Air, water and food from a sanitary standpoint / by Ellen H. Richards and Alpheus G. Woodman.

  • Richards, Ellen H. (Ellen Henrietta), 1842-1911.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Air, water and food from a sanitary standpoint / by Ellen H. Richards and Alpheus G. Woodman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Of the three essentials, air may well be considered first, although its office is to convert food already taken into heat and energy. Its exclusion only for a few minutes causes death, and in quantity used it far exceeds the other two. Again, so important is the action of air that the quality of food is of far less consequence when abundant oxygen is present, as in pure air, than when it is present in lessened quantity, as in air vitiated by foreign substances. Individual habit has much to do with the appreciation of good air, and as our knowledge of the value of an abun- dance of this substance in securing great efficiency in the human being increases, we shall be led to attach more im- portance to the sufficiency of the supply. In northern climates air is not free to all in the sense of costing nothing, for the coming of fresh air into the house means an accompaniment of cold which must be counter- acted by the consumption of fuel. A mistaken idea of econ- omy leads householders, school boards, and college trustees to limit the size of the air-ducts as well as of the rooms. It is therefore necessary to emphasize the facts which science has fully established, in order to secure the survival of the fittest of the race under the present pressure of economic conditions, which take so little account of the highest wel- fare of the human machine. Air, water, and soil are the common possessions of man- kind. It is impossible for man to use either selfishly without injury to his neighbor and without squandering his inheri- tance. Primitive man could leave a given spot when the soil became offensive, and neighbors were then too few to require consideration: but neither man nor beast could with impunity foul the stream for his neighbor who had rights below him. The soil is permanent; one knows where to look for it and its pollution. Air is abundant and is kept in con-