American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-03-16
Fresh Air and Ventilation.


mOuse-hole.
Fresh Air and Ventilation.
| TINE was-scarcely more than genera
tion ago-when the architecture of dwell
| ings in our rural districts was such that,
even with every door and window shut,
and with huge fires constantly roaring up
chimneys from the roomy hearth, they
could scarcely in moderately cold weather
| be called comfortable. The old fashioned.
| tight boarded, and high-backed 'settee''
was a common and almost indispensable
| article of winter use in the farm-hOuses,
| operating when moved up before the am
pie chimney, both as reflector of warmth
in front, and protector from chilly cur
| rents that eddied from loose windows and
yawning crevices in the rear. In those
| times there was little danger that any
sleepingrOom would be too close, even
though no special provision were made
for the access of fresh air. When the
children of that day became the men and
women of the land, and the old house
came to be remodeled or replaced by
modern structure, closer joints and a
warmer covering were secured. The
growing scarcity of fuel introduced vari-
Gus contrivances for ecOnomiZing that
article. Then came in air-tight and other
STOVES Ol SIMILAR conStTuCtloH- Stlll
double windows and hurricane houses
yet farther prevented the free circulation
of fresh air; people rcjoiced in their
ability to secure greater warmth and COM
fort than the preceding generation had
enjoyed, at half the expense, and con-
graduated each other on their superior
knowledge and wisdom. Unfortunately,
physiology did not simultaneously enter
as a textbook into our schools, so that
all these fancied gains over the past were
only bargain in favor of ignorance. The
people had grown up with the idea that
fresh air in cold weather was an enemy in
whose exclusion the greater the success,
the greater the victory for health and COM
fort. The holders of such views are now
the elder portion of the present genera
ton, and, although there are many cred
table exceptions, they hold, find, main
ly with logged tenacity to the opinions of
the past upon the topic inquestion. That
city ladies soiourning in the country
should bring with them their habitual
practice of closing windows and doors
against burglars, noises, and the smells
so rife in crowded populations, is not
strange But that those to whom Gods
fresh air in abundance is accessible at all
times, should, for half their lives, deprive
themselves of it, and prefer an atmosphere
vitiated by foul exhalations and carbonic
acid gas, is, to say the least, pitiable; and
We: there are multitudes of my acquaint-
ances, whose sitting and sleeping rooms,
in winter especially, are pervaded by
breathing compound resembling, and
scarcely less deleterious than that ola char
mel house. The living room of one of my
neighbors is so tight that the fuel i'll his
fire place would not burn for lack of
draft, unless the doors were open. The
evil hence arising is greatly and danger
ously enhanced by farmers from storing
their cellars with vegetables, whose de-
cayingportions are seldom removed before
the general clearing out in the spring.
And several fatal eases of fevers in such
households during the past years of my
remembrance | cannot but attribute to the
deadly air they are content to breathe L
have sometimes been astOnished at the in
difference manifested by the attendant
physicians in such cases, They surely
ought to know the danger and apply the
remedy.
have been a housekeeper for nearly
thirty years, and during that time have
been studying and experimenting how best
to secure entire warmth, comfort and VEN
tilation with the least outlay of fuel. AT
length l have arrived, if not at perfec
ton in the case, yet certainly at a state OF
things which suits me and my family. 1t
consists, briefly, in such an arrangement
of my house and fixtures as leaves all the
inhabited pOrtion-rooms and connecting
passages, above and below stairs-entirc-
ly open and equally warmed during the
day, and this, too, without the service of
steam or hot air from the cellar furnace.
One open wood fire will have in my sit
ting-rOom coal l use in my hall stove
and kitchen. Our sleeping rooms are
shut off from the warmed portion of the
house when we retire ut night, and there
are very few nights in winter when we do
not have n window open in each of them.
Formerly, when anxious to secure fresh
air, we were afraid of drafts of it over
our beds but of late years we have be-
come quite Indifferent TO these, and, in
fact, enjoy them. My theory is, that
three inches of windOw-lift for the adj
mission of oxygen of cold January
night is equivalent to another blan-
kct upon the bed A common dressing
room is always warm for morning use.
So much of the house is always open
that there is never perccptible confined,
dead atmosphere, and the constant uni
form temperature in winter prevents those
sudden changes from warm rooms into
chilly halls in passing from one apart
ment to another, which often induce
colds and iniluenZas
Now 1 am not i'm favor of one undevi-
ating rule for the government of every
household upon this subject. l acknowl-
edge that circumstances alter cases,
and that exceptions must be made for the
feeble and invalid. But do believe that
many of the latter would be more bene-
fitted by gradual induction into a larger
use of fresh air than they can mt once
bear, and that this would be a better
medicine than all the drugs of the apoth-
ecarv And | know that colds are of cX-
tremely rare occurrence in my house
hold, while many of my neighbors, who
burn double the fuel which serves me,
and live and sleep in torrid rooms, sneeze,
blow, cough and wheeze large portion
of every winter, in Consequences i
verify believc-of neyli"er ce of those
fundamental guarantees of health-tresh
air and ventilation.-tor .SpI1nGtield Re
pubiican.
Reasons for Dressing Plainly on the