TJic Country Gciitlcinaiis Magazine 



407 



%\\t (Eoxintni ©cntlctooiuan. 



HOUSEHOLD CLEANING. 



[Concluded from page 312.] 



XV. CLEANLINESS, A MEANS OF EXEMPTION 

 FROM TROULLESOME INSECTS. 



CI EANLINESS, undoubtedly, can effect 

 better than any other means the de- 

 struction of, and freedom from, those insects 

 whom nature leads to harbour in houses, and 

 in the vicinity of beds. Such insects, in their 

 first state of existence, are nourished by the 

 dust, which collects in the downy fabric of 

 woollen articles especially. In the fur of the 

 cat, and hairy skin of the dog, they also find 

 the warmth and nutriment whicl: brings them 

 to maturity. 



XVL FLEAS AND BUGS. 



Of the flea, one of the most annoying of 

 such invaders of domestic comfort, particu- 

 larly where children are inmates, it has been 

 said that to destroy one in the month of 

 IMarch is to exempt a house of a hundred. 

 The greatest security is that of keeping rooms 

 as free from dust as it is possible. 



Carpets, blankets, and everything manufac- 

 tured from wool, should be so well attended 

 to as to prevent any accumulation of dust 

 from setting in them. The flea seeks to lay 

 its eggs wherever dust and down are combined, 

 for in them consist the nourishment nature 

 has ordained for its oftspring. 



The blankets used in the cribs and beds of 

 children should, for this reason, be daily 

 shaken, and, weather permitting, hung before 

 an open window that the air may pass through 

 and clear from dust their loosely woven 

 fabrics. 



The vicinity of dog-kennels and pigeon 

 cotes are amongst the causes of the rapid 

 production of fleas in some houses. Children, 

 in particular, suffer from the inflammation and 

 consequent irritation caused by flea-bites. 



Hence it should be a particular object to pre- 

 vent its infesting the nursery. Many recipes 

 for this purpose have been circulated, but 

 none appear to be entirely successful. 



A lump of camphor left in the ewers 

 whence the water is taken in w^hich children 

 are washed, and in which portions of the 

 camphor being dissolved gradually in the 

 water, it is said, renders the skin washed in it 

 obnoxious to the flea, but this is very doubtful. 



The bug is chiefly found in large towns. 

 It is a more formidable enemy than the flea, 

 because it evades detection by the most rigid 

 concealment during the day, emerging only at 

 night from its dark lurking-places. 



If not infesting the wood-work of old 

 houses or the cracks of the plaster-work, still 

 it may be brought into our dwellings by many 

 difl"erent channels. Sometimes bugs have 

 been introduced between the leaves of old 

 books ; in wicker-baskets, which they are said 

 peculiarly to affect ; in servants' trunks ; and 

 even in the folds of fresh washed linen from 

 laundress's houses. Hence in London, how 

 to prevent their increase, as well as to remedy 

 the evil entirely, is sometimes difiicult. 



Prevention of the increase both of bug and 

 flea in houses is mainly in the hands of house- 

 maids. Let them carefully practise the 

 cleanly arts of their department, and they 

 will, with more certainty effect the limitation, 

 even to extermination, of this foe to personal 

 comfort, than by the use of corrosive subli- 

 mate, or than that of any other kind of poison. 

 The ground upon which cleanliness proves so 

 effectual in checking the increase of the flea 

 has been shewn in a foregoing paragraph. 

 It may be well to point out how similar effects 

 may spring from the same cause. 



As the bug lives, it is said, only a year, the 

 preventive means should be principally a^v 



