OUR BABIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16592, 15 January 1916, Page 13

OUR BABIES.

BT Htoioa.

Pnblished under the »usptoes of the Boyal New Zealand Society for the HealtU of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put op » feooo at tn« top of a precipice than to maintain * n ymhnbn<v» gt th© bottom*** IS FOUL AIR POISONOUS! Lettkb to " Hygkia.' "I road your notes regularly with interfert find profit. Some few months ago you wro to strongly on the danger and harm from breathing air in a crowded, unvcntilated loam or hall, and said that that w»» as injnrioas as for a person to eat his own increment. [Nemo by "Hygeia."—The expression really used was: — While tho mero idea, of allowing food to become vile and poisonous by nurture with oxcreta would bo repugnant and ctisgusfcing to anyone, yet people soaroely <j»yinV from filtliv air, though there is no essential diffcron'oo between the used-up, cart-off materials excretod from tho lungß and those got rid of from other excretory organs.] "Tho enclosed paragraph appeared in the Otago Daily Times on November 16 mst., nod doe# sot soem, in the first portion .at least, to be in line with what you said. Ia £hat eo, or is there some explanation, or is it a ease of 'Authorities' differjpg? " I read recently in a Health publication EW ft is now ' knownthat sewar gas ii not poisonous. One is inclined to say. • Where is TruthT*—l am, eta, "Reader. NBWHMLPKB Pakagbawc ABOVE To. It is well known that the researches of soch specialists as Dr Leonard Hill and fljG &tai£ of the New York Stat© Commission an Ventilation have discredited the old idea that tho air of occupied and 11lTentilated rooms -becomes ' poisonous" through containing the products of respiration, or through any other change in tho chemical constitution of its contents. Such 21-efiEects as may be produced by such an atmosphere are asenbed to temperature and humidity only. However, a rooent paper by Messrs C. E. A. Winalow and G. T. Palmer brings to light a hitherto unsuspected effect of ■vitiated air, evidently due to its chemical rather than its physical qualities. In a series of experiments several persons were kept in a room in which the supply of fresh sir, as well as tho temperature and humidity, were under control. Tho effects of ample ventilation and no ventilation, ■with constant temperature and humidity, were compared. After tho subjects, had been in the room from two to three hours, a luncheon made ap of weighed portions of known calorific value was served, and the amount of food left _ uneaten _ was weighed to determine the difference in the amount consumed. The experiments showed that the air of an unventilated occupied room contains substances which in some way, and without producing conscious discomfort or detectable physiological symptoms, diminish Hie appetite for food. Cdmmxnt BY " HYCHA." A sensible, well-reasoned criticism, such as our correspondent submits, is always welcome : everyone benefits by tne frank discussion of points such as hc_ raises. The question why living m close, un-ventilai-ed rooms is so injurious has been a battleground of scientists for the last 40 years; but no one questions the fact that pure, cool, moving air is healthful and invigorating-, while living in " stuffy," breathladen air is unhealthy and debilitating. The only doubt is precisely wht this should be so. Does the harm of breathed air arise from our_ breath being' actually poisonous, or does it arise mainly from the breathea air bein£f "used up" and made "flat" and stimulating, through saturation with warm moisture and through being robbed of part of its ltfe-gmiw properties? Both sets of caosea cuiitrlbuto towards the beneficial effects of ventilation and the Injurious effects of stagnation; bat, before going further into the matter, I want •to make perfectly dear to my readers that there b not tho slightest reason for (my doubt as to the need for open air and ventilation if we are to make the rising generation as strong and healthy as we would wish them to be —if wo are to prevent there being M) per cent of rejects in the future should the need to raise men to defend our country arise again. WHAT THE BEES TEACH. Most insects lead a free life in the open air; bat the bees form highly complex and civilised communities comparable with our own. They dwell largely indoors, and anions tho many wonders of a hive nothing is more wonderful than the "punkah men" stationed near the entrance. These workers are kept busy all tho time fanning carrenta of fresh air through the corridors of the hivo with their wings, and causing currents of foul air to stream out in tho opposite direction. There baa been no Leonard Hill to tell these insects why they must establish constant and efficient ventilation of their dwell-ing-places, and they don't need to be told— they know how to do it. They " deliver tho goocts," and render the home safe to live in. These insects, working, as it were, under the direct mandate of the Creator, guided by instinct, not by acquired and reasoned knowledge, have better-designed homes and more healthy habits than 90 per cent, of human beings,, though we pride ourselves so much on our superior wisdom. While we are wondering what to do, and spending our energies disputing over the pros and cons of ventilation, the bees set to work in a practical way and carry it out. As Maeterlinck says, " Bees are almost fanatically cleanly."