The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-10
Hygiene and Haunted Houses

1t is by no means new experience
to find the miracles of ancient days
and the mysteries of occult arts fading
away in the light of modern science
The bloody bread of the middle ages,
FOR example, with its sinister forebod-
ings and religious Implications, has
today become simple demonstration
in bacteriology, says the American Med
ical Association journal. Unexpected
luminous surfaces appearing in the alb
sence of any visible source of light
are easily explained by any student of
the biology of phosphorescence Even
the almost impenetrable marveIs of the
active mind as well as those curious
manifestations, like hypnotism which
pass under the name of psychic phenom-
ena, are yielding to the attempts at a
rational Interpretation. Wierd visions
and strange ghosts have at length be-
come the expressions of a disordered
mind rather than the visitations of an
offended deity. And now the ''haunted"s
house--chronicled in fiction and actually
shunned in real life-has been deprived
OF It's mystifying wonders and fright
ful horrors by the findings of twentieth
century hygiene.
sachusetts Institute OF Technology, has
investigated houss in the Black bay
district of Boston, which had acquired
the annoying reputation of being
haunted" The experiences which led
to the Investigations were too serious,
the symptoms too real, the reports too
often repeated and reliable to be over
looked or regarded as mere halucina-
tions. The slumbers of the inmates in
the upper stories were disturbed by
strange sensations, such as those of on
preston or paralysis; they frequently
continued after the sleeper was thor
oughly awake and even after the lights
had been turned on. The involved chill
dren appeared pale and sluggish in the
morning, even cold water losing it's
power to enliven them.
careful inspection of the building
gave the key to the situation. The
theory of the undetected leaks of illu-
minating gas as a source of intoxica-
tion could not be verified in this case:
but 1t developed that the gases escap-
Ing from a ''viciously defective" hot
air furnace were sufficient to cause the
trouble. The separation between the
fire box and the hot air ducts Con which
the hygienic integrity of the outfit de-
pends) was badly broken, and as a
result the inhabitants of the house were
bathed in an atmosphere of diluted flue
gases The Journal of the American
Medical Association is confident that
this condition might be discovered in
many American homes. F'lue gases con-
tain, especially when the combustion Is
incomplete, considerable amounts of
distinctly poisonous gases.
The symptoms in Schneiders cases
pointed to carbon monoxid as the prob
able chief offender. Sensations of op-
preston and other mental disturbances
are typical of acute carbon monoxid
poisoning. as are also loss of psychic
powers, the confused sensations and
other features which explain the sense
of oppression that persistently entered
into the delusions of the inmates of the
haunted" house. The belief in walking
spirits Is easily nourshed by persons
in whose minds real noises would be
likely to become exaggerated during
the intoxication.
The sensations of apparitions induced
by breathing, during sleep, of a tainted
atmosphere are of interest to the stu
dents of psychic manifestations. The
hot air furnace, often praised for it's
ventilating effect-and with justice
when properly operated and in perfect
condition-may evidently become dis
tinct menace to health, as well as a
cause of GHOSTS"