The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-01
Medical Notes.

good OF the community, In competing
the individual to comply with sanitary
regulations. but it is seldom that the po-
lice have recourse to the board of health
Lubbock, Germany, however has found an
ingenious method of regulating public
meetings and restricting the number of
agitators at public demonstrations in
which zeal gets the better of Rodefa-
ton, by decreeing that, lin the interest
of the health of the Individual at re-
unions there shall be at least an area of
at least thfee-quarterS of a square meter
for each person
This has set up a merry war" among
the people of Lubbock. for the halls that
have hitherto accommodated from two to
three thousand people VIII now admit but
sea- calculated by the area at command.
While a moderate sufticiency of fresh air
is thus guaranteed the good people of
Lubbock, free speech is to a great extent
cut off and they feel that their rights,
if not their voices, are being throttled.
While this decree was promulgated, pri-
marily and solely, in the interests of So
cial laws, it is a good precedent for the
limitation of congregations within public
buildings, in accordance with their
breathing capacity rather than their
seating capacity.
Sunday headache and theatre rnalaise
are due in a measure, to partial asphyx-
lation and jntoXication from too small
amount of air, air that is Initiated, at
that, by foul if not infectious breath,
the breath of consumption, of catarrh,
or in seasons of epidemics of the grippe
or perhaps the plague.
Aside from acu disease the Individual
is subject to nervous enervation and psy-
chic intoxieatiop not only from the Wit
lated and limited amount of air, but from
the environment, the languor-indueing
heat, the binding glare of the lights,
the intoxicating effiuyia of a thousandd
mingled odors, good ard bad, and the in
fictitious psyehieal and contagious physi-
cal emanations. Even cough is conta-
gious, witness the nervous church cough
which follows a season of suppressed
emotion or enforced quietness. Witness
the lecture room yawn, which is indeed
eXcusable when the speaker is prOsacal
and tediously long winded. Witness the
uniformity with which watches are con-
suited when one man sets the example.
These, however, are of minor impor-
lance. They are the humorous incidents
OF nervous contagion and Infection. The
more serious ones are more subtle and
1nsidious. They come with the reaction
that follows action, they come with the
of-bed languor which always follows late
hours and feverish excitement. These
are the over tense strings of the harp
of life strained to brilliant concert pitch,
but losing their vibratility under over
wrought tension, responding to natures
master hand with harsh and feeble dis
cords or swapping asunder, making the
music mute.
Even as early as the sixteenth century,
Sarctorious realized the Importance Of
fresh air and plenty of it. In his aphor-
1Sms he recommends that in time of pes
thence divine service be held in the open
air instead of in churches, that infected
people and healthy people may not be
congregated together in confined places
Furthermore, he proposed to separate
the pest-aff1icted from those in the same
house who were not yet stricken, and he
warned people against buying fowl in the
open market lest they should have been
handled by those having the plague.
AS the warm SUMMER months prevail
throughout the land, you will see gospel
tents blossoming, with their white ex-
panse, in the city's hollows and the coun-
try's valleys. This is the vacation time
Of Gods people, and these tents, scattered
throughout the land, give the lie to those
who say because the city churches are
H.
These carping critics say, furthermore,
that the Devil, with a big 3D." never
takes vacation. That is true, perhaps.
but as one tires of all work and no
play, SC one may work so hard at un-
righteousness and the pleasures thereof
that he becomes exhausted, and longs for
quiet rest and spell OF righteousness.
Then the devil is such a hard and exact
ing taskmaster that people sometimes
t10cU will t..j<
does not, and thus through over zeal he
loses a yotary, who goes over to anoth-
er side.
People who live in city rooms speak of
gong out into the streets to get fresh
air where there is no fresh air SAM
tary authorities have recommended that
when new Straet is laid out the diree-
ton OF the streets should coincide with
that of the prevailing winds, for ex-
per1enee has proved that cross-culrents
passing over a street have but little infiu-
enee upon the air contained between the
buildings, as in a well. Everyone knows
that at the corner where two streets in
tefseef there is usually more of a breeze
ana this is further proved by those who
dld not notice it at the time, by the
cold or rheumatism which often follows
street corner gossip
City air, under the best conditions has
less oxygen than. country air; it is loaded
with organic and inorganic impurities.
poisonous gases bodily emanations, dis
ease germs HiaSma, ETC., and Is less
vital than country air that is. it does
not support life so readily.
When a person from the country comes
to the city he must also become accli-
mated A feeling of slow suffocation
comes over him. He is afflicted with
palpltatlon of the heart, breathlessness.
oppression, headache, loss of appetite, in
digestion and a host of ills which he
himself attributes, and possibly his doc
tor attributes, to anything but the right
cause. The man is simply suffering from
impure air or perhaps oxygen starya-
ton
His blood is not sufficiently aerated; it's
waste products are not oxidized: they
accumulate in the system; the brain is
poisohea' functions are paralyzed and
the whole body suffers
The city room is of necessity small
Ventilation is difficult; since windows if
they are in the plural, are side by side
and 1t is almost Impossible to get a d.
rect through draft. Hygiene teaches us
tfat when the amount of .carbonic diox-
lae IN the air is one per cent in thou
sand tie air is noxious, and five per cent
Is positively dangerous. A commission at
Paris considering the question Flow
Much Air Should a Close Room Con
ta5n?' decided that room fourteen cubic
meters was small enough and that one
less than ten cubic meters was danger
Gus, inducing slow asphyxiation, and they
further showed that this air should be
renewed every eight to ten hours or ap-
pEoximately two or three times a day
Even the size of the windows has an in
ftuGnCa "a
should be clear opening of at least
three meters by one meter.
The gospel song, Are the Windows
Omen IolXands Ierll 50 Lon, ],