The explanation of
this is plain and simple: Carbonic acid detained within four walls
accumulates in place of the breath of life--oxygen--and narcotizes the
excretory function of the skin. The moment that this great and
continual vent of waste and impurity from the system is obstructed,
internal derangement ensues in every direction. All hands, so to
speak, are strained to extra duty to discharge the noxious
accumulation. The lungs labor to discharge the load thrown back upon
them, with hastened respiration, increased combustion, and feverish
heat. The pores of the mucous membrane in the nose, throat, alimentary
canal, or bronchial passages, are forced by an aggravated discharge
(or catarrh), and this congestive and inflammatory pressure is a fever
also. There is nothing of "cold" about it except as an auxiliary and
antecedent, in cases where an external chill has struck upon nerves
already half paralyzed by the universal narcotic--carbonic acid--which
house dwellers may be said to "smoke" perpetually.
So much for nerve-poison; but blood-poisoning is a still more terrible
characteristic of house-protected existence. It is now the almost
universal opinion of the medical profession that the whole class of
malarial and zymotic diseases that make such frightful progress and
havoc in the most civilized communities, are due to living germs with
which the exhalations of organic waste and decay are everywhere loaded
in inconceivable numbers. They are known to multiply themselves many
times over, every two or three hours.
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