Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| do more than all the arguments of the
scientists toward bringing about a new
practical system of keeping homes cool.
More than year ago a Midwestern
engineer suggested homes with immoy-
able windows, permanently sealed down,
with all ventilation to be by ducts, the
air heated for Winter and cooled for
Summer, and circulated irrespective of
outside conditions.
Most home owners have looked at their
hot-water heating systems, and mildly
wondered why they could not be con-
verted to the purpose of cooling the
house. The water in the system would
be just as good conveyor of cold as of
heat.
There is a good joke going the rounds
of the newspaper exchanges: Tenant
Why can't you put ice water In the
radiators, janitor? Janitor-It can't be
done, mann. Tenant-Well what was
that you had in them last Winter?
x X X X
Sleeping in the hot weather has two
effects, in the main, upon human beings.
1t either makes them sleep well, or
poorly, a natural enough result, OF
course. Those who sleep we'll find that
the heat drugs them, in sense, to an
overpowering stupor, which, although
it may not be quite as restful as the
for the deficiency by giving larger
portion of it.
1t is the common complaint of even
those who sleep well during the heat
that the sleep secured has not been
"restful" But the effects of sleep, one
may we'll believe, are partly dependent
upon the mental attitude.
The poor Sleepers fret and fume, toss
around, turn over, wildly declare that
in
are reduced to the exact mental status
of the insomnia, whose chief burden,
physicians declare, is not so much lack
of sleep as the knowledge that they are
not sleeping and the resulting worry
which this causes them.
1t is said by physicians that even the
most sleepless individuals do get some
sleep, and that this amount, small
though 1t may be, would be quite
enough, if the patient would refuse to
worry about being awake the remainder
OF the time.
The repose which the slaepless get on
their beds is great deal in itself. Those
who have dog or cat friends know that
these animals never waste their energies
in useless running around. If there IS
no particular sport or prey in sight they
will go into a corner and there curl them
selves up to restful slumber. Cats even
SpenQ great deal OF Time simply lying
still, most often hunched up on their
stomachs. contemplating the world
around them.
A restless rushing to and fro In the
world is not to be commended for hot
weather, although thousands and thou
sands of persons will continue to 10
just that thing, as if they were trying
to run away from the heat.
But the heat is everywhere, and there
is no escaping it. 1t must be met. A
wise way to meet it is to wear as little
clothing as possible, and to get as much
rest as one may, while eating as little
as possible. Such methods keep down
bodily heat, the desirable thing, not
only by not building it up, but also by
permitting it to escape.
Refrigerating the blood might be
tried. Every one knows that permitting
cold water to run over the wrists helps
cool the entire body. The method is not
feasible for hourby-hour usage, how
ever.
But small bracelets of dry ice" one
would think, would enable one to keep
the blood refrigerated at al, times. We
would suggest experiments along this
line to those who manufacture the stuff.
1t is not beyond belief that man will
some day devise scientific methods for
keeping himself comfortable during hot
weather. comfortable to degree far be-
yond anything known at present.