Page:Macfadden's Fasting, Hydropathy and Exercise.djvu/133

Rh "ventilators" are mostly calculated to humor the prejudice against perceptible air-currents. They are intended to smuggle in a modicum of fresh air unnoticed, near the edge of the ceiling, in a roundabout way through halls and antechambers. One open window is worth a dozen of such compromise tricks.

Open the dining-room windows in the forenoon; and the kitchen windows in the afternoon; no revolving-fan can compete with the effect of a direct influx of atmospheric air. If you teach a class or work in a warehouse or counting-house, prevail upon the managers to ventilate the place during the dinner-recess; or else try to do your work in the airiest corner, near a window or near the door of an airy hall. In ill-ventilated rooms the azote miasma has its centers of destiny that can be avoided with a little management.

But at all events get rid of the night-air superstition, and enjoy the blessings of an airy bedroom—the luxury, I may add. A natural instinct may be suppressed, but needs but little encouragement to resume its normal functions, like a river returning to its ancient channel. Thus, the fresh-air instinct. In families cursed with the