OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 90, 10 January 1920, Page 5

OUR BABIES

fß* HYCKIA.I Published under Uie auspices of tho Eoynl Now Zrviland Society lor the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiEcr to put up a fence at tho top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

HAJNKET KUKSES' SERVICES FEEE.

The i Society's Books. Tho society's boo!:, entitled "Feeding ami Care of Eaby," can be obtained from the matron, Knritane-Ilarris Hospital, the I'lunket nurses, iiiul the honorary sreretarics of the societies. I'rice, Zβ. 9d. As the' book has now been registered to go by magazine post, the postage is only |lid., including the w.ir stamp. "Feedirijj 'alid Care of Baby" can also be obtains! from the lending bookeellers thro-.ijhout tho Dominion. The society's publications, "The Story of tho Teeth" (6<U. "Breast Feeding" (6d.), and "The Components of various Milke" (3d.), can be obtained from the same sources. IS FOUL AIE .I'OISONO Jβ? Letter to "ilygeia." "I read your notes regularly with interest and profit. Some few months ago you wrote strongly on the danger and . Harm from breathing air in a. crowded, nnventilatcd room or ha!!. / '"flic enclosed paragraph appeared in the 'Otago Daily Times' on November 16, and does not seem, in tho first portion at least, to be in line with what you said. Ti that so, or is there some vxnlanation, or ifl it a case cf 'authorities' differing? "I read recently in a health publication that it is now 'known' that 'sewer gas' is not poisonous. One is inclined to ray, 'Where, is Truth '-I am, etc, "Header." Newspaper Paragraph Above Referred To. It is welt known that the' researches of such specialists as Dr. Leonard Hill and the staff oi' the New York «tatc Commission an 'Ventilation have discredited the old idea, that the air of occupied and illventilated rooms becomes 'poisonous" through containing ;ho products of respiration, or through, auy other chiiiigc in the chemical constitution of its contents. Such ill-eU'ects as may be produced by such an atmosphere are ascribed to temperature and humidity only. However, a recent paper by ttemn C E. A. Window and 0. T. Pnlmer brings to light a hitherto unsuspected effect of vitiated air. evidently due to its chemical rather than its physical qualities. In a series of oxperimente several persons werekept in a room in which the •unply of fresh air, as well as the temperature and humidity, wcro under control. The effects of ample \cntilation and no ventilation, with constant temperature and humidity, were compared. After the tmbjecls had been in tho room from two to three honr6, a luncheon made up of weighed rortbiis of known calorific value was served, and tho amount of food left uneaten was weighed to determine tho difference in the amount consumed. The experiment!! showed that the air of an unvciitilated occupied room contains substances lyhich in some way. and without producing conscious discomfort, or detectable physiological symptoms, diminish the appetite lor food. Comment, by "ilygeia." A sensible, well-reasoned criticism, such ns our correspondent submits, is always welcome; everyone benefits by tl.fc frank diEcussion of points such as ho raises. The question why living in close, unventilated rooms is so injurious has been .1 battleground of scientists for the last, 40 years; but no one flucstioiis the fact that pure, cool, moving air i° healthful- and invigorating, while living in "stuffy," breath-laden air is unhealthy and debilitating. Tho only doubt is precisely why this should be so. Does the, harm of breathed air arise from our wreath being actually poisonous, or does it arisa mainly from the breathed air being "nssd up" and made "Hat" and unstiimilaiing, through saturation with warm nioiKliirc and through being robbed of part of its life-giving properties? liolh sets of causes contribute towards the beneficial effects of ventilation and the. injurious effects ot stagnation • but. before going further into the mutter, I want to mate perfectly clear to my readers that there u not the slightest'reason i for any doubt an to the need for open air and ventilation if we are to make the ' rising generation as strong and healthy ! as we would wish them to be—if wo are '■ lo prevent there beinj, 40 Tier cent, of ' rejects in the future should the need ! to raise men to defend our country arise j What the Boos Toaoh. Host insects Icau ,i free life lrf (lie mien :ur; but the bees form* highly complex mid civilised communities coajpanble lyilh our own. They dwell largely inloorß, and among the many wonders ol i hive nothing is more wonderful ihnii he "puiikalc men" stationed near the a.trance. These workers aro kept 1-usy ill the time laiming currents of fresh nr t'lirongh th« corridors of thu'nivo with heir wings, and causing currents of foul itr to stream out in the opposite dlrcclUll. There has been no Leonard Hill to ell these inserts why they must estabiKh constant and i-ilicient ventilation ct heir dwelling-places, nr.rt they don't need (i Ik told-lhcy Know how to do it. They ■deliver the gouda." unci render the homo :afo to live in. These insects, working, is it won-, uiiclor the direct mandate ot he Crentur, guided Ijy -iiEiiiict, not by icquiml and reasoned knowledge, hai'e ictler-desisned homes and more healthy lakiti; than 90 per cent, of human bcingß, .hough wu pride ourselves so much on our itiperior ivisdoiii. While, we are vrKirrng w!ia'. to do. and spending our encr;ics disputing over the pros and. μ-iis if ventilation, Iho bees pet to work in a irmleal way and enrry it out. As llaeterliuclt cays, "lieea arc nlraoEt anaticaUy <'1,->an!y." (To b<; continued.)