The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-06-21
THE BEST FLOOR TO LIVE ON.
Greater Longevity Attained by People WhC
 Occupy the Second story.
IFrom the National Popular Rev ew.l

[From the National Popular Rev ew.l | M. Korosi, the Hungarian hygienist,
 has lately investigated the effects of
 living in cellars, ground floors and up-
 per floors upon the duration of life. He found that the dwellers of cellars lived
 to about thirty-nine years and eleven
 months; those on the ground floor to forty-three years and three months; those on the first and second floors lived to forty-four years and two months; while those on the third and fourth floors lived only to forty-two years.
 All things being otherwise equal, the observations of M Koros may be ac- cepted as showing the different effects upon longevity by the different selected planes of residence. The air of cellars or basements is never healthy, nor can such localities be ventilated except at considerable expense; this also implies ground air and ground moisture con- taminations arising from the inability to remove the additional contamination arising from the animal exhalations of the persons living there along with the heavier ground air from the street and yard that of necessity pours down Into such spaces, Those living on the first and second floors seem to enjoy the longest lease of life; this Is as might be expected from the greater freedom that the air of those floors enjoys from foul gases, microbes and germs, animal emanatlons, and from street dust. Much here depends, however, upon the character of the stairs; a steep, hard stairs tends to shorten thdSduratlon of life, while an easy, low-step stairs, broken by easy landings at every eight or ten steps. win lengthen it's duration. The spiral stairs, winding screw-like up in a mar row cylindrical space, are life-short- eners. These stairs save space and destroy life, and are quite common in many parts of Europe, and where one has to climb them to the third floor the exertlon Is slowly but surely telling. The effects of stair-climbing are visible in the two years of less life enjoyed by the inhabitants of the upper floors.
 These observations tally with those of Strassmann, of Berlin. with the ex- ception that in Berlin the basements give less mortality than the immediate street floor, which speaks well for the humanity of the Berlin microbe In Berlin the basements are occupied by well-to-do class, whereas in Budapest, the point observed by M. Korosi, the basements are occupied by the very poorest. We should not neglect to ob- serve that those who can afford a first or second floor flat are those who. as a rule, are better clothed, better fed and capable of surrounding themselves with better hygienic conditions than the poorer of either the basements or of the upper floors.
 The dwellers of the two first floors are, besides, persons better off In the world and not as likely to suffer any physical i'll effects due to occupation as their less fortunate fellow-mortals on the other floors, although we cannot overlook the fact that these favored ones probably do more worrying and that they are apt to suffer more from diseases of the kidneys and of the cir culatory system that arise from worry and anxiety; these favored ones would also be more liable to fall victims to acute brain or nervous affections than the others. So that were we to peo- pie the first and second floors with the