The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1853-09-08
For NE Gd.ef
HEALTH AND ARCHITECTURE.

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houses, churches and school rooms, will the
body become sleepy, inactive and lose ts
health; the livliness and color will depart ane
the system become deranged, and if the rooms
be damp, we shall lose our nervous and men.
tai activity and suffer under scrofulous OF
pulmonary diseases. Deprivation of light
as well as occupying basement stories, i'm.
pairs the health of body and mind by destroy.
ing the PHOSPHORUS of the body. Hence
damp, dark houses decrease the PHOSPHORUS
and prevent the nervous electricity from
passing on the nerves and acting on the
! brain; and for this reason person having
great mental labor to perform soon loses
something of his mental requirements by
being confined to dark, damp rooms. And
the same is true in reference to his health,
if he live in basement which is damp and
dark Cloudy, damp weather, and dull sea-
sons, are dreary to persons of lively, ac-
tive mind and body in as much as they pos
sess large share of PHOSPHORUS and nery-
Gus electricity. and because the diminution
Of light affects the PHOSPHORUS and the
dampness of the atmosphere prevents the
easy and frequent flow of the nervous elec-
tricity This it is that makes dwelling
houses, stores, churches and places OF busi-
ness, where they are connected with base
ments and cellars, so destructive to human
health.
But while | would insist upon the impor-
tance of lofty location for residence, and
lofty place for sleeping, there is matter
Of much more importance to which would
call the attention of those who are building
In building our houses we desire to elevate
them as much as possible from filthy exha
lations and decaying substances. But toe
little attention is given to the fact, that the
unwholesomc exhalations which affect the
atmosphere and become source of endemic
and epidemic diseases, arr. more concentra-
ted near the surface of the earth, and that
if we wish to escape their deleterous infu-
ence, we should occupy the most elevated
apartments possible Sleeping apartments
upon the ground floor are highly objectiona-
Bile anywhere, but especially SO in Cities
Yet if these are bad under ground apart
ments are far worse, aud should never be
tolerated in human habitations by any who
possess good share of common sense.
The poor of our cities, who by necessity
or poverty are driven to occupy Easements
or under ground rooms, would be far better
off in occupying the meanest garret they can
find above the filthy vapors and exhalations
of the street. The effects of small por-
ton of such air, upon the human constitution
are not SO prompt and alarming as those OF
marsh miasma, and are therefore seldom
noticed or referred to their proper sour
ces.
The noxous air, generated in cellars,
easements and under floor spaces reaches
the inhabitants of upper apartments in SO
small quantities, that instead of producing
any marked and steady process Of disease,
it acts rather as a steady tax upon the in
come of health, so uniform in its depressing
effects as not to be appreciated. Yet many
a person suffering under pulmonary attacks
fancies his health improved by a change Of
air in going to another residence, when in
truth he is only relieved by escaping the
mouldy atmosphere which comes from be-
meath his own ground-hoor. But there are
some conditions of the atmosphere beyond
the control of man. out of which flows to
him diseases of various kinds; but it is nev-
crtheless fact, that at least one holt OF the
maladies received from bad air, arises from
the exhalation of decayed substances in
mouldy, damp cellars. DOCTOR.
A New wATERMELoN.--Mr. Peapody
editor of the Soil of the South, mentions Il
new kind of watermelon, which he calls the
orangewatermelon, and pronounces it a
very singular, beautiful and excellent mel