VENTILATION.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 61, 16 February 1877, Page 3

VENTILATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE AKAROA MAIL

Sir, —In all places of public resort where numbers are in the habit of congregating together, as in churches, schools, theatres, &c, a supply of fresh air is essential both to the comfort and health of those assembled therein. Its absence tends to drowsiness in church, where there is not so much variety or excitement to keep alive the attention of the audience as in a theatre, but which is often attributed (but in error) to a want of energy on the part of the In schools the result is often more serious, inasmuch as the pupils are exposed to the same morbid influence from day to day for a long continuance; langour and drowsiness are the first effects, but no notice is taken of this, unless it be to supply an artificial stimulant with the cane, until the child's health fails, and his removal from school becomes a necessity. Some resume their health and spirits as soon as removed from the noxious atmosphere of the schoolroom, but some, who from hereditary disposition, have suffered more deeply, require the aid of a medical man, who pronounces it a case of tubercular consumption, which requires the utmost care and skill to remove, and in many cases proves fatal. The Omniscient has so tempered the atmosphere chemically, that any alteration of its component parts, becomes dangerous to life. I am led to these remarks in the hope that in the enlargement of St. Peter's Church, attention will be paid to this all important subject, and that means of supplying air will be so devised as to put it out of the power of any member of the congregation shutting off the supply, as was the case last Sunday, much to the annoyance of the rest of the congregation. I am &c, LUNGS.