Lectures on Ventilation / Being a Course Delivered in the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia

by Lewis W. Leeds

And if it is thought that Philadelphia is exempt from such enormous unnecessary expense, just glance at the report of the Board of Health for last year, and see how the deaths from disease of the lungs largely exceed those from any other disease.

Consumption is almost entirely the result of breathing impure air,—it is as preventable by the exclusive use of pure air as maniaa potuor drunkenness is by the exclusive use of pure water. And see, too, what slaughter among the innocents—over twenty-five per cent. of the whole deaths were under one year of age.

The infantile mortality is by many considered the most delicate sanitary test. But why does such an intelligent community as this so neglect its own interest?

They have listened to and satisfied the first imperative demands of nature—shelter from the elements and warmth,—and in doing this they have not brought into use that much higher order of intellect which can alone teach them how to supply, in connection with an agreeable warmth, an abundance of pure air in their otherwise air-tight houses.

I have been much interested in examining a large collection of tables of the analysis of air, which accompany a report to Congress, on "Warming and Ventilating the Capitol," prepared by Thomas U. Walter, Professor Henry and Dr. Wetherill. These tables were made by men of various nations, giving the results of their analysis of air taken from all manner of places, from great elevations on the mountains and in balloons, from the valleys, from the centre of the ocean, and from the middle of the continent, in cities and in the country, in winter and in summer, at night and in the day, and also the comparative analysis of the air out of doors and in houses. Believing that these would be of much interest and assistance to us in the investigation of the subject under consideration, I have had copies made of some of the most interesting.

These give the per centage of carbonic acid in the air as the test of the amount of impurities in it.

This is not an infallible test by any means—there are various other causes of deterioration. There is the exhaustion of the oxygen constantly occurring to support combustion and animal life; there are various other deleterious products of combustion and respiration besides carbonic acid. But, as carbonic acid is always found in certain known proportions in pure air, and is always formed in certain known quantities by respiration or combustion, it is considered by many to give a very fair indication of the condition of the atmosphere with reference to its influence on animal life or combustion.

I think one of the most valuable lessons to be learned by the study of these tables is the uniform purity of the external atmosphere all over the world, even in large cities.

This is strikingly illustrated in the case of the analysis of the air in the city of Manchester.

We have nothing in this country like that city, where two millions of tons of coal are burned annually, the smoke from which fills the air and stretches like a black cloud far into the country.