A fireplace of "half-rough" stone. David K. Boyd, architect 



CHAPTER XI 

 HEATING, VENTILATION AND LIGHTING 



HE modern dwelling has evidently made a considerable stride 

 forward since the days of the leopard skin and the cave 

 habitation, but one cannot fail to see that it has lost something 

 as well. Perhaps, after all, it is some features of the mode of 

 living which are to be regretted rather than the domestic shelter 

 itself. Primeval man evidently spent little of his time in his 

 cave; his natural surroundings were the open air and the woods. 

 His descendants, on the contrary, spend the greater part of their lives indoors, in 

 overheated and unventilated edifices, and at the same time their children are sent 

 to the hills to sleep in the open air, where the healing balm of nature shall 

 restore to them the health seriously impaired under the false conditions of the 

 modern home. 



It will take no long-drawn argument to make the individual of ordinary 

 intelligence understand that the outdoor life is the true life, and that of the 

 dwelling house an artificial one. However, we have adopted the latter, and it is 

 well for many reasons that we have. At the same time, the former should not be 

 entirely lost sight of, and an effort should be made to remedy existing defects. 

 This remedy lies naturally in the introduction into the latter of the best features 

 of the former, under the most favourable circumstances. Naturally, too, this 



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