HINTS TO MOTHERS.

INTRODUCTORY.

I HAVE frequently drawn attention in the course of this little work to the necessity of hygienic measures, and have considered the subject not only from a curative, but also from a preventive point of view. I purpose, nevertheless, in this introductory chapter, to give a short résumé of the principles of hygiene, and to explain in simple language the rationale on which they are founded. I feel sure that it will help to impress the subject more fully on the mind, and in that way will lead to a more thorough carrying out of the principles involved. I need hardly say that, unless our home and surroundings are healthy, we cannot expect to enjoy good health, even if the instructions relating to personal matters contained in coming chapters have been most carefully carried out. I have frequently been surprised to see with what indifference even palpable errors in sanitary matters come to be regarded after a while a defective drain or an untrapped sink sends up its noxious vapours either after heavy rain, or when a certain wind blows, and it soon comes to be regarded as a necessary consequence of some change in the weather, and here the matter is too often allowed to rest.

The diseases arising from faulty habitations are in

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great measure, perhaps entirely, the diseases of impure air. The site may be in fault; and from a moist and malarious soil, excess of water and organic emanations may pass into the house. Or ventilation may be imperfect, and the exhalations of a crowded population may accumulate and putrefy; or the excretions may remain in or near the house; or a general uncleanliness, from want of water, may cause a persistent contamination of the air. Thus, then, the following conditions will insure a healthy habitation :

1. A site dry and not malarious, and an aspect which gives light and cheerfulness.

2. A ventilation which carries off all respiratory impurities.

3. A system of immediate and perfect sewage removal, which shall render it impossible for the air to be contaminated from excreta.

4. A pure supply and proper removal of water, by means of which perfect cleanliness of all parts of the house can be insured.

5. A construction of the house, which shall insure perfect dryness of the foundation, walls, and roof.

In other words, perfect purity and cleanliness of the air are the objects to be attained.

Up to a certain point, there is no difficulty in insuring that a small house shall be as healthy as a large one. The site and foundations can be as dry, the drains as well arranged, the walls and roof can be as sound, and the water-supply as good as a house of much larger rental. And, no doubt, small houses will have to be as carefully built as larger ones, so soon as occupiers busy themselves with matters of hygiene, and show, when looking into a house, that they are con

1 Dr. Parkes, Practical Hygiene, 4th edition, p. 323.

versant with the main points of practical sanitation, and decline to rent any, which fall short of their standard. But supposing that circumstances limit our choice, and oblige us to live in an old-fashioned house, which was built before this 'sanitary era' dawned, what is to be done with a view to make such a house habitable? A good deal may be done to mitigate the ill effects which may result by a close attention to the ventilation, drainage, and water-supply. We will consider these points separately.

Ventilation. By this I mean the imperceptible introduction into a room or space of fresh pure air. When fresh air is let into a warm room too suddenly or too quickly it causes a 'draught,' and everyone instinctively avoids a draught. They are a fruitful source of colds. Hence, if we wish to ventilate a room successfully, we must do it imperceptibly; the air must be introduced very gradually and the openings should be so arranged that they do not interfere with the personal comfort of the occupants; a good place for openings is in the cross-piece of the door frame (the lintel)-it may be made along its entire length and so arranged as to be out of sight. If desired it can be covered with a valve which only opens one way, that is, inwards. If gas is burnt in a room, there should always be ventilation in the ceiling, so that the burnt products of the gas may escape at once. There should also be a ventilating valve in the chimney or outlet airflues in the walls, high up, close to the ceiling. The window may be opened for an inch or two at the top, if a room feel very 'stuffy.' Of still greater importance is the ventilation of the bedrooms. Seeing how many hours we remain in them at one time, it is of vast importance that the air should be pure and whole

some. To appreciate the bearing of this remark, I need only remind you how very disagreeable is the air of a bedroom which has been occupied, to any person entering fresh from the open air. This shows how we may accustom ourselves even to very impure air; but it is none the less deleterious, and is very frequently the unsuspected cause of a restless night, or of unrefreshing sleep. Bedrooms, then, should be provided with ventilating valves; they should have if possible an open fireplace, and the window may be left open just an inch at the top. If the current of air be too strong, it may be broken by fixing in a wooden frame a piece of finely perforated zinc, or wire-gauze, two or three inches deep the frame so constructed should be fixed outside the window-frame; the action of this simple contrivance is the same as the 'rose,' on a watering-can; it divides the current of air, in the same way as the rose divides the current of water, and breaks its fall. This is a very simple and very effectual plan. It must every now and then be taken down and cleaned, as the small holes gradually get filled up with fine particles of dust, and so stop the current of air. With such a contrivance, which can be made as ornamental as your means allow, you need not close the top sash of your bedroom window all the year round, and you would then secure for your rooms a constant and almost imperceptible supply of fresh air. In sick-rooms, or where a fire is burning, some such arrangement is imperatively demanded. During the day when the weather is dry, the windows and doors should be left wide open.

I will here mention, as part of the subject of ventilation, that a stove in the entrance-hall is a most valuable ventilator-communicating as it does with

the out-doors, with the sitting-rooms, and by means of the staircase with the bedrooms also-it acts in a house like the lungs in the human body. So that wherever it is practicable I would advise you to have a stove in your hall. It will draw-in the outside air, and will warm it; when warmed, air will diffuse itself by a natural process throughout the house; and thus in winter when your dining-room door is opened, instead of the cold draughts, you would get supplies of fresh, pure, warmed air; it would rise, too, into the bedrooms, and take off the unfriendly chill which greets you when you leave your warm sitting-rooms for your cold sleeping-apartments. Though I do not advocate pampering habits, I am bound to state my belief that the sudden change from a warm fire into a cold bedroom in the depth of winter, along cold staircases and corridors, is an unsuspected cause of much pulmonary mischief.

Instead of a stove (which could be put up in almost any house, and which could be got for 308., and upwards), if money be no object, a coil of hot-water pipes, communicating with the kitchen boiler, might be laid on.

Then, without any additional trouble, your hall can be heated ad libitum.

Drainage. Closely connected with the subject of ventilation is drainage, because it is by a species of natural ventilation that drain-smells are drawn back into a house the whole aim of hygiene is to get rid of this at once and for ever. In old houses, and even in many recent ones, the drains run through the basement of a house. They ought to run outside the house, and be properly ventilated by a pipe which opens on a level with the highest point of the roof. It has often been found that a house has become per