contains twenty-one per cent. of oxygen, but when we expire it again
it only contains 13 parts. We have, in fact, abstracted 8 per cent.
of oxygen and given back in its place a poisonous mixture of carbonic
acid, organic matter, and watery vapor. We breathe out this poisonous
mixture at the rate of one gallon each minute, but (even apart from
the organic matter) it is so impure, owing to the amount of carbonic
acid which it contains, that each gallon would require to be diluted
with one hundred gallons of pure air before being again fitted for
respiration. In such a city as London then, the air is being polluted
even by the carbonic acid which we exhale at the rate of nearly six
hundred million of gallons per minute, to such an extent as to render
it unfit to be breathed again. Surely this should make us welcome every
strong gale as an angel sent from heaven bearing healing on its wings.
But it is in dwellings, and especially in the dwellings of the poor,
that the polluting effects of respiration are greatest, for in these
it is too often the case that man places every possible obstacle in
the way of nature’s methods of ventilation. Moreover, in apartments
that are crowded it is practically impossible to maintain the air
in a state of purity, and thus they become hot-beds of disease. The
very interesting experiments made by Dr. Angus Smith upon himself in
an air-tight leaden chamber, led him to the conclusion that, in air
containing an increased amount of carbonic acid, this gas alone, even
without the other hurtful ingredients, such as organic matter, rapidly
produces poisonous effects—indicated by feebleness of the circulation,
extreme slowness of the heart’s action, and great rapidity of the
breathing—and that when men are exposed to it they are really gasping
for breath, without being aware of the cause.
The presence of carbonic acid in the air we expire is readily seen
by blowing our breath, by means of a tube, into a bottle containing
ordinary lime-water. The water soon becomes opalescent and then milky
in appearance, owing to the formation of carbonate of lime or chalk;
the carbonic acid of the expired air having combined with the lime
previously held in solution. It is this principle which is taken
advantage of in order to estimate the amount of carbonic acid in
atmospheric air. Dr. Angus Smith lays down a simple practical rule
whereby any one may ascertain if the air of an apartment contains
carbonic acid to a dangerous amount, viz.: “Let us keep our rooms so
that the air gives no precipitate when a 10½-ounce bottle full of air
is shaken with half an ounce of clear lime water.”
It is well known that speedily fatal results arise from overcrowding
and want of fresh air. Out of the one hundred and forty-six prisoners
confined in the “Black Hole of Calcutta,” one hundred and twenty three
died in one night; and it is significant that many of the survivors
afterward succumbed to “putrid fever.” Nor have similar instances been
wanting in this country. Of the one hundred and fifty passengers that
were shut up in the cabin of the Irish steamer _Londonderry_, with
hatches battened down during a stormy night in 1848, seventy died
before morning. In these two catastrophes suffocation was doubtless the
direct cause of death, but the fact that “putrid fever” attacked many
of those who were carried out alive from the “Black Hole of Calcutta,”
showed that the fœtid exhalations to which they were exposed must have
aided largely in destroying the lives of the immediate victims. The
re-breathing of fœtid matter thrown off by the skin and lungs produces
a kind of putrescence in the blood, in proportion to the amount
inhaled, and to the period of exposure to its influences; and even air
only moderately vitiated, if breathed for a long time day after day,
produces most serious results. These results are seen in pale faces,
loss of appetite, a lowering of the spirits, and a decrease of muscular
strength. That air polluted by respiration is the one great cause of
consumption, which may be handed down from parents to children for
generations, rests upon such a mass of facts, that it is no longer
controvertible. For instance, we know that increase of the disease
occurs _pari passu_ with an increase in the density of population;
that in manufacturing centres, where the males are the chief workers
at indoor employment, the male death-rate is the highest; that in
others, where females are principally required at indoor work, they
suffer most; and that in agricultural districts, where the men spend
nearly all their lives in the open air, and the women scarcely ever
leave their cottages, the female death-rate from this disease is higher
than the male. Moreover, the testimony of the most able physicians
at home and abroad, the results of inquiries as to the prevalence of
this disease amongst the picked men of the armies and navies of the
world, the reports of hospitals for consumption, and of commissioners
and committees appointed to make special investigations of jails,
workhouses, and schools—all these point to poisoning by impure air as
the most fertile source of consumption and many allied diseases.
