The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-02-07
THEORY THAT
NIGHT AIR IS
BAD INSANE
Breathe All the Fresh Air You
Can Get is Advice Of Public
Health Service.


the fresh air you can get, night and
day That's what fresh air IS for. The
fearsome legend about the baleful In
huences OF might air" is only another
OF the carefully nursed insanitary be-
quests from our ancestors, according
to Senior Surgeon Banks, OF the Unit
ed States Public Health Service.
Old Superstition.
Whence this superstition arose may
only be surmised. Perhaps 1t is a
survival Of the primeyal cult OF sun
worship, which led the ancient to
classify anything outside the sphere
OF solar influence. Our forbears were
wont to caution their offspring to 'tbe
careful about the night air. It is
perhaps fortunate for the children liy-
ing in the Arctic circles, where the
nights are six months longer, thar
the Esquimeaux mothers do not en-
tertain 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 flowers
is loaded down with the horrible name
of Deadly Nightshade" as sort Of
verbal relic OF this old notion. The
low lying mist or fog that sometimes
gathers about the surface Of the earth
under certain atmospheric conditions.
after sunset, is held to be
"mfasmatic' and pregnant with lethal
possibilities. This is worthy Of all the
respect that should be put to any
hoary superstition, but It's place is
in the specimen jars of an archaeo-
logical museum, not In the show room
of modern intelligent life.
The night air. minus the sun, Is no
different from the atmosphere OF a
sunless day. The atmospheric envel-
ope Of the earth does not change from
benign to maitgn in the twinkling Of
an eye after shutdown. 1t is still com
posed of oxygen, nitrogen, argon and
carbon dioxide in the normal proper
tons for the given locality. The open
air treatment Of tuberculosis and its
kindred allies had first to combat this
venerable jargon about the deafness
of night air, and only the remarkable
results of this hygienic aid to its cure
brought the superstitions to realiza-
ton of the Stiffness OF their ingrained
noctophobia.
Story from the Trenches.
This generation has witnessed the
emancipation OF human beings in re-
spect to the value of fresh air. wheth-
er in bulk or in smaller drafts"
From being people immersed in
Theoretically sealed rooms at night,
breathing our own bodily exhalation
over and over again, a constantly in
creasing number OF persons are sleep
ing fn the open, or at least with open
windows, summer and winter, to their
great benefit. In the morning they
are refreshed with the pure oxygen
OF the air breathed during sleep, not
"stewedr nor "seedy" after eight hours
spent in respiring and re-respiring
second hand and shop worn air in a
closed bedroom.
{ A story from the trenches in France
is that soldier wrote home to his
wife to open her windows at night
as he had found that the night air
"didn't hurt bit" That is the ex-
perience Of all the advocates Of this
sensible custom-once tried the old
custom Of sealing ones self in an a. \
tight bedroom is never renewed. Dis
eases which involve the lungs can u.s.
'ually be traced to their beginning in
poorly ventilated sleeping apartments,
inside rooms that do not have share
OF the atmosphere. Nothing can live
we'll or long without oxygen in the
air, and 1t was given to us for breath-
ing, night and day, not to be taken in
sparingly, as II 1t were dangerous
potion. Some people are actually
afraid of common, ordinary air.
Those emancipated persons who
open their windows at night will tell
you, unanimously, that they cannot
breathe in chamber unless the win
dow is raised, their sense OF comfort
and yigod demands the life giving
qualities of fresh air. No greater
prophylactic advice can be promulgat-
ed than to breathe all the fresh at
mospheric air you can get, night and
day.