J

house, not one of them came down from the top. Impure air is, no doubt, a worse thing for the poor than the rich; for the ignorant, perhaps, than for the learned: but it is a bad thing for all. It is no comfort, when you are half-suffocated in Burlington House, at a soirée of the Royal Society, to know that the most learned and scientific men in Europe are suffering at the same time with yourself. What every sanitary reformer must feel of the utmost importance is, that sensible people, who talk about fresh air for the poor, should set a good example, and value it for themselves.

as it ordinarily exists in the atmosphere. Ozone is soon lost in the great ocean of air into which it is thrown, by its own activity. It is found on mountain heights, it is found by the sea-shore, and on the sea; but it is consumed by cities, by cultivated land, by forests, and by all agen cies which call its vigorous action into existence. But wherever it is found, it acts favorably on the human body. The instincts of the denizens of cities and valleys have drawn them to mountain heights and sea-shores; and the annual migrations of families to our hills and sea-sides have excited the ridicule or the reflection of Let us, then, go over the foundations of those who have never attempted to solve our belief in fresh air, so as to be able to its real cause. The air of mountains and understand thoroughly the dangers aris- sea-sides is doubly fresh air: it is not only ing out of its impurity. The pure air of pure, but ozonized, which accounts for its the atmosphere contains four constituents, curative and exhilarating action on the two of which are constant and two are human body. It is interesting to know variable. The two constant constituents that this universal instinct of benefit to are oxygen and nitrogen gases. They are be derived from residence in these posiin the proportion of twenty-one of the tions has been confirmed by elaborate former to seventy-nine of the latter. The physiological experiments on the human nitrogen is passive, remaining in an un- body. It is now known as a fact, that changed condition in the air; but the those actions of the body which are es oxgen is ever being consumed and renew-sential to healthy life are carried on more ed. By its union with carbon, and other elements of the animal body, it maintains life. Just as it unites with the coals of the fire or the carbon of the gas and gives out heat, so it unites with the carbon of animal bodies and heats them, and they live. The result of their life is carbonic acid, which would poison the animal and the air in which it lives, were it not for the agency of the vegetable kingdom. That which is death to animals is life to plants. The carbonic acid enters the plant as a compound of carbon and oxygen; but each cell of the plant is a chemical laboratory, where invisible forces are busily at work, separating and depositing the carbon as future store of food for man and beast, and the oxygen is set free. The oxygen is thus restored to its home in the air once more, again to be conquered by carbon, and once more to be set free from its prison in the plant-cell, when touched by a ray of light from the sun. But not as it enters the lungs of man or animal does oxygen come forth from the plant. It has acquired new powers, and, like a giant refreshed, is more capable of action than before its repose. It has now become ozone. It is still oxygen, but oxygen capable of oxidizing more powerfully, of acting more vigorously than it does

vigorously in an atmosphere containing ozone. The great practical lesson taught by this knowledge is, the importance of securing as often as possible change from an unozonized to an ozonized atmosphere; and it is especially important to those whose opportunities are limited, that when they are at the sea-side, they should exclude, no more than is absolutely neces sary, the action of this beneficial agent on their system.*

Let us now consider the variable constituents of our pure atmosphere. These are carbonic acid gas and the vapor of water. We have seen that carbonic acid is constantly being thrown into the atmosphere by the breathing of animals. There are several other natural sources of this agent. All the putrefaction and fermentation of animal and vegetable substances is attended with the evolution of this gas. There is another natural source, and that is volcanic action, which is constantly supplying this gas. Of the

In some experiments made at Brighton in 1862, I found in a room with the window open, that while ozone test-paper was readily colored at the of the room, showing that the impurities of the atopen window, it was not changed at all at the back mosphere of a room with an open window were suf ficient to destroy all the ozone that entered it.

458

FRESH AIR-ITS IMPORTANCE.

captain of a sailing packet between Ire-
land and Liverpool, whilst in a storm,
shut down his passengers in the hold of
a vessel, and when opened again, a large
nnmber were found dead. The inhala-
tion of less quantities of carbonic acid pro-
duces a depression of the vital powers of
the system, which lead to those diseases
known as scrofula and consumption. In
the annals of French hygiene the case is
recorded of a village in the Pyrenees re-
markable as exemplifying the influence of
impure air on health. The village was
one built in a small valley or depression
of the hill, so that there was no ventila-
tion or entrance from the backs of the
houses at all, and the doors all opened
into a court formed by the houses.
Though situated on the mountains and in-
habited by shepherds and their families,
this village was remarkable for the prev-
alence of scrofula and consumption, and
its great mortality. Providentially, a fire
consumed one side of the village, and ad-
vantage was taken of this occurrence to
build the houses above, on the side of the
hill. No sooner was this done than the
health of the inhabitants began to im-
prove. The change was so great that the
authorities determined on pulling down
the other side of the old village, and re-
building it on the top of the hill. The
consequence has been that there is now
no healthier village in the district where
it is situate.

.

