g HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY RESIDENCES. 



and the children are at school. The work is at all times specially 

 disagreeable to those not immediately engaged in it, and the damp 

 air resulting from the hanging up of clothes to dry in an inhabited 

 room is bad and unhealthy for the occupants in every way. The 

 washing of towels and bed linen or handkerchiefs used during the 

 prevalence of contagious or infectious diseases, should be done apart 

 from the wash of otner members of the family, and only after they 

 have been properly and carefully disinfected, by being placed in a 

 tub containing one ounce of Carbolic Acid to the gallon of water. 



Bedrooms In proportion as bedrooms are limited in size, 

 so must the importance of keeping that space as clear as possible be 

 carefully considered. All bed-hangings, curtains and clothes occupy 

 spaces that had better be filled witn air, make the room itself 

 musty, and help to store up dust and dirt, as well as fleas and other 

 still more objectionable insects. Hence, if one is compelled to live 

 in a crowded locality, with little room-space, health .will be best 

 maintained by doing with as few hanging things as possible. Plain 

 bedsteads and straw mattresses, with no oed-curtains and very little 

 carpet, should be used. In fact the bedroom should contain nothing 

 that is not absolutely necessary. It should be remembered that, in 

 the matter of space, if there are but two rooms, it is better as a rule, 

 to make a bedroom of the larger, though the reverse is generally 

 done. If, instead of gas, a coal or other kind of oil lamp be used, 

 it should be borne in mind that the commoner kinds of oil, i. 0., 

 those that smell disagreeably, are not only extravagant, but un- 

 healthy. On the score of health, as well as of comfort, lamps of all 

 kinds should be kept very clean. 



Bad Habits In rural districts, the surroundings of the hab- 

 itation, however humble it may be, have to be considered as well as 

 the house itself. And here it is astonishing how much is often 

 done by the occupier (unintentionally, or rather carelessly) to render 

 the immediate vicinity of his dwelling-place unwholesome and fav- 

 orable to the development of disease. In how many cases in villages 

 and around detached houses is it the prevailing custom to throw 

 all slops and refuse immediately outside the back door, so that a 

 heap of decomposing organic matter and a pool of dirty water 

 collect and remain from one year's end to the other? The children 

 play about and inhale the unwholesome vapors; the pigs, fowls, 

 ducks and geese take their pickings at leisure, each adding his 

 mite to increase the existing filth; and the doorstep is a disagreeable 

 and often a dangerous spot, although, by the way, few of those 

 interested appear to be aware of the fact. To avoid this evil, a 

 fair-sized tuo should be provided, into which all slop-water should 

 be thrown, and when the tub is full, its contents should be scattered 

 over the garden, where it will assist fertilization, and the opportun- 

 ity for evaporation will be increased and the odors more diffused. 



Provision should be made for the exclusion of wet, and for the 

 entrance of fresh air into the privy-pit during all seasons of the 



