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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
           Washington
Founded 1836
U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
           Public Health Service
NLM051106177 
 
 
 

Box  199 Beverly,  N. J. 
DISEASES
OF THE
RESPIRATORY  ORGANS.
BEING ORIGINAL IDEAS ADVANCED BY A CLOSE STUDENT OF
  NATURE AND HER MYSTERIES, ON SIB.IECTS WHICH
    HAVE EVER BEEN FULL OF PERPLEXITY TO
        THE MEDICAL I'ROFESSION.
" Entail tbtugs tease to be small tobeu tbeir
     effects are imgbtg."

        BY            \ VO, '
Theodore Rfe, Beverly, N. J.
        1S(C_! 
KETTERLINUS PRINT
   PHILA.
1991
Copyright, 1S(U, by
  Theodore Kue. 
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PREFACE.
     It is possible that the  medical profession may regard
the  publication  of  this little book  as an  unwarrantable
intrusion  upon their own  territory.  When, however, they
consider  how widely and for  how many ages doctors have
differed as to the causes of the complaints herein discussed,
they may be willing to  excuse  a man  from the people for
stepping  in to  settle  the  dispute.  The intimate  relation
which  these diseases bear to our  mode of life and the sani-
tary condition of our dwellings has long been known. This
relation,  universally acknowledged, but imperfectly under-
stood,  has caused  the  writer deep thought, the  result of
which  is the present treatise.
     A physician's only  end and aim is too often  to effect
a cure, not to ascertain  first the exact  cause of the illness.
But people  should first  be instructed in the  causes of dis-
ease ; they will  then know  how to avoid them.  The  writer
knows  nothing  of medicine,  excepting  the  remedies that
are Nature's own, and has, consequently, avoided all medi-
cal  terms and  technical phrases; and  while  no  one could
appreciate  more  highly  than  he  the  attainments  and  ser-
vices of  the  members  of  the medical  profession, yet  he
ventures  the opinion that Nature may  reveal some of her 
secrets of health  and disease  to  an earnest student outside
the halls of a  medical college perhaps  more  readily than
to one within.   It will remain for  physicians and scientists,
who have the requisite  knowledge and the appliances nec-
essary for further investigation to  prove the truth of what
is here advanced, and to  devise cures for the diseases  dis-
cussed, their causes  having  been plainly stated.
    What the  writer wishes  to  bring most prominently to
the reader's attention in the following pages is the unknown
or unheeded fact  that a large proportion  of the fine particle*
of white du.4 floating in the air  of our dwellings are spore*
and fragments   of microscopic fungi,  which commonly groiv
on  textile fabrics,  and are inhaled  and carried to every part
of the respiratory system; if a clogging of the air-tubes follows,
there  is a consequent partial confinement  of unwholesome air
which  promotes  the  germination  and  growth  of the inhaled
spores, 'unless they are expelled by  exercise  and vigorous  res-
piration  in the  open  air.  A  moist and malarial atmosphere
increases this fungous growth, which is always in the system of
the aged and those having any disease of the respiratory organs,
while dry and pure air diminishes it.
    The appearance  of this  work was promised for a  cer-
tain date, and  the author was consequently limited in  time
in its  preparation.   He trusts that this fact  will  lead his
readers to  treat leniently any traces of inaccuracy  or  haste.

                                   THEODORE  RITE.
  Beverly, N. J., Dec. 23, 1S!H. 
Consumption,   Hay-Fever
           AND OTHER DISEASES OF THE
      Respiratory  System.
    Every effect is traceable to a cause, and nature, if
rightly interrogated, gives the causes of more diseases
than all the books that  were ever written.   AVhile
doctors have been going to secondary sources for the
causes of disease, I have had recourse to nature directly,
delving in nooks and by-ways, of  which the physicians
were ignorant, or from which they would be unable to
derive any useful information. It is only from a wide
and varied experience of life—to which I may lay some
claim—that we learn to contemplate its phenomena in-
telligently.  No one brought up in ease and affluence,
as is the case with  many of our physicians, can learn
well the lessons that nature is ready to teach those who
earnestly and persistently  come to her for instruction.
No mere learning of a profession or poring over books
can produce those habits of keen observation which are
indispensable to him who would make  an important
discovery.
    Small and apparently trivial incidents have led to
the greatest  inventions and discoveries.   Araccination
was first conceived  of when  it was noticed how the
                       5 
sores on the teats of a milch cow were communicated
to the hands of the milker,  and  from his hands,
again, to the other cows in the herd.  The principle of
the electric telegraph was discovered by means of the
simplest appliances—a kite and a key in  the hands of
Franklin.   Watt conceived the steam-engine when he
saw the lid of the tea-kettle agitated by the pressure of
steam beneath it.
    Before three generations shall have passed away,
consumption and kindred affections of the throat and
lungs will, I venture to prophesy, be spoken of as dis-
eases of the past. This result will be effected through
the intelligence of the people and by the passage of wise
sanitary laws, when once the true cause of  such  mal-
adies has been made known.  Premature old age, which
can be  traced to the same cause, will be  unknown.
