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Perhaps no one has so good an opportunity to secure a perfectly sanitary house as the one who wishes to build, if he can choose the site, has a knowledge of sanitary science and can employ an architect and builder who can embody his ideas in the building.

Builders should be more intelligent and construct houses in accordance with the physical needs of those who inhabit them.

A house to be healthfully situated should be on an elevation, however slight, with the ground sloping away from it on all sides, although much can be done by drainage.

To prevent dampness in the cellar lay a bed of concrete, and to keep the moisture in the ground from rising into the walls. some builders put a layer of concrete on top of the foundation, about a foot and a half above the ground, or two or three layers of slate laid in cement; but the best materials are said to be glazed stoneware tiles, perforated to secure ventilation for the joists and timbers, or they will be subject to dry rot.

I have spoken particularly of the foundation of a house because it is much easier to lay it well before the superstructure is added than it is to dig out the cellar, put in a concrete floor and have the house jacked up to put in sills and joists after the old ones have rotted out, because of the dampness resulting from a lack of proper precautions in first building the house.

As brick is much more porous than stone, houses built of it are likely to be damp from rain unless a double wall is built, the outer one being thin and connected with the inner ones by means of stretching bricks. The hollow space between the two walls should be ventilated and drained. It might not be necessary to build any but the north and east walls double and the house will then be dry-cool in summer and warm in winter.

It is said that dampness from the ground will rise through a brick wall to the height of twenty feet, but this can be prevented in the same manner as was recommended for the stone house.

Forethought in these matters may prevent malaria, sore throats, colds and bronchial troubles, and although everyone knows that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," not everyone takes the ounce.

Having selected the site, built a substantial foundation, decided upon the material for the walls and the mode of their con

struction

the manner of heating and ventilating will next be in

dicated to the architect, so that he can make his plans for the

house.

If you will notice, most chimneys are built in the outside walls, Out to economize heat they should be as nearly in the centre as Dossible. But their position and number depend largely on the ind of heat about to be introduced. No matter how many or what the position of the chimneys, there should be built alongside of each of them a ventilating flue, with openings near the ceilings In each room. The heat from the chimney will heat the air in the lue, causing it to ascend, thus producing an upward current which will carry off the impure air of the rooms. If these ven-. tilating flues are not built with the house they cannot be put in afterward.

Heating and ventilating are so intimately connected that we can in a measure provide for them together. If hot air from a heater in the cellar is decided upon and the heat carried to all the rooms, a fresh air pipe extending from the outer wall and comunicating with an air chamber surrounding the fire may be nade to supply the rooms above with pure, fresh, warm air, while the ventilating flue will carry off the vitiated air through the openings near the ceiling, and a partial system, at least, of arificial ventilation be established. To prevent the heat escaping hrough the pipes into the cellar, they might be covered with isbestos or some felty material.

Dr. Wilson says that most English houses are warmed and rentilated by means of open fireplaces, but that while the orInary fireplace is a good ventilator, most of the heat goes up the himney. This defect has been corrected by means of the Galton nd other ventilating grates, which heat the fresh air before it nters the room and consume only about one-third as much fuel s the common ones. If the fireplace is in the external wall the inet for fresh air may be immediately behind the stove, where it ommunicates with an air chamber next the fire, and the heated ir enters the room either above the fireplace or on each side f the chimney. If the fireplace is in an inside wall, the airhannel may be laid under the floor or behind the washboard. This heated fresh air, together with the heat reflected from the tove, makes a room comfortably warm, and with the opening in e ventilating flue for the escape of impure air, also ventilates it retty well without any cold draughts. This heat can, of course, e carried to the rooms above, and they may be ventilated in the

same manner. One disadvantage of this method is the numerous fires to attend to.

Hot water and steam heat are being put into a considerable number of houses lately, both old and new, and are said to be more economical in the use of fuel than the hot air system; but these require radiators, which are expensive, occupy space and do not act as ventilators. They, however, radiate a very pleasant and sufficient amount of heat, the hot water system possessing the advantage over steam in not having to be heated to the boiling point when only a moderate amount of heat is required, and therefore uses less fuel. The Model Novelty heater in the cellar has a boiler surrounding the fire, to which are attached outgoing and incoming pipes, the circulation of the water depending upon the fact that the hot water going out from the boiler is lighter and rises, while the cold water is constantly coming in to take its place. There is a supply and expansion tank at the highest point, and each radiator has a valve to stop the circulation of the water and thus cut off the heat. Although radiators do not provide for ventilation, neither do they consume oxygen nor give off any carbonic acid nor dust.

Perhaps a word might be said right here about the use of coal oil stoves to heat a sick room in case of an emergency, or a sitting room in spring or fall, when the heater fires are out. They consume such a large amount of oxygen and give off so much carbonic acid as to make them decidedly unhealthful unless so much fresh air is admitted as to make it impossible to increase the temperature enough to make it comfortable.

