EXERCISES ADAPTED TO GESTATION.
1. Standing position. Carry the weight of the body as far forward and backward as possible, without lifting heels or bending knees. Count four to each movement.
2. Same position. Bend body slowly from side to side. Keep knees straight and feet firm.
3. Hands forward on hips, bend trunk at hips slowly forward; rise slowly and bend backward, always keeping the head in position with the body.
4. Inflate the lungs. Touch the shoulders lightly with the tips of the fingers. Bring the elbows slowly in front of the body, touching them together. Lift them as high as possible. Throw elbows back and up, the fingers still touching shoulders. Bring them back to commencing position. Expel air. This exercise elevates the ribs and expands lower part of chest.
5. Erect position. Inhale. Finger tips to shoulders. Hold the breath to count twenty, then with clenched fist strike downward and forward. Stop suddenly as if striking an object. Expel breath forcibly with the motion. If the motion is decisive the breath will naturally be expelled by the diaphragm.
6. Kneel on a cushion, knees far apart, stretch arms upward, parallel with each other by the side of head, bend trunk slowly backward as far as possible, remain to count four, return forward as far as possible, keeping knees and feet firm. This is one of the best exercises for strengthening the muscles of the back and pelvis.
7. Same position, hands clasped on top of head, move the body from side to side slowly, count four with each movement and then rest. In the same position twist the body from right to left.
8. Same position, arms extended horizontally forward, throw them backward in a direct line as far as possible. This may be practiced quickly or slowly as if carrying a weight.
9. Reclining upon back, flex the knees and sway them from side to side.
10. Same position, flex and thrust the limbs downward alternately.
11. Reclining, face downward, flex knees and sway feet from right to left.
12. Same position, with the help of an assistant flex and extend the limbs, using resistance.
13. Same position, rest on elbows and sway shoulders from right to left.
14. Same position, elevate the body slowly, resting only on toes and elbows.
15. Recline on back and make hand thrusts, with or without weights, upward, outward, forward and downward.
In all these exercises it is persistent, patient effort that gives decided results. One will not see their effects in one day, nor one week, unless it is in greater freedom of breath. At first soreness may follow the use of muscles unaccustomed to exercise. A wet compress or a warm bath will relieve this. These exercises should always be taken in a loose wrapper and at stated hours. The best time is before the forenoon bath and before retiring at night.
The following is a heresy but nevertheless is a truth. A pregnant woman having a comfortable degree of health, will derive as much benefit by going up and down stairs as by any other exercise, providing she observe the following conditions:
1. Wear a dress that is loose, light and short.
2. Keep the mouth closed.
3. Fill the lungs with air, hold the breath until the top is reached, and then expel slowly.
4. Maintain the erect position.
Notice what has been accomplished. The diaphragm and abdominal muscles have been brought into action by the deep breath, while the muscles of the thigh, pelvis, perineum and groin are all engaged in elevating the body. Each time the thigh is raised, pressure is made upon the abdominal viscera, which, if there is no outside counteracting force, are pushed outward and upward, and with the opposite movement resume their place.
The reason climbing stairs may injure women is, that with each upward movement, as the bowels are pushed out, they come in contact with the outside constricting pressure of corset and bands. Where can they go? Not being able to go outward they must go upward, arresting the breath, or downward, pressing the pelvic viscera upon the perineum. Is it not unjust to attribute the mischief to the stairs, when all the time it is the clothing that does the harm? Who would ever think of its hurting a boy to go up stairs, even if he takes three steps at a time, and goes up three flights without catching his breath? Dress a girl as sensibly; neither will it hurt her, for really the little anatomical difference in their organization is in the girl’s favor.
Going up stairs is the best way to get desired exercise in a short time. A successful, self educated man of this city said that, when studying, and his brain became weary and stupid, he left his books and ran up and down stairs three or four times, accomplishing more for himself than by half an hour’s walk, or by gymnastics.
When I was in medical college, some of our lecture rooms were on the fourth floor, and my own room was also on the fourth floor; both of these buildings had high ceilings. I used to pride myself in starting at the first floor, and running to the top without stopping. I then wore the “American costume,” and was nearly as free in my dress as a man. Ever since, stairs have presented no more difficulties to me than a level floor.
