The log cabin Democrat., 1915-04-27
THE AIR WE BREATHE
BY MRS. s. G. SMITH

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 Breathing is such natural process that unless something calls our at tention to it we seldom give it a thought. So when we find ourselves languid and tired, with an oft recur-
 ring headache and loss of appetite we proceed to tell our complaints to some patient friend, who is almost sure to have had some distant rela- tive who was cured of those same troubles by Doctor Somebody's Patent Blood Purifier, so he recommends it to us and we try it. About the time we have finished the second bottle spring begins to apear and we get out of doors more and begin to feel much better; and the improvement is, of course, attributed to the medicine when the chances are about nine to one that what we needed was clean, pure air for our lungs and we are very fortunate if we possess a stom- ach that will take care of the patent medicine without protest. Our poor stomachs get dosed for most of our sins against the body.
 Most of us know men and women who have lived to ripe old age with out ever raising their windows and recall such persons every time We are called on to listen to a fresh air lec- ture. But before dismissing the mat ter from your mind, think of the kind of work those people did. Was it high grade, efficient work? Was it done in doors or out? And were those houses air-proof when all doors and windows were closed? Or possibly the living and bed room was heated by a big open fireplace-one of the finest ventilating devices yet discovered. But I admit that there are extremists on the other side. Plenty of fresh air does not mean freezing to death nor even lying awake all night be- cause you are too cold to sleep. Even the fresh air you breathe under such conditions cannot prevent harmful re- sults While sleeping porch when judiciously used is the nearest per feet sleeping place for most people, being free from drafts and more con- venient in many respects, still any room with plenty of air passing through it continually, is possibly just as healthful If one must use the living room for bedroom (which should be avoided when possible) every door and window of that room should be opened for fifteen or twen- ty minutes before retiring, even if some of them are closed during the night. And at intervals during the day any room continually occupied, if heated in any other way than by the fast disappearing open fireplace, should be thrown open for a few min utes' airing.
 Men who work in offices and school teachers especially should adopt this practice, as well as owners of family sitting rooms. Or if by chance you should be compelled to work in an office in the ventilation of which you can have no control, be sure to walk to and from that office, taking deep breathing exercises during the entire walk and spending the rest of the "A hours in the very best air possible. The less used rooms, too, instead of being cleaned and closed as tight as possible should have at least an inch or two of one or more windows left open so the air can circulate through them. Everybody knows the musty, dead smell of the best parlor.
 No hard and fast rule can be given for the ventilation of all houses, but a safe plan is to train your nose to take note of the odor of your living or working room when you enter from the outside, and if not good find out why.
 It seems to be the general opinion that only tubercular people stand in real need of fresh air. Such is not the case. It is considered by eminent authority to be impossible for any we'll nourished body with plenty of fresh air to ever contract the dread disease, and fresh air is the first re- quisite in its cure, but that is only because through it the general health is built up and grows strong enough to fight and throw off tuberculosis and all other diseases. So pursue fresh air as if your life depended up- on it, for it does.