Prof. Huxley writes:
Furthermore, it is highly probable that the decaying organic matter given off from the whole free surface of animal bodies, taken in conjunction with its microbial contents, is a source of danger, but whether directly or indirectly is a point about which I should not like to speak confidently.
The fact is, while the virtues of fresh air and the wisdom of physical purity as a prophylactic may be very confidently justified by experience, the theory of the subject is full of difficulties, and the present views of physiologists must be regarded as merely tentative hypotheses. I should not feel justified in putting the theoretical points you advance as safely established truths before the public. I began to mark some paragraphs I thought specially open to objection; but I can not go into the matter, as I am myself struggling out of the influenza poison, which afflicts one's brain with mere muddiness.Dr. Clifford Allbutt writes:
If any one doubt, let him try the marvelous recreation of a few nights camped out sub dio and be converted.
Moreover, the marvelous effects of an open-air life in the cure of such maladies as consumption are known of all men. But is it kind to tell us these dreadful things when we'are helpless to amend them?
Your home solution of the problem is known to your friends, and is excellent in your circumstances, but is impossible in towns, where every inch of window means an inch of grime on walls, ceilings, and furniture. Not only so, but our big common dwelling-halls are gone, our high-backed chairs and settles are gone, our tapestry is gone, and air supplied in modern fashion by slits or pipes means "drafts."
Now, "drafts" will kill some of us as quickly as ptomaines and far more painfully.
Please write another paper to tell us what is to be done!Dr. W. B. Cheadle writes:
