Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-03-25
Hot Air i'm Dwellings.

from the Report OF Health Officer Townsbend.
The annual report of Health Officer Town.
shend just about being issued from the Govern.
ment Printing Office, contains many important
and interesting discussions of sanitary subjects,
but none more deserving Of the careful atten-
ton of our people than that under the above
heading. He says: "As subject closely asso-
ciated with that Of house drainage, and mat
ter which has not hitherto been treated with
that care which it's importance demands, de-
sire to call attention to the ordinary means
used in supplying air in the heating Of dwellings
by means OF furnaces and LatrObe' stoves. So
many of our houses have stoves and furnaces
effectively constructed in this respect, that
trust the few words which follow may receive
careful attention. How many of US who have
Latr0be stoves in dining and sitting rooms,
have become familiar, in our sleepng-rOOms
above, with the Odor from one or the other OF
the rooms below. How manv occupants OF
rooms in boarding-hOuses have come to readily
diagnose the complexion Of the coming break
fast by turning on the register in their bed
rooms How often have many Of us learned in
the room above, supplied from LatrObe in Office
or sittng-room below that q poor cigar was be.
ing burned by some smoker In the apartment
last mentioned. These give as common Illus
trations of the channels through which impure
air may be brought to our living and sleeping
rooms. Probably you viii say that the odors
arising from
BEEFsTEAK, COFFEE AND CIGARS
would not be liable to prove detrimental to
health. and grant you the point is We'll taken.
This. however, Is not the question. There is
any quantity Of free pure air all around u.s. and
there is no necessity for breathing that which
has been once brcathed by the cook, which has
passed over the viands fresh or STALE or travelled
through the interstices of tobacco. and come
out with the smoke Of a cigar. All that Is re-
CURED to accomplish the avoidance Of such con-
ditions. and the securement Of an adequate sup
ply of fresh air to furnaces and LatrObes IL to
see that there Is q proper cOld-air duct taken
from some point out of DOORS and all means 70 r
the taking In Of in-do or air excluded.
The importance of this suggestion should not
be underestimate. In many instances in this
and many other cities, hot air furnaces are To-
Gated In unventiated cellars, and having no
cold air duct from the outside, the inmates OF
the entire building are forced to breathe the air
taken up from the cellars. The cellar Is proba-
bly, made receptacle for oil refuse from the
rooms above, there Is an accumulation OF ashes
and filth in the corner, an imperfectly drained
surface and defective sewer trap to sewer
opening In the floor, with other insanitary con-
ditiOns generating impurities to be taken up by
the ducts Of the furnace, and conveyed above
for use as lung food by the unfortunate and I'M
suspecting occupants.
Instances are known where the furnace has
been set in a pit In the cellar (room not being
given between floor and ceiling) and the
trenches about this pit found filled with stag
nant water, dead rats, mice, DC. Latrobes
hearth, whereby ~ air ior rooms supplied Mas