834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



take up his work, instead of tossing about for hours, or lying restless, 

 and tortured with all the troubles which seemingly come in upon him 

 ou such occasions. 



The nurseries of a house should be cheerful, well lighted, and well 

 ventilated, and made to open into each other, so that at night-time the 

 door may be left open, and the air space made as large as possible. A 

 small pantry or scullery should be fitted up on the same floor, with 

 sink and ample closets or cupboards for crockery and toys, and, if pos- 

 sible, a water-closet and bath-room close adjoining. 



The servants' rooms should be made as healthy and convenient as 

 any other rooms in the house, well lighted, and, being in part in the 

 roof, care should be taken in all new houses to protect them from un- 

 due heat and cold by means of boarding and slates, by overlaying the 

 former with battens, on which the slates are hung, so that, as far as 

 practicable, the rooms may not be rendered hot and close in summer, 

 or icy cold in winter. All these precautions can easily be taken in the 

 building of a new house without any great additional cost, and will 

 amply repay the extra outlay by the increased comfort and healthiness 

 of the house. 



Somewhere on the top floor a lumber-room should be provided, 

 lighted from the roof, and this should be boarded all round, so as to 

 prevent the damage which is often caused in plastered rooms by the 

 boxes being placed roughly against the walls. A cistern-room is also 

 essential in every well-found house, boarded in to keep it clean and 

 free from dust and filth, which would be sure to foul the water ; top- 

 lighted, so as to enable the cisterns to be examined and frequently 

 cleaned out, and from this room access might be had to the outside of 

 the roof. 



As far as practicable, all water-pipes, hot and cold, should be run 

 up together, properly labeled and easy to be got at, in a chase or 

 recess which should be cased over and closed with screws. The hot- 

 water pipes, if properly felted in, would contain a suflicieut amount 

 of heat, long after the kitchen fire is out, to keep the space, even if 

 next to an outside wall, well above freezing-point. 



The bell-wires should all be laid in zinc tubing, the gas-pipes 

 always iron, and not what is called composition, and in no case should 

 any pipe of any kind be rendered inaccessible by being buried in some 

 remote corner, or in the plaster-work of the rooms. The ordinary 

 plumber and gas-fitter takes no heed of how his pipes go, and what 

 happens to them after he has fixed them in their places ; his anxiety 

 seems to be to carry them by the shortest possible way to the points 

 at which they are to be used, and, unless carefully looked after, you 

 may be tolerably certain that they will be so hidden away that, in case 

 of accident, you will have to pull up half the floors of your house, or 

 knock about a good many of your walls, to discover any leakage, es- 

 pecially if it be in a gas-pipe. 