_Putrefaction._—We now pass on to the second source of foulness of
the air, viz.: putrefaction. Putrid emanations have from the earliest
times been held to be capable of producing injurious effects on the
human system. In the Bible we read of the great care taken to disinfect
or clean vessels which may have contained any putrid matter, and in
ancient Rome measures were adopted for the efficient cleansing of the
sewers and streets of that city. Our present method of disposing of our
refuse is by means of water, which washes it through channels called
“sewers” to the sea. But meanwhile the organic portions are undergoing
decay, and certain gases are thus evolved, which, mixing together,
form what we term “sewer gas.” The principal gases thus given off are
carbonic acid, nitrogen, and sulphuretted hydrogen, and although this
mixture if breathed is injurious to health, it can not be regarded
as poisonous. Thus sulphuretted hydrogen (similar to the odor given
off by rotten eggs) although a deadly poison when inhaled in large
quantities, is so diluted in sewer gas that its poisonous properties
are in a great measure neutralized. There is still, however, sufficient
sulphuretted hydrogen in sewer gas to render it very injurious by
lowering the tone of health, and by gradually diminishing vitality to
such an extent that disease ensues. What, however, is of far greater
importance as a poisonous agent, is the organic matter which is held
in suspension by these gases. The composition of this organic matter
is by no means uniform. It is composed of particles from all kinds of
decomposing matter, sometimes containing minute living organisms, and
sometimes without doubt the germs of disease. The exact nature of these
germs of disease is still a matter of uncertainty, and the question as
to whether they may appear spontaneously during the progress of decay,
or whether they are merely wafted by sewer gas, just as the ripe seeds
of many plants are scattered by the atmosphere, is equally unsettled.
This, however, has been sufficiently established, that when diseases
do come amongst us they take root with most effect in those places
where decomposing matter is found, and that the germs of these diseases
find in the organic element of sewer gas a congenial soil, in which
they can increase and multiply indefinitely, and by which they can be
carried from the dead to the living. That typhoid fever depends, to a
great extent, upon the polluted air of sewers, cesspools, and of the
soil, is proved by very strong evidence. In some cases the disease has
been confined to a particular part of the house, especially exposed
to the effluvia from badly trapped drains, where there could be no
doubt as to the source of the infection. The sewer air, laden with the
specific poison, may be inappreciable to the senses, but its hurtful
effects make themselves felt none the less, and, as recent events have
shown, may sometimes exhibit themselves in the most exalted stations
of life. Nay, more, it would seem that persons of the upper and middle
ranks in towns are more liable to be attacked by typhoid fever than
the poor classes; the reason being that the houses of the former are
more generally connected with sewers, and either from structure or
situation are of higher elevation, so that the light sewer gases,
obeying natural laws, are more apt to accumulate in the drains of such
houses, and failing efficient trapping and ventilation of the drains,
to effect an entrance into the houses themselves. There is good ground
for the belief that cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, as well as many
other diseases, are occasionally spread by means of the air of sewers
and cesspools; but whether these diseases originate spontaneously in
this way, or whether the sewer gas only serves as a carrier of the
disease-germs, is a question, as in the case of typhoid fever, as yet
unsettled.
