The Young Mother

nic acid. How it destroys people. Impurity of the air by means of lamps and candles. Other sources of impurity. Experiment of putting the candle under the bed-clothes. Covering the heads of inf

in a nursery. Their evil tende

apartments pure; for few know what the constitution of our atmosphe

is the vital part, as it were, of the air. No animal or vegetable could long exist without it. And yet if alone, unmixed, it is too pure and too refined for animals to breathe. Nitrogen gas, on the contrary, while alone, will not support either respiration or combustion; mixed, however, with oxygen, it dilutes it, and in the most happy manner fits it for reception into the lungs.] and

ld breathe a single moment. Breathing consumes this oxygen of the air very rapidly. When the oxygen is present in about a certain proportion, combustion and r

d by these two processes, or either of them, carbonic acid is formed, which is not only bad for combustion, but much worse for health. If any considera

where there is no chimney, nor any other place for the bad air to escape. But it not only ki

ct that our skins, by perspiration and by other means, are a source of much impurity to the atmosphere; a fact which will be more fully explained and illustrated in the chapter on Bathing and Cleanliness. It is only necessary to say, in this place, that it is not the matter of perspi

e body has been closely covered all night, if you introduce a candle under the bed-clothes into this confined

ncrease of nitrogen and carbonic acid gas, which are not necessary to health, and the latter of which is even positively injurious. But when the oxygen, instead of forming 20 or more parts in 100 of the atmosphere of the nursery, is reduced to 15 or 18 parts only, and the carbonic acid gas is increased from 1 or 2 parts in 100, to 5, 6, 8 or 10-when t

it. It undoubtedly does so, to a certain extent,

ity. Dr. Dewees also condemns them, most decidedly; and give

every nursery ought to be most thoroughly ventilated, once a day, at least; and when the weather is tolerable, twice a day. If there is but one apartment, and fear is entertained of the dampness of the fresh air introduced, or of currents, and if the mother and babe cannot retire, there is a last resort, which is for them to get into bed, and cover themse

gases which are formed, may escape. But it is better, in general, to avoid burning lamps or candles during the night. By means of common matches, a light may be produced, wh

in the nursery. They load the air with noxious effluvia or vapor, or with part

in reputation as a means of purifying the air in sick-rooms and nurseries; but t