No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 191 



comes feeble and light in color; and how persons living in poorly 

 lighted apartments become pale, less vigorous, and sickly. All 

 houses, then, should be so arranged that each room may be well 

 lighted, and the kitchen and sitting room being the apartments most 

 used, should be planned for the most pleasant and best lighted por- 

 tions of the house. Don't be afraid to let in the sunlight; not that 

 we should live the entire time in the strong sunlight, but that there 

 should be means to admit the direct rays of the sun into any room 

 in which we live. There may and should be curtains or blinds to 

 modify the light, not to exclude it all the time, as is frequently the 

 case. 



The penetrating influence of the sunbeam will do more to impart 

 vigor to the body and the glow of health to the cheeks than any 

 quantity of medicine, though both are often a necessity. The limited 

 q^ount of sunshine that finds its way into the narrow courts and 

 alleys of the large cities is partly the cause of the stunted growth 

 and pale faces found there. We are told that it is the increased in- 

 tensity of the sunlight in southern climes that makes them so bene- 

 ficial to many invalids. It is also demonstrated that sunlight is 

 capable of destroying germs of disease. Sir James Wylie states that 

 ''the cause of disease on the dark side of an extensive barrack in 

 St. Petersburg have been uniformly for many years in the propor- 

 tion of 3 to 1 to those on the side exposed to strong light." Do not 

 such facts favor the well-lighted room? Besides the invigorating 

 effect of light on mental and bodily health, its presence makes a 

 room more pleasant and inviting. High windows are recommended. 

 In regard to artificial light, little may be said, except that sufficient 

 should be furnished to render easy what is done with its aid. In 

 working or reading with both natural and artificial light, it should 

 fall upon the work or reading matter from over the shoulder, not 

 where the rays fall directly upon the eye. 



Notwithstanding the beneficial effects of light, no amount of sun- 

 light will afford sufficient heat for human comfort in the winters 

 of this temperate climate. The rooms of our houses must be heated 

 artificially, and with the absence of natural gas in this section, coal 

 and wood burnt in some manner are the only accessories. In heat- 

 ing, the aim should be to furnish an even temperature, somewhere 

 between 60 and 70 degrees, as rooms too highly heated will lessen 

 the generation of heat in the body, and likewise the power of re- 

 sisting cold; this fact may be illustrated by a sudden change from a 

 hot to a cold climate. If an inhabitant of Cuba were quickly trans- 

 ferred to Greenland, the cold would be almost unendurable, and if, 

 after he had become accustomed to the cold of Greenland, he is re- 

 turned to his native island, the heat would be as unbearable as was 

 the cold in the first instance. 



