The influence of the atmosphere on our health and comfort in confined and crowded places / by Leonard Hill [and others].

Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence of the atmosphere on our health and comfort in confined and crowded places / by Leonard Hill [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    jfun^ THE INFLUENCE OE THE ATMOSPHERE ON OUR HEALTH AND COMFORT IN CONFINED AND CROWDED PLACES Bv LEONARD HILL, MARTIN FLACK,^ JAMES McINTOSH, R. A. ROWLANDS, H. B. WALKER (From the Physiological Laboratory of the London Hospital IMedical College —London Hospital Research Fund) INTRODUCTION It is g'enerally thought and taug'ht that the ill effects which arise from ill-ventilated houses, factories, workshops, theaters,—from stuffy and crowded rooms where many people congregate together— are due to alterations in the chemical quality of the air. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that no evidence has yet been brought forward which shows that the chemical quality of the air has anything to do with these ill effects, and that, apart from the influence of infecting bacteria, the ventilation problem is essen- tially one of the temperature, relative humidity, and movement of the air. In Germany this point of view has been upheld by that dis- tinguished hygienist, Flugge, and he and his co-workers have con- tributed a series of papers in which convincing evidence is adduced. In England, Haldane and Lorrain Smith have advanced the same view, and we find it expressed in the evidence given to the Depart- mental Committee of the Home Office on the Humidity and Ventila- tion of Cotton Weaving Sheds. (Haldane, Pembrey, Leonard Hill, etc.) Confirmatory evidence has been brought forward in America by Billings, Weir Mitchell, and Bergey. In all the elementary text-books of hygiene, and in most of the standard works, the chemical aspect of the question is treated as if it were the fundamental factor, and this opinion, widely reiterated in the daily press and in daily conversation, has become accepted as an article of faith. ' Working during the tenure of the Eliza Ann Alston Research Scholarship. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 60, No. 23
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