jQ of science."
Food and air are the two means by which bodies live.
In the full-grown man, whose weight will average about
one hundred and fiftj^-four pounds, one hundred and eleven
pounds is oxygen drawn from the air we breathe. Only
when food has been dissolved in the stomach, absorbed
at last into the blood, and by means of circulation brought
into contact with the oxygen of the air taken into
our lungs, can it begin to really feed and nourish the
bodj' ; so that the lungs ma}^, after all, be regarded as
the true stomach, the other being not much more than the
food-receptacle.
Take these lungs, made up within of branching tubes,
these in turn formed by m3Tiads of air-cells, and each air-
22 THE HOUSE: VENTILATION.
cell owning its network of minute cells called capillaries.
To every air-cell is given a blood-vessel bringing blood
from the heart, which finds its way through every capillary
till it reaches another blood-vessel that carries it back to
tlie heart. It leaves the heart charged with carbonic acid
and watery vapor. It returns, if pure air has met it in
the lung, with all corruption destro3^ed, a dancing parti-
cle of life. But to be life, and not slow death, thirty- three
hogsheads of air must pass daily into the lungs, and
twenty-eight pounds of blood journey from heart to lungs
and back again three times in each hour. It rests wholly
with ourselves, whether this wonderful tide, ebbing and
flowing with every breath, shall exchange its poisonous
and clogging carbonic acid and watery vapor for hfe-giving
oxygen, or retain it to weigh down and debilitate every
nerve in the body.
With everj^ thought and feeling some actual particles
of brain and nerve are dissolved, and sent floating on
this crimson current. With every motion of a muscle,
whether great or small, with every process that can take
place in the body, this ceaseless change of particles is
going on. Wherever oxygen finds admission, its union
with carbon to form carbonic acid, or with hj^drogen to
form water, produces heat. The waste of the body is
literally burned up by the oxygen ; and it is this burning
which means the warmth of a living body, its absence
giving the stony cold of the dead. " Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? " may well be the literal ques-
tion for each day of our lives ; and ' ' pure air ' ' alone can
secure genuine life. Breathing bad air reduces all the pro-
cesses of the body, lessens vitality ; and thus, one in poor
health will sufifer more from bad air than those who have
THE HOUSE: VENTILATION. 23
become thoroughly accustomed to it. If weakened vitality-
were the only result, it would not be so serious a matter ;
but scrofula is soon fixed upon such constitutions, begin-
ning with its milder form as in consumption, but ending in
the absolute rottenness of bone and tissue. The invalid
may live in the healthiest climate, pass hours each day in
the open air, and yet undo or neutralize much of the good
of this b}^ sleeping in an unventilated room at night. Dis-
eased joints, horrible affections of the eye or ear or skin,
are inevitable. The greatest li\ing authorities on lung-
diseases pronounce deficient ventilation the chief cause
of consumption, and more fatal than all other causes put
together; and, even where food and clothing are both un-
wholesome, free air has been found able to counteract
their effect.
Page 9
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jQ of science."
Food and air are the two means by which bodies live.
In the full-grown man, whose weight will average about
one hundred and fiftj^-four pounds, one hundred and eleven
pounds is oxygen drawn from the air we breathe. Only
when food has been dissolved in the stomach, absorbed
at last into the blood, and by means of circulation brought
into contact with the oxygen of the air taken into
our lungs, can it begin to really feed and nourish the
bodj' ; so that the lungs ma}^, after all, be regarded as
the true stomach, the other being not much more than the
food-receptacle.
Take these lungs, made up within of branching tubes,
these in turn formed by m3Tiads of air-cells, and each air-
22 THE HOUSE: VENTILATION.
cell owning its network of minute cells called capillaries.
To every air-cell is given a blood-vessel bringing blood
from the heart, which finds its way through every capillary
till it reaches another blood-vessel that carries it back to
tlie heart. It leaves the heart charged with carbonic acid
and watery vapor. It returns, if pure air has met it in
the lung, with all corruption destro3^ed, a dancing parti-
cle of life. But to be life, and not slow death, thirty- three
hogsheads of air must pass daily into the lungs, and
twenty-eight pounds of blood journey from heart to lungs
and back again three times in each hour. It rests wholly
with ourselves, whether this wonderful tide, ebbing and
flowing with every breath, shall exchange its poisonous
and clogging carbonic acid and watery vapor for hfe-giving
oxygen, or retain it to weigh down and debilitate every
nerve in the body.
With everj^ thought and feeling some actual particles
of brain and nerve are dissolved, and sent floating on
this crimson current. With every motion of a muscle,
whether great or small, with every process that can take
place in the body, this ceaseless change of particles is
going on. Wherever oxygen finds admission, its union
with carbon to form carbonic acid, or with hj^drogen to
form water, produces heat. The waste of the body is
literally burned up by the oxygen ; and it is this burning
which means the warmth of a living body, its absence
giving the stony cold of the dead. " Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? " may well be the literal ques-
tion for each day of our lives ; and ' ' pure air ' ' alone can
secure genuine life. Breathing bad air reduces all the pro-
cesses of the body, lessens vitality ; and thus, one in poor
health will sufifer more from bad air than those who have
THE HOUSE: VENTILATION. 23
become thoroughly accustomed to it. If weakened vitality-
were the only result, it would not be so serious a matter ;
but scrofula is soon fixed upon such constitutions, begin-
ning with its milder form as in consumption, but ending in
the absolute rottenness of bone and tissue. The invalid
may live in the healthiest climate, pass hours each day in
the open air, and yet undo or neutralize much of the good
of this b}^ sleeping in an unventilated room at night. Dis-
eased joints, horrible affections of the eye or ear or skin,
are inevitable. The greatest li\ing authorities on lung-
diseases pronounce deficient ventilation the chief cause
of consumption, and more fatal than all other causes put
together; and, even where food and clothing are both un-
wholesome, free air has been found able to counteract
their effect.