| Show consumption ann AND AIR IN an interesting article ion ton consumption in the january number of the atlantic monthly a writer takes the ground that soil moisture is a chief cause of consumption in massachusetts 1 and probably is one of the real laws 0 of f the increase of consumption everywhere 72 A asir mr lewis VV leeds en eni glueser of ventilation new york disputes these statements in a communication in the new york evening post he wishes to enter a most emphatic protest against the conclusion that moisture only is the great scourge of the consumptive sump tive he asser asserts tsi that the want of moisture is a much aluch more prolific cause of consumption than its excess the fearful dryness of many of the abominable furnace heated houses now so common throughout new england he be thinks is probably the cause of much of the excessive lung diseases found there lehe agrees with the writer in the atlantic monthly that places particularly homesteads ard are very liable to be the very nest of consumption and fevers and general ill III health he denies that it is the moisture of sueh such situations that causes disease the thel want of drainage and consequent accumulation of filth and the foul air arising are in his bis opinion the causes that work injury to health he cites the cases of fishermen and sailors who must most of the time breathe moist air also the casa case of people who live on the sea shore to prove that it is not moisture that is hurtful as these people are not especially liable to consumption but it is quite possible even on the sea shore he thinks by accurate fitting double bashes and plenty of shutters and curtains and ana with abominable hot air furnaces without moisture to produce an artificial climate in which most diseases dio eases and even consumption would thrive luxuriantly SUCK such buch an artificial atmos atmosphere here as he describes would if breasted breatt breathed ed for any length of time produce disease and death in any climate moist or dry our experience in these mountains sustains the idea that other things being equal a dry climate Is more favorable to persons consumptively inclined than a moist one we ve are convinced that many persons have added years to their y i 7 lives ilves by eming coming to this dry clim elim climate ate but the chief requisite in consumption is pure air and plenty of it it is excellent also in other diseases than consumption not long since we had occasion to visit a family the head of which we were told was troubled with uyer disease and kindred ailments and when we looked around and saw the size of the living ieng and sleeping room of himself and family we did not wonder that seized upon him hi m the only cause of surprise was that thab the whole family were not victims to disease the air of such a room as we saw must be absolutely poisonous and no man however stron strong lit lir or healthy he might be could breathe it for any length of time without becoming diseased yet the stig suggestion that they ought in such a confined space to td throw open their windows and let in aa as much air as possible from the outside would be received with a shudder they would view such buch a tiro liro proposition position aa as most unreasonable and as one due which if carried out could only result in sickness and perhaps death through colds the ignorance which prevails upon t this his subject is most appalling there are ate many people who are very intelligent upon very many subjects who biem slem sem to have no idea ides of the necessity or importance of the fh orough thorough ventilation of living and sleeping rooms to secure good health they erler erier tain talu A a horror good 0 o of the presence of air from the outside in their rooms it is carefully excluded exclude e from them and if a breeze happens t c strike their persona through an opened doar door oc or window they arens areas aa sensitive tc its breath as so 50 many hot hob house P plants fouts though this comm community unit Y Is is I 1 probably more observant of the jails f aws of health in this respect than any other who ive iye jiyo lve in houses still i we know there is entirely too great a disregard of this law in many quarters there is a great field for laborers to preach this portion of the gospel gospels and toi impress upon the people the grea great t that for a grown p person erson tg benj oy good health he or she must be e aup pup supplied plied piled with pure air at the rate of one gallon minute and if this supply is not Eer kepi kept eaf up dpn a slow process of strangulation gaea on which if persisted in will pro due duc e a n of the system |
