Year: 1875

4


The American Health Association at
Baltimore are doing good work, not so
much by enunciating new truths in sani-
tary science, as by recalling and empha-
sizing the half-known and half-forgotten
truths which, in the present stage of
our civilization, ought to be part of the
common stock of information. The
questions of public health are now so
universally placed in the hands of pub
| lie bodies, and under the direction of
sanitary experts, that we may trust to
the gradual diffusion of sound views and
the introduction of correct principles in
the management of this department
But the conditions which secure safety
and health in private houses are not
only less likely to be cared for, but they
are less generally known, and it is in
calling attention to them that the asso-
citation has deserved well of the people.


The arrangements for heating, drain
age and ventilation in the ordinary
house are generally left entirely to the
architect, who has but a slight interest
in them. The cost of the house is the
first item in which he must suit the
owner, and he will pay attention to the
external appearance for the sake of his
own reputation, but as his connection
with the house ceases with its compile
ton, he is apt to know very little about
the subsequent workings of its sanitary
arrangements, and to care less. In the
matter of sewerage, few reputable archi-
teets would neglect the ordinary precau-
tions of traps and goose-necks, but this
is matter which, once neglected, leads
to dangerous consequences, because the
evils of bad drainage are not discovered
until they have led to serious sickness.
The rule that the house sewer should be
properly trapped between the point
where it receives the last waste-pipe
and the point where it enters the street
sewer, is, we fear, sometimes slighted
with very great risk to the dwellers in
the house.


But if sewerage is now a science
which is perfectly understood and easy
of application we are very far from hav-
ing reached any such agreement on the
questions of ventilation and heating.
OF ventilation we may say that we un-
derstand nothing at all but are entirely
at the mercy of chance, or of Provi-
dence, rs we may choose to call it.
Small houses and rooms can be puri-
fed by ordinary windows, but rs long
as there is no such thing in the world
as q well-ventilated theater, hall or
other public building, a modest confess
sion of ignorance is the fttest introduce
ton to any treatment of the subject. 1t
is true that there are professors who
assume to know all about it, and who
can draw beautiful diagrams of currents
of air flowing through the proper open
ings, but these are principally on paper.
In practice we see one expert drawing
off the foul air near the ceiling and
showing in the pure air near the floor,
while another expert draws off the same
foul air near the floor and pumps in his
pure air near the ceiling.


Until we devise some instruments ac-
curate enough to measure and record
the flow of atmospheric currents, it is
well to know that an open fireplace is
the best ventilator, and cast-iron fur
mace the worst. The danger of the fur
mace is that in our changeable climate
the fire must now and then be allowed
to run down, and even 90 out, sending
carbOnic oxide up the fiues in the first
instance, and in the second the malari-
Gus, moldy air of the cellar or of the
exterior ground surface. In malarious
districts-and all districts in this coun-
try are liable to become malarious-the
introduction through furnace flues of
the external air is as good a way of in
Producing malaria as could be devised,
while, on the other hand, the best puri-
fer of the air is the open fire in the
CRATE.


We have not the space to dwell on
the topics which suggest themselves in
this connection, and which have been
treated of in this most interesting ses-
sion at Baltimore, but to every one who
thinks of building, the important points
are those which he is most likely to
overlook As they make all the differ
ence between a healthy home and a
sickly one, they deserve greater atten-
ton, and we are glad to notice any
movement which promises to bring
about a closer acquaintance with the
principles of sanitary science, and full
Ter application of them to our dwelling
houses.-St. Louis Globe.