Identifier: 63210540R.nlm.nih.gov
Title: The uses and abuses of air : showing its influence in sustaining life and producing disease : with remarks on the ventilation of houses
Year: 1848 (1840s)
Authors: Griscom, John H. (John Hoskins), 1809-1874 Prudential Insurance Company of America, donor. DNLM
Subjects: Ventilation Respiration
Publisher: New York : Redfield
Contributing Library: U.S. National Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons, U.S. National Library of Medicine

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
not too late. Let them next agitate for an ex-tensive and efficient system of sewerage, to drain off thewater after its benefits have been made available, andwith it, if possible, all the garbage, refuse contents ofsinks, privies, &c, into what has been ingeniously andhappily termed the great wash tub of the Atlantic.Measures of waterage, drainage, and ventilation, oughtin all cases to be concurrent. It has been calculated that in London, 60 tons of car-bonic acid, and 60 tons of water, are given off from thelungs of human beings in one day! Of these, largequantities must bereinhaled. Assuming the populationof New York to be nearly one fourth that of London,and including the animals, there can not be much lessthan 20 tons of each daily exhaled. From the narrow-ness of the streets, and the defective ventilation of thehouses, dilution by pure air is impeded, and reinhalationis the necessary result. After describing the well-likecourts and alleys of Liverpool, in connexion with this
Text Appearing After Image:
USES AND ABUSES OF AIR. 195 part of the subject, Dr. Duncan says he hails with de-light the approach of a hurricane or thunder-storm.There is no doubt that these have often been to the peopleof New York, blessings in disguise. These few suggestions have been offered with the be-lief, that, if they be acted upon by the citizens themselvesand those they appoint to make their laws, New Yorkwill become, what she ought to be and can be, one of themost healthful cities in the world. The present chapter may be appropriately closed bypresenting drawings of the manner in which the foul airof many school-houses, churches, &c, accumulates insome parts more than others, according to the directionof the wind and other causes, and which are supposedgenerally, but very erroneously, to be ventilated by thewindows. The space colored red, represents the extentand amount of the pure air, under the most favorablecircumstances of a strong wind, and the blue space in-dicates the extent and degree of im

Note About Images