FRESH AIR AND HEALTH
=How much Air we Breathe.=--At every breath we take in about one pint
of air. We breathe eighteen times each minute. Nine quarts of air
therefore pass in and out of the lungs every minute. Air once breathed
is not fit to breathe again. It contains waste and carbon dioxide
which weaken the body.
If you breathe three full breaths into a wide-mouthed jar or bottle,
it will contain so much of the carbon dioxide that a lighted candle or
splinter will at once go out when thrust into the jar. A cat shut in a
tight box two feet square and one foot high will die in less than a
half hour.
Many years ago when the British and Hindoo soldiers were fighting each
other, the Hindoos made prisoners of 146 of the British and locked
them in a room about one half as large as a common schoolroom. There
were only two small windows. During the night 123 of these men died
because of the bad air.
[Illustration: FIG. 64.--The direction of the flame of the candle
shows how the fresh air enters and the bad air leaves a room.]
=How much Air should enter a Room.=--The air laden with waste coming
out of the lungs quickly mixes with the other air of the room. In this
way all of the air in the room soon becomes impure. Forty children
will give out nearly two barrels of air in one minute. In another
minute this air has made all of the other air in the room unclean. It
can still be breathed, but it makes children feel drowsy and lazy and
may cause headache. They then do poor work.
To keep the air pure in a room, fresh air must be let in from the
outside. If there are many in the room, the openings must be large or
fans on a wheel must be used to force the air in. In the New York
schools a little over a cubic yard of fresh air is forced into the
room for each child every minute.
=How to get Fresh Air into a Room.=--When air is warmed it becomes
lighter and rises. In many public buildings, fresh air heated by a
furnace is forced into the rooms through pipes entering several feet
above the floor. By a fan or heated flue the impure air is sucked out
of the room through openings near the floor.
[Illustration: FIG. 65.--How the windows of your bedroom should be
open to get the most fresh air.]
Changing the air in a room is called _ventilation_. To get plenty of
fresh air in a room there must be one or more places for it to enter
and one or more places for it to pass out. Where there is no furnace
or fan, windows on one side of the room may be opened at the bottom to
let in the air and the same windows opened at the top to let the
impure air escape. _Do not sit in a draft_, but use a board or curtain
to throw the air upward as it enters the window. _A room should not be
kept too warm._ Sitting in a very warm room weakens the body and
prepares it to take cold. The temperature of a living room should be
between 65 and 70 degrees.
=Fresh Air while you Sleep.=--Thousands of people have weakened their
bodies and brought on disease by sleeping in bad air. Many persons
keep their windows so tightly closed during the night that the air
smells bad in the morning. I knew a family who always slept with
windows closed except in the very warmest weather. Three of the
children died of tuberculosis, and a fourth one took the disease but
was saved by keeping his windows wide open.
Bad air in the sleeping room makes one feel drowsy in the morning
instead of refreshed by sleep. _Your windows should always be open
while you sleep._ In cold weather a window should be open a foot at
both the bottom and the top, or if there are two windows in the room,
both may be opened at the bottom. In moderate weather the openings
should be twice as large. A cap may be worn to keep the head warm, and
the bed should be out of the draft.
=Fresh Air gives Health.=--Four hundred people die of tuberculosis in
our country every day. A few years ago it was thought that no one
could get well of this disease. Now three fourths of those in the
first stages of the disease get well. The chief part of the cure is
fresh air. Medicine is seldom used because no medicine will cure
tuberculosis. Good food and rest are great helps.
Many of those with tuberculosis stay out of doors all day and at night
sleep in tents or with all of the windows wide open, even in the
coldest weather. Snow may blow in and the water in the room may turn
to solid ice, but fresh air, the good angel of health, will give the
body new strength and make it well and strong again.
[Illustration: FIG. 66.--This man is curing himself of tuberculosis by
sleeping at night, and sitting by day, on this porch.]
Many years ago when the Indians lived in tents and often slept
outdoors none of them had this dirty air disease of tuberculosis.
Since they have formed the habit of living in houses nearly one half
of some tribes have become sick with this catching disease.
=Making the Lungs Strong.=--It requires over three quarts of air to
fill your lungs. When you breathe quietly, less than one pint of air
passes in and out of your lungs. This shows that a large part of the
lungs is not used. The air sacs at the top and in the bottom part of
the lungs are seldom filled completely. It is in these places that
disease begins.
Several minutes should be spent two or three times each day in
exercising the lungs. Fill them completely with air many times. _Learn
to breathe deeply while you are walking in the fresh air._ Hold the
head up and the shoulders back so that every part of the lungs can be
filled. _Sit straight. Your life depends upon your lungs._ Give them a
chance to do their work and teach them to do it well.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.--Unhealthful position which squeezes the lungs
so that they cannot work freely.]
=Tobacco and Pure Air.=--There is poison in the smoke of tobacco. This
is shown by its effect on insects. Owners of greenhouses often buy the
stems and other waste parts of tobacco. They pile it in a pan and after
closing the doors and windows of the greenhouse tightly, set fire to it.
The smoke rises and fills the whole house. In less than an hour it has
killed many of the bugs and beetles which were destroying the plants.
A person not used to tobacco will sometimes be made sick by sitting
only an hour in a room where persons are smoking. It is wrong for
smokers to poison the air which others must breathe. For this reason a
smoking room should be well ventilated.