THE SCIENCE OP HAPPINESS 



from rheumatic and neuralgic disorders are very gen- 

 erally found to have almost an aversion to water as a 

 beverage. In treating these and numerous other 

 affections, physicians have occasion to prescribe the 

 free drinking of water as an adjunct to or a substitute 

 for drugs. Often they send their patients to the famous 

 watering-places merely because water to flush out the 

 system will there be taken as it would not be taken at 

 home. Even in acute illnesses, they find the free 

 imbibition of water an aid that may take precedence over 

 drugs ; and to persons in health who would remain well, 

 no counsel is oftener or more wisely given than the 

 injunction to drink water freely. 



The curative value of pure air has long been known, 

 but is perhaps more fully appreciated by the physicians 

 of the present generation than ever before. Popular 

 attention has been directed toward the subject in 

 recent years by the striking results of open-air treat- 

 ment of consumption. Wide publicity has been given 

 also, very recently, to the fact that even acute diseases, 

 such as pneumonia, may be treated to great advantage 

 in the open air. 



Meantime the need of an adequate air supply for the 

 organism in health has been brought to public attention 

 through discussions as to the ventilation of school 

 buildings, theatres, and the like. Yet the full im- 

 portance of the subject is certainly not appreciated by 

 the average cultivated person of to-day; as witness, for 

 example, the fact that few individuals consider the 

 question of ventilation at all when purchasing or building 

 private dwellings for their own habitation. No small 



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