tions.

A German medical writer calculates that one in 150 of those who
frequently attend theatres become diseased and die, from the impurity
of the atmosphere. The reason is, that respiration contaminates the
air; and where large assemblies are collected in close rooms, the air
is corrupted much more rapidly than many are aware. Lavoisier, the
French chemist, states, that in a theatre, from the commencement to the
end of the play, the oxygen or vital air is diminished in the
proportion of from 27 to 21, or nearly one fourth; and consequently is
in the same proportion less fit for respiration, than it was before.
This is probably the general truth; but the number of persons present,
and the amount of space, must determine, in a great measure, the
rapidity with which the air is corrupted. The pit is the most unhealthy
part of a play-house, because the carbonic acid which is formed by
respiration is heavier than atmospheric air, and accumulates near the
floor.

It is painful to look round on a gay audience of 1500 persons, and
consider that ten of this number will die in consequence of breathing
the bad air of the room so frequently, and so long. But I believe this
estimate is quite within bounds.

There are however other results to be dreaded. The practice of going
out of a heated, as well as an impure atmosphere late in the evening,
and often without sufficient clothing, exposes the individual to cold,
rheumatism, pleurisy, and fever. Many a young lady,--and, I fear, not a
few young gentlemen,--get the consumption by taking colds in this
manner.

Not only the health of the body, but the mind and morals, too, are
often injured. Dr. Griscom, of New York, in a report on the causes of
vice and crime in that city, made a few years since, says; 'Among the
causes of vicious excitement in our city, none appear to be so powerful
in their nature as theatrical amusements. The number of boys and young
men who have become determined thieves, in order to procure the means
of introduction to the theatres and circuses, would appal the feelings
of every virtuous mind, could the whole truth be laid open before them.

'In the case of the feebler sex, the result is still worse. A relish
for the amusements of the theatre, without the means of indulgence,
becomes too often a motive for listening to the first suggestion of the
seducer, and thus prepares the unfortunate captive of sensuality for
the haunts of infamy, and a total destitut