With  one of the greatest enemies of human life and
human health held at bay, the average age attained by
mankind will be greatly increased, and a man will be
considered only in his prime at the age of one hundred.
Statistics show that  in all civilized countries the  ratio
of births to the whole population is yearly decreasing.
But even so, there need be no fear that the world  will
be depopulated.  As the number of births decreases,
the age of man will increase, through the eradication of
those  diseases of the respiratory organs  which  everv
year cause fifty per cent,  of the deaths of  the civilized
world.
    Every child born of  healthy parents should die of
old age.  All other causes of physical decay are prevent-
able in their  nature, and  can be avoided when they are
once understood.
                         6 
    It was one of my  tasks, when a boy, to keep the
vegetable garden connected with our farm  free from
weeds.  A more tiresome task, or one more productive
of aching back and  stiffness  of joints, can scarcely be
imagined.  A  discouraging, thankless piece of work it
was, too; for  no sooner was one  end of the garden
reached -than  the weeds would be seen springing up
with a new lease of life at the other.  Day  after day
and week after week I saw the unwelcome phenomenon
repeated  and  the constant revival  of the enemy I
thought I had slain.
    As a mere boy I  learned well the lesson,  how
rapidly  and  persistently all  harmful  and  parasitic
forms  of vegetable life will grow  and multiply.
    A thousand times  more wonderful than  the rapid
growth and increase of weeds  in the  garden is the
vigor and productiveness of that large class of plants
—many of them microscopic in size—known by the
name of fungi, and including all kinds of mould, mil-
dew and smut.  The  most  powerful  microscope  is
needed in many  cases  to distinguish this fungous
growth from the fabric or material on which it fastens
itself;  and even with the aid of the microscope, the
whole  secret  of its origin  and growth  has not been
discovered.
    From Nees von Esenbeck in 1-1S3 to Elias Frees
in 1S21, mycologists  were puzzled to account for the
seemingly spontaneous appearance of mould and  mil-
dew wherever there  were given  certain conditions  of
moisture  and  temperature.   Many held the theory
of spontaneous generation, not conceiving it possible
that seeds or spores could be  dispersed so widely or be
                         7 
of such  marvelous  minuteness  as  observation  and
experience proved must be the case.
    Researches of recent years have disproved both
the theory  of spontaneous growth and that of genera-
tion  from chemical  action.  They  have  also shown
that the varieties of microscopic fungi are  practically
infinite, and that their modes  of reproduction  vary
from the simple process of division to the more com-
plex apparatus of bud, blossom  and seed-vessel.  In
the lower and more common  varieties growth  takes
place  by the addition of new cells to  the parent germ,
and  each of these cells  may, in turn, become the
beginning  of  a  new  plant, on being detached  and
placed where there is  sufficient warm,  unwholesome
air and moisture.  Of the higher orders  of fungi, the
well   known  puff-ball, with its  pod of  millions  of
microscopic  spores or seeds,   furnishes  a good ex-
ample.
    The rapidity of growth of all varieties of fungi,
from the microscopic mildew to the largest mushroom,
is  almost inconceivable.   Bits of paper-pulp thrown
out scalding hot from the vat have been found covered
and permeated with mould within twenty-four  hours.
A  bar of  iron,  taken white-hot from  the  forge  at
night, has been discovered coated with mildew in the
morning.
    The speedy destruction  which this growth works
on both vegetable  and animal  tissues is to be  noted.
The mould which  infests grain no sooner appears on
the outside of the husk than it  destroys the protective
covering, by means which are  probably both  mechan-
ical and chemical, and eats into the kernel itself.
                         8 
    This  plant, which we call  mould or mildew, has
great  power, small as it is, to do harm, as have some
equally small species of animal life.  If an elephant
had the activity of a flea, in proportion  to its size, it
could leap across the ocean;  so an insect or a plant,
though many times smaller than the flea, may have a
power for  doing harm many times greater.
    Wherever iron or steel will rust or silver tarnish,
mould and mildew will grow;  and these conditions
are found  in every dwelling, with its carpeted floors, its
upholstered furniture and tapestried or papered walls.
    Store-rooms and  closets are packed with clothing
and  fabrics of every  kind, and during  the warmer
months of  the year  no fire is kept excepting  that
needed for cooking in the kitchen,  and this, of course,
sends it heat through only a very small portion of the
house.  Accordingly the dampness entering the rooms
on every  rainy or foggy day is allowed  to  permeate
every thread of carpet and  stored clothing and  to
remain there, offering an ideal abode to mould and
mildew until fires  are started in the fall.
    No conditions could be  more favorable for  the
growth of mould than those existing  in  nearly every
house  during the summer.   Carpets in particular,
nailed to the floor  as they are, and remaining so long
unmoved,  offer the best lurking-place for microscopic
fungous growths.  Between the carpet and  the floor,
and attaching itself to the fibres of the former, grows
the mould which is so well known to housekeepers and
which shows itself so clearly, when a carpet is taken
up, as a fine dark powder on its lower side and on the
floor. 
