THE VALUE OF FRESH AIR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2135, 18 July 1907, Page 3

THE VALUE OF FRESH AIR.

Asked to writo an article on domestic myths, Dr. Saleoby came to the conclusion that tlio night-air superstition demanded an article to itself, so a column and a half of the Pall Mall Gazette is devoted to the subject. The night-air superstition he traces to tlio fact that in certain countries exposure at night is apt to produce malaria. It is only recently that the blame for the disease has been fastened on the mosquito. The theory that bedroom air is not tho same as night-air sprang from the observation that if you slept indoors; you escaped malaria. The night air gave you malariatherefore, 'tho night air must be different to the air inside. How, asks Dr. .Saleoby, does night air differ from day air in England? Night arc may contain less carbonic' acid, and fewer organic gases, and it is certainly less dusty—three points in its favour. It is colder, and open windows sometimes mean an extra blanKct, but “the advantage of breathing pure instead of foul air during one-third of your existence is perhaps not too dearly bought thus. It is impossible to keep the night air out of a room altogether, and tlu; most foolish of us is thereby partly saved from the consequence of bis folly. There is said to be not one bedroom in the country with air enough for, a sleeper during one whole night without replenishment. Space is utterly misleading; it is the means of replenishing the air that count. Factory legislation merely demands cubic space, and the recent Royal Commission found tho air abominably foul in many places whore the legal requirement was complied with. Dr. Saleeby reminds us diat famous cricketers have died from consumption, in spito of their work in tho open air day by day, and that Grace Darling died of the disease at the a"e of twenty-seven, because she slept in a chamber little Digger than herself, and badly ventilated. The glorious fresh air of tho Islands did not avail against the accumulation of carbonic acid at night. The most obvious and striking consequence of opening vour windows at night is a larger appetite for breakfast. next morning. Against this lias to be set the possibility of interference with sleep. The very purity of the air may keep you from going to sleep when you are wakened in the night by the cool air oil your face; foul air is an anaesthetic. But this

is temporary, and not to be considered for a moment- against the deadliness of foul air. Curious, is it not, remarks Dr. Saleeby, that a man should be paid for writing this in the twentieth century ? —Lyttelton Times. v i— »