Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Page 235-1222 – “they who possess large chests are not only stronger and more tenacious of life than those whose lungs are slender, but they are also less liable to that fearful scourge of the country, pulmonary consumption.”

Comment – This only applies to those whose chest is large from plenty of use.

Score – Unverified

What 41 – Air Filters

People should devise a means of filtering out the dust in air of factories.

Page 246-1277 – “For our laborers in cotton mills, woolen factories, glass factories, etc., etc., it is fondly hoped that human ingenuity will yet find out something to remove the dust, and substitute in its place the pure and perfect atmosphere of high heaven. Is such a hope futile?”

Score – Significant

What 42 – Ventilation W 12 R 7 G 23 C 14 J 28 K 34

Ventilation should be available to bedrooms, living rooms and schools.

Page 94-489 – “Provision should be made in every sleeping room, whether large or small, for a free atmosphere circulation.”

Page 93-486 – “If the air were pure in these rooms .... Fewer lives would be lost, as well as fewer diseases roused into activity,”

Page 277-1445 – “There is much more of suffering in our schools, for want of a due regard to ventilation, than is generally supposed.”

Comment – This is an overstatement, but the principle is correct.

Score – Significant

Why 52 – Ventilation 1 (What 42)

Low oxygen and high carbon-dioxide causes a lack of concentration in unventilated school rooms. Page 277-1445 – “There is much more of suffering in our schools, for want of a due regard to ventilation, than is generally supposed. .... And they not only yawn, on the one hand, or become restless and troublesome to the teacher, on the other, but they all are excited to do positive mischief.”

Page 389-2040 – “Nothing is more common than an undue proportion of carbonic acid gas. This, in the same proportion, excludes the needful stimulus of oxygen. We may not know, at first, what it is that so oppresses the brain and powers of life; but the oppression certainly exists.”

Score – Verified

Why 53 – Ventilation 2 (What 42)

Poor ventilation in the school room cause diseases of glands, brain and lungs.

Page 278-1449 – “Why the children who attend were so much troubled with scrofula and other glandular affections, and with diseases of the brain and lungs. .... The defective warming and ventilation was a sufficient cause,”

Score – Verified

Why 54 – Flatulence (What 42)

Gas passed from the bowel contains hydrogen sulphide, which is poisonous.

Page 243-1263 – “It (hydrogen sulphide) is also well known to predominate in the gases which are found in the alimentary canal .....; and its sudden ejection, with great noise, was once supposed to be an indication of high health.” (1265) – “When sulphuretted hydrogen gas, even in diluted state, (as

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

passed from the alimentary tract) is inhaled by human beings, it lessens the force of the circulation, enfeebles the muscles, stupefies the brain, and induces a general prostration of the system.” Comment – The presence of bowel gas is usually as a result of high soluble fibre intake and is a sign of health. The levels of hydrogen sulphide are too low to cause any health troubles.

Score - Unverified

Why 55 – The Skin (What 42)

The skin causes air pollution by secreting the breakdown products of metabolism.

Page 4-19 – “The kidneys, and sundry other organs, have the power of separating them (breakdown products of metabolism) from the current of the blood, into which the absorbents have poured them, and of sending them at once out of the system.”

Page 4-20 – “Perhaps there is no way in which so many of them are removed from the body, as through the skin.”

Score - Unverified

Windows should be open both top and bottom.

Page 94-492 – “The greater part of those who sleep with open windows see to prefer to lower the upper half of the window, .... Now, I think this is an error. .... The colder, denser, damp air does not then fall so directly on my person as when it enters first at the top.”

Page 276-1438 – “My remarks, thus far, have had reference chiefly to the escape of the carburetted hydrogen, which, as I have said, rises like a cloud to the top of the rooms. To facilitate the removal of the carbonic acid and other heavy gases, from which the principle danger after all is to be expected, there should be an opening at the bottom of the room as well as at the top;”

Comment – Where the openings are is not important as long as there is an opening.

Score - Unverified

What 44 – Carbon-Monoxide

Burning charcoal in a closed room causes death.

Page 260-1353 – “burning charcoal alone, that does the mischief,”

Score – Minor

Why 56 – Carbon Dioxide 1 (What 44)

It is the carbon dioxide from a fire in a closed room that kills.

Page 260-1353 – “It is not the burning charcoal alone, however, in these, that does the mischief, but the carbonic acid which is made both by the combustion and the breathing. Death, in these circumstances, generally happens in very tight rooms. The gas from the coal, .... together with the gas which is formed by breathing or respiration, generally fills up the room, as water would a vessel.”

