108 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



made in a full-storied house, and, beside, it looks more fitting as 

 a farm-house. A two or three-stor^- house is inconsistent with the 

 ■\vauts of the farm, and shows bad judgment in those Avho build 

 them. This is one of the most important questions we have had 

 before the club, and one which affords room for ample discussion. 

 It is sometimes very remarkable to see how one man gives fashion 

 and form to all the dwellings in the vicinity. If some pretentious 

 builder leads off with a high-stoiied house, no matter how incon- 

 venient, others are very apt to ape the fashion. In one section of 

 this State, the almost universal style is a two-story center, with 

 two one-story wdngs. The most that can be said of that form is 

 that it is fiishionable. An^'thing that we can say here to improve 

 the stylo of farm-houses will be beneficial to a great many people. 



Mr. John Disturnell contested a<2;ainst lower floor lodijino- rooms, 

 because he was satisfied they were much more unhealthy than upper 

 ones. He endeavored to prove it from some statistics drawn from 

 Cairo, Egypt. 



Mr. Solon Robinson said his position w\as taken for a dry, hard, 

 rocky soil, like that of New England generally, and not for mala- 

 rious Egypt. 



The chairman said that Judge Butler, formerly a physician at 

 Norwalk, Ct., declares that when jieople were in the habit of 

 sleeping in lower rooms, maladies prevailed which are now^ seldom 

 heard of; such as a low grade of fevers. He says prevailing fogs 

 never rise above fourteen feet high, and those sleeping in upper 

 rooms escape its influence. His recommendation to all who build 

 country houses, is to make the cellar under the entire house, 

 cementing the bottom and sides so thoroughly that no gas can 

 arise from the earth, and never to sleep on the lower floor. Beside 

 keeping the cellar clean, care should also be taken to clean the 

 well every year. 



Dr. Isaac M. Ward, who lives near the great salt marshes of 

 New Jersey, says, from his house, which is situated on a hill, he 

 can look down upon the banks of fog l^^ing upon a lower level. 

 All our sleeping rooms are upon the upper floors, and, I think, in 

 a more healthy stratum of the atmosphere than they w^ould be if 

 less elevated. 



Dr. Snodgrass. — This may be so in that locality, but there are 

 others where the case is reversed. Those living immediately upon 

 the l)anks of the Potomac, and other Southern rivers, have often 

 escaped malarious diseases, while the houses situated upon the 