Having considered these and other kinds of heat and adopted that best suited, he may turn his attention to the rooms, doors and windows. The rooms should be from eight to ten feet high, and windows put where they will admit most sunlight, and be hung on pulleys. Doors and windows should be so situated with reference to each other as to allow of a free passage of air through the rooms. Arrange every room so as to have the sun shine in a good part of each day, the living rooms and sleeping apartments requiring the greatest amount.

It is well to have curtains to windows, but the housekeeper who values the health, strength and happiness of herself and children more than the colors in her carpet or furniture, will keep them up to within a foot of the top of the windows instead of down to

hot or the light trying to the eyes. When I ride along the road and see curtains drawn low I always think there is a funeral in that house or going to be one. Remember, God says, "Let there : be light," and provides a magnificent luminary free of cost. Let is avail ourselves of it. It is good for the plants in the windows, so also is it good for the baby in the cradle and the children playing about the room. See how pale and sickly the plants brought up out of the cellar are. Place them in a sunny window or out of floors and behold the marvelous change. Apply the same rule to the human plants and mark the result. A cellar kitchen is decidedly unsanitary because deprived of sunshine and fresh air. A kitchen should be large, airy and light, as it is occupied the greater part of the day. If it is built without any rooms over it, the odors from it will not penetrate to other parts of the house.

The subject of ventilation was spoken of to some extent in the construction of the house, but as most people do not build the houses in which they live and must take them as they find them or improve them as they can, this important matter needs separate treatment. Pure air is composed of 21 parts oxygen and 79 parts nitrogen. When taken into the lungs it loses 4 per cent. of oxygen and gets carbonic acid in exchange. When the same air is nhaled three times it becomes very poisonous. The expired air, herefore, is composed of a less amount of oxygen, some carbonic acid, watery vapor and animal matter, the latter giving it the foul odor which educated nostrils immediately detect on entering an ll-ventilated room. This organic matter given off through the ungs and skin promotes the growth of bacteria, makes water offensive and taints milk and meat when exposed to it. It sticks o carpets, curtains and walls, and renders thorough cleaning necessary. For this reason old paper should be removed and the valls cleansed before fresh paper is put on; and where floors are uch as can be oiled or waxed, rugs which can be frequently lifted nd shaken are more healthful 'than carpets. The dust, howver, cannot very well be removed from the floor except by a lamp cloth, but this perhaps is no more difficult than sweeping eavy, dusty carpets. Heavy draperies are also good lodging laces for impurities, and light, airy, washable materials are a ood substitute for them. To prove to you that these things conain foes although unseen, some one examined the plaster from hospital ward in Paris and found it contained 46 per cent. of oranic matter. The carbonic acid gas and this organic matter

cause the headache, sleepiness and faintness which some people feel when crowded into a room not thoroughly supplied with places for the admission of fresh, and the removal of vitiated air.

Of course, the sources of impurity of the atmosphere in our country houses are much less than in the crowded tenements of cities where unsanitary conditions are a menace to public as well as private health. It is a pretty clearly recognized fact that churches, town and city schools, prisons, theatres and halls where large numbers of people are wont to gather, need some special inlets for fresh air and outlets for respired air. At least new buildings of this kind are thus provided, but a great many old ones will stand for years to come, and unless the public understand the necessity for fresh air and demand that they be comfortably ventilated, the people may continue to inhale foul air and suffer the consequences every time they enter them.

There seems to be very little thought given to the artificial ventilation of private houses in this country, but in England city houses are required by law to be built with a special ventilating shaft if they are not provided with open fireplaces.

I have mentioned a few of the properties of impure air, their sources and detriment to health; but we must know what need the human organism has for fresh air before we are willing to provide for special influxes of it even to refrain from stopping up every chink and cranny where a little might force an entrance.

Oxygen is essential to life. It is the vital principle of the air, and when breathed into the lungs, passes through their air cells into the capillaries and is carried along in the blood by the red corpuscles, where it unites with and burns up the carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen of the waste materials of the body and produces animal heat just as the oxygen in the air uniting with the carbon in the coal or wood produces the heat of the fire. It has been estimated that each person requires 1,000 cubic feet of space, and to keep the air pure 3,000 cubic feet of fresh air should enter every hour. That is, one person in an air tight room ten feet square and ten feet high should have it filled with fresh air three times during an hour. If there is a fire, a lamp or gas burning, more oxygen is needful to feed them. It will readily be seen, then, that it is not sufficient to depend upon the amount of air that may come in through the walls and crevices or the occasionally opened docr or window. Neither will it suffice to exnect the im