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Health; or, How to Live Number Four

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Health; or, How to Live Number Four

Ellen G. White

Steam Press of the Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · 1865

HOW TO LIVE.

Respiration:

OR THE FUNCTION OF THE LUNGS.

“It is, doubtless, a matter of general knowledge, that, according to modern chemistry, the atmosphere is composed of several gases or kinds of air, and a considerable quantity of water in a state of vapor. Pure air, however, according to the statements of chemistry, consists of twenty parts of oxygen gas, and eighty parts of nitrogen, or azote. But by means of the chemical changes of composition and decomposition which are continually going on in nature, various gases are evolved, and become more or less diffused throughout the atmosphere; some of which are too subtle to be detected by the closest scrutiny of the chemist, and others are so volatile and light that they ascend to the upper regions of the atmosphere, where they probably undergo new changes and enter into new forms. Some, however, enter into combinations near the earth’s surface, and are of sufficient specific gravity or weight to remain in the lower region of the atmosphere. Of these, about one per cent. of carbonic acid gas, formed by a chemical combination of certain proportions of oxygen and carbon, is always and universally present.”
“The oxygen and azote of the atmosphere are not chemically combined as in nitric acid, but intimately mixed together; so that, when a portion of the oxygen of a given volume of air is consumed, the remaining oxygen diffuses itself equally throughout the whole volume, as fast as the consumption takes place. This law of nature, established by a wise and benevolent Creator, is of immense importance to all living bodies, both animal and vegetable.
“Now, in regard to the changes which take place in the lungs, there are certain phenomena or facts attending respiration, on which physiologists have built their theories of the function. In the first place, the venous blood goes from the heart to the lungs, with a dark purple color, and unfitted for the purposes of nutrition in the system, and returns from the lungs to the heart with a bright red color, and possessed of all the properties requisite for supplying the general wants of the vital economy. In the next place, the air goes into the lungs composed of about seventy-nine or eighty parts of azote, nineteen or twenty parts of oxygen, and one per cent. of carbonic acid gas; and returns from the lungs with about the same proportion of azote, five or six parts of oxygen, and thirteen or fourteen parts of carbonic-acid gas. In some way or other, therefore, the oxygen of the inspired air suffers a great diminution of volume in the lungs, and a volume of carbonic-acid gas is produced, equal, or nearly equal, to the loss of oxygen.”
The function of the lungs may be considered as twofold. As depurating or cleansing organs, they eliminate the impurities of the blood, in a manner corresponding with the functions of the external skin and the mucous membrane generally, and with all the excretory organs of the body; and as organs of nutrition, they digest the air, and convert a portion of it into the substance of the blood.
“As depurating organs, the lungs by a vital process continually excrete from the venous blood, and perhaps also from the chyle, in their capillary vessels, certain substances, the elimination of which is necessary to prepare those fluids for the nutrient purposes of the system. As soon as the excreted substance or substances are thrown into the air-cells, the matter composing them yields to the affinities of inorganic chemistry, and issues from the lungs in the form of vapor, of carbonic-acid gas, etc. The vapor thrown from the lungs in this manner, sometimes amounts to nearly a quart of water in twenty-four hours. A portion of this is supposed to come from the chyle. The quantity of carbonic-acid gas discharged from the lungs inthe twenty-four hours is also very considerable. This gas is unfit for animal respiration, and when inhaled into the lungs without a mixture of atmospheric air, it soon causes suffocation, asphyxia, and death. This effect, however, is owing to its negative rather than to its positive qualities, or to the absence of oxygen, by which alone animal respiration is supported; for carbonic acid gas can be introduced freely into the stomach without having any of the effects of a poison upon the system. It is by the consumption of the oxygen of the air, and the generation of this gas by the burning of charcoal in an open vessel in a tight room, that life is often destroyed; and for the same reason, a large number of people in a close or ill-ventilated room, by their continued respiration and perspiration, render the air very impure and unwholesome; and were it not for a wise and benevolent arrangement in the general economy of nature, in regard to this gas, all animals would soon be destroyed by it. Being specifically heavier than atmospheric air, it sinks below the nostrils and mouth of the animal during the little pause which follows expiration, and thus is prevented from being drawn into the lungs again in the succeeding act of inspiration. Descending toward the earth, it becomes diffused through the atmosphere, and during the day it is taken up by the vegetable organs of nutrition, and decomposed, the oxygen being set free, and the carbon retained and converted to vegetable substance. During the night, or prevalence of darkness, however, plants, like animals, are said to give off carbonic-acid gas. But it is supposed that their consumption of it during the day is sufficient to preserve the atmosphere in a state proper for animal respiration.
