VENTILATION.
General ignorance of the constitution of the atmosphere. The subject
briefly explained. Oxygen gas. Nitrogen. Carbonic acid. Fires, candles,
and breathing dependent on oxygen. Danger from carbonic acid. How it
destroys people. Impurity of the air by means of lamps and candles.
Other sources of impurity. Experiment of putting the candle under the
bed-clothes. Covering the heads of infants while sleeping--its dangers.
Proportions of oxygen and nitrogen in pure and impure air. No wonder
children become sickly. Particular means of ventilating rooms. Caution
in regard to lamps. Washing, ironing, cooking, &c., in a nursery. Their
evil tendency. Fumigation--camphor, vinegar.
Few people take sufficient pains to preserve the air in any of their
apartments pure; for few know what the constitution of our atmosphere
is, and in how many ways and with what ease it is rendered impure.
It is not my purpose to go into a learned, scientific account in this
place, or even in this work, of the constitution of the atmosphere. A
few plain statements are all that are indispensable. The atmosphere
which we breathe is composed of two different airs or gases. One of
these is called oxygen, [Footnote: Oxygen gas is the chief supporter of
combustion, as well as of respiration. It is the vital part, as it were,
of the air. No animal or vegetable could long exist without it. And yet
if alone, unmixed, it is too pure and too refined for animals to
breathe. Nitrogen gas, on the contrary, while alone, will not support
either respiration or combustion; mixed, however, with oxygen, it
dilutes it, and in the most happy manner fits it for reception into the
lungs.] and the other nitrogen. There is another gas usually found with
these two, in smaller quantity, called carbonic acid gas; but whether it
is necessary, in a very small quantity, to health, chemists, I believe,
are not agreed. One thing, however, is certain--that if any portion of
it is healthful, it must be very little--not more, certainly, than
one-fiftieth or one-hundredth of the whole mass.
It is by means of the oxygen it contains, that air sustains life and
combustion. Were it not for this, neither fires nor candles would burn,
and no animal could breathe a single moment. Breathing consumes this
oxygen of the air very rapidly. When the oxygen is present in about a
certain proportion, combustion and respiration go on well, but when its
natural proportion is diminished, the fire does not burn so well,
neither does the candle; and no one can breathe so freely.
Not only are breathing and combustion impeded or disturbed by the
diminution of oxygen in the atmosphere, but just in proportion as oxygen
is diminished by these two processes, or either of them, carbonic acid
is formed, which is not only bad for combustion, but much worse for
health. If any considerable quantity of it is inhaled, it appears to be
an absolute poison to the human system; and if in _very large quantity_,
will often cause immediate death.
It is this gas, accumulated in large quantities, that destroys so many
people in close rooms, where there is no chimney, nor any other place
for the bad air to escape. But it not only kills people outright--it
partly kills, that is, it poisons, more or less, hundreds of thousands.
In a nursery there is the mother and child, and perhaps the nurse, to
render the air impure by breathing, the fire and the lamp or candle to
contribute to the same result, besides several other causes not yet
mentioned. One of these is nearly related to the former. I allude to the
fact that our skins, by perspiration and by other means, are a source of
much impurity to the atmosphere; a fact which will be more fully
explained and illustrated in the chapter on Bathing and Cleanliness. It
is only necessary to say, in this place, that it is not the matter of
perspiration alone which, issuing from the skin, renders the air
impure; there are other exhalations more or less constantly going off
from every living body, especially from the lungs; and carbonic acid gas
is even formed all over the surface of the skin, as well as by means of
the lungs.
One needs no better proof that carbonic acid is formed on the surface of
the body, than the fact that after the body has been closely covered all
night, if you introduce a candle under the bed-clothes into this
confined air, it will be quickly extinguished, because there is too
much carbonic acid gas there, and too little oxygen.
We may hence see at once the evil of covering the heads of infants when
they lie down--a very common practice. The air, when pure, contains a
little more than 20 parts of oxygen, and a little less than 80 of
nitrogen. Breathing this air, as I have already shown, consumes the
oxygen, which is so necessary to life and health, and leaves in its
place an increase of nitrogen and carbonic acid gas, which are not
necessary to health, and the latter of which is even positively
injurious. But when the oxygen, instead of forming 20 or more parts in
100 of the atmosphere of the nursery, is reduced to 15 or 18 parts only,
and the carbonic acid gas is increased from 1 or 2 parts in 100, to 5,
6, 8 or 10--when to this is added the other noxious exhalations from the
body, and from the lamp or candle, fire-place, feather bed, stagnant
fluids in the room, &c., &c.--is it any wonder that children, in the
end, become sickly? What else could be expected but that the seeds of
disease, thus early sown, should in due time spring up, and produce
their appropriate fruits?
It is sometimes said that fire in a room purifies it. It undoubtedly
does so, to a certain extent, if fresh air be often admitted; but not
otherwise.
I have classed feather beds among the common causes of impurity. Dr.
Dewees also condemns them, most decidedly; and gives substantial reasons
for "driving them out of the nursery."
In speaking of the structure of the room used for a nursery, I have
adverted to the importance of having a large or double room, with
sliding doors between, in order that the occupants may go into one of
them, while the other is being ventilated. But whatever may be the
structure of the room, the circumstances of the occupants, or the state
of the weather, every nursery ought to be most thoroughly ventilated,
once a day, at least; and when the weather is tolerable, twice a day. If
there is but one apartment, and fear is entertained of the dampness of
the fresh air introduced, or of currents, and if the mother and babe
cannot retire, there is a last resort, which is for them to get into
bed, and cover themselves a short time with the clothing. For though I
have prohibited the covering of the face with the bed-clothes for any
considerable length of time together, yet to do so for some fifteen or
twenty minutes is an evil of far less magnitude than to suffer an
apartment to remain without being ventilated, for twenty-four hours
together--a very common occurrence.
When a lamp is kept burning in a nursery during the night, it should
always be placed at the door of the stove, or in the chimney place, that
its smoke, and the bad airs or gases which are formed, may escape. But
it is better, in general, to avoid burning lamps or candles during the
night. By means of common matches, a light may be produced, when
necessary, almost instantly; especially if you have a spirit lamp in the
nursery, or what is still better, one of spirit gas--that is, a mixture
of alcohol and turpentine.
It is highly desirable that all washing, ironing, and cooking should be
avoided in the nursery. They load the air with noxious effluvia or
vapor, or with particles of dust; none of which ought ever to enter the
delicate lungs of an infant.
Fumigations with camphor, vinegar, and other similar substances, have
long been in reputation as a means of purifying the air in sick-rooms
and nurseries; but they are of very little consequence. Fresh air, if it
can be had, is always better.