The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-02-28
Written for THE NATIONAL TRrBUNE.l
HEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.

tut Ulu anu 1UulS.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD, NJ. D.,
Author of Physical Education -" Household
Remedies; The Bible of Nature, etc.
CHAPTER V.
INDOOR
Army Surgeons know health of
troops on the march is gem, Ter in Sum-
mer than in Winter, while barrack life reverses
that proportion. 1t is, indeed, chief objection
to our prevalent styles of architecture that
they are too exclusively adapted to the Winter
season. Our domestic arrangements all tend to
mitigate the rigor of frost and aggravate the
misery of the Midsummer heat. The reason is
this: Nearly all our ancestors were natives of
northern Europe, and we have not yet been
able to rid ourselves of our inherited northland
customs. In Scotland with its cool Summers
and wet Winters an air-tight dwelling may be
comfortable the year round but in some of our
central States, that combine the Summers of
Africa with the Winters of Norway, our COM
pact houses doom us to a Midsummer martyr
dom that often becomes direct cause of dis
ease.
Here, too, country people have the advan-
! tage of city jewellers. A farmhouse, surround
! ed by grove of leafy trees, abounds with shade
| at the very time of the day when cool rest
| ing place becomes most desirable; and though
| the air in the draft of an open porch may be
| only 20 degrees cooler than the sun-heated at
mosphere of the treeless fields, 1T feels at least
| 40 degrees cooler. The streets of a large city,
on the other hand, aggravate that heat with
| the glare of their white walls and the heat of
a thousand kitchen fires. The working people
| of our Southern manufacturing States either
| die in their prime or their constitution some
how adapts itself to the yearly repetition of
! bake-oyen term; but their children have no
refuge but sleep, and between May and Octo-
| Der their unSatished longing after the free
forest-life of their forefathers can hardly be
surpassed by any other misery on earth. 1t is
| a significant fact that the mortality of city
! children under Is years of age is from 40 to IS
per cent. higher in Summer than in Winter.
REFRIGERATION.
The records of the Washington Patent Office
| show that there are about hundred improved
varieties of parlOr stoves, besides steam GALE
| factors and hot-air registers. 1t is singular
that we have so few contriyances for cooling
our homes in Midsummer. Our ice-air enter
prise is almost limited to the cooling of fruit
cars and public halls. Prof. Gascar, of Toulon,
| indeed, has invented refrigerating machine,
a combination of ice boxes and force ventilators
pretty effective, though rather apt to scatter
ice-water as well as ice-air-but his apparatus
consumes almost as much ice as a New Orleans
confectionery, and for people of moderate
means slight modification of our popular style
of cottage architecture would practically serve
the same purpose. In our Southern country
towns One-story frame buildings of four rooms
and a yeranda are more frequent than any
other kind of dwclling-houses The plan rec
commended by British army Surgeon of East
Indian experience, consists in separating those
four rooms by two halls crossing one another
at right angles in the center of the building.
In sultry Summer nights the beds can be re-
moved to that hall-center, where the air will
always be, or feel, cool enough for q good
nights rest. The plan, once tried, will recon-
mend itself forever. Of hundred reformed
topers about 80 will relapse into their former
habits. Half the dyspeptics who have been
cured by the one-meal system are apt to abuse
their regained digestive vigor by resuming
their mutifarious lHncheOns But not one IN
q thousand converts from the superstition Of
the night-air dread will ever voluntarily re
nOunee the benefits of his better knowledge
Breathing cool, fresh air all night almost
atones for the hygienic sins of the day. Farm
ers who breathe all night the lung poison Of
an unventilated bedroom are saved by passing
the day in the open fields, and indoor workers
must indemnify their lungs at night. Besides
cool air is powerful digestive stimulant; sup
pers which would otherwise result in full
sized nightmare can be digested in cool bed
| room, for the same reason that q GTeenandel
can stand 8 quantum of meat that would xii
six HindOos. Moderate suppers, combined will
the Open-hall plan, will insure sound sleep ii
the warmest nights of the year. No troubled
dreams, no hair-blanching vigils, no morning
lauguor and sick headaches; ailments which
for years have been accepted as the inevitable
heritage of original sin disappear without
trace. The benefits of the plan are too perma
nent and unmistakable to be ascribed to acci
dent.
DR.. Barkan, of New York. who managed
field hospital in the Turkish Bulgarian cam
paign, found that in open tents wounded mel
could sleep who, in stutfy barracks and in spit
of opiates, passed the nights in waking fevers
Nay, even the Cherokee Indians, who hay
learnt to build alright novels, get stout Of
their yearly hunting trip, but sicken in thei
| weather-proof wigwams.
Prof. Pettenkofer, of Munich experiment
ed on the permeability" of various kinds G
i building material, and by fitting rubber tub
, against the fat side of an ordinary brick b
found that by blowing through the tube b
, could agitate the fame of candle on the othe
, side of the brick. But several kinds of stone
, as well as thick layers of plaster, varnish AM
wallpaper, proved impregnable, and the famil
of the cattle-king, mentioned i'll the precedin
chapter, thus deprived themselves of the bene
fits of spontaneous UentildtiOn. Cold air, espe
!: cially under pressure of high wind. penetrate
the walls OF an ordinary brick or frame nous
! without difficulty, and in severe frosts the win
dows of such buildings can be kept closed nigh
and day; ventilation will take care of itsel
e In high latitudes, Winter storms thus disinfec
+ buildings in spite of all precautions and pre-
f serve the health of many an unsuspectin
{ tenant, who perhaps congratulates himse
y on the air-obstructing arrangements of hi
J; double windows. Consumptives who woul
: have died in the West Indies, recover in th
: Adirondacks, and are now actually sent ther
g for the purpose'of getting the benefit of tn
@ Winter climate. Esquimaux, according to th
Q concurrent testimony of all polar travellers, al
!. almost free from pulmonary diseases of an
:, kind. The frosts of the Arctic regions destro
F. the disease germs of their novels in spite
Y the thickest walls But in the lower latitude
e only the hardest frosts or snow storms shoul
!. justify the closing of the bedroom window
:: In wet nights a room can be kept both dry an
o cool by means of ip-shutters-slightly projec
/. ing frames inclOsing set of broad oyerlappin
# bars.
J. Open halls can be protected by porch roo
q combined with porch-door that excludes rail-
I. gusts, but admits lateral air currents. IN dam
! weather bedclothes should be frequentl
!, changed or dried.
BEDROOMS.
A good supply of bedclothes makes nigl
r fires superAuous. People who have tried bot