Comment – Respiration gives off carbon dioxide which in itself is not a poison. It is carbon monoxide that kills from the fire in a closed room.

Score – Unverified

What 45 – Carbon Dioxide 2

Because carbon dioxide is poisonous we should never re-breath air.

Page 261-1356 – “He ought to know that carbonic acid gas is formed by respiration and by combustion; and that it should never be inhaled, by night or by day, even in the smallest quantities.”

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Score – Unverified

Why 57 – Carbon Dioxide 2 (What 45)

Re-breathing carbon dioxide cause a loss of appetite and disease.

Page 261-1360 – “But, when a person breaths too much carbonic acid nearly every day, if not every night, till he looks pale, loses his appetite, and begins to some particular disease to which he had long been predisposed, or perhaps, he inherited, but which better health and good air had warded off,”

Page 334-1751 – “And it is carbonic acid gas, after all, that is our deadliest foe.”

Score - Unverified

person can be found, - that many professedly Christian men and women are not only poisoning themselves, daily and hourly, but poisoning those they most love; I mean, their very family. From how frequently we find parents smoking in the presence of an asthmatic or consumptive child!” Page 258-1343 – “But such thoughts as these .... in all probability seldom trouble the smoker; ....

And yet his ignorance does not save him, or his children, from suffering. The penalty for violating physical laws must be executed. Nature knows of no atonement.”

Score - Significant

What 47 – Air Temperature

The temperature of the air we breathe should be as low as can be tolerated.

Page 263-1370 – “The general rule is: breathe the air at as low a temperature as you can and yet not suffer any immediate injury.”

Page 298-1554 – “We should not only be in the open air all we can, but it should be as cool as possible.”

Score – Unverified

What 48 – Protecting face or neck.

Protecting the face or neck from subzero air is a health hazard.

Page 173-1954 – “they who muff the face the least are .... the most (healthy). They who are so very cautious about inhaling a breath of freezing air below zero, are the very individuals to suffer”

Page 374-1957 – “It is certainly better to go with the neck bare, as done in one-half or two-thirds of the world, than to clothe the neck and face and chest too warmly.”

Score – Unverified

Why 58 – Cold Air (What 48)

Protecting the face or neck from subzero air causes colds, rheumatism and tuberculosis.

Page 329-1727 – “Those who would avoid colds must not muffle themselves, especially their faces and throats, every time they go out into the open air.”

Page 173-1954 – “they who muff the face the least are .... the most free from colds. They who are so very cautious about inhaling a breath of freezing air below zero, are the very individuals to suffer from colds, throat complaints, ear-ache, weak or inflamed eyes, rheumatism, lung complaints, and especially pulmonary consumption.”

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Score - Unverified

What 49 – Hot Air

Breathing heated air is dangerous to health.

Page 213-1106 – “On the other hand, any increase of temperature which is caused in an unnatural way, has an unfavorable effect.”

Score – Unverified

Why 59 – Hot Air 1 (What 49)

Heating our selves causes weakness of the arteries.

Page 213-1106 – “It (heated air) may at first quicken the motion and arteries .... It indicates weakness rather than strength.”

Score - Unverified

Why 60 – Hot Air 2 (What 49)

Breathing heated air causes oxygen starvation.

Page 263-1366 – “Beside the general enervating tendency of hot air on the living system, we must remember that, the more our air is heated, the less oxygen it contains in a given volume, heat rarifies it." (1368) - "he who should breathe the air at 85 degrees for a whole twenty-four hours would receive one-fifth less oxygen than if he breathed it at a temperature of 35 degrees.”

Page 265-1377 – “Let a person begin the morning .... by means of a coal stove, (heat only) to 60 degrees.”

Score - Unverified

Why 61 – Hot Air 3 (What 49)

Heating the air causes the metabolic rate to fall.

Page 265-1378 – “in proportion as the external heat has risen, the internal fire, so to call it, has gone down.”

Comment – We are able to adjust our basal metabolic rates to cope with lower room temperatures, but it is not permanent change nor is it a health hazard.

Score – Verified

Why 62 – Cool Skin (What 49)

The cooler the air, the more oxygen there is taken up by the skin.

Page 298-1554 – “And the cooler the air, the more, in a given volume, there is of the oxygen (taken up by the skin.)”

Score – Unverified

Our clothes should at all times be loose and porous.

Page 298-1555 – “Our dress should be as loose as possible. .... I have mentioned the necessity of having our bed-clothing loose and porous;”

Page 350-1830 – “our clothing should be loose and flowing; and, in general, of porous materials, both by night and day, as well as at all seasons.”

Comments - This only applies in hot weather.

Score – Unverified

Why 63 – Loose Clothing (What 50)