Light, Air, and Ventilation
By D. H. Kress, M.D.
SUNLIGHT and pure air are two of Heaven’s choicest gifts to mankind. Man in the beginning was placed in the open, where he could have the constant benefit of these two agencies which minister to life, health, and happiness. In the presence of light the leaves unfold and become green, flowers develop and assume their varied colors, and the fruit ripens. Deprived of light, vegetation becomes pale and sickly, and finally dies. The pink cheeks indicative of health are found not among the youth of our crowded cities or among cave- and house-dwellers; they are found only among those who are much out of doors and exposed to light. While light is destructive to the low and harmful forms of vegetable and animal life, it imparts life to the higher and useful forms of life. Light possesses healing virtues and has for years been employed in various ways in the treatment of disease. Consumption, a disease that a few years ago was considered incurable, responds to fresh air if not too far advanced. Pneumonia and cerebrospinal meningitis also yield under the influence of pure air. It will yet be found that other diseases require fresh air as surely as the diseases named. In our modern homes there may be a sufficient number of windows; but the windows we have are usually kept darkened, and the light is shut out. As a result rooms become damp, the growth of germs and mold is encouraged, a musty odor makes its appearance which poisons the atmosphere and causes sickness. Light and air are equally important, life can not exist without them. Air is a more important element than food. It is possible to live days and even weeks without food, but to attempt to do without air for even a few minutes results in death. There is no more rapid or effective way of introducing poison into the system than through the medium of the air, or by inhalation. It is therefore important that the air should be free from poisonous gases and impurities; otherwise that which was designed to be one of man’s greatest blessings may become his greatest curse. Air must be kept pure. Where people work in the field and sleep in their rudely constructed homes through which daylight may be seen on all sides, very little thought need be given as regards purity of the air. But where this rural life has been exchanged for city life, and work in the field for office work, and the loosely thrown together hut for the modern air-proof dwelling, some plans must be devised whereby the foul air may be diluted and removed by the constant admission of pure air. To supply the same purity of air in the inside of dwellings that is found on the outside is impossible, since it would require a complete change of the air four or five times every minute. Therefore house-dwellers, even where they have the best-known ventilation system, must be content with air that has in it some impurities not found in out-of-door air. For inside air we are forced to adopt a different standard of purity than for out-of-door air. The beneficial effect of light and pure air may be witnessed by exposing bedding containing impurities to them. Every one has noted how sweet the bedding is at night after such exposure during the day. Sunlight and air have the same beneficial influence on the human body. The organic impurities which are constantly forming in the body and oozing through the pores of the skin, in the absence of light and air, undergo putrefactive changes and develop foul and offensive gases, which when reabsorbed or inhaled, produce disease. Wherever darkness exists, therefore, the words should still be heard, “Let there be light.” There are those who religiously exclude the night air, believing it to be harmful. Night air is the only kind of air we have to breathe at night. It is only a question of whether we will open our windows and breathe the pure night air, or keep them closed and breathe impure night air. In order to keep the air in rooms as pure as possible, it is necessary to have more than one opening. There must be an inlet for the pure air and an outlet for impure air in every ventilating system. These openings should be as nearly opposite each other as possible. The air must be kept circulating or in motion. Unless this is done, the air surrounding the body soon becomes so thoroly impregnated with impurities that it becomes dangerous to health. Sleeping in rooms in which the air stagnates is responsible for the lack of ambition and good-for-nothing feeling experienced early in the morning. Infants are often injured by sleeping with tobacco-using parents. Many an infant has been sacrificed in this way. Impure air dulls the mind and makes less acute the judgment and the ability to discriminate between right and wrong. It dampens the vital forces and decreases energy. No one can be what God designed him to be physically, intellectually, or morally, who is content to dwell in poorly-ventilated rooms and breathe impure air.