A lady told me that with her third child she practiced going up and down stairs on purpose for the exercise. The result was the easiest labor and the best recovery she ever had experienced.
In climbing hills, observe the same rules—keep the mouth closed, expel slowly through the nose, and stand erect. Not long since I read a long letter, upon running, written to boys (and why not to girls as well?) The writer claimed that the whole secret of being able to run and defy all competitors, was to keep the mouth closed. Why? Simply because it forces deep breathing, and compels the use of the diaphragm. Any one can prove this. So with any exercise, but especially in climbing hills or stairs, keep the mouth closed.
Let me urge and emphasize that the pregnant woman must walk, ride, take gymnastics, climb hills and stairs, beginning according to her strength, and increasing the amount from day to day. Upon strength, power and vigor of muscles, largely depends easy labor.
The Delsarte system of esthetic gymnastics is a method of physical training leading to the cultivation of grace and strength. Truthful or natural expression of one’s individuality is the key-note of Delsarte’s thought. This is really a desirable means of obtaining rest, for it teaches giving up all unnecessary tension. In this it is quite the opposite of other methods of gymnastics. This letting go or giving up, can not be done all at once. The teachers of the system give a series of exercises to free the different parts of the body; first the head, then the hands and feet, then the muscles of the waist and chest. Deep breathing aids in freeing the vital organs. All forces of the body are thus allowed a natural and graceful expression.
Annie Payson Call, in her tract on the Regeneration of the Body, says: “The soul can be regenerated and the body remain disorderly; the body can be trained to a fine physical life and action and the soul remain unregenerate; but certainly the fulness of life, both for this world and the next, must come from a more perfect harmony of the material body with the soul.”
CHAPTER XI.
CHASTITY IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION.
“So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her.”
—Milton.
Many years ago during a visit to my cousin, a young married woman called with her four months old baby—a thin-necked, bloodless, blue looking child. After she left, cousin observed, “Is it not a shame that young people have so little knowledge? That poor child is suffering because the parents too frequently practice the privileges accorded in the marriage relation. The milk is deprived of its vitalizing and nutritious elements.” So little of such matters had come to my knowledge that all she meant was not comprehended. From what my instincts had taught me, and what had been seen in animal life, I had no thought that this relation ever was frequent, especially during child-bearing.
To this day the picture of that wan, pale baby is impressed upon my memory, its very emaciation making an eloquent plea for the rights of children. Soon after this, I heard H. C. Wright’s lecture upon “Marriage; its Duties and Responsibilities.” He urged men and women to transmit the best of themselves to their children, and to be certain that offspring were not deprived of vitality and strength by lustful indulgence. For the sake of the improvement and progress of posterity, the life of married people must be temperate. After this I read his “Marriage and Parentage,” and “Unwelcome Child,” with increased interest in this subject.
At that time the need of such lectures and books was not understood. In long years since, the agonizing cries of heart-broken, suffering women, the terrible death rate of little children have proven that in the marriage relation there is such a perversion of nature, such grievous wrongs committed that one needs a pen of fire to express the living, burning thoughts, and carry the conviction of truth into the very lives of men and women. Unless by some divine miracle, the eloquence of a thousand inspired pens cannot stay the floodtide of wrong and injustice now done to women and children under the cover of the marriage law.
Among animals, except in rare instance under domestication, the female admits the male in sexual embrace, only for procreation. Among some savage tribes this same rule has few exceptions. Is it not true that civilized people, boasting of their moral and religious codes, hold, teach and practice that sexual union shall occur in season and out of season, averring this to be the fulfillment of nature’s law?
Briefly consider different views upon this subject.
First. Those who hold that sexual intercourse is a “physical necessity” to man but not to woman.
Second. Those who believe the act is a love relation, mutually demanded and enjoyed by both sexes, and serving other purposes besides that of procreation.
Third. Those who claim the relation should never be entered into save for procreation.
Physicians and physiologists teach, and most men and women believe:
That sexual union is a necessity to man, while it is not to woman.
That there is implanted in his being demands that cannot be restrained without injury to health.
