OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2693, 12 February 1916, Page 10

OUR BABIES

[BY HTGEU.I Published- under the auspices of the Boyal New Zealand Health Bocicty for the Health of Women and. Ohildren. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." FOUL AIR (Continued). We now go oil with, the consideration of the question raised, in "Header's" letter last week vfhether foul, breathed air is poisonous or not. Our correspondent reminds me that, in a former article. X referred to the inhaling of breathed air as being comparable to consuming filth. The praetico is in every seuse offensive, objeotionable, and injurious, and should be 60, regarded by everyone. Whicli of us noes not have a feeling of nausea and disgust on ci'toring a orovrded raiJway carriage, with all its windows closed? It is a pity that ive do nut ail take warning from this natural repugnance. Further, it is strange that tjw ujii'iiveresA -teKiJtoqjr to woariness, headache, and _ depression, which experience shows us is almost inseparable, from staying long in suclx an atmosphere," doea not 6eriously impress tho generality of people with the harmfulness of the practice. , Investigating the well-recognised effects of foul air, about 10 years ago Carnelly and Haldano came to the conclusion that tho pre-existing opinion (as to carbouic acid gas being the most injurious factor) wa3 not correct. They instituted a series of experiments, which were held to prove that the breath contains much mora active poisons than carbonic acid gas, and they came to the conclusion that these more subtle orglanic poisons were the main causes of the injury to health, Of late years investigations have served to show that an equally important, if not more important, cause of tho devitalising properties of stuffy, indoor air is' the accumulation of moisture and the production of a warm, unstimulating environment. One great function of Vontilation' is to provent this. STREAKY AIR. Professor Leonard Hill contends that tho most important condition to establish, for health in our homes, is what he calls "a streaky atmosphere"—in other words, an atmosphere in which there is a moderate ilow of cool air through our rooms all the time—a moderate:, current short of producing t.he feeling of actual draught. He illustrates this by showing how healthy and refreshing a. room ia with an open fireplace, and the cool, gently-flowing ail' being at our backs and the warmth in front; and he contrasts this with the depressing, suffocative, even warmth of a room with closed doors and windows, heated by means of a stove or hot pipes, or a similar room crowded with warm, perspiring human beings. After all, it does not matter much whether the injuriousness of foul, usedup air is due mainly to poison or to the faet that it fails to stimulate our nerves properly—the main, point is that we all know such air is foul, offensive, and injurious. Tho doctors are pinning theii faitli more and more, year by year, ti thei fresh-air treatment, as the _ mosl • potent remedy they have for most disease: and their sheet-anchor for consumption. That the society has been fully alivi all along to the different views held bj various investigators (regarding the 'Tela live importance of tho factors on whicl these authorities happened to have cen tred their researches) is shown by tin following paragraph, which is emphasise! in black type at the head of page G1 o our book, "deeding and Care of Baby, under the heading: GENERAL HYGIENE. Pure Air and Sunshine. The question as to whether the injur; done by living in closed rooms is a piiysi cal or chemical effect does not concern u here. Throughout this section wo assum for the sake of simplicity that the eftec is toxic (i.e., due to poison). ■ Like many investigators, Dr. Hill reall did jump to the conclusion that ho 'Jia shown the harmful effects of breathed ai to l)e due mainly to causes other tha the presence of actual .poisons; but ou readers will notice that latest rt searches go rather ill the direction c swinging opinion back towards the 01 iginal position, showing as they do tha our breath has subtle noxious propel ties -which, cause its reinitiation to tak away the appetite. To quote again tl: words of Messrs. .Winslow and Palme: they find "the air of an unventilated o; .cupied room contains substances which i some way, without producing conscioi discomfort, diminish the appetite f< food." : It is a universal rule-that depressir substances which take away tho appeti' also weaken tho heart's action, slow dow the pulse, onfeeble the breathing, ar impair the digestion—and we rightly di such substances noxious or ' poisonou whether, they uto oipablo of killing ou right or not. However,, one does .not need to reso to tho lates.t findings. of scientists for : lustrations of the practical fact that t] inhaling of broathed air is depressing ai injurious—indeed, 'people knew that loi before we lvere born, without Tesortii to any experiments! •

Sir Henry Little]ohn's Story. ' In this connection I may cite a 6tory which Sir ' Henry Littlejohn (late Chief Health Officer for Edinburgh and Professor of Public Health, at Edinburgh University) used to tell ■ his students. .Sir Henry said that a man wagered to double a publican's takings at a banquet, aud his whole secret was merely to ventilate the room freely in which, the dinner was to take place—the effect being to keep up the vitality of the revellers, and so prevent, or at least delay, their becoming utterly intoxicated and incapable of further drinking. This story probably harks back to the days of Christopher North, when falling under the table was the recognised termination of convivial meetings. This story, though primarily the reverse of moral, was used by Sir jienry l to point a very important moral!