The harm comes from the fact of so intelligent and intellectual a body as the Board of Health of Philadelphia encouraging the accomplishment of this very desirable object, by thwarting that great universal law of our Creator, the ceaseless agitation of the air by which it purifies itself, (and by which perversion of nature's laws millions are already being killed unnecessarily every year,) instead of their encouraging its accomplishment in that much more healthy and rational way by adding more clothing or more fuel to the fire, and still continuing to breathe the pure air at night as well as in the day-time.
I have practised for many years sleeping with my windows open every night, summer and winter, allowing the unobstructed breeze to flow across my bed, to the great improvement of my health and strength.
There is no objection in a well ventilated room to having a fire if desired. A small room with a hot stove or open fire and the windows open, is much more wholesome than a large air-tight room freezing cold.
Let us illustrate this by a simple experiment. Here we have a very small tube, in which we place a lighted candle, occupying nearly the entire space—this burns brightly, you see.
Here we have another glass chamber, much handsomer and twenty times as large; we also place a similar candle in it, that burns with equal brightness, but watch them both for a few moments—see how rapidly this light in the large chamber diminishes in size.
That represents, in a beautiful manner, the diminished force of your life in an air-tight room. There it goes—entirely extinguished by foul air in so short a time, but the other continues to burn just as brightly as when first lighted. The smaller one had the window open, so to speak; we will imagine the candle in the large chamber to be a consumptive patient who thought the room so large he did not need the windows open. Remember, therefore, that no matter how small your room is, if there is a constant circulation of fresh air through it, the lamp of your life will burn brightly; but if ever so large and air-tight, your life will soon be extinguished.