DUST AND BACTERIA. 125 



cleanings ought to be burned. The dust of a house should 

 always be burned, as we know not what germs of disease 

 may be in it. If we burn it, we shall surely not have to 

 sweep up that dust again. If we send it out of doors it 

 may come back, and we may have to handle it again and 

 again. 



Sweeping and Dusting. So far as possible let us avoid 

 things that make dust. When we sweep a carpet, a con- 

 siderable share of the dust comes from the carpet itself, 

 especially if the carpet is old. Curtains and tapestries of 

 nearly all sorts not only hold dust, but contribute a good 

 deal to it. Those who write on such subjects recommend 

 hard wood floors with rugs instead of carpets. The rugs 

 can be taken out of doors and shaken, and the floors wiped 

 with a moist cloth, so that little dust is left floating in the 

 air of the room. Compare this with the condition that 

 holds after the ordinary sweeping of a carpeted room with 

 the common broom. The dust fills the air, only to settle 

 back on the floor and furniture. Then comes the whisk 

 broom, the so-called dusting. Well, it is dusting ! It fills 

 the air once more with dust. But do we get rid of it? 

 Wiping off the dust with a moist cloth takes most of it 

 away on the cloth. For those who cannot have hard wood 

 floors a most excellent substitute (and in some respects 

 better) is oilcloth or linoleum. 



Sweeping the Sick Room. - - The improved carpet 

 sweepers are not only convenient, but sanatory. Many a 

 well-meaning person will sweep a carpet in a sick room 

 with an ordinary broom when the patient is suffering from 

 lung disease, thoughtless of the fact that a little dust in 

 sight, and perhaps on the shoes, is of much less signifi- 

 cance than dust in the air we breathe. No one likes dust 