The case is the same in all our towns and cities where the population is thickest, and human beings are crowded together, there disease and death prevail most. I might illustrate this assertion by the returns of the registrar-general, and the reports of the medical officers of health for London and the provinces. In the parish of St. James, Westminster, there are three districts, in one of which there are one hundred and thirty persons living on an acre, in the second there are two hundred and sixty on an acre, and in the third four hundred and thirty persons on the same space. In the first district there are eleven deaths only in the thousand every year; in the second there are twenty-two deaths; in the third there are twenty-five. The death in the whole district from consumption is one in every three hundred and forty-four of the population. The death in the whole of London is one for every three hundred and seventy-one of the population; but to

show how fearfully the overcrowding of
the third district tells on the life of the
community, the death from consumption
in the third district is one in every two
hundred and eighty of the inhabitants.

Another form in which the direct effects
of carbonic acid on life are most fearfully
seen is the suffocation of children in bed.
Between two and three hundred children
are annually found dead in their beds in
London. This suffocation occurs in vari-
ous ways, but in all instances it illustrates
how terrible a poison the breath of a suck-
ing babe is, from the carbonic acid it
contains. The maternal instinct of the
mother leads her to care for her child;
but, alas! in her ignorance she too often
destroys its life. Frequently the child is
found dead on her breast; for while pro-
viding for its nourishment she falls asleep,
and the fresh air being excluded from the
nostrils of the child, it dies from the car-
bonic acid circulating in its frame. More
frequently the child is covered over with
bed-clothes to keep it warm, thus prevent-
ing the natural escape of the carbonic acid,
and it is poisoned as surely as the men in
the Black Hole of Calcutta. Even a hand-
kerchief thrown over a child's face is suf-
ficient to prevent the escape of the poison-
ous air, and children are smothered by the
attention which is intended to keep off the
flies, or a draught of air.

The evils of an accumulation of carbonic acid gas are very great from the deficient ventilation of our places of public assemblage, and our dwelling-houses. Among public places, churches, chapels, theaters, and courts of law may be named as most exposed to the evils of an atmosphere corrupted by carbonic acid. Our places of worship are seldom constructed with any reference to the dangers that may arise from the atmosphere being contaminated with carbonic acid gas. Every available space is used for sittings, and at night they are lighted with gas, thus adding another source of carbonic acid to that of the breathing human congregation. Large and ample provision should be made in such places to allow of the escape of the noxious carbonic acid and the access of the pure oxygen. It is not the heat of these places which renders them so unpleasant to the large proportion of the audience, and occasionally sends a delicate female or aged person out fainting, or the more healthy to sleep; it is the accumulation of carbonic acid gas. There is, how

ever, a limit to the exposure of persons to this atmosphere in the necessary conclusion of the religious services, and persons in ordinary health recover the effects of the poisoning before they are again submitted to its influence. It appears to me to be a first duty of church-wardens, deacons, or committees to whom the comfort of these places is committed, to see that persons engaged in the service of religion should not be injured by such service or prevented altogether attending a place of worship from its notorious want of salubrity.

Our theaters are more dangerous than our places of worship. There gas-light always adds its quantum of poison, and people sit for five or six hours without any change of atmosphere. Recently great improvements have been made in many of the metropolitan theaters; but, throughout the country, theaters and other places of public amusement are terribly exposed to atmospheric contamination.

Our courts of law have been perhaps less cared for than any other public buildings. This is almost unaccountable, when it is considered that they are constantly occupied by the members of an intelligent profession, whose health and life are in a great measure dependent on the freedom from impurity of the atmosphere of these places. One would be inclined to recommend, in these cases, government interference, seeing that justice itself may not be unlikely to miscarry when a judge has to sum up or pronounce a sentence with his blood poisoned with the fumes of carbonic acid.

out provision for ventilation. An examination of the returns of the mortality of any district in which there are sedentary workers will show how fearfully they suf fer from consumption as compared with other classes of the community. There are, no doubt, other agencies at work; but eliminate these, and the great source of the deaths from consumption will be found in the presence of carbonic acid in the atmosphere.

Another class of rooms where ventilation is frequently neglected, to the prejudice of the health of the temporary occupants, are school-rooms. The benefit found to accrue from discharging children every hour for a few minutes does not act more beneficially on their minds than it does on their bodies. The few minutes out of doors gives the children an opportunity to get fresh air, and to the judicious schoolmaster an opportunity of thoroughly ventilating the room.