_Trades and Manufactures._—Let us next consider some trades and
manufactures which have an injurious influence upon persons engaged
in them, and to a certain extent upon the community at large. The
injurious effects are owing to solid particles and offensive gases
which are given out into the air. The result of inhaling air more
or less charged with solid particles may be easily explained. When
the latter reach the entrance to the windpipe they at once set up
irritation in the delicate lining membrane, and nature tries to repel
the intruders by the involuntary cough which results. Should this fit
of coughing fail in doing so, a quantity of glairy fluid is poured out
from small glands in the windpipe, and this fluid enveloping the solid
particles tends to prevent them from doing further mischief. Should
they, however find their way lower down into the air passages, nature
has provided a very beautiful mechanism for their expulsion. The entire
lining membrane of these passages is covered with innumerable minute
hairs, or “cilia” as they are called, which, by constantly waving in an
upward direction toward the mouth, tend to carry the solid particles,
and the glairy secretion which they have provoked, away from the
lungs, and so out of harm’s way. This wonderful provision of nature is
sufficient for the purpose, provided the strain be not too prolonged;
but when the supply of irritating particles is constant, or nearly so,
the nerves and muscles involved in this mechanism become exhausted and
cease to perform this process of expulsion. The irritating particles
are now no longer removed from the delicate membrane of the air
passages upon which they lodge, this membrane becomes inflamed, and
bronchitis or asthma is the result. But this inflammation, at first
only affecting the superficial membrane, may sink into the deeper
tissues and affect the lung itself, in which case the original attack
of bronchitis frequently merges into a condition of a consumptive
nature. This will explain why many trades are injurious in which the
danger to health is due to the fine dust floating continually in the
air of the premises. For example, the particles of coal dust in the air
of mines, and the smoke from factory chimneys; particles of steel and
grit given off in grinding; organic dust or fluff in shoddy and flax
mills; the dust in potteries, china works, pearl button manufactories,
in polishing and cement works, in brass works, in marble and steel
polishing works of various sorts, especially where emery is used; in
all of these cases the solid particles are inhaled and tend to produce
disease in the lungs and air passages. Moreover, the severity of the
effects is chiefly dependent on the amount of dust, and on the physical
conditions as to angularity, roughness or smoothness of the particles,
rather than on the nature of the substance, except in some specific
cases. The habitual inhalation of coal dust in the air of coal mines
very frequently results in consumption, and the fine divisions of the
lung become so blocked up by the particles of coal that the term “black
lung” has been applied to the appearance presented by the lung after
death. It has been found that the death rate from consumption among
miners who work in mines where the air is changed rapidly, is very much
less than among miners who work in mines that are badly ventilated. Of
all unhealthy occupations that of steel-grinding is the most fatal.
Steel-grinding is divided into the dry, wet, and mixed methods; and
the injurious effects vary according to the amount of water used on
the stone. Forks, needles, etc., are ground on the dry stone, and
accordingly the men and boys employed at this kind of work are found
to be the greatest sufferers. Dr. Hall, of Sheffield, has furnished
important information as to the average duration of life among the
artisans in steel, which he found to be as follows, viz.: dry grinders
of forks, 29 years; razors, 31 years; scissors, 32 years; edge-tool
and wool-shears, 32 years; spring-knives, 35 years; files, 35 years;
saws, 38 years; sickles, 38 years. In this and many other similarly
injurious trades various methods have from time to time been devised,
more especially of late years, whereby the dust might be prevented
from entering the air-passages, such as fans for blowing it away, and
respirators of various kinds to filter the air as it is being breathed;
but it has been found that workmen themselves frequently object to any
innovation which appears to them to interfere with their more immediate
comfort. There are some trades where the dust given off acts not only
as a mechanical irritant when breathed, but where the substance thus
inhaled acts as a direct poison. For instance, manufacturers of white
lead and other mineral paints frequently exhibit symptoms of poisoning
in this way, and workmen who use arsenical compounds, as in the making
of wall papers, artificial flowers, etc., are often the victims of
poisoning by arsenic. This poisoning by means of arsenical wall papers
deserves more than a passing notice, owing to the dangerous and even
fatal effects which they induce, not only in the workmen who prepare
them, but also in persons inhabiting apartments where the walls are
covered by them. These wall papers are mostly of a beautiful green
color, the latter being due to a paint composed of arsenic and copper.