“When the blood in the capillary vessels of the lungs is purified in the manner I have described, it is prepared to receive a portion of the digested and assimilated air. This is also a purely vital process. The lungs are constantly receiving fresh supplies of aeriform aliment, which, like the food received into the stomach, consist of certain adapted proportions of nutritious and innutritious substances, and althoughexpiration always immediately follows inspiration, yet the lungs are never entirely exhausted, but a considerable volume of air always remains in them, much larger than that which is inhaled at an ordinary inspiration. The air which we expire, therefore, is probably very little, if any of it, that which was received by the immediately preceding inspiration. But each successive volume of inspired air probably displaces an equal volume of the retained air which has been acted on by the digestive powers of the lungs; and thus something like an aerial circulation, or the gradual process of digestion in the alimentary cavity, takes place in these organs.”
“The quantity of oxygen consumed by an individual is said to vary with the nature and degree of exercise, state of mind, degree of health, kind of food, temperature of the atmosphere, etc. Much more is consumed when the weather is cold than when it is warm, more during digestion than when the stomach is empty, and less is consumed when the food is vegetable than when it is animal, less when the body is at rest than when in action, and less when the mind is calm than when it is disturbed. The average quantity, however, is supposed to be about two pounds and eight ounces, Troy weight, per day.”
“In suffering this two-fold function of the lungs, the chyle and dark purple venous blood become converted into bright red arterial blood, fitted to supply all the wants of the vital economy. And the more completely the function of the lungs is fulfilled, the more richly is the blood endowed with those delicate properties which gratefully exhilarate every part where the living current flows, healthfully invigorating all the organs, and giving increased elasticity to all the springs of action in the system, causing every function to be more perfectly performed, imparting buoyancy to the animal spirits, and delightfully exciting and facilitating the intellectual operations.”
“We have seen that in the function of respiration, or breathing, a vital process is continually going on, by which a portion of the air received into the lungs is digested and incorporated with the blood, not as oxygen, but as a vitally assimilated principle of the living blood, and that by this function of the lungs, the grand process of digestion is completed, and the arterial fluid is fitted for all the purposes of the system in the great function of nutrition. We have seen also that pure air is composed of twenty parts of oxygen and eighty parts of azote, by volume or measure, and that the lungs, as living organs, are constitutionally adapted to air consisting of precisely these proportions; and consequently every deviation from this point towards an excess either of azote or oxygen, is injurious to the lungs and to the physiological interests of the body. Hence, it is of the utmost importance that the lungs should be constantly supplied with pure air, not only for the preservation of their own health, but for the preservation of the integrity of their function, the health of their blood, and the general welfare of the system. But we have seen that the whole external skin performs a function which, in many respects, closely resembles that of the lungs, and that it not only appears to consume a portion of the oxygen of the air, but also, like the lungs, is continually eliminating the excreted impurities of the blood, among which the chemist detects a considerable quantity of carbonic-acid gas, which, when received into the lungs without a mixture of atmospheric air, is almost instantly destructive to life, causing an immediate suspension of all the powers of animal life; and if relief is not promptly afforded, organic life is very soon destroyed. Carbonic-acid gas is formed in considerable quantities by decaying vegetable matter. Living vegetables also give it off during the night, but consume it during the day. Much the greatest source of it, however, is animal respiration and perspiration. Hence, crowded assemblies in churches, theatres, hospitals, prisons, etc., rapidly consume the oxygen of the air, and produce carbonic-acid gas; and consequently if such places are not well ventilated, the air will soonbecome impure, causing difficulty in breathing, vertigo or dizziness of the head, nausea, faintness, trembling, relaxation of the voluntary muscles, slow and feeble pulse, spasms, asphyxia, and death. In this manner the lives of many have been destroyed; but a vastly greater number has been cut off by plagues, and putrid and typhus and other fevers, brought on, or excessively aggravated by impure air. And it is principally owing to the effect which a dense population has on the atmosphere, and to the want of proper ventilation, that cities are less healthy than the country.
