NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



323 



and on which they should be prepared to give cor- 

 rect information. We present a synopsis of the val- 

 uable views given in this appendix ; they are in 

 accordance with the time-honored observations of 

 the fathers of medicine and their successors, and 

 many of these facts were well known to the classical 

 writers of Greece and Rome. 



1. The site of a country dwelling should be chosen 

 in reference to its height above the adjacent grounds, 

 its exposure, its drainage, and the quality of its 

 ■water. Springy grounds should be avoided. If 

 there is a marsh, or any other source of malaria, the 

 house should be to the westward of it, because west- 

 erly winds are most prevalent. In all countries the 

 winds are purifiers of the air. If there is a belt of 

 wood betAveen the house and the swamp, it should 

 be left as a protection against malaria. If there is 

 none, a screen of pine or other dense growing trees 

 should be planted ; such trees as will attain a height 

 of at least twenty feet. (In the absence of evergreens, 

 we consider the pawlonia imperialis the best tree for 

 this purpose. It will grow from twelve to fifteen 

 feet in a season, if it has a good soil ; its limbs are 

 compact, the leaves very large, and it is oue of the 

 most beautiful of all flowering trees. — Ed. Jour.) 

 If there is any reason why water should gather 

 around the foundation of the house, a drain should 

 be cut so as to prevent it. Dry foundations prove 

 the dryness of the contiguous grounds. A well near 

 a house affords a good drainage ; the deeper it is the 

 better. Trees should not be left too near the house, 

 nor should rank herbage be permitted to grow and 

 decay in the immediate vicinity. 



2. When there are no sufficient reasons for another 

 preference, a south-easterly aspect is the most healthy 

 for a residence. Trees on high land on the north- 

 west are a protection in the winter. Whatever the 

 aspect of the house, the south side should have its 

 full share of windows. Southerly windows are the 

 most pleasant in winter, and are unobjectionable at 

 all other seasons. 



3. The cellar should be dry, clean, well ventilated, 

 and well lighted. No wood nor decaying vegetable 

 matter should be placed about the cellar. It should 

 communicate with the air above the house by a flue 

 in the chimney stack. In default of this, it should 

 be ventilated by lateral apertures. If any part of 

 the cellar is floored, the air should be drawn from 

 beneath the floor into a chimney flue. Chimney 

 flues should be round, for bituminous coal. Trcdgold 

 says, the diameter of the flues in inches should be 

 equal to the square root of the height in feet ; thus, 

 fifty feet high would require (7X7 = 49) seven 

 inches. 



4. Every bed-room, especially if small and with- 

 out a chimney flue, should have a ventilating aper- 

 ture not less than four inches square, communicating 

 ■with the attic above, and led through the roof by a 

 proper conductor, except in cases where the door of 

 another room can be left open ; in this case the ven- 

 tilation is sufficient. No bed-room should be on the 

 ground floor. But rooms on the second floor are 

 healthful, those in the attic still more so. (Univer- 

 sal observation proves the truth of these views. — 

 Ed. Jour.) 



5. I'iazzas, used as sitting places in summer and 

 autumnal evenings, excej)t those on the southerly or 

 westerly sides of houses built of stone or brick, are 

 unhealthful. Stone or brick walls retain the boat of 

 the afternoon sun until a late hour at night. A ve- 

 randa with windows is not liable to the same objec- 

 tion. It is essential that a house shall be well 

 lighted by the sun. 



6. The windows and chimney of a room represent 

 a siphon, with one branch pcrpcndicidar, and the 

 other horizontal. The air should enter the doors and 

 windows, and rise in the flue. Dr. Arnott, of Eng- 



land, has invented a self-acting valv?, which prevents 

 a back current. 



7- A fire in damp weather during the autumnal 

 evenings, and even in the cool evenings of summer, 

 is exceedingly healthful. If there is absolute neces- 

 sity for a lower bed- room, a hrc in the early part of 

 the evening should always bo made during the sickly 

 season. It ventilates the room, brings in fresh air, 

 and dries the air thus introduced. Dry air is not r. 

 vehicle for 7nalarious emanations. 



8. A sitting-room should be well lighted by the 

 sun's rays. 



9. A tallow candle deteriorates the air rapidlv, 

 and when not snuffed, the deterioration is still 

 greater. Gas is less vitiating. The burning of a 

 tallow candle raises, in one hour, the temperature of 

 twenty-seven meters of air from the freezing to the 

 boiling point of water. A carcel lamp, in one hour, 

 raises from the freezing to the boiling point fifty 

 cubic meters of air. These facts will enable ajiy one 

 to judge of these sources of heat and vitiation in 

 crowded and well-lighted apartments. 



10. Collections of persons in a room vitiate the air 

 by emanations from the bodies, and from respiration. 

 Ten cubic feet per minute is the amount necessarj' 

 for the healthful respiration of one person. This 

 should be doubled in bed-rooms, and fourfold for 

 sick-rooms. Irregular draughts of air may be pre- 

 vented by making the air enter the room through 

 wire, cotton, or silk gauze. 



11. Upper ap.artments are safest against malarious 

 diseases, but most dangerous for diseases arising from 

 emanations from the bodies of the sick. 



12. The dangers of low, undrained lands, and of 

 fogs from such localities, are well known. Drainage 

 removes these dangers. It has been found that 

 drainage in England has elevated the temperature on 

 some occasions six degrees, and evening chills luo no 

 longer experienced in well-drained localities. In 

 New York, the temperature is said to have been 

 raised fifteon degrees by drainage. Thus compara- 

 tive immunity is afforded, not against marsh fevers 

 only, but cholera, rheumatism, and acute inflamma- 

 tory diseases. " In the statistical account of Scotland 

 are found, among many others, the following notices 

 of the great advantages derived from draining : In 

 Fourdown, 'so much drainage that now no sickness; 

 formerly, agues common, now quite unknown ; ' in 

 Carmylie, ' health improved from drainage ; Kcnnon 

 agues very prevalent sixty years ago, now never met 

 with ; ' and a long chapter is filled with similar state- 

 ments from all the rural districts of England and 

 Scotland. But why look abroad ? In ()nondaga 

 valley. New York, health is much improved by its 

 drainage, and the experience of every one will supply 

 facts in illustration. 



"It is not sufficient to dry only the surface of the 

 ground by drainage, in order to prevent cfTectually 

 the formation of miasmata ; it is essential that the 

 drainage should be deep and thorough, for the poison 

 may emanate from moist decaying vegetable matter 

 below." 



13. The modern art of engineering employs new 

 and cheaper nutans than were fornu'rly used for 

 draining. I allude to the substitution of small pipes 

 for large drains, from the discovery of the fact that 

 they are less liable to become obstructed, i)rovidcd 

 they have a descent of not less than one per cent, of 

 their length. 



" Now, it is proved that whilst house drains of 

 such sizes and construction as have been enforced by 

 the commissioners of sewers, accumulate deposit, 

 drains of a much smaller size kocj) ])erfeetly clear. 

 Thus, wliilst a twelve inch drain, which is recjuired 

 by the Kent and Surrey, and the tower hamlets and 

 the city commissioners, accumulates deposits, and 

 generates no.xious gases, a tubular earthen-ware 



