FLOWERS IN ROOM ARE NOT HARMFUL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 143, 18 June 1931, Page 4

FLOWERS IN ROOM ARE NOT HARMFUL.

OLD FALLACY REMAINS IN MINDS OF PEOPLE. (Issued by the New Health Society, London.) Old fallacies often take a considerable amount of killing, and one which still remains very deeply rooted in the minds of many people is that flowers give out some more or less poisonous emanations which make it undesirable to keep them in a bedroom overnight. “It is undeniably better for the life of the flowers,, if the room is artificially heated, to remove them to a cool landing or other room; but if they remain their presence is not likely to have any adverse effects on the occupant of the room. Actually, in the daytime the green parts of the plant absorb carbon dioxide, and then, in the presence df sunlight, convert this into sugar and- starch by a process known as photo-synthesis, oxygen being set free. In addition to the above process, however, both by day and by night, a respiratorv process similar in essentials to that of animal 1 t 1 j ta k* n g place, oxygen being absorbed and carbon dioxide evolved. The amount of the latter set free even by a number of plants would be too small to have any appreciable effect on the composition of the air in any room; and in any case carbon dioxide is not the poisonous substance that it is sometimes considered, a small increase in the proportion present in the atmosphere not producing any adverse effects on the human constitution.” Too Much Common Salt. “ Professor Van Noorden, a worldfamous dietetic scientist, when recently lecturing on some of the problems of diet in Berlin, asserted that we eat too much common salt. He believes that eight to ten grams are sufficient, instead of the usual quantity of fifteen grams daily, and he suggests that the use of a large quantity of salt is a sure sign that the food is badly prepared, the salt concealing the lack of flavour. Undoubtedly the excessive eating of salt is harmful. An acid form of dyspepsia is associated with this cause a fact which is not surprising when we recollect that common sait is used in the elaboration of the hydro-chloric acid of the gastric juice. Also, food that is too salt, especially if such food be hot, is definitely irritating to the mucous membranes. Ihe aelicate lining of the throat is; apt to suffer; and one distinguished throat specialist maintains that the increasing frequency of cancer in this region is related to this cause. Food which is properly prepared should not require the addition of much salt at the table, and it is a good rule of health always to be sparing in the use of table salt.” Water-heating by Gas. “ If. the house is to be clean and the family healthy, hot water must alwa} r S be available for baths, washing-up, and all the general household needs. W hen the hot water supply depends upon a coal range, the housewife is faced with unnecessary dirt and labour, and even in summer months a coal fire is required all day in the kitchen merely to keep the water hot. The housewife can rely on gas to solve the hot water problem. Among the newest types of water heaters is the thermal storage heater. This is a combined heating unit and insulated storage cylinder, supplying hot water to the whole house. Its running costs are remarkably low, chiefly because it is so efficiently lagged, or insulated, that heat losses are reduced to a minimum. “ One type of thermal storage gas water heater is made in various sizes, with a capacity of from twelve to forty gallons, and is suitable for the average household. For all sizes there is a maximum consumption of ten cubic feet of gas per hour, and an automatic device known as a * thermostat ’ cuts this consumption down to two cubic feet when the cylinder is full of hot water. Housewives should inquire into this method of water heating, if their present household systems are inadequate, because with this new heater hot water is available day and night at a cost of only a few pence daily.” From ' the May issue of “New Health.”