"
The same writer illustrates this, by the history of a French village
where the inhabitants all slept in close, unventilated houses. Nearly
all were seized with scrofula, and many families became wholly extinct,
their last members dying "rotten with scrofula." A fire destroyed a
large part of this village. Houses were then built to secure pure air,
and scrofula disappeared from the part thus rebuilt.
We are informed by medical writers that defective ventilation is one
great cause of diseased joints, as well as of diseases of the eyes,
ears, and skin.
Foul air is the leading cause of tubercular and scrofulous consumption,
so very common in our country. Dr, Guy, in his examination before
public health commissioners in Great Britain, says: "Deficient
ventilation I believe to be more fatal than _all other causes_ put
together." He states that consumption is twice as common among
tradesmen as among the gentry, owing to the bad ventilation of their
stores and dwellings.
Dr. Griscom, in his work on Uses and Abuses of Air, says:
"Food carried from the stomach to the blood can not become _nutritive_
till it is properly oxygenated in the lungs; so that a small quantity of
food, even if less wholesome, may be made nutritive by pure air as it
passes through the lungs.
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