DH. CLARK ON CONSUMPTION. 529 



residence, are much too important to be omitted : — "The custom which 

 prevails in this country of surrounding beds with thick curtains is most 

 injurious to health ; and it is to this habit, and the heated atmosphere 

 of their bed-rooms, that (he languor and bloated appearance of many 

 young persons on first awaking in the morning are in a great mea- 

 sure to be attributed. Bed-rooms ought to be large in all their di- 

 mensions ; they should be in an elevated part of the house, and so si- 

 tuated as to admit a free supply both of air and light : those apart- 

 ments to which the sun's rays and the refreshing breeze have free 

 access are always the most healthy and desirable. 'Ihese remarks 

 are applicable to all apartments, but they deserve especial attention 

 in those of infants and young children, on account of their being ne- 

 cessarily so much confined to them. 



" There is no circumstance connected with health concerning which 

 the public are, in my opinion, so ill informed as the requisites of a 

 healthy residence, both as regards local position and internal con- 

 struction. In this island we have chiefly to guard against humidity, 

 on which account our houses should not be built in low confined si- 

 tuations, nor too near water, especially when stagnant, and still less 

 near marshes. Neither should a house be too closely surrounded by 

 tree.-i or shrubs. Trees at some distance from a house are both or- 

 namental and an advantage, but become injurious when so near as to 

 overshadow it, or prevent the air from circulating freely round itand 

 through its various apartments. The atmosphere of a building 

 overhung by trees, or surrounded by a thick shrubbery, is kept in a 

 state of constant humidity, except in the driest weather, and (he 

 health of the inmates rarely fails to suffer in consequence. The na- 

 tural moisture of the country, arising from the humid slate of the 

 soil and luxuriant vegetation, is greatly j^increased by such injudi- 

 cious mode of planting, an artificial atmosphere being created which 

 renders a situation of this kind less healthy than the more open parts 

 of large towns. It is not generally known how limited may be the 

 range of a damp unhealthj' atmosphere. A low, shaded situation 

 may be capable of inducing tuberculous disease in an infant, while a 

 rising ground, a few hundred yards distant, may afford a healthy 

 site for his residence. The dryness of the air in towns, which is the 

 consequence of good drainage, and an artificial soil, is at once (he 

 safeguard of its inhabitants and a compensation in some measure for 

 the want of that unimpeded circulation and renewal of pure air 

 which the country alone affords. 



" It would be well if architects were to make themselves acquainted 

 with the circumstances which contribute most essentially to the salu- 

 brity of habitations, as regards the site, the exposure, the drainage, 

 and the size and disposition of the rooms. In many houses, in other re- 

 spects well proportioned and arranged, the want of height in the bed- 

 rooms is, I am persuaded, the cause of much ill health. In our small 

 country houses this fault is very conspicuous; and (he country houses 

 of our gentry are in many instances rendered unhealthy for one lialfof 

 the year by the nature of (he situation in which they are built, and 

 this is frequently the case too when unexceptionable sites are to be 

 found in (he immediate vicinity. Numerous elegant buildings round 



