The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1880-03-06
Light In the House.

DIR. Richardson, whose articles on
health have been cited SO much, in a re-
cent English publication produces an
article called Health at Home" which is
replete with wisdom. A most important
fact, and one on which he dwells, is the
fact that SO many people are afraid of the
light. ''In a dark and gloomy honse you
never can see the dirt that pollutes it.
Dirt accumnlates on dirt, and the mind
soon learns to apologize for this condition
because the gloom conceals it." Accord
ingly, when house is dark and dingy,
sbe air becomes impure. not only on ac-
count of the absence of light, but from
the impurities which are accumulated.
Now, as DIR. Richardson cleverly puts it,
We place flowers in the windows that
they may have the light. If this be the
case, why should We deprive ourselves of
the sunshine and expect to gain health
aud vigor? Light, and plenty of it, is
not only purifier of things inanimate,
but it absolutely stimulates our brains.
1t is in regard to sick rooms that this ex-
cellent authority is particularly i'm
pressive. 1t used to be the habit of ply
sicians in olden times to sedulously
darken the rooms, and this practice con-
tinues to some extent even to-day. In
certain very acute cases of nervous dis
eases where light-the least ray of it
disturbs in oyer-exciting the visual or
permitted, but ordinarily, to keep light
out of the room is to deprive the patient
of one of the vital forces. Children or
old people condemned TO live in darkness
are pale and wan, exactly like those
plants which, deprived OF light, grow
white. Darkness in the daytime un-
doubtedly makes the blood flow less
strongly and checks the beating of the
heart, and these conditions are precisely
such as bring constitutional suffering and
diseases. The suppression of the light of
day actually increases those contagious
maladies which feed on uncleanliness.
DR.. Richardson said 81 once found by
experiment that certain organic poisons,
analogous to the poisons which propagate
these diseases, are rendered inoculous by
exposure to light" Once in England
there was a tax placed on windows, but
this was driven out of English legislation
after o while, never TO be brought up
again, because it was tax on human
health. This leading authority on by.
giene has great deal of fault to find with
some of the architectural dimentia OF to.
| day. A fashion introduced In England
| and which has some feeble limitations in
tnls Countty, 10 W iSPfooucS tie sty az vi
| the Queen Anne houses. This peculiar
method INDUCES in small panes of glass
| overhanging windows, sharp, long roofs
| with tiny openings. 1t is relic o
ancient perversity-pictuIesque if you
| please-but perfectly at variance with the
dictates of common sense. If you have
| big windows, which, say, admit too much
| light, the glare of which is uncomfort
| able, shade or curtain will keep out the
sun; but have small windows, barely ad.
mitting the invigorating air and light, dc
| what you please, you cannot increase
| either air or light. Such cramped win
| dows interfere with the great work Goo
| gave to the sun. Architectural eleganc,
| ought always to be subsidiary to the ne
cessities of health. In the United States
| though with climate differing ma
terially from that of England, the laws o
health are the same. Our August glar,
| heats our houses, but still it should b,
| admitted at times. A house darkenet
and kept darkened from the middle o
June to the first of September is an uu
| wholesome house. Its GOODNESS may ap
parently be refreshing, but the air of tn
| rooms, which stagnates, contains un
doubtedly germs of disease, which ar
not the less dangerous because thev ar
unappreciable. AS it is, then, only tn
windows of the house, with panes of glas
which admits the light, the precautions t
keep them clean and bright are not 8
much measures OF tidiness as absolutel
hygenic necessities. As regards window
and their construction, American inven
ton has in this respect not advanced any
thing like in proportion to other thing
The usual window with its eounterpois
| weight presents unusual difficulties as I
cleansing it. You can get inside of i
but the outside presents great difficultie
Save in the lower stories, it may /
pretty generally asserted that the uppe
windows of house. the most importar
Of all, which give light to the sleepir
rooms, the glass is rarely bright an
clean. There seems to be decided r.
luctance on the part of builders to put
houses either the French window, whic
simply works like a door, or those viii
dows which, hung in the middle, revol'
on the center. For ventilation alon
such windows have great advantages ov'
the old styles, and they can be cleane
with perfect ease.