St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-08-17
UPSTAIRS OR DOWNSTAIRS ,
The HealthIest Place to Live-Soms Facts
O0 the Q0estl0a.

The HealthIest Place to Live-S0ne Facts
On the Qaestiou.
Mr.. Korosi, the Hungarian hygienist,
has lately investigated the effects of
living in cellars. ground floors and up
per floors upon the duration of life.
lie found that the dwellers of cellars
lived 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 NJ. korosi
may be accepted as showing the differ
ent effects upon longevity by the diff
ferent selected plane of residence.
The air of cellars or Easements is
never healthy, nor can such localities
be ventilated. except at considerable
expense; this also implies ground air
and ground moisture contamination.
aside from the inability to remove the
animal exhalations of the per-
sons living there. along with the heav-
ier grouDd 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 rs might be ex-
pected, from the greater freedom that
the air Of those floors enjoys from foul
gases, microbes and germs, animal
emanations and from street dust.
Much here depends, however, upon
the character of the stairs; a steep,
hard stair tends to shorten the dura-
ton of life, while m easy. low-step
stair, broken by easy landings At every
eight or ten steps, will lengthen its
duration. The spiral stairs, winding.
screw-like, up in . narrow cylindrical
space, are life shOrteners. 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 exertion is slowly
but surely telling. The effects Of stair
climbing are visible in the two years
less Of 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 Easements
give less mortality than the immediate
street floor, which speaks well for the
humanity Of the Berlin microbe. In
Berlin the Easements are occupied by
q well-to-do class. whereas, in Buda
Pesth, the point observed by NJ. Ko-
rosi, the easements are occupied by the
very poorest We should not neglect
to observe that those who can afford q
first or second floor nat are those who,
as rule, are better clothed, better
fed. and capable of surrounding them
selves with better hygienic conditions
thao the poorer Of either the basement
or of the upper floors.
The dwellers of the two first floors
are, besides, persons better OF in the
world, and not as likely to suffer any
physical ill-effects due to occupation
rs their less fortunate fellow-mortals
on the other floors, although we can
not overlook the fact that these bet
ter-favored ones probably do more
worrying and that they are apt to suf-
fer more from disease of the kidneys
and of the circulatory system that
arise from worry and anxiety; these
favored ones would also be more likely
to fall victims to acute brain or
nervous affections than the others. So
that wereSve to people the first and
second floors with the less worrying
and less perplexed but poorer class,
the length of life Of these would prob
ably go far in excess Of the forty-four
years and two months National
Popular Review.