That restraint is followed by absorption of the elements of generation, producing effects not unlike the absorption of a virulent foreign element.
That woman naturally has not so much passion as man, has not so much secretion, also has an outlet in menstruation, consequently has not the same demands nor the same injury if not gratified.
Are these claims based upon truth? What are the facts from which to infer what men and women naturally are?
When woman only is taught that virtue is the brightest jewel in her crown, when the popular verdict is that womanliness and modesty are synonyms for repression, when she lives in fear of maternity, and believes restraint on her part prevents vitality of life germs, when, too, erroneous habits pervert every function, how can we tell what is natural for her?
Then, on the other hand, when man is taught that virtue is not synonymous with manliness, when the passions are stimulated by unnatural habits of living, by impure conversation, thoughts, books and practices, can we say this strength of passion is purely natural and healthy?
A. E. Newton says: “They who have never carefully noted the effects of alcoholic stimulants, of coffee, oysters, eggs, spices and animal food, as well as they who find pleasure in filthy conversations, can not surely, with any justness, charge nature with the exuberance of their amatory desires.”
We teach the girl repression, the boy expression, not simply by word and book, but the lessons are graven into their very being by all the traditions, prejudices and customs of society.
What are some of the results of this theory?
Notably, in the first place, we have what is called the “social evil.” Women, licensed by men, make a business of prostitution, selling their bodies that this demand—this necessity—of the male shall be supplied. In visiting these women, men simply yield to this supposed necessity of their nature; consequently commit no violation of law.
Women not having the same demands, by entering this life, or even permitting the act once, violate the laws of their being; according to the social codes, perpetrate the greatest crime in the calendar! They become outcasts. If they fill their lives with noble and philanthropic deeds, this one sin is so foul and rank, is such an offense, they have little hope of remission, even from a just and all-loving God.
Can the fact that men are upheld, their crime even condoned, while women, as partners in this terrible evil, are not only ostracised, but irretrievably lost, be explained in any other way?
Witness the effect of this same theory in the marriage relation! The man who has been accustomed to gratify his passions promiscuously, seeks and marries a lovely, virtuous girl. She is not supposed to have needs in this direction. Neither has she learned that her body is her own and her soul is her Maker’s. She gives up all ownership of herself to her husband, and what is the difference between her life and the life of the public woman? She is sold to one man, and is not half so well paid. Is it too strong language to say she is the one prostitute taking the place, for the man, of many, and not like her, having choice of time or conditions? In consequence she not only suffers physically, but feels disgraced and outraged to the depths of her soul.
She is liable to a chance maternity and the unwelcome child is deprived of physical vigor, and may be endowed with lustful passions and morbid appetites, if he does not indeed curse his own existence.
At the close of one of my health conversations after speaking upon this subject, a lady tremblingly, but touchingly, gave her experience. She said: “Ladies, when I was married two years I was the mother of a puny, sickly baby; it had required incessant care and watching to keep it alive. When it was only seven months old, to my surprise, astonishment and horror, I felt quickening, and for the first time, I knew I was pregnant again. I was abased, humiliated. The sense of degradation that filled my soul, cannot be described. What had been done? The babe that was born and the babe that was unborn were robbed of their just inheritance. Remorsefully and tearfully I told my mother. She says: ‘Why child, you should not grieve; don’t you know your children are legitimate?’ My whole being arose in protest; I stamped my foot and almost screamed; ‘Although my husband is the father of my children, they are not legitimate. No man-made laws, nor priestly rites can ever make an act legitimate that deprives innocent children of their right to life and health.’ With sobs and moans, reaction came and I fainted in her arms. What was the sequel? Two years later both of these children after a brief existence lay in the ‘city of the dead,’ and until my husband and I learned the law we could not have children to live.”
Parties holding the second theory claim:
That coition is a love act.
That it should never occur except when there is mutual participation on the part of both man and woman, and should be governed and guarded so as to control the creative power.
Thus this act is the emblem of love; by it there is a mutual exchange of subtle elements which gives health and vigor, and more firmly cements the union.
That if the lives of married people accorded to this theory, the demand of the man would be no more frequent than that of the woman.
