VAST IMPROVEMENT IN THE NATIONAL HEALTH; 



for we should be sickened by the sight of the foul air we feed to our poor Ion 

 suffering bodies. The lungs require no less than 2,000 gallons of air to me 

 the body's needs every twenty-four hours. Perhaps, during that time, we in* 

 drink 3 pints of water and eat from 2 to 4 Ib. of food. About the cleanliness 

 this food and water we think a good deal; about the quality of this enormoi 

 volume of air we scarcely think at all. So we become 



"POORLY," ANAEMIC, DYSPEPTIC, OR PEEVISH; 



and suffer from frequent colds, the cause of which we seek in every directu 

 but the right one. Now, listen to the words of a physician of world- wide renow 

 Professor Leonard Hill, of the London University, on the subject of " Stuf 

 Rooms " : " The changing play of wind, of light, of cold," he says, " stimula 

 the activity and health of mind and body. Cold is not comfortable, neither 



To illustrate inexpensive but effective methods of room ventilation. 



Reproduced by kind permission of Messrs. E. .T. Arnold & Son, Ltd., from 

 " Practical Hygiene," by Alice Itavenhill. 



hunger; therefore we are led to ascribe many of our ills to exposure and seek 

 make ourselves strong by what is termed good living. I maintain that the bracii 

 effect of cold is of supreme importance to health and happiness; that we becon 

 soft and flabby and less resistant to the attacks of infecting bacteria in the white 

 not because of the cold, but because of our excessive precautions to preserve ou 

 selves from cold. The prime cause of ' cold ? or ' chill ' is not really exposu; 

 to cold, but to the overheated and confined air of rooms and meeting-places.'' 



There is nothing more fallacious, continues Professor Hill, than the suppositk 

 that overcoddling indoors promotes health. All our efforts should be directe 

 he says, towards preventing the overheating of our houses (60 to 65 Fahr. 

 the correct temperature), and to keeping the air in motion. In overheated dwel 

 ings the air, confined between the bodies and clothes of the inmates, is raist 

 almost to blood-heat (99 Fahr.), and becomes saturated with moisture, so thi 



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