    Fully  fifty  per cent,  of the premature  deaths
occurring in the civilized world are to be laid to the
charge of carpets nailed to the  floor, stuffed and up-
holstered  furniture, certain styles of skin-tight and
unventilated clothing, and  the custom of taking wear-
ing apparel, blankets, quilts, sheets and  other  fabrics
out of closets and  store-rooms, on the change  of sea-
sons,  without properly  drying, brushing,  shaking,
fumigating  or  otherwise  cleaning preparatory  to
use.
    No such safeguards are adopted, the damp, mil-
dewed blankets and quilts being thrown at once on the
bed and  the musty, mould-infected  garments  hastily
put on after a few strokes of the clothes-brush. No such
thing as a thorough airing, shaking and drying, either
in the sun or by a hot fire,  is thought of.  Consequent-
ly the mould  particles  and spores are left to  be de-
tached with every movement and set flying in the air,
there  to  be inhaled by  the  occupants  of  the  house.
And this goes on for weeks or even months before even
the thickest of the  mould  is beaten out and the gar-
ments or blankets thoroughly dried.
    It is only during the last few centuries that these
objectionable modes of  house-furnishing  and these
reprehensible domestic  practices have prevailed, and
it is during this  period that bronchial and pulmonary
diseases have become so emphatically a scourge to our
race.
    That carpets are  in reality  such deadly haunts of
disease and death as  has just been asserted, will, we
trust,  be clearly demonstrated  in the course  of the
present article.
                        10 
     Carpets, curtains, clothing, material  used in  up-
holstery, and other kinds of fabric are generally made
with variegated hues for  the express purpose of deceiv-
ing  the  eye as to their soiled  condition.   In fact,
housekeepers often value a carpet because it " will not
show the dirt."  If,  however, we were forced to  use
perfectly white or black fabrics in our house-furnish-
ing, every good  housekeeper would have  her carpets,
cushions and other such articles thoroughly cleaned
every  day or two.   The fact that  the pattern  of  a
carpet conceals  the dirt does  not change  its condi-
tion.
     Matter  of every kind, such as vermin and vege-
table decay, finds its way to the carpet, being blown in
at the windows, dropped on the floor, carried on the
shoes,  and  otherwise  deposited  there,  trodden down
and ground up, until the fibres are filled with decay-
ing  and unwholesome organic and inorganic matter,
and offer facilities for the maintenance of all sorts of
fungous  and noisome forms of  life.   Every drop of
liquid  spilt on the floor, as well as all dampness in the
air, waters  this  miniature garden,  and every  muddy
boot adds richness to its soil, while the housewife's
broom only  brushes the  upper surface, and leaves the
mass of the carpet and its under  surface to support as
many  millions  of  microscopic  fungi  as  can  gain  a
foothold.
    As was  indicated above, the growth  of this class
of vegetation is inconceivably rapid.  Millions and
millions  of  spores and  dead particles of mould  are
becoming detached every day, and are driven into the
air  in increasing numbers  with every  footfall and
                        11 
every stroke of the broom,  to be  inhaled by the in-
mates of the house.
    The longer  the carpet  remains, the greater the
growth  of mould.  Often, when  a carpet is  removed,
the floor is  found to  be covered to the  depth of an
eighth of an inch or  more with  fine  black powder.
This is, in part, dust from the street, but a large pro-
portion  of it is mould, being  composed of the spores or
seeds, filaments and roots of the  little plants, and also
dead vermin and  animal matter,  ground to powder by
the treading of many feet.
    On sending a ray of sunlight through a  darkened
room, and then causing some one to walk or run over
the carpet, clouds of dust are seen to rise in the path
of the sunbeam; or a  dark lantern may be set on the
floor, and the carpet lightly beaten, when the atmo-
sphere in the light's path will appear thick with fine,
floating particles.   What is revealed by  the ray of sun-
light or  lantern-light,  is only an  illustration of the
daily  condition of the atmosphere of a carpeted and
occupied room.
    The wonder is that we  breathe so  easily and un-
consciously as we do, and that we  are not more often
stricken down with consumption, diphtheria, typhoid
fever or other fatal diseases  that gain access through
the organs of respiration.
    All fabrics,  and not carpets alone,  are favorite
dwelling-places of mould and mildew.   Examine the
seams on the inside of a garment that has been worn
only a month, and on those  portions which touch the
body and receive moisture  from it will be  found  a
growth of mould that  will be taken for  dust; but that
                        12 
it is not dust is proved by its absence on those parts of
the garment that hang loose and receive  no moisture
from the body.
     When we sit on a cushioned seat any length of
time, sufficient moisture is imparted  to the cushion to
maintain  a  coating of mould as thin as  the  layer of
vapor  left on glass by  our breath.  On dying, the
mould leaves its  spores and dried fibres to be driven
into the air, a source of danger and  disease.   Beat an
upholstered  chair, and   you will  see them rise  in
volumes.  Some  dust is intermixed,  it is true, but the
greater part is mould and its spores.   The danger from
fabric-mould  is  probably increased by  the use,  in
nearly all kinds of fabrics, of poisonous  aniline dyes
which contribute to the nutriment of the  mould.
