CHIMNEy SWEEPING

Grey River Argus, 27 July 1907, Page 1

CHIMNEy SWEEPING

—P. STEPHEMSON—

t T>EGS to notify tnat he is prepared |J3 to undertake the sweeping of |phimneys. ;\ Orders left at his residence, Leonard Street, oppposite Victoria Park, will receive prompt attention.

.."IT IS ALWAYS a matter of great moment to maintain an equable temperature in the bedroom. A bedroom, the air of which is subject to sudden changes of temperature, is often a to great and frequent and rapid trap for danger. To persons who are lin the prime of life, and who are in robust health, this danger is less pro nounced ; ; but to the young and the feeble, it is a most serious danger. It is very dangerous for aged people to sleep in a room that is easily low " ered in warmth. "WHEN THE GREAT WAVES of cold come on in these islands, in the winter season, our old people 'begin to drop off, with' k rapidity that is per fectly startling. 'We take' up the list ; of deaths published in the newspapers' • during these; seasons and the most marked facts is. the number- of decea sed aged persons. It is like an epi ■ demic^of death by old age. The pub * lie -mmd accepts this record as in , dicative -*'df : a-general' change" "of ex* " ternal conditions, and of a mbftaiity, therefore, that is necesary as a result. .; of : that- change. I would not myself - dispute that there is a line of truth' : and sound common sense and.*com ■■ mon observation in this view ; but ■ when we descend from the general : to the particular, we find that much of the mortality seen in such excess amon the aged is induced by mistakes on the subject of warmth in the bed room. ' ' ■ "THE FATAL EVENT comes ab- - out in this way. The room in which 1 the person has been sitting before going to bed has been warmed : probably up to summer heat; a light mieal has been taken ibefore .retiring ' to rest, and .<then the ibedrqbm is enter ■■; ed, The. ■'bedroom, perchance, has no fire .in- ft, ot, if a fire be lighted, pro vision is not made for keeping it alight more than aa hour or -two. The result is that, in the early part" of the morning from throe to four o'clock, when the temperature of »the air in all ' parts is lowest, V*he;-, glow from the . : fire or stove^which' warm the room has ceas'ed^'and the room is cold to an extreme: 'degree. ' "IN SOME HOUSES . .... the waller will often be found frozen . m the hand basins or , ewers *unjler th '

ese conditions. Meanwhile >the sleeper lies unconscious, of the great change which .is taking place in the air around hrn. Slowly and surely, there is a decline of temperature to the exteat, it nay toe, at tnirey.or forty de grees in thte i? ahtenheit. scale : and, though he may be fairly covered with bedclothes, he : is receiving into his lungs this cold air, by which the cir culation through the lungs is much tfbuibled. "THE CONDITION OF THE BODY itself, as, at this very time, unfavorable for meeting any emergency. In the. period between midnight and six in the morning the anmal vital pro cesses, are at 1 their lowest eibb. It is in tihese>hburs that those are en felebled from this : cause most frequently die. -"We physicians often con sider these tours a scritical, and forewarn anxious friends in respect €0 to • them. ' From time -immemorial those who have been accustomed to "wait and attend iujßQjttjthe sickiJiave.3»ted-tihese-hours~nipst anxiously^.. »"ithkt (they have ibefen • called" iby brife of ;6ur old writers , Jthe-'liours of fate. 5 In:this \y\ spaife of* : y.me ; 'the i infl'ueiioe of the life-: giving' sumhas .been longest withdraw n from man, and the -hearts- that are even the strongest^ beat then with subdued tone. "SLEEP IS HEAVIEST, and death is nearest to ius all,' in' 'the hours of fate. ' The feeble, therefore, are in greatest danger during" this period of time, for they are subjected to one par ticular danger, that of congestion of the' lungs. It is the 'breathing surface of the lungs that is most exposed to the action of the chilled-air, and the aged thfe expoure is always hazardous." • •■• The above evils .may practically be avoided by the use of a : small gas fire, costing but a few shillings. : The charges for gas for ithe smaller sizes are as k>w as one penny per hour; Gas fires with or without flutes or v to fit into registered grates. Gas fires ; are unexcelled for the office, the shop, writing room, parlour, dining room, and (bedrooms. Call arid inspect the; large stocks of gas apparatus of all kinds .at the Gas Works Show Room, Tainui Street.- ' .