The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-01


tents blossoming with their white expanse
in the city hollows and the country val
legs. This is the vacation time Of Gods
people, and these tents scattered through
out the land give the lie to those who say.
| because the city churches are closed, that
God is on a vacation. These carping critics
say. furthermore, that the devil. with big
| D, never takes vacation. That is true,
| perhaps, but as one tires of all work and
no play. so one may work so hard at I'M
| righteousness and the pleasures thereof
| that he becomes exhausted and longs for
quier rest and a spell of righteousness.
| Then, the devil is such a hard and exacting
taskmaster that people some times think they
will take vacation. if he does not. and
| thus, through overzeal, he loses votary
who goes over to another side.
| But 1T is not in gospel tents or in churches
in theaters or in dance halls that the worst
| overcrowding is to be seen. In the home
| and on the street people are deprived of
| their quota of air and room and suffocated
| by inches. People who live in city rooms
! speak of going into the streets to get fresh
! air where there is no fresh air. Sanitary
authorities have recommended that when
| a new street is laid out, the direction of
| the streets should coincide with that of
| the prevailing winds, for experience has
/ proved that cross-currents passing over a
! street have but little influence upon the
| air contained between the buildings, as in
! a well. Everyone knows that at the cor
ner where two streets intersect there is
usually more of breeze, and this is fur
| Their proved by those who did not notice
it at the time by the cold or rheumatism
which often follows a street-corner gossip.
! City air, under the best conditions, has
less oxygen than country air; it is loaded
with organic and inorganic impurities, poi
sonous gases, bodily emanations, disease
germs, miasma, 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 pal
pitation of the heart, breathessness, OPP
preston, headache, loss of appetite, indi-
| gestion and a host of ills which he himself
! attributes, and possibly his doctor attrib
utes, to anything but the right cause. The
man is simply suffering from impure air
or perhaps oxygen starvation. His blood
is not sufficiently aerated: its waste prod
ucts are not oxdized: they accumulate in
the system: the brain is poisoned; func-
tons are paralyzed and the whole body
suffers.
The city room is of necessity small. Ven
tilation is difficult: since windows. if they
are in the plural are side by side, and it
| is almost impossible TO get d.
rect through draft. Hygiene teaches
us that when the amount of car
bonc dioxide in the air is L per cent.
in thousand the air is noxious: and per
cent is positively dangerous. A commits
sion at Paris considering the question,
| How much air should a close room con-
tain?' decided that a room fourteen cubic
meters was small enough, and that one
less then ten cubic meters dangerous,
inducing slow asphyxiation, and they fur
Their showed that the air should be re-
newed every eight to ten hours or approx
mately two or three times a day. Even
the size of the windows has an influence
upon the ventilation, and there should be
a clear opening of at least three meters
! by one meter.
The gospel song, Are Your Windows
| Open Towards jerusalem" has something
more than a scriDtural meaning, for the
most Dious person who does not throw
! open his windows and breathe fresh air
occasionally is likely to have an aspiring
soul in a weak body.
There is no rule as to when and how
much air shall be admitted, for you can
not measure air by the meter. Pure air
contains in one hundred parts twenty-one
| of oxygen and seventy-nine of nitrogen.
The air which we breathe contains a GER
tain amount of carbonic dioxide, and if it
were not for the plants the percentage
would soon become so great that all ami
mails would be suffocated. For this rea-
son, contrary to popular opinion, it is
good idea TO have a few plants in the
house and even in the sleeping room, for
plants breathe well man, but by n
benefcent plan of compensation what is
death to one is life to the other. While a
plant cannot renew the air it can reno
vate it, that is, it does supply percentage
OF oxygen, which goes far to counteract
the vitiated air.
The well man can to a certain extent
regulate the air he breathes at will. but
when a person is sick he is at the mercy
of his friends The popular belief is that
a sick room should be closed tight as a
drum. Luckily a little air can filter
through the walls, passing through even
brick and stone; little creeps in through
the cracks and even through the keyhole,
but as a rule the close and overheated
room is made still closer and hotter by the
partially suffocated patient, whose fever
turns him into a sort of hot-air stove AS
to the proper way of getting air into a
sick room that is another question: but
the preferable way seems to be to make
a business Of it, to cover UP the patient
completely and open the windows wide for
a few minutes. thus rapidly and effectual-
| ly changing the air
In the office and workroom there is still
more need of efficient and sufficient venti-
lation. The air, in addition to being
vitiated by the persons who are in the
room, is often made more noxious by
deleterious vapors or irritating dust True,
| health laws require that certain safeguards
should be supplied, but in spite of this
injury often results. This is in part due
to the individual worker who, after hours
spent in a vitiated atmosphere, spends his
evenings in the saloon or the dance hall
or the theater. all of which have an i'm
pure atmosphere, while vicious surround
ings both physical and moral, add to the
injury. L. N, NJ. d.
AND Story.
Philadelphia Record.
Did you ever know that ants will make