     If, by way of experiment, we lie on the floor and
let several persons walk or run over  the carpet, we are
nearly smothered by the volumes of minute particles
which  start  up at every foot-fall.  We are affected less
if we stand  to our full height.
     Children, however,  are  so short that  they are
obliged to suffer  severely  from these clouds  of  carpet
■mould; especially is  this the case  when they  are so
small as to be much of the time creeping  or  lying on
the floor, often breathing directly through the mouth,
so that the air has no chance to  deposit a part of its
poison  before entering the throat  and lungs.   The
child's organs of respiration,  too, are not so strong
and  able  to  resist  infection   as  are those  of an
adult.
     No carpeting  or  upholstery should  be  allowed
in any dwelling, excepting such as can be removed to
                         13 
the open air and thoroughly beaten and cleaned at
least as often as once in  every three days.  It is well
known what constant care is needed to keep a garden
free from weeds.  A lawn requires equal vigilance on
the part of its keeper; he must go over it often, and
pull up a weed  here and there.  To a casual observer
the soil of  a nicely kept lawn seems free  from the
slightest suspicion of weeds; but  let it be turned up
b}r the plough  and left untouched  during the grow-
ing season,  and in  an  incredibly  short  time many
kinds of weed  will be  seen  growing in rank luxuri-
ance.   So the housekeeper may sweep and  dust and
remove  every trace  of mould and  mildew  from the
outside, while beneath  the carpet and in the stuffed
chairs  and  lounges countless varieties of fungi are
growing and depositing their spores.
    If the house be neglected for a week  the fungous
growth  will show itself to the eye in various kinds
of mould and  mildew,  and if a month or several
months have elapsed since the house was last occupied,
as is the case with  many dwellings and  many rooms
in the summer, a thorough cleaning and airing would
be necessary to render it habitable  for persons at all
inclined to diseases  of the throat or lungs.
    All carpets and fabrics used in house-furnishing,
as well  as all stored clothing, should  be beaten and
cleaned, after a period of  neglect, and  fires should be
made, even in  hot  weather, to  dry thoroughly every
room in the house which has been unoccupied for any
length of time, before  it  is fit  to be again  lived in.
Mattresses and  pillows, too, especially after disuse and
after they have become damp from the perspiration of
                         14 
the human body, should be long and thoroughly aired
or even taken to pieces and re-made.
    Wall  paper often becomes covered with a blue
mould, where there is dampness and poor ventilation.
The flour  paste  used by paper-hangers  sours  and
moulds when it is first put on, and the spores of mould
are thus left on the walls after they have become per-
fectly dry.  As soon  as  the  conditions of heat and
moisture are again suitable, the mould springs into life
once more.  So newspapers and wrapping-paper quick-
ly mildew when dampened, and after they become  dry
the spores are scattered in the air.
    Churches, theatres and  public halls are  favorite
lurking places for all  kinds of mould, as they remain
unventilated   and  darkened  much  of  the  time.
Churches, in particular, being carpeted and cushioned
and only  opened  once a week, are  sure to  become in-
fected with every kind of unwholesome fungous growth.
    Many of  the parishioners  in  the  country go to
church wearing mouldy clothing, which they put on
only once a week, driving in mouldy carriages, which
see the sun only once in seven days, and sit on mouldy
pew-cushions which are never exposed to the sun and
air.  After the commotion  attending  the gathering
and seating of the congregation, and  the  consequent
dislodging of  mould  particles,  what  wonder if  the
atmosphere becomes  filled with  poisonous germs and
the minister catches the clergyman's sore throat after
an hour or more of speaking!
    Just as the plants and  weeds of the fields grow
most abundantly and rapidly in the months from May
to September, so  do  all fungi at this time have  the
                         15 
greatest vigor of growth and  reproduction.  It is at
this  season that fires are discontinued in dwellings,
while the dampness of night air, of fogs, and of show-
ers is allowed to  enter through open doors and win-
dows.  Rainy or damp weather may prevail for weeks
at a time, and this condition of atmospheric moisture
is especially  marked  near large rivers, lakes, or  the
ocean.  The atmosphere, saturated from these sources,
penetrates inland for  miles.   At a distance from these
large bodies  of water,  consumption, hay-fever,  and
other diseases of the  throat and  lungs, are less com-
mon.  The explanation is not that a moist atmosphere
is in  itself  necessarily fatal to  health, but  that every
variety of unwholesome fungous growth is fostered by
this excess of humidity.
    If dwellings were  so furnished as  to  offer no
attractive lurking-places for  mould  and mildew,  the
dampness would not endanger health, but would tend
rather to equalize and modify the temperature, both
in winter and summer.
    As  a young  man. in the  sixties, I was  called, by
the nature of my business, to  every part of the coun-
try, spending sometimes three or four  weeks in one
place.  On these occasions I  secured board  and lodg-
ing at some private house, instead of  going to a hotel.
It frequently happened  that  I needed certain papers
from my room in the middle of the dav, and on ooino-
for them I was pretty  sure to find my chamber in per-
fect order, but shutters  closed  and curtains down, so
that I had to  light the gas  to find what was required.
