OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2699, 19 February 1916, Page 12

OUR BABIES

[BY Hygcia.i Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Health Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." A PLEA FOE VENTILATION. The Hnrmfulness of Breathed Air. Recently I luive been discussing the harm fulness of the breathed or otherwise polluted air of badly-ventilated rooms dwelling specially on the questions as iu how far such air is actually poisonous and how far its devitalising tendencies should be regarded as due to our breath being charged with moisture and deprived of the natural stimulating properties of pure, cool, fresh air. The centring of attention on ono aspect of a case is very liable to prevent that breadth of view which is essential to dealing in a simple, comraon-seiiso '-way with the fundamental problems o£ lifethus" there is a tendency to forget that! besides the chemical and physical ehangp-i in _breathed, air, it may be charged witfi living particles (in other words, microbes) capable of causing disease aud death. Comparative freedom "from noxious bael is a very strong point in favour of a bright, sunny, airy room, as compared with a dark,'close, and stuffy one—light find fresh air being the greatest foes to germ life. Pure air and sunlight are the constant allies of human health and strength, just as the reverse conditions always tend to beget debility and disease, however insensibk we may remain CD the harm'that is'being done. IS SEWER-GAS DANGEKOUS? I shall now consider the concluding remark in tho correspondent's letter with which I have been dealing, The passage is as follows: — I 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?" In this case it."is safe to say that Truth is rather with the old authorities, who denounced sewer-gas as poisonour, than witir those whom it may please to make the startling and paradoxical announcement that this unnatural atmosphere is harmless, in spite of the fact that it is l always more or less repugnant to our senses. The world takes peculiar delight nowadays in any statement made in a striking and arresting way, to the effect that the truth lies m tho reverse direction to existing beliefs.' Fronde's whitewashing of Henry VIII owed its welcome to the same spirit that reads with amused air and tho apparent discomfituro of its interest the attempt to vindicate sewerdetractors !

At this stage my readers will bo inclined to exclaim, "Then you don't agreo with tho assertion that sewer-air is comparatively harmless." Of course, I don't. Sewcr-air in general, it it gets into our. houses, is associated directly or indirectly with very dangerous and deadly possibilities; half the efforts of our expensive plumbing and other sanitary provisions ore quite rightly directed against keep, ing this subtle and insidious enemy out of our homes.

Where, then, is the Truth? Aro the scientists and the magazines simply playing with us when they make the sensational announcement, "Sewerrair not Poisonous." Not at all. The scientist merely announces tvhat ho has found to be true in regard to a limited field in which lie is conducting his investigation-.*; and the Press, taking such statements out of thoir context, are apt to make them appear startling, revolutionary, and universal in their application.

Up to about 20 years ago it was supposed that tho air in sewers was necessarily swarming with the germs of disease, but later investigation has shown that this is not the case. The dampness of the linings and walls of sewers tends to prevent the escape of microbes into tho atmosphere, and therefore sewer-air may actually contain fewer germs than n fluid be present in tho air of au ordinary room. However, this does not mean that it is safe for a city to liavo faulty sewers, or to allow bad drainage or scamped plumbing in houses. All experience goes to shew that oolds, bronchitis, pneumonia, consumption, scarlatina, typhus, diphtheria, erysipelas, cerebo-spinal meningitis, and other deadly pests tend to beoomc prevalent when we neglect proper sanitary precautions, and disappear in proportion to the extent to which wo get lid of overcrowding and filth, and admit pure air and sunlight.

AN AMERICAN OPINION. Having made this position clear, I think it will bo safo ( for me to quota tho following iioin a book written 15 years ago by Professor Sedgwick, of Boston, who has been regarded as tho highest sanitary authority in America. What Professor Sedgwick says will ,at least safety my readers that the startling paragraphs appearing to-day regarding air and microbes really deal with very old knowledge. The following is taken from a chapter on "Some Popular ISeliefs as to Certain Special and Peculiar Causes of Disease:— THE BELIEF IN DANGERS FROM SEWER GAS. There is reason to "believe that the dangers of sewer-gas have been very much exaggerated. There is no doubt, of couiise that sewage is a decomposing liquid, and that it may, and often does, contain the germs of specilie diseases. But, on the other hand, tho facts that workmen frequently spend, much of their time in sewers with impunity, or work upon or about sewage in sewerage-purification •works or on sewage farms, seim to show that experience does not confirm the idea that tho gases emanating from • sewage aro always or necessarily dangerous. . . .

If,' now, we turn to stagnant sewage, sutsh ad might result from broken drains, or such as commonly exists in cesspools, we may reasonaly expect to iind more dangerous and more concentrated gases. Wo may even suppose that ' these are poisonous, and that, finding their way into human habitations, they are. .-apable of producing sickness; There is no wason to doubt that some cases of sickness have, in fact, thus arisen, and to this extent the belief in sewer-gas as a cause of disease is probably sound. 'In sucE cases, however, the sickness may bo expected to take either the form of sudden, sharp attacks suggestive' of poisoning; or else tho form of malaise and a general lowering of the vital resistance, lassitude, weakness, etc., . • ' .. ,

While tlus freely granting vie possible efficiency of s3wer-gas -is a general poison and depressant, wo are very far from allowing the remaining and more popular form of tho belief in sewer-gas—namely, that it is capable of directly producing specific diseases, sncli as typhoid fever and diphtheria which absolutely require for •their genesis the introduction into the body of their own peculiar germs.