But perhaps our dangers are as great at home as any where. The sitting-room of the tradesman, the common room of the mechanic, the drawing-room of the wealthy, and the sleeping-rooms of all, are not ventilated. Many of them are not deficient in the means of ventilation; but as a rule, the home of the Englishman is poisoned by the gas exhaled from his own lungs. Let us take sitting - rooms first. To be sure, in very cold days in winter, when fires are in the room, and in very hot days in summer, when the wirdows are opened, the air is well changed. But there are the warm days in winter, when the fire is let out, and the cool days If we turn now to our places of busi- in summer, when the windows are kept ness, our workshops and our factories, we close, and the whole of the spring and shall find the same crowding and the same autumn months; and at these seasons the lighting and injurious effects much more Englishman's sitting-room is filled with permanent. In many of our factories child- an atmosphere injurious to his health. If ren and girls are crowded together, and lit- he has a drawing-room, the only set-off to tle or no provision is made for ventilation. this state of things is found in its size. If It is among the workers in these rooms that he has, however, a drawing-room, he will the forms of scrofula and the deadly con- probably give parties or soirées; and persumption of the lungs are known to spread haps it is on these occasions that his utter desolation. Many of our factories and ignorance of the worth or value of fresh workshops are well ventilated, but the air will be most obvious. The drawingmajority are not. No law has yet been room is generally lighted with gas, which passed that will touch them. The work is turned on to the highest point, and shops not only exist in our manufactur- then the room is crowded with visitors, ing districts, but in London and all our even on to the stairs. The atmosphere is great towns. Where sedentary trades cruelly oppressive, the guests are almost are carried on, there workmen and work- fainting; but the suggestion of an open women are collected together, almost in window-of a draught-is repudiated as every case in rooms too small and with-something offensive to the delicacy and

derived from living or dead animals and plants. The particles thus given off are exceedingly minute, and appear to be held in suspension by molecules or small particles of water. The emanations of living animals are constant. The epidermis of the skin flies off into the air, as well as particles from the lungs in the breath, so that the air where large numbers of animals exist becomes charged with such exhalations. The human body is no excep‐ tion to the law. These particles are capable of decomposition, and when taken again into the living system, may be absorbed and lead to febrile disturbance in the system. These particles are given off from diseased bodies in such a state that they generate diseases in other bodies like those from which they have come. It is in this way that zymotic diseases are propagated; and scarlet fever, small-pox, measles, hooping-cough, and typhus, are all conveyed in this way.

amenities of genteel life, and fresh air is voted by all as vulgar and a bore. I am quite aware of the danger of sitting or standing in a draught, although I believe that is much exaggerated; but rooms are to be ventilated without draughts; and if not, people need not get into them. The colds you take at parties are not the result of draughts, but the very opposite. The majority of colds arise from the want of pure air, and not from cold or cold air. But we pass from sitting and day-rooms to bed-rooms. It is here that every thing is done to keep in carbonic acid and to exclude oxygen. What with the smallness of some rooms, the destitution of fire-places, and windows that will not open, beds with posts and curtains, and blinds, the bed-room may indeed be called the Englishman's Black Hole. The insane fear of a draught, with the delusion that night air is prejudicial, undoes almost every thing in bed rooms at night which may be done by open-air exercise or Dead animal matter gives off also partihealthful occupations in the day. The cles, not equally destructive of life, but sleeping rooms of the rich are frequently which may, nevertheless, produce the most kept so close that even domestic animals virulent diseases. Typhoid fever is the would suffer, were they compelled to sleep offspring of decomposing animal matter. in them, whilst those of the poor are so The particles which produce it steal up odious that it is almost a wonder health is from our drains and cesspools, and make ever found amongst their occupiers. This their way into the studios of the scholar terrible disregard of the purity of bed- and the chambers of royalty; no class or rooms is seen every where-in the ham-condition of persons are spared the influmocks of our ships, in the cottages of our laborers, in the barracks of our soldiers, and in the houses of the middle classes and the opulent. The neglect of the ventilation of bed-rooms is as common among sensible people, who flatter themselves they know the value of fresh air, as among the helplessly poor and ignorant of our population.

As for the injury done by other gases, that is so little and so exceptional that I need hardly refer to them. Wherever sulphuretted, phosphuretted, or carburetted hydrogens appear, they are indicative of the presence of other matters in the air more injurious than themselves. I shall not therefore dwell on them, but turn to the solid particles which render the air impure, and with which these gases are often associated. These solid particles are so minute that they can only be apprehended by the microscope, and many of them, even by that instrument, are not sufficiently made out to be easily distinguished. They are derived from organic or inorganic sources. The organic are

ence of this dreadful poison.

Vegetable matter decomposing emits still more destructive poisons. The malaria of our own marshes, and its deadly representative in the Campagna of Rome, with the miasma escaping from the swamps of Africa and the jungles of Asia, are all of vegetable origin. Plants decomposing in contact with water yield this dreadful agent, which contaminates and renders deadly the purest of atmospheres.

Another set of particles which may come from animal, vegetable, or mineral sources, are those which we call dust. Dust is not only unpleasant-it is dangerous to life. The workers in coal are liable to disease in the lungs, from the particles of coal-dust accumulating in the lungs and producing an arrest of their functions. The same is the case with the knife and scythe-grinders of Sheffield, who get the dust of iron and stone into their lungs. The workers in wool, cotton, linen, horsehair, or any of the materials that are taken into the air in fine particles, are all liable to consumption, from the accumula