“We see, therefore, that it is of very great importance that our habitations should be so situated and so constructed as to admit of perfect ventilation in every part, and that our bedrooms in particular should be large and airy, and that too many persons should not sleep in the same room. We perceive also that it is of great importance that every person should have frequent and free access to the pure open air, and it is equally important that at such times every one should be capable of drinking in the sweet breath of heaven without the least restraint; of inflating the lungs fully and deeply, and freely expanding the chest without any artificial restriction whatever.
“The effect of such a respiration of pure air is truly wonderful. When the careful mother has been shut up in her nursery, or confined to her house for a number of days in succession, diligently attending to maternal duties or domestic concerns, till she begins to feel a nervous oppression and a dull headache coming upon her, if she breaks away from her confinement, and walks or rides in the pure open air, even for a few minutes, she feels a new life and a new spirit entering into her blood, and diffusing itself throughout her whole system; her languor, and depression, and headache, are dispelled, her eye becomes bright and sparkling, her countenance animated, her form more erect and stately, and her step more elastic and graceful; and she returns to her domestic empire and household duties almost a new creature, and seems to carry with her into that empire and through all those duties a new and salubrious atmosphere; and if she isa nursing mother, her babe will be almost equally benefited by the consequent improvement of its natural food. Nor are such advantages confined to the mother. Every female, and every studious and sedentary person, and every invalid that is able to move or to be moved in the open air, should endeavor to be abroad in it as frequently as propriety and duty will admit.”
“The air bath, as Dr. Franklin calls it, is exceedingly salutary to every one in health, and to almost every invalid. If the whole skin may be considered a breathing organ, then should it not only be kept clean, but for its own health and vigor, and the health and vigor of the whole system, it should be permitted to receive the full and free embraces of the pure air at least twice in the twenty-four hours. Every morning and evening the whole body should be exposed freely to the air, and the skin exercised with the flesh-brush, a coarse towel, or with the hand; and five or ten minutes spent in such exposure and exercise in the morning will prove very salutary to every one who has not gone too far in disease to bear it. Let it always be remembered that man was made for the open air; it is his natural dwelling place, and the habit of cooping up in ceiled houses is always in some measure detrimental to the physiological interests of the human constitution.
“If there be one class of human beings to whom pure air is more essential than any other, it is young children; they soon droop and become puny and diseased if they are confined to impure air; and on the other hand, few things serve so much to impart health and vigor to sickly and puny children as free access to the pure open air of heaven. Nurseries ought, therefore, to be thoroughly ventilated every day, and kept perfectly sweet and clean, and the air of them should not be consumed by too many lungs; and infants should be carried abroad as early and as freely as prudence will allow. And when children become old enough to run alone, they should be daily taken into the open air when the weather is pleasant.
Aged people also require great purity of air; andstrict attention should be paid to the thorough ventilation of their rooms; and so long as they are able to walk or ride abroad, they should, when the weather is not too inclement, daily visit the open air; and when they can no longer do this, their habitations should be more frequently ventilated.
“In regard to the benefit to be derived from a change of climate, there is probably much popular error of opinion. Invalids, trusting too exclusively to the salubriousness of the country or sea air, or of a mild climate, wholly or mostly neglect to attend to their diet and regimen in general, and consequently a large portion of those who travel in pursuit of health, either die abroad, or return home little or no better than they went; whereas, if they would avail themselves of the advantages of a correct regimen throughout, as well as of pure air and a mild climate, they would far more generally recover health. As a general rule, therefore, the air and climate of any portion of the United States, under a strictly correct general regimen, are much better for invalids of every description, than any other climate in the world with an entire disregard to regimen.”—Graham’s Lectures.

