Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-06-13
Warm Sleeping Rooms.

AZ WuhS Wy oS"'Aco OAO WILL,
jump out of bed, do quarter of a
days work and eat breakfast before
sun-up," was one of the cardinal
formulas of our staid grandfathers.
| To sleep in a room of arctic tenn
perature, and battle once a week in
water that was only accessible by
breaking the ice, were couple of
other rules as strictly inculcated as
the early-rising precept. There is a
pleasant jingle in those familiar
lines,
early to bed and early to rise.
| Will make Il man healthy, wealthy and
wise"
but they are far too arbitrary and
exacting for the youth or adults of
the present day. 1t might have
been all we'll enough, once, to go to
bed with the hens and chickens, and
get up when the patriarchal chanti-
cleer sounded his reveille, but such
practice would be fatal to the fash
ions of the present day. Some mod
ern physicians have gone so far as to
assert that there is now going on an
actual radical transition in the hu-
man physical organism, and that it
would be as impossible to execute
now, the rules and maxims once re-
garded as sound laws of health, as
to exchange, rice rersa, the habits
of totally different species.
| But we started out, to discuss
the merits and dement's of sleeping
apartments. It seems that our an
cestors had never stumbled upon
the fact that, to make fire in a
sleeping room at the close of day,
was one of the most expeditions and
effective methods of purifying the
air which had remained pent up
within it during the day. The sub
ject under consideration has a most
special reference to this part of the
Pacific coast. Physicians who have
been educated in the Atlantic states
and had many years of practice there,
on coming here, find it necessary
to subject to q radical overhauling
many of their preconceived ideas
as they relate to the sanitary laws
of sleep, food and clothing. The great
difference between the highest tenn
peratule of the day and the lowest
at night, here, is one of the chief
causes of the necessary change of
regime already alluded to, in the case
of practicing physicians as we'll es
in the habits of the people them
selves. There are but few nights
in the year when sleeping apart
ments, in this country, may not
be rendered much more comfortable
and healthful by a fire kindled in
the early evening.
A writer in the New York Rural,
expresses some very sensible ideas
on this point, and they smack so
significantly of professional research,
that we cannot we'll refrain from
quoting a few words. Says that
writer: eff a fire is good thing
during the day when our bodies are
at a higher temperature than during
sleeping hours, why isn't it q better
thing at night? People pile on a
hundred weight or so of bed-clothes,
shut doors and windows to prevent
even a breath of fresh air, and in
spite of their precautions, what with
having to breathe the cold air of the
room and the liability there is of the
clothes slipping off, they are not
comfortable. There is another thing
to be considered: heavy covering is
weakening. Many delicate women
and children are made weary by
sleeping undes great quantities OF
covering. Then, it has been demon
strated, time after time, in medical
reviews and newspapers generally
that pure air is absolutely necessary
to perfect health. What sort of air
is that which has been breathed and
rebreathed scores of times during
the night? Have a fire and open
your windows an inch top and bot
tom. Instead of laying in a heavy
j stock of blankets and comfortables,
just invest in q stove, the children
can then make their toilets in their
room instead of rushing through the
house half-clad to dress by the