Fresh air. It’s something that most doctors say is good for us. But during the 1700s & 1800s, many medical professionals claimed that fresh air, especially nighttime air or a cool draft, could make a patient worse. They even told families to seal up rooms & avoid fresh air at all costs.
So why did they do this? And how did this change? Here’s what we know.
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Key takeaways
You’ll learn about:
- How “bad air” & smells became linked with disease
- Why doctors hated night breezes & drafts
- What smallpox care looked like
- How families & hospitals used to manage air indoors
“Night air” worries and closed windows after dark
A lot of medical officials warned against breathing outdoor air at night, which wasn’t mere superstition. They included this information in household manuals & in medical lectures. It was even in local health bulletins. One Cincinnati physician, Daniel Drake, told readers to shut bedroom windows before bed, even in summer.
But not everyone agreed, including Florence Nightingale. She became famous for her nursing work in the Crimean War & she called the fear of night air nonsense. In her Notes on Nursing (1859–60), she wrote that patients needed pure air, day & night. Nightingale also encouraged open windows as long as the person was kept warm.
Cold drafts and the fear of “checked perspiration”
Here’s where things get even stranger. Doctors used to think that when a sick person suddenly stopped sweating, their disease would flare up, which they called “checked perspiration.” This usually happened when there was a cold draft. It made families especially wary about any breeze near a bed, so they kept rooms still and pulled heavy curtains around the patient.
Another example of this fear of fresh air was smallpox treatment. For a long time, doctors used the “hot regimen,” which involved sealing windows & cranking up the fire, while also covering the patient in layer after layer of bedding.
Breathing cold air could irritate the lungs and worsen coughs
Another major concern was that fresh, cold air was physically rough on your body. Doctors believed that breathing in chilly drafts would irritate the lungs & trigger coughing fits. Worse still, they worried it’d cause inflammation that could make a patient’s illness even more serious.
To them, cold, damp air was something that “contracted” tissue and that made your throat & chest more fragile. A short burst of outdoor air was enough to stir up bronchitis or make pneumonia worse.
What doctors recommended instead of fresh outdoor air
Since they saw outside air as risky, doctors had to suggest something else, including the following workarounds:
- Closing windows at night & using special tubes or vents to bring in “tempered” air that wouldn’t feel too cold
- Heating rooms so the sick wouldn’t catch a chill
- Draping beds with heavy curtains to block drafts
- Using disinfectants or perfumes to fight smells, rather than airing out the space
Beyond the homes, hospitals in the late 1800s also followed this advice. They experimented with ways to control airflow without letting in cold breezes. In fact, some of them had systems to push in warmed air so patients could breathe “safe” air without the risk of a draft sweeping across the ward.
During this time, physicians believed cooler air dried out the lungs & made mucus stickier. They thought that this would cause even worse breathing trouble. As a result, they argued that patients should “temper” indoor air first to make sure that it wouldn’t shock a weak chest.
This way of treating patients stuck around for quite a while. Anytime someone had a cough that lingered or asthma-like wheezing, people believed they should close them in with a roaring fire. And absolutely no breeze allowed.
Apparently, fresh air could push a fragile body over the edge.
Why the advice shifted
Things started to change once germ theory became more popular & doctors realized that mosquitoes were responsible for a few diseases. By the early 1900s, the idea that fresh night air was deadly had almost entirely disappeared, so window screens became common. This made it safer to sleep with windows open.
Some doctors also began recommending outdoor sleeping for tuberculosis patients. It was quite a change from the earlier advice to keep everything shut. Soon enough, the same medical world that once feared breezes began promoting outdoor air as part of recovery. And rightly so.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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