    This illustrates the general custom of our house-
wives—to shut out the purifying, health-giving sun
                        16 
and air for the  sole purpose of preserving the death-
dealing  carpets  and  upholstered  furniture, which
would otherwise become faded.
     Dampness enters  at night,  especially if windows
are opened for ventilation, as is the practice in my case
both winter and summer, and this is often added to by
the use of  a washstand in the bedroom.   There would
not be so much harm in this if the sun were allowed
to shine in during the day and the air to  circulate.
     But although architects and builders make ample
provision  for sunlight and  ventilation,  their  good
intentions  are thwarted by overcareful housekeepers,
anxious to preserve their carpets, which are the source
of so much disease and at the same  time add fully a
third to their labors.  Of the baneful mould stirred
up by the  sweeper's broom from  a carpet, the larger
part, probably three-fourths, settles back  again or ad-
heres to curtains, walls, pictures and  other articles of
furniture, to be dislodged  by the slightest  draught,
carried in  the  air, and inhaled by the  occupants of
the house.
     AVhile writing this I learn from dispatches in the
daily papers that acres of carpeting are being laid in
the  Capitol at  Washington,  in  preparation for the
coming session of Congress.  After a month of such
service as those carpets will see, they  will be fit to be
taken out and burnt.  The same  may  be said of the
carpets used in the other government offices and halls,
and even of the carpets of  the White  Flouse itself.
     Constant  going and  coming, carelessness in the
use of spittoons, dropping of fragments of lunch, and
the throwing on the floor of anything and everything
                        17 
one  wishes  to  rid himself  of—all  these  practices,
indulged in by those who have  no personal  interest
in the protection  of the property of the government,
help to render the carpet a mass  of impurity  and an
abode of disease.
    In the Senate and in the House pages are continu-
ally  running to and  fro,  raising clouds of  poisonous
particles which  are none the less deadly for  not being
seen.  If the state of the atmosphere on a  busy day
in either chamber could  be shown  by darkening the
room and sending a beam of light through it, mem-
bers would not  be surprised at the frequency of head-
aches and faintness resulting  from a  session which
may last from three or four to twelve, sixteen or twenty
hours.
    Is it  any wonder that so  many men  ruin their
health by devotion to their country's service and their
constituents' interests at Washington?
    If, at half  the expense required for carpets, the
Government  would  construct  an  open aqueduct, of
glass or other material, a foot,  at least, in  depth and
width, extending  around the hall under or  outside of
the gallery, and would keep a constant stream of  pure
water running during sessions,  supplying  simply  a
strip of rubber matting  in the aisles to deaden the
sound of  feet, the air would be  more  fit to  breathe.
Plants should also be placed in different parts of the
room, and the  rubber matting subjected to the daily
application of the hose.   A. change of  matting could
be provided in  order to allow time for  cleansing and
drying of one set while the other was in use.
    And what is  true of the chambers  of Congress is
                         is 
true of all legislative halls, schools, churches, hospit-
als, theatres, and also of many offices and workshops,
where many people  are crowded together, and  espe-
cially of the composing rooms of newspapers.  Floors
should  be of glass,  tiles, marble  or other polished
stone; if of wood, all joints should be well calked and
painted, so that  no dust, insects or moisture could find
lodgment there.
     When this  course is  pursued as to floors, and all
unnecessary drapery and  fabrics  banished from use,
then, and not till then, will the age of man be length-
ened, and such  diseases   as  consumption, hay-fever,
typhoid fever, and  all affections  of the respiratory
organs  will be kept in check.
     What clothing we do wear  should be, and doubt-
less will  be  in  the  near  future (so varied are the
resources of this age of invention), of such material
as to render impossible the gathering of moisture and
consequent mould.   Looseness  of apparel and  suffi-
cient ventilation, so  far as is  consistent with warmth,
will be  the important characteristics of our attire.
     With our ever-increasing knowledge of the needs
of the system in regard to food, our skill in its prepa-
ration, our means of caring for the body in sickness,
and all the resources of an advancing civilization at
our command, there is no reason why our race should
not  again  attain the age  reached in Old  Testament
times.
     The power  employed to supply electric light and
to run elevators and  machines  in all large  buildings
in our  cities,  could  be utilized to pump pure water
from artesian wells or springs for the supply of such
                         19 
aqueducts as that already described.   The purifying
powrer of running water is well known, and by its aid
in absorbing and  carrying off all atmospheric impuri-
ties, the danger of contracting disease  by the inhala-
tion of poisonous  germs would be greatly diminished.
    The condition of our street-cars and railway car-
riages must be alluded to here.  The seats and backs,
stuffed as they are, and covered with plush or tapestry,
and coming constantly in contact with passengers of
every degree of  uncleanliness,  who  may not  have
changed their clothing for weeks or even months, and
who are, perhaps, reeking with unwholesome exhala-
tions from the body—must be filled with impurities.
