OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2687, 5 February 1916, Page 10

OUR BABIES

TBy Hygeia,]

COMMENT BY "HYGEIA."

Published under tho auspices oj tho Itoy.al New Zealand Health Society for the lloalth of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fencc at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." IS FOUL AIR POISONOUS? Letter to "Hygeia." "I read your notas regularly with interest and profit. Some few months ago you liToto strongly oil tho danger and harm from breathing foul air in a crowded, unveutilated room or hall, and said that that was as injurious as for a person to eat his own excrement. fMemo. by "Hygeia."— I Tho expression really used was:— While tho mere idea of allowing food to become vilo and poisonous by mixture with filth would bo repugnant and disgusting to anyone, yet people scarcely shrink from filthy air, though thoro is no essential difference between the used up, cast-off materials excreted from the lungs and those got rid of from other excretory organs.] "'•Tlie enclosed paragraph appeared in tho Otago Daily Times' on November 16. and does not seem, in the first portion at least, to bo in line with what you said. Is that -so, or is there some explanation, or is it a case of "Autohrities* differing? "J. read recently in a health publication that it is now "known' that 'sewer gas' is not poisonous. One is inclined to say, '.Where is Truth?'—l am, etc., "BEADEE."

NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH ABOVE REFERRED TO. It is well known that the researches of such, specialists as Dr. Leonard Hill and tho staff of the "New York State Commission on ventilation have discredited the old idea that the air of occupied and ill-ventilated rooms becomes "poisonous'' through containing the products of respiration, or through any other change in the chemical' constitution of its epntents. Such ill-effects ns may bo produced by such an atmosphere are ascribed to temperature and humidity only. However, a recent paper by Messrs C. E A. Winslow and G. T. Palmer brings to light a hitherto unsusriected effect of vitiated air, evidently due"to its chemical rather than its physical qualities. In a series of experiments several persons were kept in a room in which the supply of fresh air, as well aa the temperature'and humidity, were under control. Tho effects of ample ventilation and no ventilation, "with constant temperature flnd humidity, were compared. After the subjects had been in the room from two to three hours, a luncheon made up of weighed portions of known calorific value was served, and the amount of food loft uneaten, was weighed to determine the difference in tho amount consumed. The experiments showed that the air of an unveutilated occupied room contains substances which in some way, and without producing conscious discomfort or detectable physiological symptoms, diminish tho appetite to:- food. , .

A seMiblo, well-reasoned criticism, such as our correspondent submits, is always welcome: evoryono benefits by the frank discussion of points such as he raises. The question why living in close, unventilated rooms is so injurious has been a battleground of scientists for the last 40 years; but no one questions the fact that pure, cool, moving air is healthful and invigorating, while living in "stuffy/' breath-laden air is unhealthy .and debili-, tating. ' The only doubt is precisely why this should be. so. ■ Docs the harm of breathed air arise from our breath being actually poisonous, or does it arise mainly from tho breathed air being "used up" and made "flat" and unstimulating, through saturation with 'warm moisturo and through robbed of part of its life-giving properties? Both sets of causes contribute towards the beneficial effects of ventilation and the injurious effects of stagnation; but, before going further into the matter, I want to make perfectly clear to my readers that thero is not tho slightest reason for any doubt as to tho need for open air and ventilation if we are to make tho rising generation as strong and healthy as we would wish them to be —if we are to prevent there being -10 per cent. of . rejects in the future should tho need to raise men to defend our country arise again.

, WHAT . THE BEES-TEACH. Most insects lead a free life in the open air; but, the bees form highly complex and civilised communities comparable with our own. They dwell largely indoors, and amongthe many wonders of a hive no-

ting is mora wonderful than the "punkah men" stationed near tho entrance. These workers are kept busy all tho time fanning currents of fresh air through the corridors of tho hive with their wings, and causing, currents of foul air to stream out in the opposito direction. i There has been no Leonard Hill to tell these insects why they must establish constant and efficient ventilation of their dwelling-places, and they don't need to be told—they know how to do it. They "deliver the goods," and render the home safe to live in. These insects, working as it were, under the direct mandate of

tho Creator, guided by instinct not by acquired and reasoned knowledge, have better-designed homes and moro healthy habits than 90 per cent, of human beings, though we pride ourselves so much on our superior wisdom. While we are wondering what to do, and spending our energies disputing over the pros and cona of ventilation, the bees set to work in a practical way and carry it out. As .Maeterlinck says, "Bees are almost fanatically cleanly." (To be continued nest week.)