The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-08-14
More Light.


Virginian's combined circulation. 1856
More Light.
The Almighty has given us the sun, and,
like all his gifts, it exhibits his beautiful
loving kindness to man Without the sun
all would be desert on the earth-a frozen
waste, to which Iceland would be tropical
cline. The present face of a 4 nature depends
upon the SUM- Not only dc. his heat pre-
vent congelation, and producs plants for the
support Of man, and Of all o. er animals, d.
rectIy or indirectly, but ever when his rays
are temporarily withdrawn, 8 .in the night,
or are weak, as in winter. thu action of the
great source of light and heat mas laid up for
us a supply of fuel, in the wood and the coal
which we burn, and from which we furnish
ourselves with gas. His rays are the most
powerful chemical agents, and without. them
we cannot say what would be the chemical
condition Of the surface of our planet, or Of
the various gases which form our atmosphere.
If the action of the rays of the sun were al
tered from what it now is, all nature, animal
and vegetable, would be stricken with death;
for without the sunlight, no plant could long
exist, and all animals, man included, would
die of disease and starvation.
Our object in writing this is not to treat Of
the rays of the sun in regard to heat, so
much as in reference so their light, and the
bearing of this light upon health. 1t seems
that we do our best to produce disease in our
dwellings, by excluding the light of the sun.
If we consider the construction of our houses,
we find that they are built without any re-
gard whatever to the supply OF light, and
there very many dwellings in Norfolk. in
=
rays directly, save in one or TWO rooms, which
the families seem too often to take especial
pains not to occupy.
Now, all this is wrong. A house should be
SO built as to secure the largest possible ex-
posure to the rays of the sun, as upon their
influence depends the health of man to so
very great degree.
In large cities there are scrofulous streets,
where the inhabitants are nearly all infected
with this horrible disease in one shape or 9TH
or. In every instance these streets are exclu-
ded from the light of the sun,-which eXclu-
sion indeed is now acknowledged by physi-
clans as one of the chief causes of this terrible
scourge Of humanity.
50 mighty cause of disease is this depre-
citation of sunlight, that it affects the lower
animals as powerfully as it does mankind. If
hog, for instance is kept in pen to which
the sun never penetrates, the brute will III
short time exhibit all the signs of human
scrofula, and will become mass OF loathsome
disease. The same experiment has been tried
with dogs and rabbits with the same result
To guard against the spread of scrofula and
lis vast host of concomtant maladies, in
Europe the cities have passed many munici-
pal regulations having for their object the due
supply of sunlight in dwelling houses; and in
Paris especially they build their houses with
an especial regard to this object. In ilrlstra-
ton of the Frenchmen's appreciation of the
importance of plenty of sunlight, we may
adduce their Founding Hospitals. In these
Institutions the play ground Is the upper
story of the buildings. This has a skylight
for the entire roof and for certain number
of hours each day the little unfortunates are
stripped naked and turned loose to play in
the sunlight, with not even rag on to OBJ
struct the benign influence of the rays We
doubt not could we adopt such an arrange
ment in our own dwellings, that our children
would be much healthier, and that, after
very few generations, among our children at
least, scrofula would entirely disappear,
But let us take a view Of our houses in
Norfolk, and we shall see that not only are
our dwellings so constructed as to exclude the
light and all its benefcent effects, but we find
that we will not use the few rays that are al
lowed to penetrate into them. The front
room has its blinds always closed, and, as if
this were not a sufficient deprivation of the
rays of the sun, the windows are furnished
with thick curtains SO as effectualy to keep
out any healthgiving CLEAN that might stray
into the room. f
Now our fair ladies, whom we worship in
our very souls, are wrong in all this If they
could see the dire effects of the deprivation of
sunlight. they would let it enter in floods.
We have penned this article from sense
duty. We hope that it may produce some
good; but, we fear that the foolish customs of
society will prevent its having much effect,
and that our fair readers will still continue to
prefer darkness to light, not, bless them, be-
cause their deeds are evil. but simply in obe-
dienoe TO pernicious custom of our social Or
ganism. s asa
A New ENTERPRIsE.-Mr Young, who has