SANITARY ESSENTIALS. 319 



peevish, pale, cross, and unsocial, — and his children be so 

 tormented with colds, coughs, fevers ; unable to bear the least 

 exposure without illness of some kind ; growing puny, sickl}-, 

 unpromising, deficient in physical vigor, mental activity, 

 energy, and courage ; often requiring the services of the 

 family doctor, with the disagreeable resources, appliances, 

 comforts, and blessings of his mysterious art. 



The wife and daughters, being more confined in-doors, suf- 

 fer more than the father and sons. Then secure for their 

 health, comfort, and happiness a home made comfortably 

 warm in every part, filled with pure air, and made cheerful 

 with glowing sunlight ; supply a varied diet of substantial 

 food, and clothing ample for protection; and they will need 

 no iron for the blood, to keep the roseate tint of health on 

 cheek and lip ; no tonic for a weak stomach, poor appetite, 

 impaired digestion ; no artificial support for weak shoulders 

 and crooked spines : study, exercise, and work will be to them 

 a delight and recreation. 



The consequences of breathing impure, stagnant, dead air, 

 contaminated by respiration and bodily exhalations, are hard- 

 ly understood, and but little appreciated in the community. 



As stated by Dr. Parkes, " A man ordinarily gives off 

 from twelve to sixteen feet of carbonic-acid gas in twenty- 

 four hours by respiration, and an undetermined quantity by 

 the skin. 



" There is often exhaled from skin and lungs, in the form 

 of vapor, from twenty-five to forty ounces of water, requiring 

 two hundred and eleven feet of air per hour to maintain it 

 in a state of vapor. The amount of organic matter has never 

 been accurately ascertained ; but it has been estimated at 

 thirty grains per day for an adult. That from the lungs 

 will darken sulphuric acid, decolorize a solution of perman- 

 ganate of potash, and renders pure water offensive. . . . Col- 

 lected on the surface of a globe containing ice-water, it is 

 glutinous and sticky, having a disagreeable smell. It is pre- 

 cipitated by nitrate of silver, blackens platinum, yields am- 

 monia, and albuminoid ammonia when distilled with the 

 alkaline permanganate, as stated by Wanklyn, a German 

 chemist, and is therefore nitrogenous. ... It will attach it- 

 self to the walls of a room, and to furniture. It is absorbed 

 by clothing, carpets, damp paper, and other substances, and 