    A car  may have been for months at the repair-
shops or  in the  company's  sheds, during the  dull
season, where no sun or fresh air has penetrated.   The
mouldy condition of its cushions after such a period
is something alarming, and when they are subjected
to the motion and jolting of travel, and are brushed
by the passengers' garments, they send  out volumes of
disease-promoting particles, to be  inhaled by  every
occupant of the car.
    The peculiar discomfort attending a long railway
journey, especially in such weather as  requires  closed
windows, is  familiar to all, as is  the feeling  of  relief
on escaping at last from confinement and breathing a
pure  atmosphere.   Car-seats should  be upholstered
with some material that is incapable of holding dust
or moisture.
    Every seamstress, housewife or tailor, who has to
do with the making over  and alteration of garments
that have been worn, knows that the seams and  over-
                        20 
laps of seams in those parts that are  worn next the
person, are clogged with thick layers of mould.  The
process  of ripping, tearing and shaking which the
garment undergoes, generally at the hands of several
persons at the same time, fills the air with particles of
this dead vegetable growth and  its spores;  these are
necessarily inhaled in great quantities by those in the
room, and in the talking and laughing that is going
on, a portion finds its  way through the  mouth directly
to the throat, and thence to the stomach.
     Vigorous exercise in the open air would expel this
from the system; but  such exercise is rarely or never
taken by those who sew for a living, and the poison
is suffered  to  do its deadly work.  This is, in my
opinion, one of the many  causes of typhoid fever.
     The case of two young ladies came under my
observation not long  ago; they made it their business
to go about sewing for different  families, my own in
the number.  They were  strong, healthy girls, to  all
appearances, and both came of healthy parents.  Yet,
within two years of  each other, they both  sickened
and died  of typhoid  pneumonia, one  of them  only
three months ago.  The  parents, brothers and sisters
of both are still living and apparently in the best of
health.
     All family clothing to be altered should be taken
to pieces in the open air, with the wind blowing  from
the worker; it  should then' be  carefully brushed  on
both sides until it is free from all mould and dust, and
then hung in the sun and  air for four  or  five  days.
After that it may be taken into  the house and worked
upon without fear of ill effects.
                         21 
    A very injurious practice, and one that is almost
universal, is  that of brushing  and shaking wearing
apparel in the house.  In this way the dried particles
and spores of fabric-mould  and dust and germs from
the streets are dislodged and scattered in the air, to be
inhaled by the members of the family, or to fall upon
carpets and  furniture, ready to be set flying again on
the next  sweeping-day.
    All  clothing which requires brushing should be
taken outside and well away from  the house; if no
lawn or porch  is available it should  be taken to the
roof, and, while being brushed, should be held in such
a way that the wind will carry the dust  away from the
person brushing it.   It  should  be remembered, more-
over, that most garments,  such as pants,  coats,  vests
and  dresses,  need more careful brushing inside  than
outside;  they should be turned and especial  attention
given to  all seams and  folds.   It  is there  principally
that the  mould will be found.
     Never sweep or dust  a  room or brush clothing
when a sick person or young child is present, as they
are unable to resist the injurious effect of the noxious
particles inhaled or to expel them by taking vigorous
exercise  in the fresh air.
     One of the principal causes of malaria and typhoid
fever is  probably to be found  in the construction of
suburban, village, and country houses.   They are built,
in part or wholly, on the'top soil, with only a partial
excavation or none at all for a cellar.  Many so-called
first-class cottages are built on  stone, brick or wooden
underpinning, from twelve  to twenty inches high, not a
spadeful of earth having been removed from beneath.
                        99 
     Now it is very important that an excavation should
be made, from twelve to twenty inches deep, before the
foundations of a house are laid, for the reason that the
surface soil contains vegetable life that requires the sun
and  air for its healthy growth.  If these are excluded,
the growing plants and weeds decay, and all sorts of
noxious fungi and  seeds of malaria spring into life.
     Every summer there is fresh growth  and fresh
decay.  All floors  are, as a rule, laid with imperfect
joints, and they are very commonly of the cheapest
pine boards, which readily absorb moisture and foster
the growth of mould.  Through the cracks much of the
moisture from beneath  makes its way into the room,
and  is both a source of disease in itself and the .cause of
much mould and mildew in the  carpets which  it im-
pregnates.   In a thickly populated, highly cultivated
district, the necessity of excavating before building is
so much the greater, because the soil is  all the  richer
in animal and vegetable matter.  Not only houses but
barns  also  should have  the top soil removed from
beneath.
     People who go to the country in the summer for
their health, often  return  with the seeds of malaria in
their systems, contracted in  poorly-built,  cellarless
houses.   With the  first cold which they catch, or per-
haps at the time of changing their clothes in the fall—
when they too often put  on  underclothing and other
garments that have not been properly shaken, brushed
and  aired—they fall ill and are surprised that they
have received so little benefit from their  vacation.
     The walls, carpets, curtains and stuffed chairs and
lounges in a house  are generally more or less damp— 
especially in a room or in a house that has been closed
during the summer—when the first fires are started in
the fall.  Fires are very often built, too, on a cold, rainy
day, when doors and windows have to be kept closed.
