The general importance of pure air has been mentioned.  I have spoken of the elements of the atmosphere in which we live, of the manner in which it may be vitiated, and the consequences to health.  I have shown—­perhaps at sufficient length—­the impropriety of washing, drying, and ironing clothes in the room where a child is kept; of cooking in the room, especially on a stove; of suffering the floor or clothes, particularly those of the child, to remain long wet, in the room; of smoking tobacco, using spirits, burning oil with too long a wick, &c.

All which has thus been said of the purity of the air of the nursery generally, is applicable to that of all sleeping rooms.  It is an important point gained, when we can secure a nursery with folding doors in the centre, so as, when we please, to make two rooms of it.  In that case, the division in which the bed is, can be completely ventilated a little before night, and thus be comparatively pure for the reception of both the mother and the child.

Shall the windows and doors where a child sleeps, be kept closed; or shall they be suffered to remain open a part or the whole of the night?  This must be determined by circumstances.  If there are no doors but such as communicate with apartments whose air is equally impure with that in which the child is, it is preferable to keep them closed.  If the windows cannot be opened without exposing the child to a current of air, it is perhaps the less of two evils, not to open them.

But we are not usually driven to such extremities.  In some instances, windows are constructed—­and all of them ought to be—­so that they can be lowered from the top.  When this is not the case, something can be placed before the window to break the current, so that it need not fall directly upon the child.  Closing the blinds will partially effect this, where blinds exist.

I have known many an individual who was in the habit of sleeping with his windows open during the whole year, and without any obvious evil consequences.  Dr. Gregory was of this habit.  But if adults—­not trained to it—­can acquire such a habit with impunity, with how much more safety could children be trained to it from the very first year.  Macnish says, “there can be no doubt that a gentle current pervading our sleeping apartments, is in the highest degree ESSENTIAL TO HEALTH.”

This consideration—­I mean the impurity of sleeping rooms, even after every precaution has been used to keep them ventilated—­affords one of the strongest inducements to going abroad early in the morning (especially when there is no other room which either adults or children can occupy) while the nursery or chamber is aired and ventilated.  The utility of rising early, I hope no one can doubt; but some have doubts of the propriety of going abroad, till the dew has “passed away.”  Such should be reminded, by the foregoing train of remarks, that early walking may be a choice of evils; and that if it is on the whole advantageous to adults, it cannot be less so to children.  And as soon as the sun has chased away the vapors of the night, if the weather is tolerable, most children should be carried abroad.