Night air and damp weather are held in great horror by multitudes
of persons who are sickly or of weak constitutions; consequently, by
avoiding the night air, and damp weather, and changeable weather, and
weather that is considered too hot or too cold, they are kept within
doors the much largest portion of their time, and as a matter of
course continue invalids, more and more ripening for the grave
every hour; the reason is, they are breathing an impure atmosphere
nineteen-twentieths of their whole existence.
As nothing can wash us clean but pure water, so nothing can cleanse
the blood, nothing can make health-giving blood, but the agency of
pure air. So great is the tendency of the blood to become impure in
consequence of waste and useless matters mixing with it as it passes
through the body, that it requires a hogshead of air every hour of our
lives to unload it of these impurities; but in proportion as this air
is vitiated, in such proportion does it infallably fail to relieve the
blood of these impurities, and impure blood is the foundation of all
disease. The great fact that those who are out of doors most, summer
and winter, day and night, rain or shine, have the best health the
world over, does of itself falsify the general impression that night
air or any other out-door air is unhealthy as compared with in-door
air at the same time.
Air is the great necessity of life; so much so, that if deprived of it
for a moment, we perish; and so constant is the necessity of the
blood for contact with the atmosphere, that every drop in the body is
exposed to the air through the medium of the lungs every two minutes
and a half of our existence.
Whatever may be the impurity of the out-door air of any locality,
the in-door air of that locality is still more impure, because of
the dust, and decaying and odoriferous matters which are found in
all dwellings. Besides, how can in-door air be more healthy than the
out-door air, other things being equal, when the dwelling is supplied
with air from without?
To this very general law there is one exception, which it is of the
highest importance to note. When the days are hot, and the nights
cool, there are periods of time within each twenty-four hours, when
it is safest to be in-doors, with doors and windows closed; that is to
say, for the hour or two including sunrise and sunset, because about
sunset the air cools, and the vapors which the heats of the day have
caused to ascend far above us, condense and settle near the surface of
the earth, so as to be breathed by the inhabitants; as the night grows
colder, these vapors sink lower, and are within a foot or two of the
earth, so they are not breathed. As the sun rises, these same vapors
are warmed, and begin to ascend, to be breathed again, but as the
air becomes warmer, they are carried so far above our heads as to
be innocuous. Thus it is that the old citizens of Charleston, S.
C., remember, that while it was considered important to live in
the country during the summer, the common observation of the people
originated the custom of riding into town, not in the cool of the
evening or of the morning, but in the middle of the day. They did not
understand the philosophy, but they observed the fact that those who
came to the city at mid-day remained well, while those who did so
early or late suffered from it.
All strangers at Rome are cautioned not to cross the Pontine marshes
after the heat of the day is over. Sixteen of a ship's crew, touching
at one of the West India islands, slept on shore several nights, and
thirteen of them died of yellow fever in a few days, while of two
hundred and eighty, who were freely ashore during the day, not a
single case of illness occurred. The marshes above named are crossed
in six or eight hours, and many travelers who do it in the night
are attacked with mortal fevers. This does, at first sight, seem to
indicate that night air _is_ unwholesome, at least in the locality
of virulent malarias, but there is no direct proof that the air about
sunrise and sunset is not that which is productive of the mischief.
For the sake of eliciting the observations of intelligent men, we
present our theory on this subject.
A person might cross these marshes with impunity, who would set out on
his journey an hour or two after sundown, and finish it an hour or two
before sun-up, especially if he began that journey on a hearty meal,
because, in this way, he would be traveling in the cool of the night,
which coolness keeps the malaria so near the surface of the earth as
to prevent its being breathed to a hurtful extent.
But if it is deadly to sleep out of doors all night in a malarial
locality, would it be necessarily fatal to sleep in a house in such
a locality? It would not. It would be safer to sleep in the house,
especially if the windows and doors were closed. The reason is, that
the house has been warmed during the day, and if kept closed, it
remains much warmer during the night indoors than it is outdoors;
consequently, the malaria is kept by this warmth so high above the
head, and so rarefied, as to be comparatively harmless. This may
seem to some too nice a distinction altogether, but it will be found
throughout the world of Nature that the works of the Almighty are most
strikingly beautiful in their _minutae_, and these _minutae_ are the
foundation of His mightiest manifestations.
Thus it is, too, that what we call fever and ague might be banished
from the country as a general disease, if two things were done. 1.
Have a fire kindled every morning at daylight, from spring to fall,
in the family room, to which all the family should repair from their
chambers, and there remain until breakfast is taken. 2. Let a fire
be kindled in the family room a short time before sundown; let every
member of the family repair to it, and there remain until supper is
taken.
In both cases, the philosophy of the course marked out consists in two
things. First. The fire rarefies the malaria and causes it to ascend
above the breathing point. Second. The food taken into the stomach
creates an activity of circulation which repels disease.--_Hall's
Journal of Health_.
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