That the husband cannot sustain this relation satisfactorily and without injury to himself unless there is reciprocation on the part of the wife.
That under this mutual relation there is no loss to either party, but a mutual compensation.
This theory has its arguments and certainly is more humane than the first.
A woman once consulted me who was the mother of five children, all born within ten years. These were puny, scrofulous, nervous, and irritable. She herself was a fit subject for doctors and drugs. Every organ in her body seemed diseased, and every function perverted. She was dragging out a miserable existence. Like other physicians, I had prescribed in vain for her many maladies. One day she chanced to inquire how she could safely prevent conception. This led me to ask how great was the danger. She said: “Unless my husband is absent from home, few nights have been exempt since we were married, except it may be three or four immediately after confinement.”
“And yet your husband loves you?”
“O, yes, he is kind and provides for his family. Perhaps I might love him but for this. While now—(will God forgive me?)—I detest, I loathe him, and if I knew how to support myself and children, would leave him.”
“Can you talk with him upon this subject?”
“I think I can.”
“Then there is hope, for many women cannot do that. Tell him I will give you treatment to improve your health, and if he will wait until you can respond, take time for the act, have it entirely mutual from first to last, the demand will not come so frequently.”
“Do you think so?”
“The experience of many proves the truth of this statement.”
Hopefully she went home, and in six months I had the satisfaction of knowing my patient was restored to health, and a single coition in a month gave the husband more satisfaction than the many had done previously, that the creative power was under control, and that my lady could proudly say “I love,” where previously she said “I hate.”
If husbands will listen, a few simple instructions will appeal to their common sense, and none can imagine the gain to themselves, to their wives, and children and their children’s children. Then it may not be said of the babes that their “Death borders on their birth, and their cradle stands in the grave.”
The third theory, that the sexual relation should never be sustained, save for procreation, has many adherents. They teach that there are other uses for the procreative element than the generation of offspring—far better uses than its waste in momentary pleasure. This element, when retained in the system, the mental powers being properly directed, is in some way absorbed and diffused throughout the whole organism, replacing waste, and imparting a peculiar vivifying influence. It is taken up by the brain and may be coined into new thoughts—perhaps new inventions—grand conceptions of the true, the beautiful, the useful, or into fresh emotions of joy and impulses of kindness, and blessings to all around. It is a procreation on the mental and spiritual planes instead of the physical. It is just as really a part of the generative function as is the begetting of physical offspring.
They claim that men eminent for grand achievements in fields of science, philosophy, invention, religion and philanthropy, have been men whose lives accorded to this theory, referring us as illustrious examples to Plato, Newton, Lamb, our own Irving and Whittier, and always remembering the humble Nazarene.
They also claim that to woman belongs the “creative power,” that she must choose when a new life shall be evolved, and only by adhering to this law can she be protected in the highest function of her being—the function of maternity. Mrs. Chandler in “Motherhood,” says: “Every mother from the hour when the new life commences, is overshadowed by the Most High. Could she understand her needs and powers, and secure to herself respect due to her sacred office, and, free from all polluting intrusion upon herself, bathe her spirit in the influxes which the life within attracts, very rapidly would disappear the loathesome deformities, the discordant spirits now blotting the fair proportions of humanity.”
She claims that in the Scripture statement in reference to the parents of the child Jesus, that Joseph “knew not” Mary from the hour when the announcement of the new life was made until the birth of the child, is involved a deeper and more important meaning than the Christian world or the medical profession have discovered. Thus this “undisturbed maternity, which was essential to the ushering in of the Prince of Peace, is equally in all cases a vital and indisputable necessity for the improvement of humanity. Motherhood should be a shrine unpolluted by selfishness. O woman! This would be thy recompense for all the sufferings and agonies which pertain to physical womanhood and motherhood.”
It is encouraging for those who believe this thought to know that not only woman but men standing high in learning and literature espouse and teach it. “The Science of a New Life,” by Dr. Cowan, gives what he terms the law of continence as a central thought. It is full of practical lessons for married people, and has had a large sale.
“The Better Way,” a pamphlet, by A. E. Newton, teaches that only through continent lives can we hope for progress.
