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HOME HYGIENE. 



greatest importance in all ages except our own ; 

 indeed, the ancients were especially solicitous 

 in that regard, as is shown in the historical 

 narratives of the laying out of ancient cities, 

 from the founding of Lycosurus in Arcadia, as 

 described by Pausanias, to the building of Al- 

 exandria by Dinocrates under the orders of 

 Alexander. In Hippocrates's " Airs, Waters, 

 and Places," the relative healthfulness of build- 

 ing sites is thus laid down : 



" Those [cities] which lie to the rising of the 

 sun are all likely to be more healthy than such 

 as are turned to the north, or those exposed to 

 the hot winds, even if there should not be a 

 furlong between them. In the first place, both 

 the heat and cold are more moderate. Then 

 such waters as flow to the rising sun must 

 necessarily be clear, soft, and delightful to drink 

 in such a city, for the sun in rising and shining 

 upon them purifies them by dispelling the va- 

 pors which generally prevail in the morning. 

 The persons of the inhabitants are, for the 

 most part, well colored and blooming. The 

 inhabitants have clear voices, and in temper 

 and intellect are superior to those which are 

 exposed to the north, and all the productions 

 of the country in like manner are better ; . . . 

 but such cities as lie to the west, and which are 

 sheltered from winds blowing from the east, 

 and which the hot winds and the cold winds 

 of the north scarcely touch, must necessarily 

 be in a very unhealthy situation : in the first 

 place, the waters are not clear. . . . And in 

 summer cold breezes from the east blow and 

 dews fall; and in the latter part of the day the 

 setting sun particularly scorches the inhabit- 

 ants, and therefore they are pale and enfeebled, 

 and are partly subject to all the aforesaid dis- 

 eases, but no one is peculiar to them. Their 

 voices are rough and hoarse, owing to the state 

 of the air, which in such a situation is gener- 

 ally impure and unwholesome, for they have 

 not the northern winds to purify it ; and these 

 winds they have are of a very humid charac- 

 ter, such being the nature of the evening 

 breezes" (Sydenham Society's translation, 

 London, 1849). And Vitruvius has laid down 

 in the clearest manner his opinion upon this 

 subject in his work on architecture, written 

 about twenty-five years before the Christian 

 era: "In setting out the walls of a city, 

 choice of a healthy situation is of the first im- 

 portance ; it should be on high ground, neither 

 subject to fogs nor rains ; its aspects should be 

 neither violently hot nor intensely cold, but 

 temperate in both respects. The neighborhood 

 of a marshy place must be avoided ; for in such 

 a site the morning air, uniting with the fogs 

 that rise in the neighborhood, will reach the 

 city with the rising sun; and these fogs and 

 mists, charged with the exhalations of the 

 fenny animals, will diffuse an unwholesome 

 effluvia over the bodies of the inhabitants, and 

 render the place pestilent. A city on the sea- 

 side, exposed to the south or west, will be in- 

 salubrious, for in summer mornings a city thus 



placed would be hot, and at noon it would be 

 scorched. A city, also, with a western aspect 

 would even at sunrise be warm, at noon hot, 

 and in the evening of a burning temperature. 

 Hence the constitutions of the inhabitants of 

 such places, from such continual and excessive 

 changes of the air, would be much vitiated. 

 This effect is likewise produced on inanimate 

 bodies: nobody would think of lighting his 

 wine-cellar from the south or west, but from 

 the north, an aspect not liable to these violent 

 changes. In granaries whose aspects are south 

 of the east or west, the stores are soon ruined ; 

 and provisions, as well as fruits, can not long 

 be preserved unless kept in apartments whose 

 aspects are north of the east or west. . . . 

 Those who change a cold for a hot climate 

 rarely escape sickness, but are soon carried off; 

 whereas, on the other hand, those who pass 

 from a hot to a cold climate, far from being 

 injured by the change, are generally strength- 

 ened. Much care, then, should be taken so to 

 set out the walls of a city that it may not be 

 obnoxious to the pestilential blasts of the hot 

 winds" (Gwilt's translation, London, I860). 

 The science of pathology was brought into 

 requisition as an aid in the determination of 

 the healthfulness of proposed sites for cities 

 and permanent encampments. Animals were 

 killed after they had for some time drunk the 

 waters and fed upon the herbage grown upon 

 the site. The livers were inspected, and if 

 diseased the site was rejected. As the ancients 

 were thus particular in the selection of sites 

 for a city, it is reasonable to suppose that they 

 were equally careful in choosing sites for their 

 public buildings and dwellings. Vitruvius, 

 with his usual minuteness, has left us his re- 

 commendations: "Natural consistency arises 

 from the choice of such situations for tem- 

 ples as possess the advantages of salubrious 

 air and water; more especially in the case of 

 temples erected to JEsculapius, to Hygeia, and 

 such other divinities as possess the power of 

 curing diseases. For thus the sick, changing the 

 unwholesome air and water to which they have 

 been accustomed for those that are healthy, 

 sooner recover; and a reliance upon the 

 divinity will be therefore increased by proper 

 choice of situation. Natural consistency also 

 requires that chambers should be lighted from 

 the east; baths and winter apartments from 

 the southwest; picture and other galleries 

 which require a steady light, from the north." 

 It is proper to note that a marsh-site is not 

 necessarily unhealthy, provided it can be thor- 

 oughly drained. Many places in America are 

 now free from malaria that were once very 

 miasmatic, owing to the better drainage adopt- 

 ed in late years. The great prairies of Illinois, 

 that were once checkered with ponds and 

 marshes, and very unhealthful, have, owing to 

 the cultivation of the soil, and subsoil drain- 

 age, materially changed in character. The 

 height at which the "ground-water" or resid- 

 ual moisture in the alluvium becomes station- 





