394 Edward Livingston Yournans. 



7 MARINE SQUARE, BRIGHTON, November ?/, 1886. 



I was delighted to have so good a report of you, and 

 hope that the next will show a great deal of improvement. 



I was somewhat surprised, however, by the statement 

 that you are going back to New York. Is it because further 

 driving out is now out of the question, and that the being 

 near your medical man is a matter of more moment than 

 being in the country air ? One thing I very much fear, 

 namely, that you will be led to live in the stove-heated * 

 air of your American houses in winter ; and this cannot 

 fail to be injurious. Cannot you manage to live in rooms 

 heated after the English fashion, by a fire, and without 

 heated air, and make up the needful extra warmth by extra 

 clothing sitting in your overcoats, wraps, etc. ? This 

 would be far better than breathing such air as your Ameri- 

 can houses have, judging from what sample I had of it. 



The next is the last : 



7 MARINE SQUARE, BRIGHTON, January /, 1887. 



MY DEAR YOUMANS : It is a long time since I heard 

 anything about you, and I am getting anxious to have a 

 report. Pray let me know how you have fared during the 

 cold weather. 



I cannot report favourably of myself. It is still the old 

 story improvement and then relapse. The last relapse 

 was due to a cold, which, of course, in my present state, 

 pulled me back considerably. " The malice of fate " from 

 which I have suffered ever since last May has been almost 

 incredible. 



1 have great difficulty in killing the time, especially now 

 that I am kept wholly indoors by the weather, being unable 



* Of course he does not mean the comparatively innocent old-fash- 

 ioned stove, but the hot-air furnace and the steam radiator, those twin 

 inventions of the devil. Youmans's house in New York, however, was 

 heated by an improved method, and was admirably ventilated. 



