436 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
tion did we deem it necessary. We are satisfied that in this city and 
in all our cities and towns, are hundreds of houses, either so situ¬ 
ated or so shaded by trees as to be completely unfitted for human 
habitations, because the sunlight is excluded from living and 
sleeping apartments. Is not the matter one which should receive 
attention from municipal authorities and boards of health ? 
Now, what shall be done about it? Happily there are few 
places in our state—though in the large cities of this country the 
same cannot be said—where legislative interference is needed to 
remedy this evil. Not many years ago, it was computed that in 
Liverpool between thirty and forty thousand people lived in 
cellars. As a consequence, the health of the working classes be¬ 
came seriously affected. Legislative measures were adopted for 
the purpose of declaring • such habitations illegal, and those 
living in them were ejected by the strong arm of the law. In one 
year nearly five thousand cellars were cleared of twenty thousand 
inhabitants. In the cities of our country, there are multitudes of 
such cases that need as stringent measures for relief, but whafc 
shall we say of dwellings rated as first class, which are little better 
fitted for habitation? We say, abandon the north side tenements 
into which the sun never shines; open the south blinds and put 
back the curtains; let the direct sunlight enter, for at least four 
hours every day, all the living and sleeping rooms in the house. 
If it fades the carpets, take them up; better faded carpets than 
faded cheeks. Cut down the trees immediately surrounding the 
house, and as you prize good health and the blessings of existence, 
remove everything that interferes with the complete action of the 
energizing influences of the light and sun. Or in the eloquent 
language of Sir David Brewster : “ If the light of day contributes 
to the development of the human form, and lends its aid to art 
and nature in the cure of disease, it becomes a personal and na¬ 
tional duty to construct our dwelling houses, schools, workshops, 
factories, churches, villages, towns and cities upon such principles 
and in such styles of architecture as will allow the life-giving ele¬ 
ment to have the fullest and the freest entrance, and to chase from 
every crypt, cell and corner, the elements of uncleanness and cor¬ 
ruption which have a vested interest in darkness.” 
