It is true that there are not so many persons
in the room as in an office, but if your sense of smell is keen
you will notice that the air has close, stuffy exhalations,
which surely cannot be sanitary. If you venture to suggest
that one of the windows be opened the lady of the house
will at once tell you that you will be in a draught and catch cold.
It is a matter of daily occurrence to find a number of persons
dining in a room where there is no opening for the contaminated air
to leak out, or for the fresh air to come in. After dinner
the gentlemen adjourn to the library to enjoy the sweet perfumes of smoking
for an hour or so with closed windows. What a picture would be presented
if the bacteria in the air could be sketched, enlarged,
and thrown on a screen, or better still shown in a cinematograph,
but apparently gentlemen do not mind anything so long as they can inhale
the pernicious tobacco fumes.
It is a common practice, I fear, to keep the windows of the bedroom closed,
except in hot weather. I have often suggested to friends that,
for the sake of their health, they should at least keep one of the windows,
if not more, open during the night, but they have pooh-poohed the idea
on account of that bugaboo -- a draught. It is one of the mysteries
of the age that people should be willing to breathe second-hand air
when there is so much pure, fresh air out of doors to be had for nothing;
after inhaling and exhaling the same air over and over again
all through the night it is not strange that they rise in the morning
languid and dull instead of being refreshed and in high spirits.
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