“Plain Facts,” by Dr. Kellogg, has had an immense sale. He, too, teaches the same thought.
Note, all these books are written by men—not by women, with some fancied wrongs to redress; but by men strongly in sympathy with the needs of the race. They claim that a better and higher generation can only be attained through continent lives. This is a subject demanding the serious consideration, at least, of scientists, philosophers and philanthropists.
If the law of continence is not the law to govern one’s entire life, it is natural and reasonable that the mother should be exempt from the sexual relation during gestation. The husband should ever be ready to comfort and cheer with his sympathy. He should bear in mind that at this time his wife and child need the conservation of all forces, and consequently he should “observe all laws that will let reason reign and passion serve.”
The observance of the law of continence will do much to palliate the many nervous symptoms of pregnancy. I have known women so sensitive during gestation that even a touch or a kiss from the husband caused nausea and other distressing symptoms.
“The sexual relation at this time exhausts the mother and impairs the vitality of the child, inducing in its constitution precocious sexual development. The mind should be free from the subject, and every circumstance that has a tendency to promote desire should be studiously avoided. For this reason separate beds and even sleeping rooms for husband and wife are to be recommended.”
It is worth investigating, whether the cause of suffering in pregnancy and much of the pain at parturition may not also be removed by the practice of continence during gestation.
Cannot those in charge of hospitals and charitable institutions make a study of the subject? A collection of statistics would help to establish or refute this theory. The influence of continence on offspring invites the serious thought of all who desire the progress of purity. Thoughtful parents will question whether by living during the mother’s gestation on the low plane of physical love, they are not implanting in their child the seeds of sensuality. Keeping their lives in the higher spiritual love they may have offspring to whom a life of purity and self-control will be natural.
“In brief, the law seems to be that, such is the intimate connection between the mother and the embryo, the exercise of any faculty of her mind or soul, or of any organ of her brain or body, stimulates and develops in proportionate degree the corresponding faculty or organ in the incipient child.”
Of what use is it to teach the young lessons of purity and morality, when by prenatal culture, they have graven in their very lives lessons of prostitution? Many men violate this law of reproduction through ignorance. Were they taught the results, and how to live lives of self-control, many would gladly accept the lesson.
To live continent lives, avoid food containing aphrodisiac stimulants, such as coffee, eggs, oysters, and animal food. Omit the evening meal; for the purpose desired this stands paramount to all other means. Let the life be temperate in every respect, and with a strong will the victory can be won. Remember that it is the action of the mind chiefly, that stimulates excessive seminal secretion. The husband being the devoted lover, with similar untiring, delicate attentions, can attain the same self-control he practiced during courtship. The wife will more surely retain her health and youthful charms in bearing welcome children. Women will rejoice in a glad maternity, and a higher, nobler and more God-like posterity will people the earth.
A few years since I read a paper entitled, “The Hygiene of Pregnancy,” before a Medical Association. In it were sentiments similar to the above. It was read hesitatingly, anticipating only adverse criticism from the men composing that body. Previous to the reading of my paper, the members had taken but little interest in the convention except to promulgate pet theories. The weather was warm, and groups were sitting on the piazza, smoking cigars, indifferent to subjects under discussion. The reading had not proceeded far, however, when cigars were thrown away, and the entire convention were listeners. Judge of my surprise when the thoughts expressed received a long and hearty applause. Most of those men used tobacco, some drank beer, and all ate animal food. They were not the class of men from whom recognition of such radical sentiments would be expected.
Let the justness of this subject be properly presented to them, and most men will be convinced of its truth. Men naturally reverence the maternal in woman, and if taught that continence serves the best interests of motherhood and posterity, will cheerfully accord their lives with it.
A principal of a high school in Iowa was a married man many years before he knew that the sexual relation was ever sustained during pregnancy. When he learned it, he asserted that his whole soul was filled with shame and disgust that his sex had no better knowledge of their protective duties relating to maternity.
Those desiring the best reproduction of themselves should learn:
That motherhood is the central fact of human life.
That the first right of a child is to be well born.
That every mother should be set apart during pregnancy for the ante-natal culture of her child.
