MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 26 May 1915, Page 6

MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

(By Hygeia).^ - . ; , ' ' •'/ " " >.t -_. ' Z - r ' (Published under th* auspices ■-of the Society .for the Ltealth ot Women and Children).

AIR. I In order to .give practical emphasis, to an appeal made m tms column seven ■ years-., a^o for tne provision of a free ' now ot' pure outside air through our houses at night we published tne following list ot Popular Fallacies. In view of the*fact that the great majority of bedrooms still remain stuffy and insufficiently ventilated, we feel it is our duty to bring the matter again ' before our readeis in the hope that some few at least will have the wisdom to accept henceforth this the most essential of all health-giving agencies, if , not for themselves, at least for. the . children entrusted to their care.

POPULAR FALLACIES. THAT COUNTRY AIR IS PURE AND TOWN AIR FOUL. City air is unduly abused. Serious contamination is nearly always mainly an indoor condition. The air of bedrooms in the country is often 10 times as foul as the open" air of the densest city;" indeed, there are very few bedrooms in which the pollution every night does net greatly exceed that of •any ordinary o-utside.air. There is no excuse for this. Air can be kept pure and healthy in the smallest town cottage by providing a. sufficient inlet and outlet, and thus ensuring a free current all night. This would be provided by an ordinary fireplace amd a sash window wide open—not merely opened a few inches—and unobstructed by any blind or curtain." When the bedroom itself has no firep'ace, the door leading out of the bedroom and into the kitchen can be left open. Then, ii the kitchen window be shirt, the air to supply the chimney must enter through the open window of the bedrtfbm. If windows are kept open on both sides of a cottage, and all the doo^-s are kept ajar., fairly good cross ventilation can be estahti.her' without tbe aid of a chimney. In the absence of any means of establishing a regular cross current. a window uncovered by'blind or curtain and kept wide open top and bottom is th**l! be*t substitute.

[If. tbe people lind the slightest appreciation of the added hea'tf . and happiness which would result fro*^ such simple measures, they would make "nothing of overcoming the trifling objections which te-nd to obtrude themselves, s"ch as the need to keep out cats or other intruders, or +he need +o prevent strong 'rinds blowing on the sleepers. A wide rr^sh wire netting, which . "»_'lv> bought W. <*• few pe*.ce a yard, will keep out intruders, and any handy man <->an improvise a c^enp. effective draught screen fc°e i l-v- c,+ration-? and text «-"VM Hto _>9, "Feeding and Care of Baby").}

THAT WOODEN HOUSES NEED NO VENTILATION.

This is often said; but it is absurd Wooden houses need as much ventilation as any others, and by rights every passage or hall should have a ventilating shaft at least a foot across, taken right up through the roof, and not merely opening into ihe space under the galvanised iron.

THAT NIGHT AIR IS -DANGEROUS

The reverse is the case. Night air tends to be purer than day air. A humorist has aptly said: "Night air is only dangerous if you*keep it bottled up in a room all night!" However, the popular fear of night air is almost universal, and has arisen from the fact that in certain countries it is apt to give rise to ague. This is not really on account of impurity of the air itself, but, as has recently been proved, because it i. infested by mosquitoes^ which convey the disease.

THAT COLD AIR IS THE ESSEN-

TIAL CAUSE OF COLDS

This has bene disproved in many ways. . i j (1) Arctic explorers don't catch cold until they return to stuffy, germ-infest-p-d houses (2) Consumptives who have become debilitated by repea+ed colds find they no longer "catch cold" after a, few weeks m a sanatorium, where no fire.* are allowed, and where the entire side of a room may be removed so that the patient sleeps either on an open balcony or something equivalent to it. These sanatoria are often established m high mountain regions, where the cold is intense. - , • (3) Tender delicate babies cease to take cold if kept out in the .open air as much as possible, and if, when indoors, constant ventilation is maintained by means of an o. en window and chimney. This is the condition at the Baby Hospital near Dunedin, even in midwinter, thouo-h the air in the bedrooms sometimes' falls as low as 40deg. Fahr. Of course, every care is exercised to keep the babies out of direct draughts, and to ensure that they are adequately covered. Further, sudden changes are never made. It may take a week or more to accustom to pure, cool air a delicate baby, or one* who has been previously coddled, Colds are really catarrhal fevers due to rapid growth of germs. Cold is not the •esse'niinl cause of these fevers, though chilling of the surface predisposes to an attack under certain circumstance?. Thus persons who habitually codd^ themselves and live in warm, stuffy rooms, and who fail to take enough exercise, become readilydevitalised by being chilled in any way, and in this depressed state their tissues may be unable to repel invasion by hostile germs.

THAT AIRING A BEDROOM OVER-

NIGH^ SUFFICES.

This fallacy is almost universal. People imagine that if they start with puro air. it will not become, injuriously foul in the course of the night. This can be disproved at once by entering such a bedroom direct from the fresli air an hour or so after the occupant has gone to bed, or, a fortiori, when he is about to get up. The room .will be found offensively stuffy, and chemical analysis o_ the air would show it to be loaded with carbonic acid gas and other poisonous matters. A few ascertained facts and figures should satisfy anyone. For the last Half century it has been recognised that for health each human being should be supplied with at least 3000 cubic feet of pure fresh outside air per hour, or 21,000 cubic feet in the course of an eight hours' night. The ordinary 10ft bedroom has, of course, a capacity of about 1000 cubic feet, and if no fresh air be admitted during the night the allowance for one occupant will bo only 1000 cubic feet for eight hours, instead of 24,000 ft, his proper allowance. Indeed, the capacity of the loom makes little difference, the vital question being* whether there is a. free flow of pure air through it or not. One can secure a sufficiency of fresh air in a ventilated coffin, and one w Id die under the dome of St. Paul's *i' _*_ were sealed! Remember, that a chi' "" should have as large a supply of fresh i.ir as an adult. If habituated to living in pure air, even a baby will become intolerant of filth in this direction, as if guidcxl by instinct, just as it can be trained to abhor impurity and filth jn other diree* tions. At three years of age such a

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