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Page 7
It is ordinarily supposed that carbonic-acid gas, being heavier, sinks to
the bottom of the room, and that thus trundle-beds, for instance, are
especially unwholesome. This would be so, were the gas pure. As a matter
of fact, however, being warmed in the body, and thus made lighter, it
rises into the common air, so that usually more will be found at the top
than at the bottom of a room. This gas is, however, not the sole cause of
disease. From both lungs and skin, matter is constantly thrown off, and
floats in the form of germs in all impure air. To a person who by long
confinement to close rooms has become so sensitive that any sudden current
of air gives a cold, ventilation seems an impossibility and a cruelty; and
the problem becomes: How to admit pure air throughout the house, and yet
avoid currents and draughts. "Night-air" is even more dreaded than the
confined air of rooms; yet, as the only air to be had at night must come
under this head, it is safer to breathe that than to settle upon carbonic
acid as lung-food for a third, at least, of the twenty-four hours. As
fires feed on oxygen, it follows that every lamp, every gas-jet, every
furnace, are so many appetites satisfying themselves upon our store of
food, and that, if they are burning about us, a double amount of oxygen
must be furnished.
The only mode of ventilation that will work always and without fail is
that of a warm-air flue, the upward heated air-current of which draws off
the foul gases from the room: this, supplemented by an opening on the
opposite side of the room for the admission of pure air, will accomplish
the desired end. An open fire-place will secure this, provided the flue is
kept warm by heat from the kitchen fire, or some other during seasons when
the fire-place is not used. But perhaps the simplest way is to have ample
openings (from eight to twelve inches square) at the top and bottom of
each room, opening into the chimney-flue: then, even if a stove is used,
the flue can be kept heated by the extension of the stove-pipe some
distance up within the chimney, and the ascending current of hot air will
draw the foul air from the room into the flue. This, as before stated,
must be completed by a fresh-air opening into the room on another side: if
no other can be had, the top of the window may be lowered a little. The
stove-pipe _extension_ within the chimney would better be of cast-iron, as
more durable than the sheet-iron. When no fire is used in the
sleeping-rooms, the chimney-flue must be heated by pipes from the kitchen
or other fires; and, with the provision for _fresh_ air never forgotten,
this simple device will invariably secure pure and well-oxygenated air for
breathing. "Fussy and expensive," may be the comment; but the expense is
less than the average yearly doctor's bill, and the fussiness nothing that
your own hands must engage in. Only let heads take it in, and see to it
that no neglect is allowed. In a southern climate doors and windows are of
necessity open more constantly; but at night they are closed from the fear
referred to, that night-air holds some subtle poison. It is merely colder,
and perhaps moister, than day-air; and an extra bed-covering neutralizes
this danger. Once accustomed to sleeping with open windows, you will find
that taking cold is impossible.
If custom, or great delicacy of organization, makes unusual sensitiveness
to cold, have a board the precise width of the window, and five or six
inches high. Then raise the lower sash, putting this under it; and an
upward current of air will be created, which will in great part purify the
room.
Beyond every thing, watch that no causes producing foul air are allowed to
exist for a moment. A vase of neglected flowers will poison the air of a
whole room. In the area or cellar, a decaying head of cabbage, a basket of
refuse vegetables, a forgotten barrel of pork or beef brine, a neglected
garbage pail or box, are all premiums upon disease. Let air and sunlight
search every corner of the house. Insist upon as nearly spotless
_cleanliness_ as may be, and the second prime necessity of the home is
secure.
When, as it is written, man was formed from the dust of the earth, the
Lord God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
_living soul_."
Shut off that breath of life, or poison it as it is daily poisoned, and
not only body, but soul, dies. The child, fresh from its long day out of
doors, goes to bed quiet, content, and happy. It wakes up a little demon,
bristling with crossness, and determined not to "be good." The breath of
life carefully shut out, death has begun its work, and you are
responsible. And the same criminal blunder causes not only the child's
suffering, but also the weakness which makes many a delicate woman
complain that it "takes till noon to get her strength up."
Open the windows. Take the portion to which you were born, and life will
grow easier.
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