    The evaporation from the drying fabrics, used in
the furnishing of nearly every room, can not but be very
injurious to health, especially to persons at all inclined
to diseases  of the throat or lungs.  They could more
safely  be out in  a  heavy storm, wet  to  the skin, but
inhaling a pure atmosphere, though moist, than in a
room  where  this evaporation of foul  and  malarial
dampness is  in progress.
     This is the season so trying to all those afflicted
with lung or throat  diseases—the season, too,  that
brings with it such epidemics as diphtheria and typhoid
fever,  to the  attacks of which  even the strongest and
most robust are liable.
     It is important to bear in mind that from five to
fifteen days  are required to dry a house  properly in
the fall, even with the aid of good fires.  If the season
is mild, as have been the last two and the  present up
to the  time  of writing (Dec. lo), fires are  either  kept
very low or  not  built at all, excepting  in  one or two
rooms  most  in use.   This is particularly  true of the
lower  and middle  class families, and in  such house-
holds  two, three  or even four months elapse before the
houses are really dry and habitable.   Aleanwhile the
occupants breathe an  atmosphere unwholesome in the
 extreme, and  countless cases  of typhoid  fever, diph-
 theria or other complaints of the throat or lungs, call
 for the doctor's assistance.
     The unusually wet  summer which this vicinity
                         24 
experienced the present year, combined with the mild
fall and tardiness of people in building fires, explains
the prevalence of the above-named epidemics.
    Rooms in hotels are, above all others, imperfectly
cared for.  Mould and  moisture are allowed to remain
year in and year out,  in many cases, carpets  are not
removed for long periods, and while unoccupied, the
rooms are kept closed  and dark.   Sick patients have
small chance of  recovery if confined  in  such rooms
as these, even  with  the best of medical attendance.
    Rapid as is our advance in the sciences and arts.
we are still far  behind many of the  nations of antiq-
uity in the matter  of wholesome  dwellings.  Excava-
tions  in  Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere show
that  even  the  most ordinary houses  had floors  of
marble or of some  other stone, and their construction
throughout was  commonly of stone,  brick or  other
masonry.  In the main room or hall, or sometimes  in
an  inner court, was its fountain of running water.
But in this age when we can  put steam into  harness
and make  it do our work, we suffer for the  want  of
fresh  air and fresh water, and live in decaying wooden
houses with carpeted floors.
    The tolerance of an impure or insufficient water-
supply is inexcusable, when, with  the improved appli-
ances for doing it, artesian wells can be so easily sunk
or water obtained, by pumping, if necessary, from
some  distant spring. AVith wells sunk to such  a depth
as to render impossible contamination from  surface
drainage, we should be unaffected by  any such acci-
dent as that which  recently  left the city of Brooklyn
unprovided with water. 
HAY-FEVER.
    For a long time physicians have been  convinced
that  hay-fever is caused by taking into the nostrils
and  air-passages  certain forms of vegetable matter,
either whole or in a minute state of subdivision.  The
disease makes its appearance in late summer and early
autumn, and is very commonly ascribed to the inhala-
tion  of the pollen of the rag-weed—an  explanation,
however, which  but  inadequately  accounts for  the
wide  prevalence of the distemper.   It  is  caused by
taking into  the  nostrils bits of mould  in its living
state, or its spores, in the manner already described.
Inflammation  of  the  mucous  membrane, or what is
known as a cold in the head, may have been caused
beforehand by the  autumn dampness of the house,
and the moisture of the  nasal passages offers a suitable
lodgment  for  the particles of  mould  or the spores
which  have ripened  in the fall, as  all plants and
weeds ripen at that time.
    Just as  a cutting from a willow or a geranium
will take root and grow on being stuck into suitable
soil, so the tiny fibres of mould  retain their life when
they are  transplanted to the mucus of the  nasal pas-
sages.  The  spores, too,  which  are inhaled, germinate
and grow. But in the same way that a plant, on being
transplanted to a flower-pot containing only a shallow
layer of soil, will wither and die as soon as it has ex-
tracted the nutriment and moisture  from this meagre
                        26 
supply of earth, so  the growth of mould in the nos-
trils, as it does not take root in the animal tissue itself,
ceases as  soon  as the supply of moisture fails, either
from natural causes or through artificial means.  And
as any other dust or foreign matter is readily expelled
from the nose,  so the dead and dry mould is driven
out and the hay-fever is gone.  Its termination may
be caused by a  season of dry weather, by the removal
of the patient to a dry climate, or by his sitting over
a warm fire in a dry room.  The one thing needful is
to allay the inflammation of  the  mucous membrane
and restore it to its  healthy condition.
    The mould growing on carpets and other fabrics
is the prime cause  of hay-fever, and the peculiar irri-
tation and tickling  sensation felt in the nasal passages
is due to the passing of air over  the strands  or fila-
ments of growing mould, which are thus swayed back
and forth, while some are detached and  driven further
in, causing the  sufferer a fit of sneezing.  As  a speck
of dust in the eye irritates and inflames that sensitive
organ, and as a hair in the throat causes great annoy-
ance, so the smallest bit of mould-fibre in the nose
tends to irritate and inflame  the  sensitive membrane
with which it  comes in  contact.  This very irritation
provokes  the flow of mucus, or running at the nose,
which is essential to the life and growth of the mould ;
so that the distemper provides for its own continuance
and baffles all  attempts  at a cure, unless treated with
the full  understanding of the  prime importance of a
drv, pure atmosphere.
