Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1897-10-21


oftener than twice in every second,
and in that time expose a surface to
the air therein equal to IA square
yards. Absorbing the oxygen from
the air in the lungs, they carry it to
the tissues, and, dumping it there,
so to speak, load up again with car
bonic acid, which they throw off
when they reach the lungs once
more It is evident, therefore, that
the air leaving the lungs must have q
larger proportion of carbonic acid
than the air entering them, and less
oxygen.
The necessity of air to life is clear,
but what we are interested III this
evening is the relation between the
air we breathe and health. The eff
feet upon the health may be either
negative or positive. Of the former
an insufficiency of oxygen is the
chief: there is lack of fuel and the
vital flame burns low and feebly-the
machinery of life runs too slow. But
it is on the positive side that we find
more to interest us in the various and
manifold impurities that are to be
found too often in the air we breathe.
These impurities are both solid and
gaseous. The solid are suspended in
the form of dust, to be found par
ticularly in certain trades; living sub
stances as brings pallor, etc, but
more especially the microscopic
plants, known as bacteria, which
swarm everywhere and are taken into
our lungs with every breath. For
tunately, most of these are innocent,
4ID,,ch 1i,1,i+oI r,,17,o 1i+a,,a II ~
the seeds of a corresponding num-
Der of diseases. The gaseous i'm
purities are of various kinds, but in
the limited time at our disposal 1
will mention only the most common
and the most injur1ous-carbon di-
oxide or carbonic acid. This gas,
you will remember, is the result of
combustion, the oxidation of the It's
sues, and is thrown off in expiration.
It is also produced by combustion in
our ordinary gas and lamp lights. AS
carbonic acid is made by the con
sumption Of oxygen, it is plain that
as the former increases in a given
amount of air, the latter decreases.
The air expired from the lungs is
further vitiated by organic matter
thrown off from the system by this
channel as well as in exhalation from
the skin. It is this which gives the
characteristic odor to a close bed
room, occupied by too many people
OF the effect upon the system OF air
thus v1tlated to an excessive degree,
| the most noted example is the IA
was a room Is feet square, with only
two windows, both on the same side,
in which the captured British garri-
son of 146 men was confined for one
night In the morning all were dead
but % It is, however, the contain
ination to far less, but still danger
| Gus, degree that Is to be found in
many Of our homes and school houses
with which we are practically con-
cerned While the effect of this is
not SO st1ikingly manifested as in the
instance just cited, it is nevertheless
injurious to health and Indirectly the
cause of much sickness and many
| deaths. And the reason for it is
plain. A full supply of oxygen is alb
| solutely essential to the proper per
formance of the vital functions, and
if that supply be insufficient-to say
nothing of the apparently positively
poisonous character of the exhala-
tions from the body-the vital force
is reduced and the power to resist
disease is correspondingly dimin-
ished Statistics show that con-
sumption, scrofula, pneumonia, and
some other diseases, are far more
common among those breathing such
an atmosphere than among those
having an abundance of pure air.
AS an Illustration of this, Parker
quotes Rossignal to the effect that
previous to 1886, the mortality ot
the French cavalry horses varied
from $50 to 1877 per 1000 per annum
The enlargement of the stables and
the increased quantity of air., re-
duced the loss in the next ten years
to 69 per 1000. In 1926 the rate
of deaths was reduced to 283 pei
/ 900" Quoting other observers, he
says: ''In Dundee the ratio of plethe-
Sis and other disorders of similar
character, increases with the crowd
4 ing and the foulness of the air; be-
ing at the rate of 1926 per 1000 in
houses of rooms and upwards; 5. SO
in houses of 3 rooms; in 2-roomed
houses, 6 Al, and in 1-roomed houses
I7.44" The deadly typhus, commonly
known as jail OF ship fever, while a
contagious disease and propagated
| by direct infection of one case by
another, is most remarkably infu
enced in It's mortality by over-crowd
ing.
1 In an epidemic of that disease
some years ago in New York the
wards of Bellevue Hospital woulc
mot hold the patients, so more thai
a hundred were put under an ope1
shed in the back yard, it being sum
mer While there squall came up
blew down the shed and thoroughly
drenched them Notwithstanding
not single one died, while the NOR
tality among those in the hospita
was about 25 per cent. Lawson TAFT
the great English surgeon, who is al
); conspicuous for his rank heresy il
, the matter of disease germs as fol
} his brilliant success IN surgery, says
that he has ascertained that the
amount of air his operated cases
: have, materially Influences the re
sult-that the mortality was create
wherever he violated this rule of Civ
. ing each case whole room to her
self But the evidence is eonclusiv,
that the diminution ofthe air suppl,
, increases the mortality not onl.
among the sick but the well-in othe
words, that the death rate is more o
less in proportion to the impurity o
the air we breathe.
/ The indications that we are breath
! ing impure air are feeling of beavi
ness and inertness, with headach,
and sometimes nausea. So when yol
! wake up in the morning with 'stha