The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-06
It Is Natural Disinfcctant and Thorough
Cleanser.

y u
Cleanser.
There is a popular idea that sunshine
IS wholesome, and this has been re-
Gently proved by science. In bacterio-
logical experiments it has been dis
tinctly shown that the growth of bac-
terra is retarded by light, while dark.
ness and heat offer the very best con.
ditions for the growth of disease. We
often speak of thing fostering in the
sun. The correct expression should DO
fostering in the heat. The presence
of the light is now found to hinder
rather than force forward the work.
As in winter the earth is purified by
frost and cold, so in summer the natural
disinfectant is sunshine. The unclean
rooms from which the light is excluded
and the fly, natures special agent for
the publication of the air, is shut out
offer the very best conditions for the
culture of disease. That spot must be
very foul where disease germs will
long exist with the direct rays of the
sun striking them. 1t follows that if
we shut up our rooms to exclude the
heat we must be especially careful that
they are kept in spotless cleanli.
ness. Because they get the di.
rect rays of the sun, the south
ern rooms of the house are more
desirable for living rooms than tho
northern ones, and the eastern rooms
than the western ones. 1t is far wiser
to give up the northern side of the
house to pantries, storage rooms o.
hall space, and to build all the living
and sleeping apartments SO that they
will get as much as possible of the sun
shine. Not only will these rooms be
more cheerful, but they will be more
wholesome dwelling places. If one
must leave the debris of meals, dust
and dirt to a accumulate, it is better to
leave the window ope for the light to
come in, though it brings the heat and
the buzzing fly, which in spite of it's
disagreeable ways is one of the most
nseful of insects.
All wholesome plants thrive in the
sunshine, but the foul molds and fun
gold growths wither away before it's
health-giving rays All these facts
have long been known and even the
ancients used the sun-ba tn as a means
of restoring strength. Like the plant
that grows indoors the individual who
lives without going out in the sunshine
and air becomes pale and anamic and
in this condition falls an easy prev to
disease.
The Importance of light should be
recognized in all housekeeping. Prop
er ventilation demands the admission
of abundance of light as we'll as air.
The air that drifts through half-open
shutters does no such work as the sum
shine and air that pour in freely from
windows thrown open wide. At least
twice day the windows of every liv-
ing room should be thrown open for
five or ten minutes Thus the morning
and afternoon sun and the coolest air
of the day are allowed to flow in. The
heated air of midday should never be
admitted.
This heated atmosphere meeting the
cooler air within is liable to precipitate
the moisture always present to some
extent in the air and make the room
damp. 1t is as essential that heated
II is that light be admitted.
The practice of drying clothes in
artihcially heated rooms has every.
thing to condemn il. Not only do
clothes dried in this way miss the
bleaching power of the sunshine but
its disinfecting power. The difference
between clothes dried in the sunships
and those dried in the house is readily
perceived by the odor. 1t is not posi-
bic TO destroy disease germs in clothes
dried within doors, except by the use
OF such powerful chemicals as would
certainly be injurious 20 the fbres Of
the cloth. The Gloss heated atmos-
phere of the drying-room of the steam
laundry not only offers no means Of
disinfec,ing the clothes. but actually
becomes culture-room for all manner
OF evil germs LETT after washing.-N.
Y. Tribune.