Owing to variations of heat and moisture the green particles are
constantly being set free from the paper and carried about the room
by ventilation. Some idea of the amount of poison with which so many
people are surrounded in their rooms may be formed if we consider
that this green pigment contains fifty-nine per cent of arsenic, and
that a square foot of one of these wall papers contains on an average
more than sufficient arsenic to poison twelve persons. In addition
to the cases which most physicians are now so familiar with, where
dangerous symptoms of poisoning have been traced to this cause, it is
much to be feared that insidious and chronic disease is too often due
to this practice of covering the walls of our sitting-rooms, and more
especially our bedrooms, with arsenic. It may be remembered, however,
that a wall paper may be green and yet not contain any arsenic, so
that the following simple method of detecting an arsenical paper may
be useful. If a camel-hair brush be dipped in an ordinary solution of
ammonia, and applied to the green portions of the suspected paper, the
green will be rapidly changed to an azure blue color if arsenic be
present. Some such simple test is all the more important, because green
papers, “warranted free from arsenic,” have been found to contain a
large percentage of that poison.
In addition to the sources of pollution of the atmosphere which we
have been considering, there are various trades and manufactures in
which poisonous matters are given off. Some of these are of an organic
nature, as in the melting of fats, in the making of size and glue,
in the boiling of oil, in the boiling of bones, and in many other
processes carried out on a considerable scale, where the emanations
are highly offensive and often of unknown chemical composition. Gas
works must be included in this poisonous group, owing to the accidental
escape of gas, sometimes in large quantity. In lime kilns enormous
volumes of carbonic acid gas are poured out, both from the limestone
burnt and from the fuel employed, and in this way persons living in
the immediate neighborhood have been suffocated. In chloride of lime
(bleaching powder) manufactories, and in places where it is used for
bleaching wool and other materials, chlorine gas is given off into
the air, causing when inhaled a great amount of irritation in the air
passages. Moreover, this chlorine vapor is often carried in the air for
long distances. In other branches of industry the workers are exposed
to the vapors of sulphurous acid and muriatic acid, both of these being
very irritating, and giving rise to various diseases of the lungs and
eyes.
Such, then, are a few of the impurities, more or less poisonous, to
be met with in the air we breathe; and dangerous to health as all of
them are, it must be admitted that they do far less mischief to the
public health than the continual mismanagement of our atmospheric food,
common in all classes of society, by which it is rendered unfit to
support a healthy life. The two ways in which air may be rendered thus
comparatively valueless are either by excluding it too much from our
dwellings, and this is the fault of the rich, or by crowding too many
people together in small rooms, and this is the fault of the poor. In
the houses of the better classes the air is kept out by closed windows,
doors, curtains, and even in some places by putting screens before the
fire-places in summer, and in bedrooms in winter when fire is not used.
Pure air is, in fact, the most important of all health factors. When
it is breathed freely, plentifully, and continually, there are few
diseases which it will not enable the body to resist. Nay, even some
injuries, which, received by the denizens of the overcrowded city,
would be speedily followed by death, will be readily recovered from
by the agricultural laborer or country farmer, who, always breathing
a pure atmosphere, has thus stored up a great amount of additional
constitutional force.—_Good Words._
MANNER.
By LORD CHESTERFIELD to his Son.
I fear and suspect, that you have taken it into your head in most
cases, that the matter is all, and the manner little or nothing. If you
have, undeceive yourself, and be convinced that, in everything, the
manner is full as important as the matter. If you speak the sense of an
angel in bad words and with a disagreeable utterance, nobody will hear
you twice, who can help it. If you write epistles as well as Cicero,
but in a very bad hand, and very ill-spelled, whoever receives will
laugh at them; and if you had the figure of Adonis, with an awkward
air and motions, it will disgust, instead of pleasing. Study manner,
therefore, in everything, if you would be anything.
UNPREPOSSESSING MANNERS.
