The atmosphere in relation to human life and health.

  • Russell, Francis Albert Rollo, 1849-1914.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The atmosphere in relation to human life and health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    dividing walls of cells, to air on both sides. The weight of air inhaled in the conrso of the day is seven or eight times that of the food eaten. Tlie mechanical work of bieathing represents energy expressed by the lifting of 21 tons 1 foot in 24 hours.* From every volume of air inspired about ih per cent of oxygen is abstracted, and a somewhat smaller ({uantlty of carbonic acid gas is at the same time added to tlie expired air. Experiments on animals show that the amount of oxygen absorbed is very little if at all increased by an excess in the air surrounding them. OZONE. Ozone is an imx)ortant constituent of the atmosphere, greatly con- tributing to its purity and freshness and to the vigor of human life. It is a form of oxygen in which the molecule is considered to be composed of three molecules of the gas. Although existing in small quantity in the air, rarely exceeding 1 part in 10,000, the activity of ozone is so great and its function so beneficial that its presence in normal quantity is, in ordinary sur- roundings, a fair guaranty of the purity of the air and of healthy con- ditions so far as breathing is concerned. JSTo ozone is found in the streets of large towns, in most inhabited rooms, near decomposing organic matter, and in confined spaces generally. In very large, well- ventilated rooms it is sometimes, though rarely, detected. Ozone is found in very small quantity a little to leeward of a large town. Even at Brighton, a town of about 110,000 inhabitants, ozone was barely discoverable on the pier when the wind blew from the town, but abundant when the wind was from another direction. Ozone has the power of oxidizing to a much higher degree than oxy- gen, and vigorously attacks organic matter in a fine state of division. It is therefore a strong disinfectant. Its oxidizing power is the reason of its absence from confined spaces where organic matter, dust, or smoke is present, for such matter quickly uses up the small portion of ozone which enters with the fresh air. The walls, furniture, etc., are also covered with fine dust, which the ozone attacks. The difference we feel in going from a furnished room, however large, into the oi)en air, is thus i^artly accounted for. There is somewhat more ozone on moun- tains than on plains, and most of all near the sea. Water is said by Carius to absorb 0.8 of its volume of ozone. An examination of sea water with a view to detect the amount contained in it would be diffi- cult, but might give interesting results. A great excess of ozone is destructive to life, and oxygen containing one two hundred and fortieth part of ozone is rapidly fatal. The ordinary quantity even has bad effects in exacerbating bronchitis and bronchial colds and some other affections of the lungs. • ' Professor Hangliton, Carpenter's Principles of Human Physiology.