The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-15 00:00:00

DR. RICHARDSON ON "HEALTH AT
HOME."

On Saturday the exhibition of appliances at Croydon, in
connection with the sanitary Congress, of the above insti-
stitute, was closed, having been opened from Oct. 21. The
final meeting of the Commas was held in the Croydon Public
Hall in the evening, which was crowded with an audience
composed largely of working men.
Dr. B. W. Richardson presided, and read a short
paper, entitled ",Health at Home," He observed
that those who were engaged in forwarding sanitary
work might labour their lives out, and still do little
service until they could get each home, how-
ever small it might be, included in the plan of
their work. The river of national health mugt rise
from the homes of the nation. He was glad that ladies
had been specially invited to that meeting-, because
womenwerealways at home,as men were al waye abroad;
and the woman who was at home must be the con-
tinuous and natural guardian or ward of the health
that should centre in the home. If they Could get
wives and mothers to learn the habitual practice of all
that tended to health, eanitarians would soon have an
easy victory. He wished, after many years of experience
and observation, to tell them what seemed to him to
be a fee, golden rule; for securing health at home.
In the first place, whether the home be large or small,
he would say, "Give it light." There was no house
so likely to be unhealthy as a dark ani gloomy one.
In every point of view light stood forward as
the agent ef health.. A few hundred years ago it
became a fashion for reasons it was very hard to
divine, to place sick people in dark and closely-cur-
tained bed-rooms. The practice, to some extent, was
continued to this day. When a person went to bed
with sickness it was often the first thing to pull down
the blinds of the windows, to set up dark blinds, or, if
there be Venetian blinds, to close them, On body and
soul alike that practice was simply pernicious. It
might be well, if light was painful to the eyes of the
sufferer, to shield the eyes from the light, or even shut
the light off them altogether, but for the sake of that
to shut it out of all the room, to cut off wholesale its
precious influence, to make the sick room a dark cell
In which all kinds, of impurities might be concealed
day after day, was an offence to nature which she ever
rebuked in the sternest manner. 111 sickness and in
health—in infancy, youth, middle age, old age—in all
seasons for the benefit of the mind and the welfare of
the body, sunlight was a bearer and sustainer of
health. (Cheers.)
Dr. Richardson then adverted to the subject of
sleep, and observed that artificial lights were very in-
jurious. The fewer hours after dark that were spent
in artifical light the better, and the sooner they went
to restS after dark the better. (Laughter.) They re-
qnired in the cold season of winter, when the nights
were long, much more sleep than they did in
summer. On the longest day in the year seven hours
of sleep was sufficient for most men and women who
in the prime of life; on the shortest day, nine
hours was not overmuch, and for those who were
weakly ten or twelve hours might be taken with
real advantage. In winter children should always
have ten to twelve home of sleep; It was
not idleness to indulge to that extent, but
an actual saving, a storing up of invigorated exist.
ence for the fature. Such rest oould only be ob.
tained by going to bed very early—say at half-past
eight o'clock or nine. (Laughter.) It was wrong at
the present season that they should be at that meet-
ing robbing themselves of sleep. It was as wrong as
ever it could be that our legislature should often be
sitting up as they did, night alter night, trying against
life to legislate for life. It was foolish, too, that
public writers and editors should be called on to exer-
cise their craft at a time when all their nature was
calling out to them "Rest." He might be accused
of folly in saying these things, but he was standing by
nature and speaking under her direction. (Cheers.)
Turning next to the question of beds and bed rooms,
Dr. Richerdson insisted on the necessity of a separate
bed for each person, and said the bed should be
neither ve y soft nor very hard, whilst the furniture
of the room should be as simple as possible. A great
experiment had been tried on this question with most
striking results. At the Industrial Schools at Anerlv
every scholar had his or her own bed, and the wise
authorities there—who had improved the health of the
children under their charge until the mortality was
reduced to three in 1,000 annually—told him that few
things had contributed so much to the grand 'results
they had achieved as .the one practice of having a
set- arate bed for every child. (Cheers.) A daily bath
with cold water in the summer and tepid water in
winter was necessary to the health of every person.
Every effort should be made to maintain an equal
temperature in the house—a temperature of sixty de-
grees Fahr. being the best—and there should be a
system of complete household cleansing once a year,
He would leave his colleagues to descant on ventila-
tion, good food, good air, and other accessories to
health, and though by their united efforts they might
not essay to lead them direct to Salutland and its
hundred years of happy life, they would take those
who would go with them a long way towards even that
promised commonwealth of health and long life.
(Loud cheers.)