General Conference Bulletin, vol. 1

HEALTH TOPICS — VENTILATION

J. H. KELLOGG

I WANT to read a few things this morning with reference to this subject. It is one upon which we have received a great deal of information. So long ago as 1868 the following words were written:— GCB February 8, 1895, page 58.7

Many are suffering from disease because they refuse to receive into their rooms at night the pure night air. The free, pure air of heaven is one of the richest blessings we can enjoy.—Testimonies for the Church 2:528 GCB February 8, 1895, page 58.8

Air, the precious boon of heaven which all may have, will bless you with its invigorating influences if you will not refuse its entrance. Welcome it, cultivate a love for it, and it will prove a precious soother of the nerves. Air must be kept in constant circulation to be kept pure. The influence of pure, fresh air is to cause the blood to circulate healthfully through the system. It refreshes the body, and tends to render it strong and healthy, while at the same time its influence is decidedly felt upon the mind, imparting a degree of composure and serenity. It excites the appetite, and renders the digestion of good more perfect, and induces sound and sweet sleep. GCB February 8, 1895, page 58.9

The effects produced by living in close, ill-ventilated rooms are these: The system becomes weak and unhealthy, the circulation is depressed, the blood moves sluggishly throught he system because it is not purified and vitalized by the pure, invigorating air of heaven. The mind becomes depressed and gloomy, while the whole system is enervated; and fevers and other acute diseases are liable to be generated. Your careful exclusion of external air and fear of free ventilation, leave you to breathe the corrupt, unwholesome air which is exhaled from the lungs of those staying in these rooms, and which is poisonous, unfit for the support of life. GCB February 8, 1895, page 58.10

I do not suppose there is a person here who has not breathed into his lungs again and again the germs of tuberculosis, or consumption. The only reason why you have not taken some such disease, is that the system has been able to destroy the germs. One seventh of all deaths are caused by consumption. Very likely some who are in this audience will die within five or six years of this disease; and why? Simply because the system is not always able to destroy the disease germs taken into the system. GCB February 8, 1895, page 58.11

Impure air is the frequent cause of disease. Above all other places, houses of worship and school buildings should be thoroughly ventilated. In the church congregation and in the crowded school room are persons affected with scrofula, consumption, and almost every other form of disease. Impurities generated by these disorders are exhaled and also thrown off through the perspiration. Unless there is most thorough ventilation, these impurities will be taken into the lungs and then into the body, and thus endanger health, and even life. — Review, Sept. 22, 1885. GCB February 8, 1895, page 58.12

People often breathe over and over the air that others have breathed. There are always some persons in an audience who have worse diseases than others, and thus disorders are communicated from one to another. I want to place a picture before you. Suppose you sat down to a table where the dishes were soiled; they bore evidence of not having been washed for some time; the bowls were all unclean, and the glasses were streaked, the knives and forks were soiled with the previous meal. You would not feel very much like eating, would you? Well, if we could see the impurities in the air, we would see a worse picture than this, and a far more dangerous source of disease. You dislike to take into your stomach that which is unclean, but the impurities of the air are far more dangerous to the body. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.1

We have to fight bad air all the time. A man asked me the other day, “How is it we are not all dead, if there are so many impurities all about us?” I answered: We become inoculated, so to speak, with bad air. It is like a man using tobacco. His system becomes filled with the poison: and yet he lives on. But he is less able to resist other poisons or diseases. The system labors to adapt itself to the abuses imposed upon it. The old smoker can use enough tobacco in one day to kill a boy or even a man who is not accustomed to it. But these abuses reduce the power of resistance against disease. When the lungs are constantly receiving bad air, the system becomes so saturated with poison that it is entirely unable to resist disease. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.2

How Ventilate? — It is not a complicated thing to ventilate a house or a church. It is an easy matter. It is necessary to have two openings; one for the air to come in at, another for it to go out at. If you have only one, the currents of air get tangled, as it were. It would be like half this congregation trying to get out and the other half trying to get in at the same door. The same thing takes place with the cold and the warm air. There can be no regular circulation where there is only one opening. Neither can there be when there are two, if they are both on the same side of the house. The wind might have a tendency to draw the air away from the room or it might drive in too much. But there should be two openings, and now let us determine where they should be. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.3