This epigram in Martial,
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te;
has puzzled a great many people, who can not conceive how it is
possible to love any body, and yet not know the reason why. I think
I conceive Martial’s meaning very clearly, though the nature of the
epigram, which is to be short, would not allow him to explain it more
fully; and I take it to be this: O Sabidis, you are a very worthy,
deserving man; you have a thousand good qualities, you have a great
deal of learning; I esteem, I respect, but for the soul of me I can not
love you, though I can not particularly say why. You are not _amiable_;
you have not those engaging manners, those pleasing attentions,
those graces, and that address, which are absolutely necessary to
please, though impossible to define. I can not say it is this or that
particular thing that hinders me from loving you; it is the whole
together; and upon the whole you are not agreeable.
How often have I, in the course of my life, found myself in this
situation, with regard to many of my acquaintance, whom I have honored
and respected, without being able to love. I did not know why, because,
when one is young, one does not take the trouble, nor allow one’s
self the time, to analyze one’s sentiments, and to trace them up to
their source. But subsequent observation and reflections have taught
me why. There is a man, whose moral character, deep learning, and
superior parts, I acknowledge, admire, and respect; but whom it is
so impossible for me to love, that I am almost in a fever whenever I
am in his company. His figure (without being deformed) seems made to
disgrace or ridicule the common structure of the human body. His legs
and arms are never in the position which, according to the situation of
the body, they ought to be in, but constantly employed in committing
acts of hostility upon the graces. He throws any where, but down his
throat, whatever he means to drink, and only mangles what he means to
carve. Inattentive to all the regards of social life, he mistimes or
misplaces everything. He disputes with heat, and indiscriminately,
mindless of the rank, character, and situation of those with whom he
disputes; absolutely ignorant of the several gradations of familiarity
or respect, he is exactly the same to his superiors, his equals, and
his inferiors; and therefore, by a necessary consequence, absurd to two
of the three. Is it possible to love such a man? No. The utmost I can
do for him is to consider him as a respectable Hottentot.
METHOD.
Despatch is the soul of business; and nothing contributes more to
despatch than method. Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it
inviolably, as far as unexpected incidents may allow. Fix one certain
hour and day in the week for your accounts, and keep them together in
their proper order; by which means they will require little time, and
you can never be much cheated. Whatever letters and papers you keep,
docket and tie them up in their respective classes, so that you may
instantly have recourse to any one. Lay down a method also for your
reading, for which you allot a certain share of your mornings; let it
be in a consistent and consecutive course and not in that desultory
and immethodical manner, in which many people read scraps of different
authors upon different subjects. Keep a useful and short common-place
book of what you read, to help your memory only, and not for pedantic
quotations. One method more I recommend to you, by which I have found
great benefit, even in the most dissipated part of my life; that is,
to rise early, and at the same hour every morning, how late soever you
may have sat up the night before. This secures you an hour or two, at
least, of reading or reflection, before the common interruptions of the
morning begin; and it will save your constitution, by forcing you to go
to bed early, at least one night in three.
You will say, it may be, as many young people would, that all this
order and method is very troublesome, only fit for dull people, and
a disagreeable restraint upon the noble spirit and fire of youth. I
deny it; and assert, on the contrary, that it will procure you both
more time and more taste for your pleasures; and so far from being
troublesome to you, that, after you have pursued it a month, it would
be troublesome to you to lay it aside. Business whets the appetite,
and gives a taste to pleasures, as exercise does to food; and business
can never be done without method; it raises the spirits for pleasures;
and an assembly will much more sensibly affect a man who has employed,
than a man who has lost, the preceding part of the day; nay, I will
venture to say, that a fine lady will seem to have more charms to a man
of study or business, than to a saunterer. The same listlessness runs
through his whole conduct, and he is as insipid in his pleasures as
inefficient in everything else.
ON THE KNEELING FIGURE IN MALVERN PRIORY.
By CHARLES GRINDROD.
[The old Renaissance figure (of a lady) is placed just
outside the altar rail; looking northward, with one
side of the face turned to the west, the other to the
altar. Although kneeling, it has at a little distance the
appearance of standing, owing to its peculiar erectness
from the knees upward. The face is remarkable for the
singular smile, half cynical, half spiritual (especially in
the tightly compressed lips), which gives an expression of
_living_ interest.]