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Show WARM ROOMS, NOT POOR VENTILATION, INJURE. Many old notions as to health requirements re-quirements are being put aside these days. One of them is in regard to the amount of oxygen in the air required re-quired to sustain the lung action un-1 un-1 impaired and the other Is on ventlla- tion At a meeting of the chemists-club chemists-club in New York City recently, as reported by the Journal of the American Amer-ican Medical association, the statement state-ment was made that pure air contains con-tains 21 per cent of oxygen and this may be reduced to 17 per cent before its diminution becomes harmful. Except in extreme conditions the amount of oxygen In the closest halls crowded with people practically never falls below 20 per cent. Oxygen will therefore, take care of itself and may probably be wholly left out of consideration con-sideration In ventilating systems. Indeed, In-deed, Henderson has reminded Ufi th:1t it is necessary to go only a short distance up into the mountains to come under an atmospheric pres sure such as to reduce the oxygen supply much more than it is reducen in crowded assemblies, and yet mountain moun-tain air Is especially healthful. The amount of oxygen in the air apparently appar-ently has little or nothing to do with the stimulating or depressing proper J ties of the atmosphere breathed in or dinary life. The air, under the usual conditions j contains about 4 parrs of carbon i dioxid per ten thousand parts (0.04 per cent) and the "standard" of desired de-sired purity for the air of dwelling-was dwelling-was long placed as low as 0 parts; per ten thousand. (experimentation Indicates, however, thai it does not,1 uv-,-u"" ii .ii in i m i to man unm me car-j hon dioxid accumulates to above 1 per cent, or nearly forty times its usual amount. The air in crowded rooms very rarely reach, s 0 4 per cent, so that evidently a quantity oi carbon dioxid far exceeding the highest high-est hgienic limit which has hitherto been set up as a ' standard " can be breathed with impunity. The long-debated idea tha' expired air contains organic matter which Is I toxic has been abandoned by mest i physiologists The bncterla in the is- an neeu not De considered since the io- comparative unimportance of the air )n aa a vehicle of infection is recognized. The conclusion is reached that the ip discomfort in a badlv ventilated place a Is due to the physical condition of the air in respect to temperature, humid-,t- ity and movement and not to any ,e chemical properties. The symptoms' te noted in closed, crowded rooms rest-1 ie lessness, headache, dizziness, nausea. 1- etc are to be attributed to heat r. e tention Overheating is the chief evil to be guarded against in ventilation' at present The chief danger of our! torrid summer days fl not the heat' alone, but the combined heat and hu j jj midity; it is the same factors which! g are responsible for the evil effects , of the confined air of rooms. There t is no doubt, says nn authority, that' f the air of our American living-rooms 1 1 and many schoolrooms and other as jsembly chamber is kept too warm. ,jr |
