The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-02-05
BREATHE FRESH AIR.
Fear of might Air" Is Carefully
Nursed Unsanitary Request.

Fear OF might Air" Is Carefully
Nursed Unsanitary Request.
Breathe ain the fresh air you can get
night and day. That's what fresh air
IS for. The feanome legend about the
balcful influences Of might air" is only
another of the carefully nursed insani'
tary requests from our ancestors, ae'
cording TO Senior Surgeon Banks, OF the
United States public health service
Whence this superstition arose may
only be surmised. Perhaps it is sur
viyal OF the prmeval cult OF sun wor-
ship, which led the ancient 70 classify
anything outside the sphere OF solar IN
fuenee. Our forbears were wont TO eau
ton their offspring to "be careful about
the night air" OF children we'e ordered
TO come in out of the night air, III
is perhaps fortunate for the children
living in the Arctic circle, where the
nights are six months long, that the
EsquimauX mothers do not entertain
this crude notion about night air, else
their progeny would spend half the year
indoors.
This idea is generally prevalent ana
even one of our well-known flowers IS
loaded down with the horrible name OF
Deadly Nightshade" as a sort OF verbal
rene OF this old notion. The loW-lylng
mist or log that sometimes gathers
about the surface Of the earth under
certain atmospheric conditions, after
sunset, was held, is held to be "mias-
matte" and pregnant with lethal posi-
bilities. This is worthy of all the re-
spect that should be put to any hoary
superstition, but its place is in the
specimen jars of an archaeological mu-
scum, not in the show room OF modern
intelligent life.
The night air, minus the sun, is no
different from the atmosphere OF sun
less day. The atmospheric envelope OF
the earth does not change from benign
to malign in the twinkling Of an eye aft
er shutdown. 1t IL still composed OF OK
ygen. nitrogen, argon and carbon dio&'
ide in the normal proportions or the Civ
en- locality. The open air treatment OF
tuberculosis and its kindred allies had
first to combat this venerable Jargon
about the deadliness of night air, and
only the remarkable results of this hy-
gienic aid to its cure brought the SUI
perstititious to realization of the silli-
ness OF their ingrained noctophoba.
This generation has witnessed the
emancipation OF human beings in respect
to the value Of fresh air, whether in bulk
or in smaller drafts" From being a
l. sd ~, harfftat zoo llV led
rooms at night, breathing our own bodi-
ly exhalations over and over again,
constantly increasing number OF persons
are sleeping in 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
"stewed" nor "seedy" after eight hours
spent in respiring and re-respiring sec
.ond-h hand and shop-worn air in a closed
room.
A story from the trenches in France
il that a soldier wrote home 10 his wife
to open the windows at night as he had
found that the night air didn't hurt
one bit" The is the experience OF all
the advocates Of this sensible custom
once tried the old custom Of sealing ones
aelf in an alright bedroom is never
renewed. Diseases which involve the
lungs can usually be traced to their be-
ginning in poorly ventilated sleeping
apartments. in side rooms that do not
have share of the atmosphere. Moth
ing can live well or long without oXy
gen in the air, and il was given TO us
for breathing, night and day, not TO be
taken in sparingly, as if it were dan
erous potion. Some people are actually
afraid Of ordinary, common air.
Those emaueipated persons who open
their windows at night vii tell,unan-
mously. that they cannot breathe in
a chamber unless the window is raised,
their sense Of comfort and vigor demands
the life giving qualities Of fresh air. No
greater prophylsctic advice can be pro-
mulgated than to breathe all the fresh
atmospheric air you can get, night and
day.