OPEN FIRES, STOVES AND FURNACES.

Next to its intrinsic value, our method gives the patient the great
advantage of enjoying _pure fresh air_, either in or out of bed, as it
keeps the skin and the whole system in such order as to resist the
effects of atmospheric influences better than under a weakening process.
And every body knows, or, at least, every body ought to know, that free
circulation of fresh air is one of the most important means, in
contagious diseases, of preventing the malady from becoming malignant,
and of lessening the intensity of the contagion. Although the times are
passed, when patients in the heat of fever were almost roasted in their
beds, whilst a drink of cooling water was cruelly and stupidly denied
them; the temperature of the sick-room is, in general, still kept too
high, and not sufficient care is taken to renew the air as frequently, I
ought to say as constantly, as necessary for the benefit of the patient.
Usually there is no ventilation; very seldom a window is opened,
especially in the cold season, when epidemics of scarlatina are most
common, and commonly the room is crowded with friends of the patient,
who devour the good air, which belongs to him by right, and leave him
their exhalations to breathe instead. There is nothing better able to
destroy contagious poisons than oxygen and cold; and if we consider that
every human being absorbs every minute a volume of air larger than the
bulk of its own body, we must understand how necessary it is to keep
people away from the sick-room, who are not indispensably necessary to
the patient, and to provide for a constant supply of fresh air. But
whatever may be the arrangement for that purpose, the patient should not
be exposed to a draught. Stoves and fire-places are pretty good
ventilators for drawing off the bad air from the room; if you take care
not to have too much fire, and to allow a current of pure air to enter
at a corresponding place, the top of a window, or a ventilator in the
wall opposite the fire-place, there will always be pure air in your
sick-room. The air coming from furnaces, which unfortunately have become
so general, is good for nothing, especially when taken from the worst
place in the house, the cellar or basement. I consider the worst kind of
stoves better than the best kind of furnaces; only take care not to heat
the stove too much, or to exclude the outer air, which is indispensable
to supply the air drawn off by the sto