Lighting.—The Italians have a proverb, “When you let the sunshine in you drive the doctor out.” A house should be constructed so as to admit an abundance of light. Architects, and builders, too, often undervalue the health-giving properties of sunshine, or sacrifice them to other considerations. Even the mistress of the house, whose first thought should be the health of herself and that of her children, frequently shuts out the sunshine to save her carpets and furniture. It is better to have the roses on the children’s cheeks than on the carpets.
Trees should not be planted so close to a house as to obstruct the free ingress of light and air. If the walls are damp, the tree’s shade will help to preserve the dampness. Numerous instances are recorded of the deaths of persons clearly traced to the damp walls, moss-covered roofs, and general unhealthfulness arising from the close proximity of dense trees which overhung the dwelling and shut out the sunlight. When the sad truth was at last discovered, and the trees were removed, the houses which, before, were seldom free from sickness and sorrow, became wholesome and cheerful.
Warming.—The subjects of warmth and ventilation are so closely related that they will necessarily overlap in their treatment. In point of importance probably no two subjects have a larger bearing upon health. No scheme has yet been devised by which satisfactory means of heating and ventilation are combined with money-saving. For purposes of ventilation, the old-time open hearth was without a rival. But while the faces of our grandparents were roasted, successive chills chased up their backs. In these days of scarcity of fuel, the open hearth is the rich man’s luxury.
Most houses throughout the country are still warmed by stoves. In cities and towns, dwelling houses are generally warmed by the hot-air furnaces, while many of the larger establishments—stores, offices, hotels, banks, apartment houses—are supplied with steam heat.
An important consideration in all cases of hot-air heating is that the air be taken from the outside through a conduit instead of using the air from the cellar, as is too frequently done. In some cities and suburban towns, pure air is brought into the cellar through a conduit where it passes through a box in which it is heated by steam pipes, the steam being brought from a central plant which supplies several hundred houses. The air when heated passes through flues to the several rooms of the dwelling, and is turned on and off by registers in the usual way. This system avoids all dirt of coal and ashes, and all care of fires, and is much to be commended.
Uniform Temperature.—In all schemes for the warming of houses, it is important to keep the entire building at a uniform, comfortable temperature. In dwellings, the halls and living rooms should be so evenly warmed that no sensation of chilliness is felt in passing from one room into another. This, in itself, costs much fuel, and when there is added the further cost of heating the fresh air which is necessary to supply the place of that which has become vitiated by use, the truth of the proposition that suitable heating and ventilation are costly becomes apparent.
Those who live in warm, close, ill-ventilated rooms are much more subject to colds from exposure to draughts and cold air than those who dwell in a pure atmosphere of moderate temperature. This being the case, persons should not accustom themselves to a higher temperature than is barely necessary for comfort. Some persons are most comfortable with a room temperature in winter of 68º or 69º Fahrenheit. Others require a temperature of 70º or 71º. Invalids, infants, and old persons, whose vitality is low, require a higher temperature than those in the full vigor of life.
Ventilation.—The importance of breathing pure air was fully discussed in a previous chapter. The best methods of securing it will be considered here.
Air, when heated, becomes lighter and rises. Cool air, when it enters a warm room, sinks to the bottom. The cooler and purer air of a room is, therefore, always found nearest the floor. Although the carbonic acid given out by the lungs is heavier than an equal quantity of atmospheric air, yet, by the operation of the law of diffusion, it commingles with the other gases, and is found in greatest quantity near the ceiling. Doors and windows are the means commonly employed for ventilation; transoms and special ventilating flues are used to some extent.