The Portland daily press., 1873-09-15
Sunlight.
ITS SANITARY INFLUENCE-HINTs FOR
HEALTH.

The Providence Journal remarks that the
Importance of sunlight as curative agent is
not sufficiently appreciated. Sir James Wy
lie, late physician to the Emperor of Russia,
made careful study of the effect of light as
curative agent in the hospital OF st. Peters
burg. He discovered that the number of pa
tents who were cured in rooms properly
lighted was four times as great as it was
when they were confined in dark rooms.
This led to a complete reform in lighting the
hospitals Of Russia, and was attended with
the most beneficial results. In cities visited
by the cholera, it has been found that the
greatest mortality has taken place in narrow
streets, and on the sides of those having
northern exposure where the rays of the sun
are excluded. The inhabitants of the south
ern slopes of mountains are better developed
and more healthy than those who live ON the
northern sides. The inhabitants of secluded
valleys are often subject to peculiar diseases
and physical deforrAities, partly caused, prob
ably, by the want of direct sunlight.
So far has faith in the efficacy of sunlight
been carried, that its advocates have proposed
to build saaitariums of glass on the upper
stories of houses. where patients, divested of
clothing, can take daily sun baths. One rea-
sen given for the decrease of population in
the Sandwich Islands, is the adoption OF civi.
lized habits, ano the unhealthful restraint OF
clothing upon limbs accustomed 10 light and
air. Grea- improve nent can be made in Or
dinary practice without carrying the remedy
TO extremes. The most sunny and light
part of the house should be occrpied by the
household, instead of being kept for occa-
sional guests. Persons should sit at the win
dows where the sunshine comes directly up
on them, and all the sunshine and air posi-
BILE should be admitted. within doors.
Instead of this, heavy draperies, shades,
shutters and blinds shut out the life-giving
influence; reception rooms, even in these en-
lightened days, are oftentimes kept so dark
that you cannot see where you stand; and
as you enter them from the warm sunlight,
the close, damp air sends a chill through your
whole frame, which has doubtless by sud-
den check OF perspiraton been the cause of
much illness and the loss of many valuable
lives.
This is especially the case at this season of
the year. The mornings and evenings are
chilly, and the doors and windows, after the
morning airing, are kept tightly closed 10 keep
ont flies and mosq uitoes, while the dwellers
sit wrapped in shawls in their gaudy and
stately prisons. A little painstaking will OBJ
vlate these troubles. Almost all houses, in-
peratively those shaded by trees, need little
fire at morning and evening. 1t will mike
trouble and dust, buG that must not be thought
o.. Then let the drap'ries be taken down.
and open blinds and windows to let in the,
sanitary sunshine. Protect the windows with
screens of lace or wire, to keep out the troub-
esome pests that are the bane OF the careful
housekeeper, aud let in the priceless wealth
OF pure air. Let the carpets fade, and the up
holstery grow dim. Nothing should be too
costly for careful use, aud of what conse-
quence is furniture, when health and life are
weighed in the other scale?
We know of deuded individuals who sit
through the summer days in darkened rooms,
where plants would either die or lose entirely
their green color. We know of houses that
send a chill through you like being in a cellar,
| when you cross the threshold. We know. al
| so, of sunny homes, where sunlight and resh
air play through the spacious halls, where the