The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-12-31
WINTER AND SICKNESS.

vol
season, but the evidence that such j, the c,.n
so strong as to be indisputabe OF .or,rso 4.
cold of winter. is uncomfortable, but discount
ought not to produce sickness. unless the disc.
forts are carried to an extreme Too much .r
WILL Of course, freeze up a man, just a, it win
stream of water, but cases OF this kind are ~.
indeed, compared with the general prevalence -
disease and sickness which comes with the on,.
of winter.
There is nothing about cold air which sbonp
produce eold and thousands can bear testimo,,
to suffering severe cold without any impairment a,
the health after the experience was past. Indo.l
cold air is looked upon nowadays as fatal to man,
of the germs of infectious disease In the ,or
when the yellow fever played havoc with the pso
pie, the first frost was hailed with delight as III.
only sure cure for the epidemic. And It is prob.
ably true that cold air is no more likely to carry in
fictitious disease germs than warm air Yet III,
winter season is approached by many with fear anil
dread, for experience has shown it to be season
of much sickness suffering aud death
Nor yet can it be said that warm air in winter
in our houses, offices and shops is conducive 70
and the added warmth makes US not only com.
Portable, but it enables us to do work that we co
not do in an unheated place. So that the conc1
sion is inevitable that the temperature of the Al,
about us within reasonable bounds, has very Hul.
to do with affecting our health The trouble with
most of our houses, shops and offices is that the
heating apparatus is so arranged that it is in.
rOSsih1a RI vautilsta +her, -,
compelled to endure, or do endure conditions which
are not conducive to health, in that no change
the air in the rooms is possible without producing
the discomforts of cold draught. Ventilation on;
recently has progressed step from that pracica
by the savage who first boarded up cave with
himself inside the enclosure, and there enjoyed
what warmth he could, shielded from the blasts
winter. And most of us are not domiciled in any
of these modern buildings which supply generous
quantities of fresh, pure, warm air. Under the cir
cumstances we are compelled to make the best Of
our surroundings. In our homes, we have to open
the windows and fire up. While We may look upon
such procedure as rather extravagant, it is false
economy which we practice if we close up the win
dows and doors, seal all the cracks and crevcs
and breathe the same air over and over, charged
as it must soon become with the foul excrescenea
of continual respiration.
The observation of our ancestors in the long
ago showed them that disease was more common
in winter than IN summer and the inference was
natural that there was something malignant about
cold air. Following a natural instinct, they pro
ceeded to bar the cold air from their abodes az
hac+ +ba,- could apd rra bora beer f,IIo,ving that
natural instinct for good many years until it h
become almost ineradicable. But the consensus Of
opinion in these latter days is that cold air is not
in itself injurious, provided of course it is not
extreme And cold air is much to be preferred to
air breathed over and over again, or air saturated
with fumes of tobacco or other noxious smokes and
gases.
Illustrating this value of fresh air even if cold
and somewhat uncomfortable, story of the diff
culties encountered by the Chicago zoo in man
tanning a monkey colony is pertinent. For years
the monkeys in captivity there died every winter
and new supply had to be imported Several
winters ago, however. the five monkeys which bad
survived confinement up to about Christmas tm'
were placed in a cage outside any building Ih'
monkeys would die anyhow, it was argued so Nc
harm could result from the experiment. But the
five monkeys survived the winter and came 0u'
in the spring as sprightly bunch of chatterlns
simians as could be desired for the most fastdlon
Zoo Since then, the monkeys have been kept OUT
SIDE and the death rate has been decreased mos
wonderfully.
The conditions under which monkeys or otnsl
animals may attain health are not very dittere,
from the requirements Of the children Of men. Au'
the children of men are so mucn more valuable
(from our own, not the monkeys point Of veT1
that it is incumbent upon us to provide ourSeN''
and children with the requisites of health Ol'
of the most important Of which is fresh air IL
a subject worthy of careful study and practice
It has been asserted that S3OOOO0,OOO could y
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