Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-09-10
ABOUT HOME HEALTH.
THE LOCATION OF DWELLING
 HOUSES IS OFTEN VERY BAD.

Build Your Home on High Ground-Ad-
 init the Morning Sunshine, but Don't
 Be Afraid of Trees and vines-Beware
 of the Deadly Cellar.
 People are running all over the land for health. Every mans home should be, for him. the healthiest spot on earth. If it be not so, he should make it so; and if that he cannot do, let him remove to spot he can render sanitary. Of course advice of this sort is to those who can control their sur roundings. The location of half the houses in the country is as bad as can be, and the location of half the rest good deal worse than need be. Will you note, as you drive along the Highways, what you see. Choose a suburban road. The houses almost invari- ably occupy from one-fourth of an acre to more than an acre; yet they all stand close fronted to the street. The result is that cloud of dustis, half the time, blowing over and into such houses, carrying the vile dung and refuse of the street. Not many worse things find their way into our nostrils and mouths than the street dust. It is a mixture of filth and poison.
 A house should be set back as far as possi- ble from the street, and not be inaccessible. l know a few that are approached by ele- gant drives and stand in the middle of eight or ten acres. I consider the middle of a lot the ideal spot. Of course, this is to be modi- fled by the lay of the land-a bluff to be pre- ferred always. Besides escaping dust, we should aim to get as far as possible above the low lying logs and damp spots where miasms collect. Yet these long rows of homes are, a rule, not on the higher knolls, but on the hattest, lowest spots. Apart from the charm of outlook and landscape advantages Of h oh I yOlo of parably as most important There is ire quently all the difference between healthy homes and unhealthy homes, dependent on three or four rods of removal The subsoil is to be looked after, and the drainage, and above all, good wells. These are secured at the higher points as rule.
 But what next do you observe as you ride abQut2 A large share of the houses, perhaps not half, are unsheltered by trees. "Trees make house damp" That is the worst of nonsense. I do not understand why people of common sense should be blind to the fact trees drink water out of the soil and evap- crate it into the air. They are, above all sanitary ill their tendency to equalize temper ature and moisture. Y ou will make no mis- take if you plant trees all about your house. only admitting the morning sunshine, and by no means darkening your rooms. The AAACA vegetable and animal life. But do not be afraid of clean vines, such as grape vines honeysuckles, ampelopsis, clematis, and let them run freely over your verandas and sides of the house. I have tested the value of trees and vines in cooling the atmosphere and know that it makes a difference of many degrees in your rooms. When you have dampness, it is owing to excess of moisture in the air, in spite of the trees, not because of the trees. Drain your land well, and the foliage will then tend to equalize tempera- ture and moisture
 You will wonder, on examination, to find how few houses, in spite of all that is written on the subject, are free from foul drains. slop holes, bad sewerage and mildewed eel larS There seems to be an alliance between the common builder and typhus fever and diphtheria, for if conditions were sought to be established favorably for the development of such diseases, nothing better could be de- vised than the partly modernized country house. City houses are death traps from the escape or back-set of sewer gases, and the reckless complication of ''modern conven- fences" that soon fill the finest palaces with an atmosphere of death. But the country house, standing apart from others, might be easily rendered sanitary. Invariably ex- anime the cellar, for that hole under the house is always to be found. The time will come when cellars will be abolished.
 If underground rooms are required, let them be in the side of a hill, or otherwise separated from the house. It is nearly inn possible to furnish the two things necessary for a good cellar, that is, thorough ventila- tlOn, summer and winter, and common sense on the rart of the owners to prevent it from containing mildews and foul odors If a aD1l 1Do+r1r IL
 it is unfit to be under habitation. I know scores of these terrible dens that are annu- ally flooded This is better than that they be never cleansed at all. But cellar is very far from being the necessity that it is supposed to be. A store room above the ground, built without windows, will keep fruit and many vegetables better than a cellar. Other vegetables may better be stored ill a pit apart from the house. or ad- jacent to it, but not under it.
 entered one recently in which there were a score of old butter jars, each one rancid, and most of them more or less filled with soap grease of indefinite admixtures Abel- ish cellars and build store rooms above ground, and then let them be kept clean. A barrel of potatoes that emits a bad odor holds death, and had best be at once got rid of. Vegetables not entirely fresh are dangerous at all seasons. Few people know how to keep many vegetables free from decay. It is a poor plan to store them in quantity. Potato rot has not only caused the loss of millions of bushels of that esculent, but it has caused the loss of thousands of human lives from the storage in cellars. Not one should be tolerated about house.-M. Maurice, M. D., in Globe-Democrat.
 Wanted to Be ''Terror."
 The boys who go west to fight Indians, however, seldom get beyond the Missouri