The Respiratory System.

RESPIRATION essentially consists in the interchanging of certain elementary principles contained in the blood, for those contained in atmospheric air. The lungs, and the skin, form the medium through which this interchange is made.
THE LUNGS consist of an infinite number of small cells. Connected with these are small tubes, branching out from the bronchial tubes, and these tubes branching from the trachea, or windpipe. At every inspiration of air, these cells become filled. At every expiration of air, these cells are nearly emptied. When air is received into the lungs, the blood sent from the right ventricle of the heart meets it. Here the carbon of the blood is thrown off in the form of carbonic-acid gas; while the oxygen of the air takeninto the lungs, is taken into the circulation of the blood, and carried to every part of the body. Together with receiving oxygen, electricity is also received and distributed throughout the body.
The amount of nourishment derived from food, bears a close relation to the amount of oxygen received into the circulation. The oxygen is also essential in giving heat to the body. The carbon of the blood becomes united with the oxygen, the oxygen consuming the carbon and forming carbonic-acid gas; therefore the amount of natural heat depends on the amount of oxygen received into the lungs, and the amount of carbon of our food; by which, uniting with the oxygen of the air, animal heat is at once generated. The amount of air breathed, also, has to do with physical strength. The eagle is an animal of great physical power; it inhales a very large amount of air. The oxygen, essential to nutrition, and the electricity, essential to nervous force, are taken into its lungs in very large proportions.
The blood from the veins, conveyed to the lungs, is of dark color, on account of the carbon it contains. Here an excess of carbon is given off in the form of carbonic-acid gas, and a corresponding amount of oxygen from the air is taken in. This process of exchanging carbon for oxygen, changes the color of the blood; it gives to it a bright crimson complexion, which it retains till its oxygen is dispersed to the remotest parts of the body; then the blood is taken again, comparatively deoxydized, into the veins to be returned to the heart and lungs. The blood and air in the lungs meet and exchange their gases through the medium of a thin, delicate membrane, which prevents the blood from entering into the air-cells. When this membrane is ruptured, there is bleeding at the lungs.
It can easily be conceived, from these facts, how important to the welfare of the whole system is the breathing of good air. If the atmosphere which we breathe is impregnated with hurtful gases, their influence is carried through the blood to every part of the body. If we are shut up in a close room, especiallyfor the night, where the occasional opening of the door cannot be depended on for relief, we use up all the vital properties of the air in the room, consume all the oxygen, and give off carbonic-acid gas; so that it becomes very offensive to one just entering the room, and very unhealthy to breathe over and over by the individual occupying it. We cannot be too careful to have a free circulation of air in our sleeping apartment. Every school-room should have a ventilation at the top of the room, where the bad air which rises can pass off, and give room for a fresh supply.
If we are compelled to breathe air that is hurtful, it weakens the lungs, exposes them to disease engendered in their own cavities, or to disease carried to them from abroad. Many cases of bleeding at the lungs and of consumption have been induced by protracted causes of this kind. Whenever we find a sleeping-room whose effluvia is unpleasant, we may know that its occupant is subjecting not only his lungs, but his whole system, to influences that are destructive to health, and ultimately to life itself. No air is fit to be breathed that has parted with its due proportion of oxygen, or is unduly charged with carbonic-acid gas. Unless the air to be breathed retains its natural equilibrium of elements, it is unfit for the healthy purposes of respiration.
Consumption of the lungs has several different causes. One consists of those things which directly prostrate the vital forces: such as bad air, already described, and air vitiated by poisonous vapors, which directly enervate the texture of the lungs. Tobacco-smoke is one of those poisonous vapors, which not only weaken and irritate the air-cells of the lungs, but, meeting the blood as it comes up to receive its oxygen, sends its narcotic essence throughout the whole course of the blood-vessels. Anything, indeed, whether received into the system through the lungs, or in any other way, which weakens the powers of life, predisposes to consumption, as well as other forms of disease. A large proportion of consumptions arise from severe and protracted cases of dyspepsia. Sometimesforeign substances, dust and other hurtful matters, obtain access to the lungs, and irritate and inflame them. Vast damage has also, in past times, been done by pressing the lungs out of their place, and oppressing their expansion by lacing; on which subject it is not now necessary to enlarge.
The Skin is also an organ of respiration. As the arterial blood flows out through the arteries into the capillary vessels, which unite the arteries and veins, it then gives off a portion of its elements to the atmosphere. It gives off a portion of carbon in carbonic-acid gas, and receives a portion of oxygen from the surrounding air. It also transmits electrical influences which communicate between the body and the atmosphere. The healthful condition and action of the skin is greatly essential to health. Bad air will have its influence. Miasmatic influences take advantage of the fact that the skin holds, in a great degree, the destiny of the body. If the action of the skin be retarded by having its pores and capillaries obstructed, there will at once be disturbance throughout the whole system.
There is great sympathy between the skin and the internal organs. When the functions of the skin are deranged, there is disturbance in the action of the kidneys, which secrete from arterial blood, elements which are not further needed. It also influences the liver, whose office is, the secreting and carrying off of matter collected from the blood circulating in the veins. The lungs, too, hold a close sympathy with the action of the skin. The whole system feels, when the skin suffers. Hence the importance to be attached to keeping the pores unclogged, by suitable washing, and unembarrassed by wrong sleeping arrangements. There should be needful bathing, but not excessive; the pores kept open, but not stimulated beyond their due action; and entire abstinence from the false and hurtful luxury of feather beds.—Philosophy of Health.
If pure air be not breathed and cleanliness attended to, we shall have disastrous results.—Health Journal.

