Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1876 — Hot-Air Poison. [ARTICLE]

Hot-Air Poison.

' “ Hot as anoven in here!” is the usual exclamation of a man as he steps into his family sitting-room from the out-door air any time from November to April in this Northern clime. And yet he opens no window, turns off no heat from the furious coal-fire in the furnace or the patent baseburner, nor retreats into a fresher atmosphere ; he stays there with the rest—wife, children and visitor—“ gets used” to the red-hot condition of things and sits down to be—broiled. His lungs at first rebel against such usage, and demand a continuance of the pure element with which he had been feeding them in his walk or ride out-bf-doors; but' the demand is unheeded, and they are supplied with overheated air—burnt air—carbonated aircoal gas—iron gas—poison. Along with the others in the room the man is committingeldw suicide. . t ,.,. The season has arrived when this comntffo, method off the human race is being revived; Stoves are being put up, fires kindled tor the winter, coal poured in by the hodful, heat accumulated, lungs made deliqgte, headaches manufactured, diseases ffaMsrated and subjects prepared for the pftysician and undertaker. 411 this frofti the chronic habit of the people of hovering over tlttt fir* 1 and avoigUtf fresh air and openair exercise. On ttlfc subject there is no disbute among medical men and scientists —all concurring in the assertion that the stifling, devitalized atmosphere of an overhiaated anftltnvtatilated xa6m is incapable of supporting life and is most pernicious in its effect upon the human system. A noted French army surgeon once noticed that a new disease was taking hold of the patients of certain w'ards in his hospital. Investigation satisfied him that his charges were being blood-poisoned by the. overheating of their rooms. By breathing carbonic oxide, generated from apan of charcoal, many persons have been stiddenly deprived of life, as in numerous instances of suicide; and yet this deadly.gas is produced by burning hard coal. “ But does it not passup tho chimney!” I will be asked. The answer is that it does, mostly, when the drafts are well open, but When they are not the gas escapee into the rooms for carbonic oxide finds no obstruction to ite passage through rea-hot iron.

The diseases which are the outgrowth of hot rooms are more numerous than those which, come from exposure' to bold. To “catch cold” is bad enough, but. to “ catch heat” is 'worse. A person accustomed to excessive heat 'wilt take cold upon the least exposure to the cppl air, but not sooner than will a person jacmlfc, tomed to a cool atmosphere “ catch heat” from breaching hot -air, In < diseases caused by exposure, thar remedy, without which no one can become strong and healthy—pure air—is at hand to assist in correcting the evil done. In complaints brought about by confinement in a dry atmosphere there is no such helpmeet at hand as pure air to feed and brace up tlie exhausted system, neither can ft be introduced except with caution without augmenting the trouble. Men and women, who ought to know something of selfpreservation, and poor little children, from whom nothing better «kn be expected, are being slaughtered by tlm thousands annually, on account of the toleration of too much heat and insufficient ventilation in our family sitting or sleeping rooms. There are many who believe iron Stoves to be a failure, and, with seeming good reason, advise the further introduction of grates, steam-heating apparatus and terracotta stoves. The fault with iron is that when red-hot it will not confine the gases which are generated by the burning cdkl, and, as this is true, those using iron stoves cannot use too much caution in keeping the stove from remaining at red heat, except when the drafts are open; JE very person who prizes his own health and that of his family will nse great pare ip warming the house properly and watching the temperature of the home atmosphere, which alone, ifkept pure, will generally keep away those gaunt ills and discomforts—headaches, dizziness, indigestion,“sniffles,"head complaints,. throat troubles, fevers and consumption—ever lurking about the house which keeps its living rooms heated above seventy degrees, or which, for lack of ventilation, la kept filled with atmospheric poison.—Ch-icego Jourul.