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is burned in shops, workshops, factories, sitting
and bed rooms. Gas may be burned in rooms with
impunity, and even made to assist in ventilating
rooms, by arrangements being made for securing
the exit of impure air and the entrance of fresh air.
Such arrangements are not only not common, but
they are the exceptions in the houses of our Parish,
and such is the ignorance of the danger incurred
by this process of slow poisoning, that it is with
the greatest difficulty that even the most intelligent
and wealthy of the inhabitants of the Parish, can
be persuaded to adopt plans for preventing this
poisoning of themselves and their families.
One result of this poisoning of the blood by the
impurity of the air is the extreme susceptibility of
the system to cold. Hence persons have recourse
to shutting up windows and doors, and enclosing
rooms, and thus increasing tenfold their susceptibility
to cold. Nothing is of greater importance to
the health of the adult than the habit of breathing
pure air in childhood and youth. This in fact
explains the anomaly of so few persons living in
London who are born there; the fact being that
persons born in London get so badly nourished in
their youth that they die off, or are obliged to go
into the country, whilst the country people who
have had the advantage of abundance of fresh air
in their youth, are enabled more successfully to
resist the destructive influences of London houses
and habits.