A FALLACY DISPELLED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1940, Page 8

A FALLACY DISPELLED

“KEEP OUT OF THE NIGHT AIR.” How often do you hear someone say “Keep out of the night air,” as if night air were less healthy than air in daytime. This common belief is probably due to the indisputable fact that in many parts of the world, including those from which our civilisation is derived, exposure to something in the night air is exceedingly apt to produce malaria. For instance, malaria was probably the determining factor in the fall of Greece —which had no quinine. Briefly then, the night air superstition owes its origin to the fact that the female mosquito feeds at night. The mosquito breeds in the marshes, and that is its only connection with the business. In gaseous composition, there is no substantial difference between night air and day air, except that in cities night air may contain less carbonic acid gas, since fewer factories are using furnaces and fewer cars are being operated. Night air contains fewer organic gases, since, in the absence of the sun’s heat, putrefactive processes are less active. Night air is cleaner for the city dweller since less traffic means less dust, less microbe-laden dust. Night air differs again in that it is colder, as a rule, and undoubtedly if you propose to ventilate your bedroom you may require an extra blanket. The advantage of breathing pure instead of foul air during one-third of our whole existence is perhaps not too dearly bought thus.