No Oxygen, No Life!
Though air is not generally considered a food, the oxygen secured from the air is really more essential to life than any food element. We can live without food for months; we can live without water for many days, but we cannot live without oxygen for five minutes. This fact is not recognized generally, and the breathing of impure air which has been enclosed and breathed over and over again, has caused many very serious diseases. There is hardly a home in which proper precaution is taken to secure thorough ventilation during the winter months.
Air is really a food. It must be looked upon as a food because, as I have already mentioned, oxygen is more necessary to life than any other element.
No matter what precaution we may take to build up vigorous health by eating and drinking proper food in proper quantities, but little can be accomplished unless you are careful to see that pure air is supplied at all times. Pure cold air is one of the greatest tonics in the world. I do not personally believe that it has ever injured any one, except where the temperature has been so low, and exposure so great, as to actually freeze a part of the body. Colds, though apparently produced in numerous instances by exposure, are really made possible because of the existing impure condition of the blood. In other words, if enjoying perfectly normal health, there is not the slightest danger of a cold.
Impure air is especially the cause of consumption. Thousands are to-day dying of this disease where it has been wholly produced by this one cause. They ” catch a cold ” and from that moment live in constant fear of fresh, pure air, and the result is that the cold never disappears, gradually becomes worse and worse, the impurities in the body increase in quantity, and the microbes of this disease finally secure such a strong hold upon the lungs that they sap life rapidly. No matter how careful attention may be given to your diet, if you do not realize the importance of pure air, and see that you secure it at all times, there will be but little chance of developing any great degree of strength. When air is breathed over and over again it reeks with carbonic acid gas which is exhaled from the lungs of every living being. This is a poison which is most baneful in its effects, and a diseased condition of any character is greatly encouraged under such abnormal conditions.
At night the windows should be open at both top and bottom, winter and summer, if one expects to retain vigorous health. Without pure air you can no more retain health than you can live without eating. Of course one may be able to apparently enjoy vigorous health for a prolonged period and still give little attention to the necessity of pure air, but this merely indicates the possession of a very vigorous constitution, and a continuance of the habit of breathing foul, enclosed air will in every case ultimately produce serious disease. No matter where you may be, whether in office school-room, or in your own private chamber, remember the imperative necessity for breathing air that is liberally supplied with oxygen.
Perhaps you fear cold air A draught may have all sorts of diseases in its grasp. When I first began the study of hygiene and health many years ago, I was continually puzzled by the average person’s fear of draughts. Draughts are currents of air. But one could meet a current of air on any windy day. Then later it was explained that a draught was a current of cold air in a warm room. In other words, if one is in a warm atmosphere and a cold current of air comes in contact with one part of his body, while other parts are encompassed in warm air, this cold air is supposed to be a draught.