Breathing Impure Air.

It is not, however, in private rooms and offices only, that the occupants are exposed to the breathing of impure air, but also in churches and factories, where persons congregate in large numbers.
There has always seemed to me to be a very irreligious air in our houses of public worship. These are sacred places,—temples, as they used to be termed,—where people expect, or which they visit as if they did expect, to meet the Divine Presence, and be blessed by it. Just what fatuity has rested upon Christians up to this time to induce them to believe that between nature and revelation, there exists a feud, showing itself in actual hostility, and that, in order to be pious, they must take sides with revelation against nature, I know not; but that they act as if they were under special obligations to be unnatural, in order to be religious, is as obvious to a close observer as any thing can be. This feeling works itself out in every direction; and in none can it be more plainly seen than in the way in which religious persons, on a Sabbath day, relate themselves to health and its laws. Why meeting-houses should be built so that congregations shall be compelled to breathe impure air all the time, and, as is now-a-days becoming fashionable, be shut out from the sunlight, and deprived of its healthy and exhilarating effects, seems strange to a candid and sincere mind; yet not one church in a hundred can be found so constructed as to enable its occupants to have any thing like pure air to breathe, or fair opportunity to enjoy the sunlight. They huddle themselves together in close pens like sheep, and do but little else than breathe each other’s breaths, and listen with a very superficial devotion to the services of the hour; going away as little impressed thereby as is possible, and not one in five hundred of them partaking of the anointing of the minister, which, if he is a good man, will have been given him by God for their especial benefit. Really, I do not suppose that the ministers of the gospel, who undertake to represent the divine will, to expound the divine word,and exhibit the divine life, to the people among whom they are placed, are successful in communicating their own spiritual gifts to one in a hundred of those, who, from Sabbath to Sabbath, gather in the churches of our land. This is very deplorable; for just to the degree that a public representative of the divine will and the divine life finds himself unable to communicate his gifts to those who need them, is the relation an unhappy one, and fraught with injurious results both to himself and the people of his charge. No man can ever have a great spiritual endowment conferred upon him by the Divine Wisdom for a given end, who is not himself the worse for that endowment, if he finds himself unable to accomplish the end. Power of any kind bestowed upon a human creature for any purpose, has, if anything prevents it from being used for such purpose, an ill tendency; and he who carries it about is necessarily the worse for having it imposed upon him. Every minister who stands in the pulpit, and cannot reach the hearts of his people, is made unhappy in spirit thereby.
One of the laws which God has established for the transmission of spiritual life from one man to another, is that the conditions of both such persons shall be in conformity with physical law. If a minister be a sickly man, suffering under bodily infirmity, and seeks to communicate from the pulpit, not simply the divine will, but the divine affection, he is, by the very nature of things, a less efficient agent for this purpose than he would be if his conditions were those of perfect health. Neither his brain nor his heart can become a medium for the transmission of the divine bestowments, as they would if his physical nature were rightly related to health. If his congregation is made up chiefly of invalids, and he is a robust man, they can never receive such impressions from him as they could if they were in health. If both the minister and the people are free from any bodily sickness, and yet gather themselves together under such circumstances, and in such relations to their physical comfort, or to the operation of any of the laws of physical health, as to render these more or less inefficient,they, by these very conditions, rear barriers to their own receptivity, that may be found impregnable and impassable.
