The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-03-16
Light In tho House.

III darR ana gloomy house you never
can see the dirt that pollutcs it. Dirt ac-
cumulates upon dirt, and the mind soon
learns to apologize for this condition be-
cause the gloom conccals it. Accordingly,
when house 10 dark and dingy, the air be-
| comes impure, not only on account of the
absence of light, but from the impurities
which are accumulated. We place flowers
in our windows that they may have the
| light. If this be the case why should we
| deprive ourselves Of the sunshine and cx-
pect to gain health and vigor3 Light, aud
plenty of 1t, is not only purifier of things
inanimatc, but it absolutely stimulates our
brains. 1t is in regard to sick-rooms
that this excellent authority is particularly
impressive. 1t used to be the habit of phy-
sicians i'll old times to scdulously darken
the rooms, and this practice continues to
| some extent even to-day. In certain very
acute cases Of nervous diseases where light
the very least ray Of it disturbs in over-ex-
citing the visual organs, this darkcning of
the room may be 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 mdoubt-
cdly makes the blood flow less strongly, and
checks the beating of the heart, and these
conditions are precisely such as bring con-
stitutional suffering and disease. Tho sup
preston of the light Of day actually in
crcascs those contagious maladies which
feed on uncleanincss DIR. Richardson
states: 81 once found by experiment that
certain organic poisons, analogous to the
poisons which propagate these diseases, arc
rendered innocuous by exposure to light"
Once in England there was tax placed
on windows. but this was driven out of
English legislation after while never to
be brought up again, because it was tax
on human health. This lending authority on
hygiene has great deal of fault to find
with the architectural denlentia of to-day.
A fashion introduced in England, and
which has some feeble limitations in this
country, is to reproduce the styles of the
Queen Anne houses. This peculiar method
indugcs In small pancs of glass; ovcrhang-
ing windows, sharp, long roofs, with tiny
openings. Itris a relic af ancient pervcr-
sity, picturesque, if you please but pcrfeot-
ly at variance with the dictates of common
sense If you have big windows, which
say, admit too much light, the glare of
which Is uncomfortable, shade or curtain
will keep out the sun; but have small win
dows, barely admitting the invigoratlng
dir and light, do what you please, you CAM
not increase either air or light. Such
cramped windows interfere with the great
work God gave the sun. Architectural ele
gance ought always to be subsidiary to the
necessaries of health. In the United States,
though with climate differing materially
from that of England, tho laws of health
are the same. Our August glare heats our
houses. but still it should' be admitted at
times. A house darkened land kept dark.
ened from the middle u June to the
lst of September is an unwholcsome house.
It's GOODNESS may apparently be refreshing,
but the all, OF the rooms, which stagnates,
contains undoubtedly germs OF disease,
which are not the less dangerous because
they are unappreciable. AS it is, then,
only the windows Of the house, with pancs
OF glass which admit the light, the precau-
tons to keep them clean and bright are not
80 much measures of tidiness as absolutely
hygienlc necessities. AS regards windows
and their construction, American invention
has in this respect not advanced anything
like III proportion to other things. The
usual window with its counterpoise weight
presents unusual difficulties as to cleansing
it. You can get inside of 1t, but the out
side presents great difficulties. Save in tho
lower stories, it may be pretty generally as
serted that Of the upper windows of house,
the most important of all which give light
to the sleeping rooms, tho glass is rarely
bright and clean. There seems to be a do
cidcd reluctance on the part of builders to
put in houses either the French window,
which simply works like door, or those
windows which, hung in the middle rcvolvc
on the centre. For ventilation alone, such
windows have great advantages over the old
styles, and they can be cleaned with per-
feet case.