Should Old and Young sleep Togteher

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 45, 1 October 1892, Page 4

Should Old and Young sleep Togteher

The question is often asked us : " Do you think it objectionable for old and young persons to sleep together V We answer most emphatically, Yes. It is certainly very damaging for young persons to sleep with old persons, but it is also damaging for a young person to sleep with one of equal age. It is, indeed, questionable whether persons of any age can habitually sleep together without damage. The injury does not arise from the absorption of vitality from the young by the old, or from a person of one temperament by a person of a different temperament, but it grows out of the fact that beneath the bed clothing there is constantly thrown off by the skin quantities of poisonous matters, which accumulate, creating underneath the more or less impermeable bed covers a poisoned atmosphere. In case two persons occupy the same bed, the amount of this poison is naturally doubled ; and as the body re-absorbs more or less of the poisonous matter, the density of the poison in the under-the-bed-covers atmosphere is neces sarily increased. The extent of the injury inflicted would na urally be palpably greater in the case of a youngf child, on account of the greater susceptibility of the very young. Hut the same mischievous tendency must exist in the case of persons of any age to a greater or less extent. A bed *or each member of the family is certainly one of the arrangements which can be commended from a hygienic standpoint. — Good Health.