Although I do not consider you
to be accountable for statements contained in the articles extracted from
other journals, still I presume you would not knowingly make your work
the vehicle of any matter which would lead your readers astray. I have,
therefore, ventured to call your attention to a particular part of the
above article, and to correct what I presume to be a misstatement.
In the article alluded to, the writer states, "It has been said that
flowers placed in bed-rooms are not wholesome; that cannot," he remarks,
"be meant of such as are in a state of vegetation," &c.
Now plants, it is well known, respire similarly to animals, through the
pores of their leaves. By the agency of the sun, during the day, a
quantity of pure gas, called oxygen, is given out; but on the contrary,
during the night, or absence of the sun, gas of a most noxious and
pernicious nature is emitted, and at the same time a portion of the pure
air (oxygen gas) is absorbed. The greater part of the atmosphere must
therefore be impregnated with this deleterious gas. Taking into
consideration the confined state of a bed-chamber, the great increase of
perspiration of the body, with the continual increase of carbonic gas
from respiration, and this in an apartment where every thing _ought_
most sedulously to be avoided which in the least tends to deteriorate the
atmosphere, it must be evident the practice ought to be avoided, if we
are desirous of preserving health.
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