This is very plainly seen in other directions. If a man becomes intoxicated by having introduced alcoholic poison into his blood, so as to effect his brain, the presence of such poison is a complete bar to his reception of any thing like spiritual impressions from on high, and is so regarded. God’s spirit not only does not work in the heart of a drunken man, but, while he is drunk, it cannot. Suppose, then, that a congregation come together with a view of being spiritually benefited, and the relation of the air they breathe to the blood that circulates in their veins is such as seriously to impair its electric, magnetic, and nutritive conditions; how, in such a condition of this great vital fluid, can they hope, for a moment, to have anything like healthy conditions of brain? And, if they cannot have these, how can they have their emotional natures rendered particularly susceptible to divine impressions? A man breathing carbonic-acid gas in a church, instead of atmospheric air, can in no wise be so related to the perception of truth, or the reception of the divine love, as he would or could be if his physical conditions were changed, and he were permitted to breathe atmospheric air instead of carbonic-acid gas. There are, then, two great ill results flowing from the breathing of impure air in houses of worship; one, that the health of those who breathe it is impaired thereby, and the foundation laid in many instances for positive disease; and the other, that the spiritual conceptions of the persons breathing such air are greatly blunted, if not, for the time being, destroyed.
It is very seldom that a hundred persons can be gathered together without having a considerable number of them suffering under more or less advanced stages of pulmonary disease. Recollect that scrofula is a household disease, to be found in almost every family. Recollect, also, that the ultimate manifestation of scrofula is pulmonary consumption, and that the intermediate stages of its progress show more orless involvement of the pulmonary organs. From this point, one can judge of the correctness of my statement, that very few congregations of a hundred persons can be found, without having a considerable number of them laboring under pulmonary consumption, in its early or advanced stages, by the practical exhibitions made upon such occasions. How seldom is it that a congregation assembled together on the Sabbath is not disturbed by the coughing and expectoration of one, two, three, or half a dozen of its members, in various parts of the house! Shut up all the windows, close all the doors, rarefy the air so that there shall be but slight opportunity for getting oxygen into the lungs, and then set this congregation of one hundred or five hundred, as the case may be, to breathing. In ten minutes, the air becomes foul; the oxygen is more or less consumed; carbonic vapor from the lungs mingles with the body of gaseous fluid to be taken in at every respiration; and so do the consumptive particles emitted from the lungs of those having the disease. God only knows how many persons have begun to be consumptive from just such exposure as this, when attendant on his worship. There are various ways of committing murder; and there are also various ways of committing suicide. The wickedness of such a mode as this is heightened by the outward sacredness given to the action by the occasion. It is as much worse for a man to violate the laws of life and health when he is engaged in some special act of piety, than it would be were he not so engaged, as it is for him to be a hypocrite instead of being simply disingenuous.
I confess that I have a liking for public worship: I feel that to myself it might always be a means of great benefit. But I hold in such disfavor the arrangements made for its enjoyment, because of the disregard of the laws of life and health manifested under the present order of things, that only when important occasions urge upon me to do it, do I venture into a house of public worship. *
School-houses used formerly to be built without any reference whatever to the necessity of having pureair; but a better state of things is gradually coming to exist, and improved ventilation is now secured.
Girls suffer much more than boys, both in factories and in schools, under the influence of causes predis- posing to consumptive disease, by reason of the very foolish and wicked fashion which obtains throughout Christendom in respect to their style of dress.
It is sometimes the case that children, if not particularly instructed to the contrary, find their way to that most unhealthy and undesirable attachment to a household, the privy, for purposes of amusement and play. It is well that parents should be thoughtful about the matter; for, from want of knowledge how to deodorize the mass of defecation that accumulates in the privy vault, the air of such a place becomes exceedingly unhealthy, and furnishes as effective an influence in deranging the healthy conditions of the blood, and determining any latent poison that may be in the system into active exercise, as any mass of decomposable matter could possibly do. Young children, therefore, should not be permitted to make such a place a point for assemblage for any purpose other than that which nature institutes; and then they should be taught to make their stay there as short as circumstances will permit. Privies might be built so that there would be little or no effluvia arising into the body of the house; but carelessness prevails in this matter, and will continue to prevail, until a very much better philosophy, in regard to the means of preserving health and preventing disease, obtains on the part of those who have it in charge.—Jackson on Consumption.

