven-sent air got into the sick
room it was believed to peril the pa
TENTS life, and the principal occupa-
ton of the old-time nurse was the
protection of her charge against
draughtS. While the superstitions
are not as universal nor as weighty as
they once were, they affect great
many people in their everyday life
much more seriously than is generally
supposed. We seem to have inherited
from our English ancestors natural
hatred for draughts, and to such an
extent is this carried that any fresh
bracing body OF air is in danger of be-
ing mistaken for draught.
| 1t is no uncommon practice in win
| ter to sleep IN rooms which have either
no openings TO the outer air at all, or
which have so little space for ventila-
ton that most inadequate change
can be produced in the atmosphere
inside. 1t is believed not only that
an open window introduces danger
GUS degree of cold but that there is
something about might air" which
renders it unfit for breathing until it
has become warmed within doors. 1t is
not difficult to determine the origin of
honestly by our fancy through inner
tied superstition; but Originally,
doubtless, the dread of fresh air was
economic, not hygienic. In France,
until recent years. and probably in
England, under the Normans, there
was "door and window" tax. Houses
built with the useless extravaganc e
of unnecessary doors or windows paid
roundly for such folly. The luxury
of fresh air meant somethin {, there
fore, to those who paid extra taxes
for fresh air openings, and it is
not strange that insensibly feeling
should have grown into the minds of
the ignorant that fresh air was OBJ
iectionable in itself. TO this day
there are said to be one million per
sons in France who sleep in rooms
having no direct opening to the outer
air, and it is source Of constant Won
der to the lower classes in both France
and Italy how EngIishmen and
Americans can sleep in well ventilated
rooms, Letting out the good warm"
as they say. While we are far more
sensible of hygienic needs in this
country than are the people of France,
we show in many things a stupid in
difference to the later discovered
laws of health simply because our
forefatherS did so before us. 1t is the
opinion of some eminent physicians
that many of our precautions against |
colds are directly the cause of taking
cold. The body is not habituated to |
moderate changes of temperature,Ibut |
we try to maintain high tempera-
ture by added clothing. Some per-
sons make several alterations in their |
dress every day solely to meet a low
er thermometer, and they thus make |
their bodies sensitive to very tri- |
fling increase or elimination of heat |
in the atmosphere.
1t is easy to see that no one can |
hope at all times to vary ones cloth
ing exactly in harmony with the
weather. Hence he who depends
solely on clothing for comfort must |
certainly suffer. The only safeguard |
against frequent colds. therefore, is a |
well tempered bed. He who is hardy |
owing to moderate and prudent eX-
posture to the ordinary changes Of the
weather in the climate to which he is
accustomed will throw off all ten
dency to take cold. 1t is only the |
plant that has been cuddled up in the |
dollhouse that is blighted by light frost.
Undoubtedly there are people with
hereditary tendencies toward con-
sumption and other diseases, to avoid |
which requires great care in the per-
son threatened with them but a jul
dicious hardening of their conStitu-
lions by outdoor life would do them |
far NOR good than a policy of nursing
and smothering in close rooms.
Children are often made sensitive to |
very mild winds, by being bundled
up and coddled from their earliest
days. 1t is not necessary to expose an
infant to severe cold to make it hardy |
and strong. Indeed, there is some
times danger of too much indifference
on this score; but the other extreme
should be avoided. 1t is not unusual
to see a baby swathed up like
mummy, and its body becomes accus-
toned to an excessive protection the
first time it gets an exposure it is
taken seriously i'll. If the child had
such course of treatment as would
make it measurably Indifferent to
clothing in ordinary temperatures it
would not be made i'll by the first
fresh draught that struck its little
stofnlaehe or chilled its little chest. 1t
cannot be too often repeated that sun
light, fresh air and clean water are
better preventives of disease than all
the medicines in tne world; and it may
be added that physician who will
teach his patients to make their bodies
strong to resist disease will have done
as well as one who succeeds in curing
them.
The Voltaire has Investigated the