WHY PEOPLE YAWN

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1925, Page 16

WHY PEOPLE YAWN

LACK OF VENTILATION THE MAIN

CAUSE.

"If they are overcrowded people begin to yawn because their mental and physical energies are depressed. You see it in church. If I were a parson I. never would conclude it was my sermon that made my people somnolent, but that it was due to lack of ventilation." Professor Kenwood, of London University, made this statement when lecturing, on "Hygiene."

Professor Kenwood said that experiments had recently established the fact that it was not the accumulation of carbonic acid gas that was the cause of discomfort iv tho overcrowded room, or lack of oxygen, or disproportion of any other constituent or dry atmosphere, but that it was duo to increase of temperature and of moisture, and tho stagnation of air movement. It was established that foul air in overcrowded rooms did not act through our lungs at all, but through our skins. It was not necessary to keep windows open wide to flood a, room ■ with air. A very small opening m the bedroom window would keep tho temperature right.

Light was an important factor in the euro and prevention of disease, but as a germicidal power had been grossly exaggerated. Sunlight, quiti-, apart from sunshine, was another great factor, and attention should be given to ■ the aspect of individual houses rather than the mere layout, «F streets. In clothing opportunities should be givrii for the air to reach the akin, "Wool was the beet -clothing procurablo.