The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-03
Home Nursing
Health and Ventilation

"Our new teacher fusses all the time abbut ventilation and fresh air; she makes me sick!"4 ~.4.
 The announcement was a little Startling in that it came from slen- ssder girl of eleven summers. Her aunt looked at her in alarm.
 .Alx. dear," she said, "Miss Ames is n0s0wghly nice young woman and very clever. Everyone thinks so much of her. Her recommendations were re- markedly good. I had hoped that you would like her."
 Then the aunt with whom Selina |. Arnold had come to make her home because of her mothers death, fum- bled with the tea cups as she said \ gently, Dear, do drink milk instead Aof tea. You are only little girl yet. Think of the years and years ahead in (which you will be able to drink tea if 6ou wish."
 Selina took a glass of milk reluc-
 antly.
 T don't see why people fuss so
 nuch over fresh air." she said. "Of
 ourse We all know it's good for us
 put Miss Ames is so silly about it. The makes us take deep breathing
 n& about sitting straight and keep ing our shoulders back and our heads up. Sometimes you hardly know whether you are. in a schoolroom or out in the street, it's so chilly" You must take sweater to school to wear when the room is chil;y, said al hlxy of quantities of fresh air. And PEIeep breathing and correct posture are almost as essential to health as food" N Selina sighed impatiently. She was aAnost 12 and she thought most grown uIR people rather tiresome.
 X "I don't see why" she began And I then her Aunt Mary, who had been sitting silently through the conversa- ton, spoke slowly. Selina listened re- ' en6H&@tly because she was rather in awe of her Aunt Mary, who was a lawyer and modern woman
 Fresh air." said Aunt Mary, "is one of the most important treatments of disease. Thank goodness, fresh air Is one thing that people have never been forced to pay tax on and that is free to everyone in the world. Fresh air has often helped to cure sick people when medicine and other comforts were not procurable.
 T am thinking of the soldiers in the Crimean war, for instance, and in the Civil war-men who were cared for in tents, under the open sky, some- times. Man-made remedies were hard t0>get and fresh air and sunlight helped to heal their wounds and make them well again. There is strength in fresh air. It furnishes food for our lungs, in that through the lungs oxygen is brought into the blood stream to purify it and make life possible
 Little Selina gasped Il didn't under stand why grown-up people were all ' ways scolding and fussing about keep ing the windows open" she admitted.
 "There should always be moving air Min room," explained Aunt Mary. We AreAeke out impurities into the room. #M the windows are closed, the air sbecomes stale and poisonous and we cheat ourselves of the pure air that feeds our blood and keeps Us strong.
 Nature takes care of the air and keeps it clean-washes with rain, fans it with breezes, purifies it with snow and varying temperatures. There would / be great deal less illness in the world if people only realized how i'm portant fresh air and sunlight are to hculth." concluded Aunt Mary. while little Sclina listened meekly-and un- derStood why open windows are the Way to health.