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.