There is only one principle that determines where the openings shall be. That is whether the fresh air is warm or cold. The old idea that the bad air settles to the floor is a mistake. It is the cold air that settles down and the warm air that rises. If the fresh air comes in warm, it goes to the top; if it comes in cold, it settles down, and the warm, bad air rises. Where, then, shall the fresh air opening be placed? If the air is cold when admitted, it will settle toward the floor, and should therefore be admitted toward the upper part of the room; for if it came in at the floor, it would remain there, being heavier than the warm air. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.4

Having located the cold fresh-air opening, where shall we place the exit? As the cold air becomes warm and impure, it rises, giving place to colder air. Hence the impure air is at the top, and the bad-air escape also should be located near the top. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.5

The matter of admitting cold air must be carefully guarded. Cold air is often more dangerous than impure air. One might take pneumonia from exposure and die in a few weeks, while he might endure bad air for several years. The Lord has not overlooked that point. Let me read a few lines on that:— GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.6

A slight exposure sometimes produces serious diseases. Great care should be exercised not to sit in a draught, or in a cold room when weary, or when in perspiration. You should so accustom yourself to the air that you will not be under the necessity of having the mercury higher than sixty-five degrees.—Testimonies for the Church 1:702, 703. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.7

Now this instruction with reference to sitting in a draught or in a cold room when weary, was written long before the physiologists said anything upon the subject. Sister White could not have read anything treating upon this, as it has only been within the last few years that the physiologies have said anything about it. One is more susceptible to cold when tired or perspiring. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.8

It costs more money to warm the fresh air than it does to live on the bad air; but what is that compared with human life? It is better to burn more fuel than it is to burn up our bodies. It is much better to ventilate with warm air. The air admitted should be heated if possible. If the fresh air is to come into the room heated, where shall the opening be made? Since the heated air goes up, if we are to have the benefit of it, it must come in at the bottom. And as it remains in the room it becomes cooled, as well as impure, and the outlet should also be at the bottom. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.9

The size of the openings must be governed, of course, by the amount of air required. If a large number of persons are to be in the room, larger openings must be made. GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.10

A house already built without arrangements for ventilation can be supplied with ventilation at a very small cost. It should not require more than $10 to supply an ordinary house with ventilator apparatus. The shaft which conducts the bad air out should be heated. [An illustration was exhibited representing a room with two openings. A lighted torch was placed in at one of the openings, but the flame came right back out of the same opening. Then a tall shaft was placed upon the other opening, and still the flame came out at the same opening. but a small candle was lighted just at the bottom of the shaft, and the flame was carried through the room, and the entire current went up the heated shaft.] GCB February 8, 1895, page 59.11

A very little heat is required to cause a strong draft up the ventilating shaft. A small kerosene stove, or wood stove, would do for the ventilator shaft of a church. GCB February 8, 1895, page 60.1

How to Breathe. — It is an important thing to know how to breathe the fresh air when you get it; and yet it is a very simple thing. I once told an audience that we should ask God how to breathe. They seemed to think this very strange. But God has already told us how to breathe. The child breathes as God has told us to breathe. GCB February 8, 1895, page 60.2

[A little boy was asked to go and take a short run, and then come in and show the audience how to breathe properly. He took a good run, and came in with his cheeks all aglow, and his whole chest and waist expanding, the air filling every part of the lungs. This is the only proper way to breathe. The skeleton of a chest was brought before the audience, with the spine, ribs, and breast bones arranged as in life. The movements of the ribs in proper life were shown. The breast bone moved up and out, and so did every rib, giving room for expansion of every part of the lungs.] GCB February 8, 1895, page 60.3

If you wish to know how to breathe properly, do not stand before the glass to watch yourself; but take a good run, or jump up and down forty or fifty times; and if your clothes do not obstruct the movement, it will be the proper one, the one you should have all the time, except that when quiet, the movements are less obvious. GCB February 8, 1895, page 60.4

But what about “abdominal breathing?” This term formerly meant simply full breathing, just such as I have described. This is what was meant in what Sister White wrote years ago about “abdominal breathing.” Later years the term has become confined to breathing with the lower part of the lungs. god made the whole chest to be used, and proper breathing uses the entire lung capacity. There is properly no difference between the breathing of a man and that of a woman. The idea that men and women naturally breathe differently is a mistake. GCB February 8, 1895, page 60.5

The upper part of the chest should be used as well as the lower part. One of the first evidences of consumption is the loss of motion in the upper part of the chest. It is very important that this part of the chest should be used, as well as all the rest of it, in breathing. If the waist is allowed to expand properly, the lungs will be filled, and you will breathe properly. GCB February 8, 1895, page 60.6