COMMON SENSE AND NIGHT AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 17, 13 February 1909, Page 3

COMMON SENSE AND NIGHT AIR.

[THE OPEN BEDROOM, WIXDOW A> A CAUSE OF ILLXESS. 1% Marcus Woodward, in Loudon "Wh-i ■ y Exvt^-> »n„.l „ j0,,,- omui(JU of t(> ) (l . c . aU . Jl . »ig. doctor: said J, rellecting that every oilier person in town and country seems l,-Uay with some spJcics of col., particular,; throat complaints; ana lac wise and learned doctor in »lioui 1 trust made me this answer;— . "Extremis of temperature, in my opinion, jii-o enielly responsible for the prcva encc of all manner of colds and bad throats to-day. Children are very heavy sufferers; sudden changes of temperature powerfully ailect their throats, and we lind respiratory diseases rampant; they form, indeed, 80 per cent, of L-liildren's ailments. "So one more ardently believes in the value of fresh air than mvsdf. The .'rusadc against foul a ir, Specially in wdrooms at night, -has had marked ef'eets for good. The doctrine of the open ivindow at night has been very largely u-cptod by the public; one'bears' i't ireached everywhere." "Your next word," said I, is 'but.'" "lint," said the doctor, "a very grave Kiril sits on the open window-top. The ipeu window is a good idea badlv apdied. Fresh air we must have at night, nit few of us are strong enough' to land the cold, raw, night air of winter, "he open window is slaying its lens o;' housauds."

: "And so," 1 said, "you would smash one of the most cherished of all our ( progressive ideas. Vou will say we arc ' insane to sleep in gales of wind, and to t allow the snow, if it will, to drift to n depth of a yard on the bedroom carpet. _. I believe you will even attack our joy- "_ ous cold baths in the morning." I Anil f begged that the bedroom win- , (low might he left open at night in frost and mist and snow, and pressed the L> claims of the cold bath with all my . power. But the doctor shook his head." COLD BATHS. "It is not natural," he said, "for a L land animal to take a cold bath in the winter. My horse will run to water in , the slimmer; in the winter he rolls to , clean himself. A rub with a tepid, damp , sponge or towel really cleans the human I body sufficiently in cold weather. Thel cold bat'h is a dangerous fetish. I ' "I feel convinced that the most im- . portanl factor in the case of most throat illnesses is the matter of temperature, especially night temperature. If we could ensuro that the temperature of all bedrooms never fell below UOdeg at night, we could diminish all epidemic forms of throat troubles by half. "I have treated a ease where a patient had been four times at death's door through diphtheric ulceration, and after I had ordered that his bedroom temperature should never fall helow OOdeg he had no further attack. "The present epidemic of throat cases came on when raw, cold nights settled in immediately after the hot weather of late autumn. A relatively high temperature 'has a decomposing effect 03 dead animal tissue, and a relatively cold temperature acts in the same way on living tissues by reducing vitality. "My patients had all slept with open windows, and they were all first aware of their illness in the morning, so that the attacks must have come on during the night. Almost all illnesses begin at night, when the nervous system is asleep, the circulation quiet, and all the : tissues are at rest. Then the harmful ' germs steal a march and begin their ' havoc. BEGixxrxG of trouble. ] "This is how throat illnesses and allied troubles begin. The temperature , of our bodies in health is !)B.4deg. In summer the air day temperature niav j he OOdeg, falling suddenly at night iii ' 1 bedrooms with tile window open to oOdeg. The difference of the body temperature and the day temperature ; s { about 8 deg, which relaxes us consider- . ably. But the difference of body and f night temperature in our bedrooms is ! nearly oOdeg. And the bronchial tubes, when in a weak state, are not able to stand a difference of about oOdeg, especially when it comes during sleep. In whiter our workrooms may stand at ' SOdeg and our bedrooms at 40deg. "Nature steps in and endeavors to warm the .night air and impodc the cur- a rent as much as possible by providing a ' larger heating surface at the back of the mouth anil nose in the form of en- . largcd tonsils and adenoids. ' "Well, a child falls asleep with the l window open. Some jOdeg of heat must be taken with each inspiration from the ' tonsillar region for air-wanning purposes—ls times in the minute, 000 times t in the hour, 7200 times during the eight hours' sleep. When not in perfe.-f .. health, ibis is too great a strain, the " vitality i« lowered, the throat gives way, and ulceration or congestion fol- j l lows.

"As there is no scientific system applied to bedrooms whereby Had outer i air is pirvilied. filtered, disinfected, and (heated before being brcatho.l. (he safest plan is to sleep with the door open, allowing pine Iml warm air to enter from halls and passages. Air in passagos is likely to lie pure because of the mauv chances that fresh air has to enter, and it is never so cold as air through the window. Cold air is not necessarily pure air, nor warm air impure.

MAX NOT A COW. "To sleep in the cold is madness. Man is not a cow or a horse. 'Primeval mm was a cave-dweller, and we have wandered too far from the Card en of Eden to sleep in a garden to-day. _ It is against Nature's laws. We might as well think of sleeping in a cold bath lo keep the pores of the skin clean and open. "Animals are adapted for sleeping in the open in a manner peculiar to themselves, and the, air they breathe is heated Iry radiation from' the body. The sparrow puts his head under his wing. No animal is intended to breathe extremely cold air when sleeping, except the whales and cold-blooded fish and inverter.™ tes. "The man who sits too long in an over-heated room causes the mucous membrane of the respiratory tracts to become tender j theji_a.t nisrht he go"« out or (o bed and"breathes raw air at a temperature of 32ileg. If he breathes through his nose, this may bring on nasal catarrh, or cold in the head, or influenza: if he breathes through his mouth, this may cause lousilitis. quinsy, bronchitis, or laryngitis; if he breathes through nose and. mouth, this may bring on any or a combination of the ailments.

"There is no weather so suitable to cold-catching as weather continually changing suddenly hi temperature. The human system." concluded the doctor, "is it marvellously perfect machine, but not one in a million is given a fair chance."