8 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



English people have adopted in that time are great and 

 lasting. From what I have lived to see I draw the most 

 cheering assurances as to the future of education in this 

 country. 



II. LIFE IN THE HOUSE. 



The naturalist does well to keep his eye on the animals 

 and plants of his own home. Even if he has chosen some 

 other province of natural history for serious study, he will 

 find it profitable to spend part of his time ;n watching the 

 behaviour of the living things which are close about him. 

 It is a shame, said Linnaeus, to dwell in the fatherland 

 and know nothing about it. It is a shame, we may add, 

 to live in a house and know nothing about any of its 

 inhabitants except such as can talk. 



Indoor life is so peculiar that no animal or plant of 

 ordinary habits can endure it. What, let us inquire, are 

 the conditions which make the inside of a house deadly 

 to the great majority of living beings ? We may be led 

 to appreciate better than we do, not only the effect of such 

 conditions upon our favourites and captives, but also upon 

 ourselves, the lords and owners of the dwelling. 



The house is warm and dark, the air which it contains 

 more or less impure. Persons who attend closely to their 

 own sensations can nearly always perceive a decided smell 

 on entering a house from the open air, a smell of human 

 breath, or of cooking, or of mice, or of tobacco-smoke, or 

 of ill-consumed coal-gas, or of decaying wood. It is true 

 that we have improved a little upon the ways of our grand- 

 fathers. We no longer shudder to admit the night- air. 

 We no longer fence our beds with close-drawn curtains, 

 or close every window and fireplace to keep out the bare 

 suspicion of a draught, but we are still far from living 

 according to nature. The recovery of consumptive 

 patients who have been made to live practically out of 

 doors day and night shows how much more exposure we 



