222 
Villafjc Sanitari/ Economy. 
To obtain tliese contents it is uniformly conceded that the height 
of the lower rooms should be eight feet, and that between the 
floor and ceiling of the upper rooms seven feet six inches ; and 
to secure a perfect change of air in the rooms, which should 
be effected once each hour, such description of ventilation as will 
allow of the least interference on the part of the cottager should 
be adopted. All minute refinements seem to fail ; the fire-place, 
door, and window, are the only certain means by which the 
requisite ventilation can be maintained with any certainty, for 
if any special means be adopted in construction by the owner to 
let out vitiated air, equally careful pains will be taken by the 
occupier to keep it in, by stopping up any openings that may be 
made with an old stocking or a wisp of straw ; and even in the 
case of fire-places the writer has often seen an old gown stuffed 
up the chimney to prevent the passage of air through the room 
from the door or window. 
Next in importance to the circulation of free air in the rooms 
is a provision against the dampness of the ground rising up from 
the soil beneath — perhaps saturated with liquid sewage — through 
the floors, or by attraction within the walls, to be given off as 
vapour to be respired by the inmates. Though often adopted, 
sometimes for the sake of economy, and sometimes for that of 
appearance, tile and stone floors are prejudicial to health. In 
fact, ventilation below the floor to keep it dry is almost as essential 
to health as ventilation in the rooms themselves, and a damp- 
co Jrse of cement and slate, or asphalte, in the walls to prevent the 
uprising of moisture in the materials of which they are composed 
is a point of equal importance. 
Besides the provision of sufficient room and ventilation, it is 
necessary for the health of cottagers that the accommodation pro- 
vided by the owner should extend to a well where the water can 
be kept pure, or an underground-tank, together with a perfect 
arrangement whereby the privy or closet may be supplied with 
water or earth. In all cases where the cottager is dependent 
upon well-water for domestic use, either publicly or privately 
supplied, cesspools should be unreservedly condemned and dis- 
continued, for the simple reason that in very few instances are 
they made water-tight, and where perchance they are so con- 
structed they overflow, when the contents are as likely to pollute 
the neighbouring wells as those from a leaky cesspool itself. 
It is unnecessary here to dwell upon the evils arising from the 
cottager throwing the liquid refuse of the dwelling upon the 
surrounding ground. Something will be said upon this point 
when treating of sewerage ; but it may be desirable at once to 
point out in earnest terms the glaring truth that much of the 
insalubrity of villages is attributable to the "excrement-sodden" 