Ventilation of Churches.

The particles of matter which compose the human body are constantly changing. None of us possess to-day exactly the same bodies that were ours yesterday. A portion of their substance has been cast off and replaced by new. In the muscles, the bones, all the tissues which enter into our structure, particles which are worn out and can no longer subserve thepurposes of life, are being taken up and passed in fluid form into the blood, by the circulation of which they are carried to those organs whose office it is to separate them from it and excrete, or throw them out of the system. These organs are the lungs, liver, kidneys, the lining membrane of the intestines and the external skin. This waste is made good by new particles, which are also carried by the blood to every minute portion of the body, wherever it circulates, and appropriated as they are needed. It is thus that food nourishes and builds up the body after passing through the various processes of digestion, and being converted into blood. But the lungs act a not less important part in the animal economy as organs of nutrition, than the stomach. Atmospheric air is absolutely necessary to the continuance of life because a portion of its substance is being constantly taken into the system through the lungs, digested as it were, and assimilated. Without it a man can live but a very short time. When we consume air in this way we do not create a vacuum. We expire air from the lungs as often as we inspire it; but that which is expired is quite different in its nature from that which is inspired. The oxygen, that property of air, which contributes to the support of life, is removed in large degree, and its place supplied by a gas which has no nutrient qualities whatever. The atmosphere in its natural state is exactly adapted to the wants of man. That is, the different gases which make it up are mixed in just such proportion as is adapted when breathed by him to keep him alive and in health. For he cannot live and breathe pure oxygen.—It has to be diluted, and is mixed with a gas which seems neutral in its character, or to serve no other purpose than as a diluent. But the moment that the character of the air becomes changed it is unhealthful, and its unwholesomeness is in proportion to the change. If a person should go into a room filled with atmospheric air, and close it tightly, as soon as he had performed the act of respiration once, he would have changed the character of the air, but by no means to that degree that it would become changed in half an hour. He would gradually exhaust the oxygen till thequantity he could get by breathing would be too small to support life, and then he would die.
Here is an explanation of much of the drowsiness, stupidity and headache felt in church gatherings, and the lassitude and exhausted feeling felt afterward. Men are blamed for sleeping in church when the atmosphere of the place absolutely forbids their keeping awake, for some constitutions and temperaments more than others, yield with readiness to this influence. Men and women blame themselves for stupidity and indifference in meeting, when the quality of their blood is such from lack of air that it is impossible for them to be attentive and interested. Ministers are criticised for lack of originality of thought, force and earnestness in the delivery of their sermons, when the condition of their brains is such, for want of oxygenation of the blood which passes through them, that clearness of thought cannot be had. No matter how talented a man may be abstractly, his mind and body are so related that while he goes directly counter to the laws which God has established for the sustainment of his body, it cannot be a good medium for his mind to operate through.
It is almost impossible to find a well ventilated church. Intelligent congregations sit Sunday after Sunday in an atmosphere which it is a shame to breathe. And if they did but realize what they are doing, it would be absolutely wicked. Besides, it is filthy. From one to five hundred persons sit from two to three hours every Sabbath and breathe over and over again the impurities which are exhaled from each other’s lungs and skin, without an opening so large as a knitting needle to allow their escape from the room. There is great need of reform in this matter. It is very easy, if there is no other means of ventilation, to drop each window a few inches from the top, thus securing a free circulation of pure air all through the house.—I wish every minister in the country would preach one sermon on the sinfulness of abusing God’s gift of air, and then insist henceforward on having plenty of it to breathe during his public ministrations. By doing so he would remove one cause of ill health,and take a step toward teaching his people to honor God in their physical habits.—Letter Box, Jan., 1859.
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