Health Author:Reuben Dimond Mussey Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. VENTILATION — LIGHT — SLEEP — EXEECISE — BATHING. S I. VENTILATION. The necessity of pure air to the preservation of health is admitted by all,... more » and appreciated only by few. In the construction of dwelling-houses, the same want of regard to this subject, with here and there an exception, is manifest that existed forty years ago. In the northern parts of our country great pains is taken, by tight rooms and double windows, when they can be afforded, for shutting the air out, but no provision made in way of regular supply for letting it in. Very extensively in our farming districts the open fire-place, sometimes broad enough for a rousing fire of wood four feet long, besides a row of children inside the jamb, has given place to the close iron stove. The large open fire, when in brisk action, secured an adequate ventilation, while the close stove requires only air enough for the combustion of the fuel within. One stove often answers for the whole family, during the cold season. The warming, cooking, and washing are all done in one room. The exhalations from the cooking- vessels, and from the lungs and persons of the whole family, are all mixed together, and breathed over and over, to sustain the movements of life. Is it to be wondered at that consumption is, as I am assured by some of my friends, far more common among the Green Mountains of Vermont than it was twenty-five or thirty years ago, before the close stove was generally used, as now, instead of the open fire ? In our cities and large villages many a lady, who has the windows of her sleeping rooms opened for a short airing once a day, supposes that nothing more is necessary for the twenty-four hours. Speak to her on the importance of ventilation, — she agrees with you, remarking that her chambers are alw...« less