Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-09
The Home.

taken of the morning sun and in the sum-
mer the afternoon GOODNESS.
The house should be upon high ground
because that secures perfect drainage.
Houses are often built behind hill or in
a cooley for warmth, or near slough in
order to get the slough water for domestic
use. All these were condemned. The best
place for the house is the highest spot on
the farm, looking at it solely with refer
ence to the house, where there can be a
good circulation of air. Wind breakers
are very desirable. But the principal OBJ
| iect is to secure absence of moisture in
the basement of the building. There is a
circulation of air through the soil as
much in winter as in summer, and every
| house in the winter becomes a chimney for
the ground air. sucking in the air through
the soil, and it is wonderful what dis
tances air will go under ground.
The lecturer mentioned case in which
gas escaping from a hole in an under
ground pipe was drawn into the cellar 200
| 1eet distant. In city lots, say 30x120 feet,
upon which is house, outhouses, barn,
cesspool and compost heaps, the soil is
saturated with the drainage from these
sources, and the air is drawn through the
soil into the house. In our towns large
amount of malarial disease is induced in
this way. Carbonic acid also exists in the
soil, and considerable amount of it is
drawn into the house through improperly
constructed cellars. Its Importance is that
it brings other gases with it. The con-
struction of cellars is a matter of great
| Importance about the house.
CONSTRUCTION.
All cellars ought to be underdrained and
then thoroughly protected by cement or
asphaltum or something of that sort, SO
that there will be no draft of the ground
air. 1t is a mistake to cement cellar wall
in the inside; it should be put on the out
side as the walls are put up, and then the
harder the moisture from the outside
presses against it the better it sticks. The
cellar air should never be taken for the
heating apparatus of the house; it would
be as absurd as to move into the cellar.
For building material wood is perhaps
the best thing we have. Brick comes next,
and its advantage is that it is permeable to
air. 1t is a great mistake to suppose that
building material is better in proportion
to its impermeability to air. However
built the walls should be thoroughly ven
tilated in their interior. There should al
ways be an air chamber in the wall. A
house so built is cooler in the summer and
warmer in winter, acting in the same man
ner as double window, because heat will
not go through an air space with anything
like the rapidity that it will go through
glass or wood or metal.
WALL PAPER MUST GO.
DR.. Hewitt referred to wall paper, and
said that no house, especially no farm
house, should have particle Of wall paper
upon it. Paper on walls is sanitary
abomination, simple whitewashed wall
is vastly better, and certain harmless pig
ments can be put on by way of decoration
with stencil, at small expense. The
next best thing after whitewash is paint
ing. The walls should be painted, but
never the ceiling, because the latter
should always be left free for the air to
pass through The great advantage of
painting the walls is that they can be
easily kept clean.
The floors should be of hard pine or hard
wood, closely matched to prevent the accu-
mutation of dust, and thoroughly oiled
with boiled OIL Carpets, when tackled
down, are the collectors of all the filth in
the house. There is no objection to their
use as rugs, which can be taken up and
cleaned Windows should reach as nearly
as possible from floor to ceiling, and ad-
NIT as much light as possible. There
should not be a portion of the house not
occupied by the family all the time
because the habitation of a room
under proper circumstances is the best way
to maintain its purity. In planning the
house the kitchen and laundry should be
removed as far as possible from the air of
the rest of the house. The
kitchen should be on level
with the dining room and Independent
ventilation should be maintained in both
1t is always better to have bedrooms on
the upper floor; the air of the bedroom
should be pure, and maintained in its
purity through the whole night. Chimneys
should be in the center of = the house, not
on the outside.
The ordinary method of heating with
closed stoves secures no ventilation. Ven
tllation can be better secured by simply
constructed furnaces than in any other
way. DR.. Hewitt illustrated by diagram
a simple style OF furnace very cheap and
O4nClOI1Gs 11ub GIlClC always 10 III
one room, when it is practicable, an open
fire. He showed how fireplace could be
constructed so as to secure ventilation
and also save a large percentage of the
heat.
A we'll can almost always he secured in |
our prairies if it is dug deep enough, and
it should be deep to avoid the surface water.
There is no doubt that many malarial |
fevers are induced by drinking slough |
water, and there is no difference between |
slough water and the water of well dug
alongside of it. Well walls should be &C.
mented on the outside and never lined with |
wood. Stops from the house shoasd be
deposited in cess pool and drained off |
into the garden through underground |
pipes. Cisterns should never be put in
the cellar, and some system of filtration
should be contrived. Outhouses, as fire.
quently found, are an abemination for
which there is no excuse. Dry garden
mold is an excellent disinfectant for
such purposes, and its use. especially in
winter, was recommended, and in the
cheap and convenient form of earth clos
cts.
The Farm.
In opening the lecture, he referred to the
matter of mental hygiene. 1t is point
which is constantly forgotten everywhere.