OUR BABIES..

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19847, 16 January 1920, Page 7

OUR BABIES..

(By HYGEIA.) Published under the auspices of tb« Koval New Zealand Society for Ito Health of Women and Children.

" It is wiser to put up a fence at 'the top of a precipice than to maintain wi ambulance at the bottom.

A PLEA FOE. FLEE VENTILATION

THE HARAfFULXESS OP , BREATHED AIR.’

Fur the past two weeks I have been discussing tho havmfulness of the breathed or otherwise polluted air cl badly-ventilated rooms, dwelling specially on the question as to how far Us devitalising tendencies should be. regarded as due to our breath, being charged with moisture and deprived of the natural stimulating proper tins of pure, cool, fresh air. Tho centring of attention on ono aspect of a case is very liable to prevent that breadth of view which is essential to dealing in a, shlinle, common-sense way with the fundamental problems of life ; thus there is' a. tendency to forget that, besides the. chemical and" physical changes in breathed air, ,it may he charged with living particles (in other words, microbes) capable of causing disease and death. Comparative Irceclom from noxious bacteria is a very strong point in favour of a, bright, sunny, airy room, as compared with a dark, close, and stuffy ono—light and fresh air being ilie greatest foes to germ life. Pure air and .sunlight are the constant allies of human health ami strength, just as tho reverse conditions always tend to beget debility and disease, however insensible, we l may remain' to tiio harm that is being.done. IS SEWER-GAS DANGEROUS? I shall now consider tho concluding remark in the correspondent's letter with which I have .been dealing. Tho passage is as follows I read recently in a health publication that it is now ‘Renown” that ‘‘sewer-gas” is not poisonous. Ono

is inclined to say, “ Whore is truth?” In. ills ease ••it is safe to say that Truth is rather with the old oid authorities, who denounced sewer-gas as poisonous, than with those whom it may please, to-make thd- startling and paradoxical announcement that this unnatural atmosphere is harmless, in spite of the fact that it is always more or less repugnant -to out senses. The world takes peculiar delight nowadays in any statement made in a striking and arresting way, to the effect that the truth lies in the reverse direction to existing beliefs. Fronde’s whitewashing 'of Henry VIII. owed its welcome to the same spirit that, reads with amused interest the attempt to vindicate sower-gas and the apparent discomfiture of its detractors! At this stage _my ' readers will lie inclined to exclaim, “Then you don’t agree with the assertion that sewergas is comparatively harmless? 1 ’ Of course, I don’t. Sower-air in general, if it gets into our houses, is associated directly or indirectly with very dangerous and deadly possibilities: half the efforts of our expensive plumbing and other sanitary provisions are quite rightly directed against keeping this subtle and insidious enemy out of our homos.

"Where, then is the Truth? Are the _ scientists and the magazines simply playing with ns when they make the sensational announcement, “ Sewer-air not "Poisonous.” Mot at all. The scientist merely announces what ho has found to ho true in regard to a, limited field in which he is conducting his investigations; and the press, taking such statements out of their context, are apt to make them appear startling, revolutionary, and universal 'in their application. I p to about- twenty years ago it was supposed that .the- air in sewers was necessarily swarming with the germs of disease, hut dator investigation has shown that this is not the case. The dampness of the linings and walls of sewers tends to prevent the escape ot microbes into the atmosphere, - and therefore sewer-air may nccnaUv" contain fewer germs than would lie present in the air of an ordinary room. However, this does not mean that it is sale lor a city to have faulty sewers, or to allow had drainage nr scamped plumbing in houses. All experience goes to show that colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, consumption, scarlatina, typhus, typhoid, diphtheria, erysipelas, cerebrospinal meningitis, and other deadly pests tend to heroine prevalent when wo neglect proper sanitary precautions ami disappear in proportion to the extent to which.we get rid of overcrowoing and filth and admit pure air sunlight.

AN AMERICAN OPINION

Having made tins position clear, 1 think it Mill ho sale lor me io ipiote the following from a hook written liftceu years ago by Professor SedgMick. of Bostjon, who has been regarded at the highest sanitary authority in Ameuea. *A\hat Protestor .Sedgwick s.'iys will at least satisfy my readers tlia’D the startling paragraphs appearing to-day regarding air and microbes I'caby deal with very old knowledge. Tiio following is taken from a chapter on Some Popular Beliefs as to Certain Special and Peculiar Causes of Disease

THE BELIEF IX DANGERS PR OH SKIVER-iL\S. There is reason to believe that the dangers of sewer-gas have been very much exaggerated. There is no doubt op coiu'so. that sewage is a decomposing liquid, and that it may, and often does' contain the germs of specific disease:, .nil, on the other hand, the facts that workmen frcrjucntly spend . much of their time in sewers with inipnniiv. or onrk upon or about, sewage in sewer-age-pnniication works, or on sewage larms, seem to show that- experience does not confirm the idea that Ibe gases

emanating ironi sewnne im> ahvavs or IUTO'-.sary dangerous. 1 . . If. now, wo turn to stagnant sewage. siicli inigh: result Ironi broken drains, -nr sue l / as commonly exists in cesspools, we mac •reasonably expect lo (bid more damn roils ami more concenirated ga.a s. V, o ni,i.\ suppose (luii ibe-o are poisouons, •ami That, Jimling tbeb- v.ac in: i hunian iiabitaiions, they are capable o! prodm-itifx sicknp.-s. There is mi rrmon lo doubt that, some cases of ii• 1 11 ’r-s>-■ luiviy in fact, thus arisen, ami la ;his exient the belief in sewer-:;,as as :r cause of disease is probably sound, hi such eases, however, {be sickness mar !*e expected to lake either the form of sudden, sharp attacks, suggestive of poisonin');, or else. Hie form of maiai-o and a general lowering 0 f die vital resistance, lassihide, weakness, ete. thus freely granting Hie po.--. siblo eilicieuey of sower-gas as a general poison and depressant, we are very far Irom allowing Ihe remaining and nior; : ’ popular lorm or fbo belief in sewer-gas —namely, tliafc it is capable of direct!" producing specilie diseases', such as typhoid lever ami dipbtlieria, which ahsolutcly roipiiro for their genesis the introduction into the body of their own peculiar germs.