Health: How to get it and keep it.: The hygiene of dress, food, exercise, rest, bathing, breathing, and ventilation.Woods, Walter V.
Science
Health: How to get it and keep it.: The hygiene of dress, food, exercise, rest, bathing, breathing, and ventilation.
Woods, Walter V.
Health; Hygiene
Those who live in warm, close, ill-ventilated rooms are much more
subject to colds from exposure to draughts and cold air than those who
dwell in a pure atmosphere of moderate temperature. This being the
case, persons should not accustom themselves to a higher temperature
than is barely necessary for comfort. Some persons are most comfortable
with a room temperature in winter of 68º or 69º Fahrenheit. Others
require a temperature of 70º or 71º. Invalids, infants, and old
persons, whose vitality is low, require a higher temperature than those
in the full vigor of life.
=Ventilation.=--The importance of breathing pure air was fully
discussed in a previous chapter. The best methods of securing it will
be considered here.
Air, when heated, becomes lighter and rises. Cool air, when it enters a
warm room, sinks to the bottom. The cooler and purer air of a room is,
therefore, always found nearest the floor. Although the carbonic acid
given out by the lungs is heavier than an equal quantity of atmospheric
air, yet, by the operation of the law of diffusion, it commingles with
the other gases, and is found in greatest quantity near the ceiling.
Doors and windows are the means commonly employed for ventilation;
transoms and special ventilating flues are used to some extent.
Where large numbers of people are congregated together for several
hours at a time, as in churches, theatres, and public halls, proper
ventilation becomes a matter of extreme importance. If, in such cases,
doors and windows alone are depended upon, the results are never
satisfactory. Those nearest the windows are made uncomfortable by the
chilling drafts, while the persons in the middle of the room experience
very little relief from the stifling atmosphere. In the construction of
such buildings suitable provision should be made in floor, side-wall,
and ceiling for an ample supply of pure air, without a conscious
current or other annoyance to the audience. In school houses, where
children are confined for long periods, and where their physical growth
and mental activity demand the purest air, neglect of proper means of
ventilation on the part of school directors and trustees is little
short of criminal.
In the home the subject of ventilation during the day time is a simple
matter. The frequent opening of outer doors and of inner doors, with
the occasional lowering of the upper sash of the window, will furnish
an abundant supply of pure air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account