Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/166

Rh insure that all our demands for oxygen shall be freely and fully met, and yet we are assured by medical authorities that a very large proportion—some say one fourth—of all the deaths that take place is caused, directly or indirectly, by oxygen starvation."

What is the reason that so many must suffer and die for want of this endless blessing,—fresh air? The chief reason, answers the same authority, is city life. Instead of living in the country, where every household might have a large, free space of air around it, we draw together, for the convenience of business, to great centres. There the houses are crowded closely together, often piled one on the top of the other, so that, instead of an overabundance, there is only a limited quantity of air for each. This is made unfit for the support of life by the very act of breathing; the impurities are increased by the waste products of manufactories; and oxygen is destroyed by every fire and lamp and gas-light. The winds and certain properties of the atmosphere constantly remove much of the impure air, and bring in a pure supply; but the crowding together in many parts of a town is so great, and the production of poisonous matter goes on so continuously, that instead of each breath containing its full proportion of oxygen, the place of