578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



science " ; but, since we have ascertained that out-door exercise is 

 more important than all the graphics and ologies of the Academic 

 Fran9aise, it has been found that, with a well-arranged plan of instruc- 

 tion ten months a year, five days a week and six hours a day are quite 

 enough for any school. If the eight-hour system were generally adopt- 

 ed, operatives would not be compelled to live within ear-shot of the 

 factory-whistle, and in very large cities the daily influx and reflux of 

 a subui'ban multitude would enable railroad companies to carry indi- 

 viduals at rates which the poorest would call moderate. Far enough 

 from the city center to evade the region of dear building-lots, and yet 

 within easy reach of all kinds of door and sash factories and planing- 

 mills, there would be no need of crowding three generations into a 

 single room, and suffocating them with mingled kitchen-fumes and 

 sick-bed odors. Three rooms and an out-house should be the minimum 

 for a family with children. 



In a tolerable location, the air of a three-room cottage can be kept 

 pure enough without force ventilators or any other expensive contriv- 

 ance. Open your windows ; in very cold weather, air the bedrooms in 

 daytime and the others at night. In lai'ger houses, the kitchen, parlor, 

 and dining-room should be thoroughly ventilated every night, also in 

 daytime at convenient intervals, during the temporary absence of the 

 occupants. To save foul air for the sake of its warmth is poor econ- 

 omy ; experiments would show that the difference in fuel amounts only 

 to a trifle, anyhow. Ten or twelve pounds of coal a day ought not to 

 weigh against the direct gain in comfort and the prospective, unspeak- 

 able gain in health. Breathing the same air over and over again means 

 to feed the organism on the excretions of our own lungs, on air sur- 

 charged with noxious gases and almost depleted of the life-sustaining 

 principle. Azotized air affects the lungs as the substitution of excre- 

 ments for nourishing food would affect our digestive organs : corrup- 

 tion sets in ; pulmonary phthisis is, in fact, a process of putrefaction. 



No ventilatory contrivance can compare with the simple plan of 

 opening a window ; in wet nights a " rain-shutter " (a blind with large, 

 overlapping bars) will keep a room both airy and dry. In every bed- 

 room, one of the upper windows should be kept open night and day, 

 except in storms, accompanied with rain or with a degree of cold ex- 

 ceeding 10 Fahr. In warm summer nights open every windoAv in the 

 house and every door connecting the bedroom with the adjoining 

 apartments. Create a thorough draught. Before we can hope to fight 

 consumption with any chance of success, we have to get rid of the 

 night-air superstition. Like the dread of cold water, raw fruit, etc., it 

 is founded on that mistrust of our instincts which we owe to our anti- 

 natural religion. It is probably the most prolific single cause of impaired 

 health, even among the civilized nations of our enlightened age, though 

 its absurdity rivals the grossest delusions of the witchcraft era. The 

 subjection of holy reason to hearsays could hardly go further. 



