nal power to generate heat,
which, no doubt, resides very largely in the lungs. Secondly, it takes
from them a part of that oxygen or vital air which they would otherwise
inhale, and gives them in return a proportional quantity of carbonic
acid gas, which, except in the very small proportion in which the Author
of nature has commingled it with the oxygen and nitrogen of the
atmosphere, is, to every individual, in effect, a rank poison.

Hence it is that those who have feeble lungs, or whose ancestors had,
should pay much attention to the quality of the air they breathe,
especially its temperature. And this they should do, not only for the
_sake_ of its temperature, but also for the sake of its purity. Such a
caution is always needful; but its necessity is increased in proportion
to the feebleness of the lungs and their tendency to suppuration,
bleeding, etc.

I was once called to see a young woman (in the absence of her regular
physician) who was bleeding at the lungs. She had bled occasionally
before, and was under the general care of two physicians; but a sudden
and more severe hemorrhage than usual had alarmed her friends, and, _in
the absence of better counsel_, they sought, temporarily, the advice of
a stranger.

It was a cold, spring day, and in order to keep up a proper temperature
in her room, I had no doubt that a little fire was needful. But instead
of a heat of 65 deg. in the morning and something more in the afternoon, I
found her sitting in a temperature, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, of
not less than 75 deg. or 80 deg. On inquiry, I was surprised to find
that the temperature of her room was seldom much lower than this, and
that sometimes it was much higher. I was still more surprised when I
ascertained that she slept at night in a small room adjoining her
sitting-room, and that a fire was kept all night in the latter, for her
special benefit.

No wonder her cough was habitually severe! No wonder she was subject to
hemorrhage, from the irritated vessels of the lungs! The wonder was that
she was not worse. The greatest wonder of all was, however, that two
sensible physicians should, for weeks if not for months, have
overlooked this circumstance. For I could not learn, on inquiry, that a
single word had been said by either of them on the subject.

If you should be inclined to ask whether she had no exercise in the more
open and pure air, either on horseback or in a carriage, the reply would
be, none a