That control of appetite is the first step in human culture.
That no man should become a father who can not and will not observe the demands of temperance in all things for the benefit of his child.
CHAPTER XII.
VENTILATION.—REST.
The pregnant woman breathes for two. While pure air is desirable for all persons under every condition, it is doubly so for her. Nothing is more essential to the healthful nourishment of the fetus than that the blood be thoroughly oxygenated. Otherwise the child may be weak and feeble, and liable to disease.
Everywhere, in railroad cars, streets, shops, public halls and dwelling houses, there is foul air—air that is loaded with exhalations from the lungs, emanations from the body, and is often vitiated by tobacco and alcohol. Architects, builders and occupants pay but little attention to ventilation. The most important purpose of a building is evidently to keep the heat in during the winter, and keep it out in the summer.
With every breath a person exhales quite a large proportion of carbonic gas, which is a deadly poison, and at the same time inhales the life-giving oxygen, constantly exhausting the supply. Yet the great fear of drafts, as well as need of economizing heat, causes most persons to breathe the same air over and over again. Gases that are inimical to health and life are constantly inhaled. If one breathed deeply and only pure air it would atone for violation of many other physiological laws. The proof of this is seen in the effects of a hunter’s or a pioneer’s life.
The following from the Lancet gives some practical ideas upon the ventilation of bedrooms:
“If a man were deliberately to shut himself for some six or eight hours daily in a stuffy room, with closed doors and windows (the doors not being open even to change the air during the period of incarceration) and were then to complain of headache and debility, he would justly be told that his own want of intelligent foresight was the cause of his suffering. Nevertheless, the great mass of people do this every night of their lives, with no thought of their imprudence.
“There are few bedrooms in which it is perfectly safe to pass the night without something more than ordinary precautions to secure an inflow of fresh air. Every sleeping apartment should, of course, have a fireplace with an open chimney, and in cold weather it is well if the grate contains a small fire, at least enough to create an upward current to carry off the vitiated air of the room. In all such cases, however, when a fire is used, it is necessary to see that the air drawn into the room comes from the outside of the house.
“Summer and winter, with or without the use of fires, it is well to have a free ingress for pure air. This should be the ventilator’s first concern. Foul air will find an exit if pure air is admitted in sufficient quantity, but it is not certain that pure air will not also be drawn away. So far as sleeping rooms are concerned it is wise to let in the air from without. The aim must be to accomplish the object without causing a great fall of temperature. The windows may be drawn down an inch or two at the top with advantage, and a fold of muslin will form a ‘ventilator’ to take off the feeling of draft. This with an open fireplace will generally suffice, and produce no unpleasant consequences, even when the weather is cold.”
While the open fireplace, ’tis true, gives splendid ventilation, at the present price of fuel it is a luxury within the reach of few. Yet, taking into consideration how effectually it “slams the door on the doctor’s nose,” it is an economical investment.
Recently there have been open stoves constructed on a new principle, that are very desirable. They are cheerful and decorative in appearance, equal to other stoves for cleanliness, economical of heat, and what is so needful in every dwelling, furnish a constant change of air—are in themselves ventilators.
One building a new house can easily have ventilation by making a dry well of good dimensions in the yard and filling it with coarse charcoal. There should be an air-shaft leading to it and one from it into the house. The air from it must go directly to the furnace. It should be so constructed that water will drip slowly through the charcoal. In this way the moisture and charcoal purify the outside air, freeing it from dust and smoke, while the pit cools it in the summer, and modifies the temperature in the winter. Better air is obtained than if let in by windows and doors.
The house should have flues for the escape of impure gases. Common grates will answer the purpose. An abundance of pure air constantly supplied.
In regard to fresh air in sleeping rooms, Dr. James H. Jackson says: “There appears to be a want of a clear understanding of the difference between the terms cold air and pure air, and many persons do not seem to comprehend that the air of a room may be both pure and warm. They seem not to know that the temperature does not affect the purity of the air so long as there is opportunity for proper circulation. Pure air is not necessarily cold, nor is cold air always pure.
“In order to have good ventilation, provision should always be made for a circulation of air. It is not sufficient to provide an entrance for outside air; exit through an opposite door or window or flue should also be secured. A good way to do this is to let down a window two or three inches at the top, and the air thus let in becomes somewhat warmed by the heat which rises. Here then you have warm fresh air. Now bad air, being loaded with carbonic acid gas, sinks to the bottom of the room. Some way must therefore be provided for its escape. A transom near the bottom of the door would answer the purpose; an open fireplace furnishes an outlet for impure air, or if both these are wanting, the door may be left slightly ajar, or a simple or inexpensive ventilator may be made by fitting into the stove-pipe, above its damper, another piece of pipe that shall be cut off within two inches of the floor; this pipe also to be provided with a damper which can be opened at will. A very effective draft is thus created near the floor, which takes all foul air up into the chimney.
“I do not approve, on the contrary I condemn the habit of sleeping, even in the coldest weather, in a small room, windows closed, weather strips on the doors and sashes, and every possible device used to keep out the outside air. In such a room one must necessarily respire the same air many times, and the fact that it is cold does not make it the less injurious. Nature throws off by the breathing process certain poisonous elements which to re-breathe and re-absorb is most pernicious. No one who is not robust should sleep in a room so cold that the windows and doors must all be closed to keep warm. A much more healthful way is to have the temperature of the sleeping room the same as that of the living room; under no circumstances do I deem it advisable for an invalid to sleep in a room that can not have pure, warm air.
“Remember that the important point is circulation, and that this may be had without letting in a great volume of cold air.”
A small amount of outside air can be let into a room by raising the window four or five inches and fitting a board at the bottom. There is a space left between the sashes that allows some air to enter. This, however, is not sufficient in a small bedroom, unless for the coldest weather. “The only objection to a draft is, that the draft is generally not strong enough. An influx of fresh air into a room is a ray of light into darkness, a messenger of Vishnu visiting an abode of the lost.” Even the weak and enfeebled can accustom themselves to plenty of pure air, and also to drafts.
To test the condition of a sleeping room, leave it closed in the morning, go into the fresh air for ten or fifteen minutes, return to the room, and if the air seems less pure than the outside air the ventilation is imperfect. The nose is a sentinel to warn us of danger. It should be educated to tell the condition of the air we breathe. What a benefit to mankind if some one would invent a gauge to determine the amount of impurities in the air, as heat is tested by a thermometer. Would it not on many occasions give us startling revelations?
To aid in improving the air of a house, and especially of a sleeping room, we have a safe, efficient and economical means in the use of unslaked lime and charcoal. A small basket of these should be placed in every invalid’s room, or where children sleep, for the purpose of absorbing the carbonic acid gas of the lungs, and the effluvium of the human body.
The discovery of this simple method is attributed to Dr. Bonizzardi, of Italy. He claims, “That people die much more rapidly through the deleterious effects of miasma and carbonic acid gas than by the want of oxygen in the air. To prove his theory, he put three fowls on a perfectly even floor, under three glass cases, and placed in the case containing the first bird nothing but the fowl, in the second one a piece of unslaked lime, while the third contained some pieces of charcoal. In half an hour after the birds were confined he examined them, and found that the bird having neither lime nor charcoal was dead, that the one in the second case containing the unslaked lime was barely alive, while the bird in the case containing charcoal was quite active, and showed no sign of suffering.
“The first fowl, having neither lime to absorb the carbonic acid gas of the lungs, nor charcoal to collect on its surface the effluvium of the surrounding air, died of blood poisoning, produced solely by the action of the carbonic acid expelled from the lungs.
“The fowl that was supplied with the lime was only quite ill, because the lime had removed one of the causes of death by absorbing the carbonic acid gas; while the bird confined in the case containing the charcoal was only slightly indisposed or ill, because the charcoal absorbed all the exhalations of the lungs and body.
“These experiments prove that people die far more quickly from the deleterious action of bodily exhalations than from any deficiency of oxygen in the air. The moral of these experiments is: That a small basket of charcoal should be placed in the room of every invalid, in order that it may absorb the carbonic acid gas floating in the air, and thus render the atmosphere purer and more wholesome.”