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Classic
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page 407
ventilation. The use of close stoves, and close rooms, are the causes of the
increased prevalence and fatality, in winter, of small-pox, scarlet fever, and
other contagious diseases.
Colds are often, if not generally, the result of debility, and are preceded by
disordered digestion. Such cases are prevented by a removal of the cause by diet
and pure air. Extreme cold or heat, and sudden exposure to cold by passing from
a heated room to cold outside air, is very injurious to the old or weak. All
such should avoid great extremes and sudden changes. In passing from heated
assemblies to the cold air, the mouth should be kept closed, and the breathing
done through the nostrils only, so that the cold air may be warmed before
reaching the lungs, which have just been immersed in a hot-air bath. The
injurious effect of such sudden changes is caused by driving the blood from the
surface to the internal organs, producing congestions.
Bad smells mean that decay is going on somewhere. Rotten particles are floating
in the air, and penetrating the nostrils and lungs. Their offensiveness means
that they are poison and will produce sickness and death, or so reduce the tone
of the system that ordinarily mild disorders will prove fatal. In all such cases
remove the cause when possible. Many of these poisons are given off by the body,
and are removed by pure air as dirt is washed away by water. Soiled or foul air
can not purify any more than dirty water will clean dirty clothes. Pure air
enters the lungs, becomes charged with waste particles, which are poison if
taken back again. An adult spoils one gallon of pure air every minute, or
twenty-five flour barrelfuls in a single night, in breathing alone. A lighted
gas-burner consumes eleven gallons, and an ordinary stove twenty-five gallons a
minute. Think of these facts before sealing up the fire-place, or nailing down
the windows for winter.
A DYSPEPTIC'S FIGHT FOR LIFE.
Judge W. was a depressed, despondent, discouraged, listless, moody, nervous,
wretched dyspeptic for five weary years. He tried travel, but neither the keen
air of the sea-shore nor the bracing breezes of the northern prairies brought
him relief. He tried all the panaceas and all the doctors at home and abroad in
vain. Some told him that he had heart disease, others thought it was
inflammation of the spleen, gout, Bright's disease, liver complaint, lung
difficulty, or softening of the brain. Bottle after bottle of nostrums went down
the unfortunate Judge's throat, and it was only when physicians and friends gave
him up, and pronounced him to all intents a dead man, that he threw bottles,
plasters, powders and pills to the four winds, and with the energy of despair,
set about disappointing his doctors, and getting ready to live despite their
ghastly predictions. Then began a fight for life against dyspepsia, a fight
which many have begun, but few have won. He bathed the whole body every morning
in cold water, summer and winter, not by a
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