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44

OF AIP

Delicate persons ought, as mucii as possible, to avoid the air ofgreat towns. It is peculiarly hurtful to the asthmatic and consump-tive. Such persons should avoid cities as they would a plague.The hypochondriac are likewise much hurt by it. I have often seenpersons so much afflicted with tins malady while in town, that it seemedimpossible for them to live, who,upon being removed to the country,were immediately relieved. The same observation holds with regardto nervous and hysteric women. Many people indeed have it not intheir power to change their situation in quest of better air. All we cansay to such persons is, that they should go as often abroad into theopen air a& they can, that they should admit fresh air frequently intotheir houses, and take care to keep them very clean.

It was necessary in former times, for safety, to surround cities,colleges, and even single houses, with high walls. These, by obstruct-ing the free current of air, never fail to render such places damp andunwholesome. As such walls are now, in most parts of this country,become useless, they ought to be pulled down, and every methodtaken to admit a free passage to the air. Proper attention to Air andCleanliness would tend more to preserve the health of mankindthan all the endeavours of the faculty.

Surrounding houses too closely with planting or thick woods, like-wise tends to render the air unwholesome. Wood not only obstructsthe tree current of the air, but sends forth great quantities of moistexhalations, which render it constantly damp. Wood is very agrec-ble at a proper distance from a house, but should never be planted tooear it, especially in a flat country. Many of the gentlemen's seats inEngland are rendered very unwholesome from the great quantity ofwood which surrounds them.

Houses situated in low marshy countries, or near large lakes of stag-nant water, are likewise unwholesome. Waters which stagnate notonly render the air damp, but load it with putrid exhalations, whichproduce the most dangerous and fatal diseases. Those who are obligedto inhabit marshy countries, ought to make choice of the dryest situa-tions they can find, to live generously, and to pay the strictest regardto cleanliness.

If fresh air be necessary for those in health, it is still more so for thesick, who often lose their lives for want of it. The notion that sickpeople must be kept very iiot, is so common, that one can hardly enterthe chamber where a patient lies, without being ready to faint, byreason of the hot suffocating smell. How this must affect the sick, anyone may judge. No medicine is so beneficial to the sick as fresh air.It is the most reviving of all cordials, if it be administered with pru-dence. We are not, however, to throw open doors and windows atrandom upon the sick. Fresh air is to be let into the chamber gradu-ally, and,if possible, by opening the windows of some other apartment.

The air of a sick person's chamber may be greatly freshened, andthe patient much revived, by sprinkling the floor, bed, &c frequentlywith vinegar, juice of a lemon, or any other strong vegetable acid.

Ill places were numbers of sick are crowded into the same house,or, which is often the case, into the same apartment, the fre-quent admission of fresh air become? absolutely necessary. Infirmaries