News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1910-10-05

~@ HE old Greek philosophers re
rs garded air as a simple and
III Interchangeable element like
gold silver, ETC.. and the
problem of how air sustains life was
certainly Greek" to them.
This ignorance of the composition
of air persisted until the latter part
ley discovered that air is a mixture OF
gases. one of which. oxygen. is neces-
sary to life. BY experiment on ami
mails he demonstrated that in passing
through the lungs air parts with some
of its oxygen to the blood and takes
from the blood a poisonous gas-car-
bon dioxide. Priestey. of course, was
not aware that air may also bring
from the lungs and throat other or
ganic impurities and the microbes of
disease. As ignorance of these facts
existed for thousands of years it is
not strange that our ancestors builded
their homes and ordered their lives
entirely without regard to the value of
fresh air. Even now, however, the
old habits persist to some extent. and
stuffy, overheated. ill ventilated rooms
may be found in every community
IL fresh air were high priced com
modify there would be some excuse
for not breathing it. But. except in
the case of overcrowded tenement
districts. pure air is within the reach
of rich and poor alike. and neglect to
obtain it can only arise from igno-
rance or Indifference to bodily health.
| suppose people may still be found
who dread to breathe the might air"
who delight in nice, warm" heavily
cannot fade the furniture and the win
ter air is rigidly excluded. ! would
invite the attention of sucn people to
a few simple and easily demonstrated
facts
Fresh Air Facts.
In the first place. answering the pos
sibe query, Nv hat has all this talk
about fresh air done for humanity" |
would say that it has lowered the
death rate from consumption over 40
per cent in the last thirty years. In
the same period it has reduced the
death rate among people under thirty
years of age about 30 per cent. 1t
has done 50 much that cautious, con-
sentative scientific men are looking
forward to complete eradication of
consumption and other communicable
diseases and their Punishment to the
limbo where the "black death" and
smallpox have been driven.
Pure air is composed of, approx
mately. seventy nine parts nitrogen and
twenty-one parts oxygen. trace of
carbon dioxide, vapor of water and
minute quantities of other elements
which have no known influence on the
body. After air Is expelled from the
lungs it contains. as Priestley first
demonstrated. an increased amount of
carbon dioxide and reduced amount
of oxygen.
1t has been estimated that each per
son requiree 5000 cable feet of fresh
all pei uOui IL lne plopoi tioh VI 1di
bon dioxide is to be kept below 6 parts
in 10,O0OLthe pure air limit.
1t must not be thought that carbon
dioxide in excess of that quantity is
particularly harmful. If unmingled
with other impurities 1t may be pres
ent in the proportion of 30 to 100
parts per 10000 without endangering
life. AS usually present. in dwelling
rooms. schoolrooms. factories, etc,
however, it is an index of the amount
of other impurities exhaled from the
lungs and skin.
Open country air has been found to
contain only 3 parts per 10000 car
bon dioxide. while the air of a crowd
ed schOolroom may contain twenty
times that amount and De correspond.
ingly vitiated by organic impurities,
microbes and what has been well
named the sewage of the lungs and
skin.
Renewing Air In Rooms.
Even where liberal air space is
allotted to each individual 1t is neces-
sary that the air of a room be COM
pletely changed at least once every
hour. In schools and factories where
there is limited air space per capita
arrangements are often made for