My firm belief is, that if more attention were paid to thorough venti-
lation fevers would be an almost unknown disease. The cooping-up sys-
tem is abominable; it engenders all manner of infectious and loathsome
diseases, and not only engenders them, but feeds them, and thus keeps
them alive. There is nothing wonderful in all this, if we consider, but for
one moment, that the exhalations from the lungs are poisonous. The
lungs give off carbonic acid gas (a deadly poison), which, if it is not
allowed to escape must be breathed over and over again. If the perspira-
tion of the body (which in twenty-four hours amounts to two or three
pounds!) is not permitted to escape from the apartment, it must become
foetid — repugnant, sickening, and injurious to the health. The nose is a
sentinel and often warns its owner of approaching danger!
SLEEPING ROOMS.
The bedroom ought, if practicable, to be large and airy. Particular
attention must be paid to the ventilation. The door and the windows
ought in the daytime to be thrown wide open, and the bedclothes should
be thrown back, that the air might, before the approach of night, well
ventilate them. Pure air and a frequent change of air is quite necessary.
The bed must not be loaded with clothes, more especially with a thick
coverlet. If the weather is cold, let an extra blanket be put on the bed,
as the perspiration can permeate through a blanket when it cannot
through a thick coverlet. The knitted, for the summer, are the best, as
they allow the perspiration from the body to escape; and the eiderdown,
for winter, are light, warm, and ventilating.
It is a marvel how some people, with four or five blankets, and with a
thick coverlet on the bed, can sleep at all; their skins and lungs are
smothered, and are not allowed to breathe, for the skin is as much a
breathing apparatus as are the lungs themselves,
SEWERS.
To destroy the smell is not to destroy the danger; certainly not! The
right way to do away with the danger is to remove the cause, and the
effect will cease. Flushing a sewer is far more efficacious than disin-
33
518 SICK AND CONVALESCENT.
fecting one. Soap and water, the scrubbing brush, sunshine and thorough
ventilation, each and all are far more beneficial than either permanganate
of potash, chloride of zinc or chloride of lime. People in these times
think too much of disinfectants, and too little of removal of causes; they
think too much of artificial, and too little of natural means.
Not only should the ventilation of the house be well looked after,
but it ought to be ascertained that the drains are in good and perfect
order, that the privies are frequently emptied of their contents, and that
neither drain fluid nor privy fluid communicates, in any way whatever,
with the supply of drinking water. Bad drainage and overflowing privies
are fruitful sources of child-bed fever, gastric fever, scarlatina, diphtheria,
cholera and a host of other infectious, contagious and dangerous diseases.
It is an abominable practice to allow dirt to fester near human habita-
tions.
PURE WATER.
Page 368
Presented as published in 1917. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
My firm belief is, that if more attention were paid to thorough ventilation fevers would be an almost unknown disease. The cooping-up system is abominable; it engenders all manner of infectious and loathsome diseases, and not only engenders them, but feeds them, and thus keeps them alive. There is nothing wonderful in all this, if we consider, but for one moment, that the exhalations from the lungs are poisonous. The lungs give off carbonic acid gas (a deadly poison), which, if it is not allowed to escape must be breathed over and over again. If the perspiration of the body (which in twenty-four hours amounts to two or three pounds!) is not permitted to escape from the apartment, it must become foetid — repugnant, sickening, and injurious to the health. The nose is a sentinel and often warns its owner of approaching danger!
SLEEPING ROOMS.
The bedroom ought, if practicable, to be large and airy. Particular attention must be paid to the ventilation. The door and the windows ought in the daytime to be thrown wide open, and the bedclothes should be thrown back, that the air might, before the approach of night, well ventilate them. Pure air and a frequent change of air is quite necessary.
The bed must not be loaded with clothes, more especially with a thick coverlet. If the weather is cold, let an extra blanket be put on the bed, as the perspiration can permeate through a blanket when it cannot through a thick coverlet. The knitted, for the summer, are the best, as they allow the perspiration from the body to escape; and the eiderdown, for winter, are light, warm, and ventilating.
It is a marvel how some people, with four or five blankets, and with a thick coverlet on the bed, can sleep at all; their skins and lungs are smothered, and are not allowed to breathe, for the skin is as much a breathing apparatus as are the lungs themselves,
SEWERS.
To destroy the smell is not to destroy the danger; certainly not! The right way to do away with the danger is to remove the cause, and the effect will cease. Flushing a sewer is far more efficacious than disin-
fecting one. Soap and water, the scrubbing brush, sunshine and thorough ventilation, each and all are far more beneficial than either permanganate of potash, chloride of zinc or chloride of lime. People in these times think too much of disinfectants, and too little of removal of causes; they think too much of artificial, and too little of natural means.
Not only should the ventilation of the house be well looked after, but it ought to be ascertained that the drains are in good and perfect order, that the privies are frequently emptied of their contents, and that neither drain fluid nor privy fluid communicates, in any way whatever, with the supply of drinking water. Bad drainage and overflowing privies are fruitful sources of child-bed fever, gastric fever, scarlatina, diphtheria, cholera and a host of other infectious, contagious and dangerous diseases. It is an abominable practice to allow dirt to fester near human habitations.
PURE WATER.