Deming graphic. (Deming, N.M.) 1903-1948, 1915-04-02

prepared by U. s. Public Health
Service)

Y
Service)
Breathe all the fresh air you can
get. night and day. That's what fresh
air is for. The fearsome legend about
the baleful influences of might mir"
is only another Of the carefully nurs-
cd insanitary requests from our an
cestors, according TO Senior Surgeon
Banks Of the United States Public
Health Service.
Whence this superstition arose may
only be surmised. Perhaps it is a
survival of the primeval cult of Sun
worship, which led the ancients to
classify as unholy anything outside
the sphere Of solar influence. Our
forbears were wont to caution their
offspring to "be careful about the
night air." or children were ordered
To "come in out of the night air" II
is, perhaps. fortunate for the children
living in the arctic circle, where the
nights are six months long, that the
Eskimo mothers do not entertain this
crude notion about night air. else
their progeny would spend half the
year indoors.
This idea is generally prevalent,
and even one Of our well known flow.
crs is loaded down with the horrible
name of deadly Nightshode" as u
sort of verbal relic of this old notion.
The low-lying mist or fog that some
times gathers about the surface Of
the earth under certain atmospher-
IT, conditions, after sunset was held,
is held to be "miasmatic" and preg-
nant with lethal possibilities. This is
worthy of all the respect that should
be put to any hoary superstition. hut
its place is in the specimen jars of
I'm archaeological museum. not in the
show room of modern intelligent life.
The night air, minus the sun. is no
different from the atmosphere Of
sunless day. The atmospheric en-
velope of the earth does not change
from benign to ,nalign in the twink
ling of an eye after shutdown. II is
still composed of oxygen. nitrogen,
areon and carbon dioxide in the nor.
NAL proportions for the given To-
caliiy. The open air treatment of tu-
berculosis and its kindred allies had
first TO combat this venerable jargon
about the deadliness of night air. and
only the remarkable results of this
hygienic aid to its cure brought the
superstitious to n realization of the
Stiffness Of their ingrained noctopho.
bin.
This generation has witnessed the
emancipation of human beings in re-
spect to the value of fresh air. wheth-
err in bulk or in smaller drafts"
From being people immersed in her
meiically sealed rooms at night,
breathing our own bodily exhalations
over and over again, constantly in
creasing number of persons are sleep
ing in the open. or mt least with open
windows, summer and winter. to
their great benefit. In the morning
they are refreshed with the pure
oxygen of the air breaihed during
sleep. not "stewed nor "secdy" af-
ter eight hours spent in re>piring and
rcrespiring second hand aud shop
worn air in u closed bed room.
\ story from the trenches in
France Is that II soldier wrote home
tn his wife to open her windows nj
night. a> he had found that the night
air didn't hurt one bit" This is the
experience of all the advocates of
this sensible custom--once tried. the
old custom of sealing ones self in an
air-tight bedroom is never renewed.
Diseases which involve the lungs can
usually be traced to their beginning
in poorly ventilated sleeping apart
mcnts. inside rooms that do not have
a share of the atmosphere. Nothing
can live well or long without oxygen
in the air. and il was given to us for
night and day. not to be
taken in sparingly. as if il were n
dangerous potion. Some people are
actually afraid of ordinary, common
air.
Those emancipated persons who
open their windows at night will tell
you. unanimously, that they can not
breathe in chamber unless the win
dow is raised; their sense Of com
fort and vigor demands the life Civ
ing qualities of fresh air. No greater
advice can be promul-
gated than to breathe all the fresh
air you can get, night
and day.