Air, Pure Air by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 11, 1875

Air, Pure Air.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

The article in the January Reformer headed, Universal Suffocation, is too true for the health of the people. Since the cold weather came on, I have had occasion to enter many houses; and it was generally, yes, in almost every instance, the case that no signs of attention to ventilation could be seen. The closer they are shut up, and the less of the pure air of heaven is admitted to enter, it seems to be esteemed the better. Men advanced in age, who have led active lives out of doors, now having but little to do in the winter season, fill up the stoves with fuel, hover around them, and guard against the entrance of the least amount of air on every side, as they would guard against the entrance of the most deadly foe. The blood rises to the head and does not circulate well in the lower extremities; and while the brain almost boils, the feet grow cold, and a sense of chilliness comes over them, the remedy of which is to pour in more fuel and guard more closely every avenue through which their best friend, and most needed, could come in, to their relief.

When the genial spring returns, they will perhaps wonder at their lassitude and want of vitality, after having taken such special care of themselves during the winter!

Tell them that they need air, pure air, to invigorate their bodies, and they will be perfectly unmoved by your appeal, or perchance they may consent to open a door into another room, the air of which has been confined for days or weeks, and consequently is loaded with impurity and is not fit to breathe. It is not the coldness of the air that we seek, but the purity. We want the air that has its due proportion of oxygen, such as we have in the freely moving element without; not that which has been shut up, breathed over and deprived of its oxygen, and filled with carbonic acid gas. Such air is deadly, though reduced in temperature to zero.

Some are found who will say, Yes, yes; when you speak of the need of a constant supply of fresh air; but they have no means provided in their houses for ventilation, their windows are not constructed so as to let down from the top; and there they rest the matter, not thinking it of sufficient importance to pay for a few minutes' work or a few dimes' expense, to have them prepared for proper ventilation. What wonderful indifference to a matter of such vital importance to themselves! Are not life and health worth taking a little pains to secure?

Read up, friends, on the laws of life and health; and when you have learned the truth, as all may, put it in faithful practice. Know that you cannot live without air to breathe; and also that the purer the air you breathe, the better your chances for life and health. Remember that the first precept of the “code of health” is, “Breathe pure air.” But if you only hear and do not heed, do not, I beseech you, lay your sickness, sufferings, and premature death to the charge of Providence. After you have been for months and years committing suicide by robbing yourself of the vitalizing fluid, so abundantly supplied by kind Heaven, do not think it some strange and unaccountable providence that yourself or your nearest friends fall a victim to your disobedience to the known laws of your being. R. F. COTTRELL.