Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1896-12-11
PLANTS IN DWELLINGS.
They Are Not Unhealthy but Emanations
from the Rich Soil in which They
Grow Is.

preston among our people that
plants growing in the living apart
ments of dwellings, are not only
evidences of a commendable taste
and refinement, in the occupants,
but also healthful by reason of their
giving off to the air, oxygen, an ele-
ment in it necessary to animal life
and absorbing from it carbonic acid,
which, when present in large pro-
portion is highly destructive to it.
Granting that this function has been
correctly observed, and that the
growth of vegetation in this un-
natural sphere gives to the confined
atmosphere a healthy condition, yet
there is a fact that has not been
taken into consideration. These
plants which are thus housed are
not of the kind like the Mistletoe
which feeds upon the air, nor like
the Lotus, and many other aquatic
plants which take their nourishment
from water, but require quite large
quantities of rich moist earth from
which to germinate and live. The
emanations of healthy growing
plants in dwellings, do not propose
to maintain, are deleterious to
health, shall even admit that they
may be healthful, as they are taste
full, and beautiful, but the miasma
which must and does arise from the
rich earth, in which they are rooted
am seriously disposed to indict.
1t is not an uncommon sight to wit
ness during the frosty seasons of
the year in the residences of the
well to do, both in our cities and
country places, the living apart
ments turned into well appointed
conservatories, for the care and cul-
ture of some of our choice indigen-
GUS plants and of rare exotics, and
these supplied with bushels of rich
damp earth around their roots in
boxes and pots Of considerable sizes.
From some of these vessels 1 have
often seen growing the lemon,
orange and rubber trees, and scme
OF them attaining heights of at least
from four to eight feet, and from
others, quite variety of Scrub
Palmettos, and in addition to these,
many of the smaller Towering
plants such as the Rose bush, Ger
anium, Orchids and the like. Now
if these conditions were found in the
cellars of tenements or fiat houses
in New York, or in any other city
that has an efficient Health Board.
especially if the Garden Vegetables
were making efforts to grow from
these heaps of earth, instead of the
favorite plants, orders for removal
would be served on the owners of
the premises within two days after
official inspection, and for reasons
too well understood to be here given.
These masses of damp earth in cell
lars, from which these vegetables
might be struggling to grow, are no
more pernioious or menacing to
health if as much so, as those which
are adorned with lovely foliage and
flowers, in the parlors or living
rooms, of the most elegant mansions.
In the former, the air is cool, and
decomposition, and consequently
termination takes place very slowly
while in the latter the temperature
is warm and closely corresponding
to a sub-tropical climate, favorable
to the development of the miasm
which as surely turks within these
heaps as in the most typical tropical
swamp. 1t has been a well estab-
lished fact for centuries, that from
such swamps under the influence of
temperature which produces rapid
evaporation of moisture, that sicken-
ing and deadly miasma arises, and
this too, when they are unconfned,
and are diluted with an immeasur.
able quantity of wholesome air and
agitated by frequent breezes. This
being the case, what in reason may
we expect Of the same kind of earth
in relatively large quantities, sub.
jected to about the same tempera-
ture, night and day, in rooms hav-
ing only few hundred cubic feet of
air space, and the air within com.
paratively still. These mIasma we
know, notwithstanding all the out
door influences to dissipate them,
produce in those who reside near
them, not only their characteristic
agues, but make more severe all the
bodily ailments that affiict them.
The contagious fevers, Diphtheria,
Rheumatism, Pneumonia, Bronchial
Catarrh, and the like, have all to
be treated, in such patients living in
these localities, with a malarial
complication constantly in view and |
which aften becomes quite un-
manageable by reason of it. This
is especially so, if tendency to COM