Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-01-27
HYGIENIC HOMES

By H. Addington Bruce

ny IL. AuNlllSlOlI DluCC
NNTERS on hygiene properly emphasize
wv the Importance Of keeping the home
airy, clean, adequately heated, and
otherwise in a sanitary state. But they do
not always emphasize as they should the need
for establishing conditions that will safeguard
the health of the mind as we'll as of the
body.
Yet this is obviously part, and an ex-
tremely important part, of home hygiene.
|. There are plenty of homes which, scientific
cally correct in point of physical sanitation are
lamentaby at fault as regards sanitation of
Imind and soul. They are homes that foster
especially in the young, erroneous modes of
thinking and doing
In these homes we may find expensive ven
tilating and heating systems. We may find
| costly furniture in rooms kept ScrupulouSly
clean by corps of servants
But we do not Finland neither do we find
in many homes of less SumptuouS Sort-the
furniture and ornaments chosen and arranged
with due regard to their psychic effects.
The requirements of color harmony may be
completely ignored, Gaudy colorS-notably
reds and yeloWS~may predominant. There
may be chaotic Superabundance of furnish
ingS.
All this makes for nerve strain 1t is diff
cult to think Serenely, to behave calmly. in
such homes. They create emotional turmoil, to
the great detriment of all who live in them
Enthusiastically, emphaticay, they are unhygienic
homes.
Many homes, too, are. sadly lacking in good
books Perhaps they also lack good pictures
that is, pictures which by their themes radiate
suggestions inspiring to lofty ideals and whole
Somey stimulating the imagination.
People in homes like these are necessarily
handicapped in point of intellectual develop
ment.
Unconscously they are influenced to think
IN commonplace way, to converse about in
Significant. perhaps Sordid subjects. Their
thinking, indeed, may hardly deserve to be
called thinking, and their conversation is sell
dom worthy of the name.
AlSo without knowing why. they are apt to
find the home unsatiSfyng. They seek their rec
reation outside it to an excessive extent and
perhaps in amuSementS hurtful to their health
and morals
good pictures, homes without the means of
good music, tend mentally to deaden and de-
press their jewellers. Life then becomes dull
and empty; one continually feels cheated of
happiness no matter how successful one may
be in worldly sense.
Finally, basic but often ignored principle of
home hygiene is to have the home we'll light
ed, day and night
Dark homes are not merely physically un-
healthy. They also tend to nure the mental
health because of the unpleasant moods their
! cheerlesnesS engenders. By sheer force of will
person may be Contented in a dark home
but the effort to achieve contentment is itself
tax on the nervous system.
! Whereas the amply lighted home. home
to which the sun has ready access and which
! is we'll illuminated by artificial means after
the day is done, creates by its brightness moods
that react to the good of the whole organism
! Health and efficiency alike find enhancement
under the genial influence of light
Copyright, 1920, by The Associated News
papers)