PURE AIR | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 3, 1879

PURE AIR.

WHATEVER renders the blood impure, tends to originate consumption. Whatever makes the air impure, makes the blood impure. It is the air we breathe which purifies the blood. And as, if the water we use to wash our clothing is dirty, it is impossible to wash the clothing clean, so, if the air we breathe is impure, it is impossible for it to abstract the impurities from the blood. What, then, are some of the more prominent things which render the air impure? It is the nature of still air to become impure. Running water purifies itself. Air in motion, drafts of air, are self-purifiers. Thus it is that the air of a close room becomes impure invariably.

It is the close rooms that bring consumption to countless thousands. Hence all rooms should be so constructed as to have a constant draft of air passing through them. The neglect of it murders myriads. A man of ordinary size renders a hogshead of air unfit for breathing, consumes its blood-purifying qualities, every hour; and so perfectly is this done that if a man could re-breathe a full breath of his own the next instant after its expiration, he would be instantly suffocated. Hence sleeping in close rooms, even though alone; or sitting for a short time in a crowded vehicle, or among a large assembly, is perfectly corrupting to the blood. Close bedrooms make the graves of multitudes.—Selected.