But the human devotees of fresh air reason in the opposite
direction. It is now the regular thing for mothers to open wide to
the freezing air of out-doors either one or all the windows of the
rooms in which their children sleep, giving to each child enough
fresh air to supply ten full-grown elephants, or twenty head of
horses. And the final word is the "sleeping-porch!" It matters not
how deadly damp is the air along with its 33 degrees of cold, or
the velocity of the wind, the fresh air must be delivered. The
example of the fat and heavily furred wild beast is ignored; and I
just wonder how many people in the United States, old and young,
have been killed, or permanently injured, by fresh air, during the
last fifteen years.

And furthermore. Excepting the hoofed species, it is the universal
rule of the wild animals of the cold-winter zones of the earth
that the mother shall keep her helpless young close beside her in
the home nest and keep them warm partly by the warmth of her own
body. The wild fur-clad mother does not maroon her helpless
offspring in an isolated cot in a room apart, upon a thin mattress
and in an atmosphere so cold that it is utterly impossible for the
poor little body and limbs to warm it and keep it warm. Yet many
human mothers do just that, and some take good care to provide a
warmer atmosphere for themselves than they joyously force upon
their helpless infants.

No dangerous fads should be forced upon defenseless children or
animals.

A proper amount of fresh air is very desirable, but the intake of