"For a man's house is his castle."
After individual cleanliness and regularity, erect your next _house_ in
which you intend to live, or that you expect to rent to another, or
remodel your present residence, to correspond with the following:--
Sanitary House.--It should stand facing the sun, on dry soil, in a wide,
clean, amply-sewered, substantially-paved street, over a deep,
thoroughly ventilated and lighted cellar. The floor of the cellar should
be cemented, the walls and ceilings plastered and thickly whitewashed
with lime every year, that the house may not act as a chimney to draw up
into its chambers micro-organisms from the earth. If your lot is
situated so that you cannot face your house either east or south,
construct the rooms in such a way that your parlors and sleeping
apartments will receive the sun at least 3 hours during the day. All
windows should extend from floor to ceiling, adjusted to let down from
the top, and in position to secure as much as possible of the through
currents of air. The outside walls, if of wood or brick, should be kept
thickly painted, not to shut out penetrating air, but for the sake of
dryness. All inside walls should be plastered smooth, painted, and,
however unaesthetic, varnished. Mantels should be of marble, plate,
iron, or, if wood, plain, and, whether natural, painted, or stained,
varnished.
Interior wood-work, including floors, should all show plain surfaces and
be likewise treated. No paper on the walls, no carpets on the floors,
but movable rugs, which can be shaken daily in the open air--not at
doors or out of windows, where dust is blown back into rooms--should
cover the floors. White linen shades, which will soon show the necessity
of washing, should protect the windows. All furniture should be plain,
with cane seats, without upholstery. Mattresses should be covered with
oiled silk. Blankets, sheets, and spreads--no comforts or quilts--should
constitute the bedding.
Of plumbing there should be as little as is necessary, and all there is
must be exposed.
The inhabited rooms should be heated only with open fires, the cellar
and halls by radiated heat, or, better, by a hot-air furnace, which
shall take its fresh air from above the top of the house and not from
the cellar itself or the surface of the earth, where micro-organisms
most abound. Let there be no annual house cleaning, but keep it clean
all the time, and have it gone through thoroughly at least four times
per year.
Of course a corner lot is always preferable, but how often it is
supposed that the benefit consists alone in a commanding position, in a
chance for architectural display, when the greatest boon is the
increased opportunity for sunlight. The atmosphere of a room where the
sun never shines is never agreeable or healthful. Science has taught us
that the sun is the source of all life. It will effect more than tons of
disinfectants and chemicals to purge and sweeten the air of a house. Let
the building be exposed to the south, and keep shade trees from
checking the sun too much. Verandas and broad piazzas often do as much
harm as they give pleasure--especially if they are all covered with
vines. Be more careful about plumbing than people are wont to be. Do not
practice economy by trying to cut down _plumbing_ bills. When a
contractor agrees to erect a house, either withhold this part from him
or see that he employs the most skilled labor. Ventilation cannot be
slighted, for upon it health greatly depends. If you can in any way
afford it, use _incandescent electric light_ instead of gas or oil. The
reason is a powerful one. An ordinary _gas_ jet destroys as much pure
air and oxygen as five men--a good-sized _oil lamp_ equal to three men.
Add to this the heat that comes from such methods, and we see the strong
advantage of the incandescent electric light. This vitiates no air,
gives off no perceptible heat. Though there are stories that electric
lights injure the eyes, from careful observation we find that it hurts
the eyes of the majority no more than any artificial light.
The _Sanitary News_ urges people not to paper or paint the interior
walls of houses. Arsenical poisons are used in coloring wall paper. Mold
collects in flour paste used in fastening paper to walls, absorbing
moisture and germs of disease. Glue also disintegrates, so that any
friction removes small particles, to which germs attach and float in the
air. Undecorated walls, ugly as they are, the _News_ insists are the
only healthy ones to live within.
Dr. Cushing, of this city, thus ends his lecture on "Healthful
Houses":--
"The essentials then of good house building are, first, a dry soil, a
good foundation, exposure to the sun, and, next, good plumbing by
reputable men at whatever cost necessary for first-class work, warming
and ventilating by open grates rather than by steam heaters and stoves,
clean floors and clean walls; and now, if there be no decomposition of
animal or vegetable matter allowed in the immediate vicinity of the
house, we shall have done the best that the present state of science
will permit toward making our houses healthful."
The Hotel Del Monte is the only perfectly clean hotel in America. It is
located at Monterey, Cal., not over a quarter of a mile from the ocean.
The prevailing winds are from the sea and would naturally blow over the
sands towards the house. Now the cause of dirt has virtually been killed
by the planting of trees, brush, and by the laying of asphaltum walks
and sod-ground drives on this windward side. The only dirt is that which
is brought there by travelers--this is easily kept down. The moral is
here: If possible prevent dust and dirt by stopping the cause.