The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-11-15
CALENDAR OF HEALTH FOR NOvEM
BER

With November's chill days, furnace
fires are aglow, and the great stove in
the cellar has begun its seasons work.
After watching sick beds in rooms heat
ed by steam, by open fires, by stoves
and by furnace heat, am decidedly in
favor of the last, providing sufficient
moisture be added to the heated air be-
fore it comes into living rooms. Steam
heat is too dry, open fires cannot keep
up an even temperature nor warm a
room in northern mid-winter and stoves
burn oxygen from air too rapidly with.
out providing fresh supply. In GER
tain house where professional duty led
me every day Of last December. there
was not daily variation of tempera-
ture of two degrees from 70 deg. f. the
whole month. Plants grew luxuriantly
and lowered in wide halls, and climb
ing vines converted more than one
room into an amateur conservatory.
The master, man of leisure aud scien-
titic mind, told me that his delightful
winter home was heated by two fur
uaces; that he had discarded steam after
years trial and was satisfied. Venti-
lation was fully provided for. and the
sick chamber, whence my patient soon
emerged, was attractive enough, even to
one who was leaving for summer islands
OF the Caribbean.
What is essential, from a sanitary
point, in heating houses, is to have the
temperature even throughout. There is
probably no letter way Of catching cold
or laying foundation for pneumonia or
bronchitis than stepping out of a warm
bed into a cold or cool hall. Every skin
| rNnra io or ralo xaA nf
resistance is half asleep, and the insid.
ious chill that has proven forerunner
TO so many dangerous diseases of chest
and throat, sends one shivering back to
blankets that are some time in getting
warmed up again. While sleeping,
room temperature should be lower than
the rest of the house, kept so by open
windows, and if this suggestion is fol-
lowed there can be no harm done by
needful nightly wanderings, A proper
range at night is 609 to $50 F. Beside
the bed of those who are given to these
nocturnal excursions should always
stand a pair Of bedroom slippers. ready
to be slipped on at short notice; for cool
currents OF air are always playing about
floors, and bare ankles are exceedingly
sensitive to small temperature varia-
tions.
There is a change OF late years in the
winter heat OF American homes, With
almost universal substitution of better
forms of heaters for old time stoves, and
better understanding Of ordinary health
laws by the people, has come a cooling
down OF the suffocating temperature
that made our homes dry forcing houses
and sent our people out into wintry cold
about as well fitted to face it as il they
wer' naked. Except ia rooms where
, sick are, or aged persons mercury should
, never rise above 709 nor fall below
$50. A narrow range, truly; but within
such strict limits lies the zone Of
, health.
+ Foreigners coming here in cold wealth
er used TO find our homes iDsupportably
, hot; and more than one visiting medical
, man has said to me, 'Now | see one oI
the causes at work to produce American
: nervousness. DIR. VIM +. Hutchinson
. in The American Magazine for NoUem-