     Probably no victim  of hay-fever ever had  his case
brought into such prominence as the late Henry Ward
                         27 
Beecher.   Others may have suffered as much or  more
from the complaint, but  their sufferings were known
only to their friends and their physicians.   The whole
country has heard of Henry Ward Beecher's annual
attacks of hay-fever, so that  any allusion to his  expe-
rience will form the best possible illustration and proof
of the foregoing.
    As is well known, Air. Beecher was in the habit of
spending the summer on  his farm or in travel, while
his Brooklyn  residence was  either closed  entirely or
left in  charge of servants.   In late summer or early
fall, before settling down  for the winter, he would come
to the city occasionally to conduct religious services at
his church.  AVord was probably sent at these  times
by mail  to  the chambermaid to have  his  room in
order on  a certain  date.   Now, it was this opening  and
sweeping of a long unused  room that gave him his
annual lm/y-fever.  The clanger  encountered in  enter-
ing and sleeping in such a room will be apparent to
the reader from what has  gone before.  Dampness.
drying fabrics, dislodged  and floating mould  particles.
torn up  by the roots  like  weeds  pulled  up in  the
garden and still alive—all  the  conditions necessary
for hay-fever were  present.
    It is probable, too. that the occupant  of this  im-
perfectly prepared  chamber  was often  obliged to sleep
between  sheets that had not been thoroughly  dried.
and to use towels in the morning that had  lain in the
closet all summer,  full of living  mould and its spores.
The unwholesome dampness  of everything  in  the
house must have been all the greater from its nearness
to the water.  The preliminary cold in the head  was 
easily caught, and then followed hay-fever  from the
inhalation of floating particles and spores of mould.
    If, instead of going to his own house, Air. Beecher
went to that of a friend, he was probably given the
guest-chamber — more  properly the  death-chamber,
damp and mouldy as this  apartment always is  from
infrequent  use—and here  the same  causes were at
work as at his own home.   His sedentary habits, be it
further  observed,  rendered  him  more  liable  to the
attacks  of the  malady  than one  engaged  in active
work in the  open air, and, as a natural consequence of
his mode of  life, he could only recover his customary
health  after his house had been thoroughly dried and
aired in the  manner explained above.
    WTiat was true of Henry Ward Beecher  is  true of
every victim of  hay-fever.  The same causes produce
the same  results, wherever and  whenever  they are
present.  The  reason  why some  people  have the
disease, and  others who  are  exposed  to  the  same
danger  escape,  is found in the stronger constitutions
or habit of regular exercise of the latter class.  There
is  little danger  of incurring the epidemic  in rooms
that  are occupied throughout the  year, and women,
whose  duties  or habits  keep them in well-wanned
rooms, are not in much danger.
20 
DIPHTHERIA.
    This is also a disease which can be traced entirely
to fabric mould  and the poisonous  evaporation from
drying carpets, drapery  and other fabrics, principally
in the fall and winter seasons.  It broke out in  my
own city, Beverly, about  the first of last September, and
spread with such rapidity that the  schools were closed
for a  short time.   A few cases still linger as  I write
this—more than three months after its outbreak. Dur-
ing July and August of this year there were thirty days
of rainy weather—that  is, thirty days  on which some
rain fell—in Beverly and about Philadelphia.  So much
damp weather necessarily had an effect on dwellings,
and the more so  that it came at a season when no fires
were kept and nothing prevented the free entrance of
the moisture into the house.   As a consequence, all
carpets and stored fabrics were more heavily laden than
usual with deadly mould and damp when fires were
started in the fall.
    The chief cause of diphtheritic outbreaks is found
in the annual or semi-annual house-cleaning, conscien-
tiously performed  by all good housekeepers.   No  one
inclined to lung  or throat diseases,  and no young
children, however strong and  healthy, should remain
in one of our carpeted dwellings during this operation,
or return to it until fifteen or twenty days after its com-
pletion.  I believe that house-cleaning  unintelligently
performed, as is commonly  the case, is one of the chief
                        30 
causes of  many diseases.  Typhoid and scarlet fever,
diphtheria, and all affections of the respiratory organs,
may often be found to  have sprung,  directly or indi-
rectly, from this cause.   A brief consideration of the
ordinary methods used  in cleaning a house will make
this plain.
    When carpets are taken up, clouds of  poisonous
dust, of the  nature  already described, fill the rooms,
and the particles lodge in every crack and on all pieces
of furniture,  curtains, pictures,  and other objects.   No
duster can find all this  poisonous powdery  organic
matter, and even if it did, the particles would  only be
driven into the air and left to  settle back again  in a
short time.  For days afterward this dust is likely to be
stirred up and sent flying with  the casual brushing of
a garment or a chance draught of air.   The carpets
are themselves taken out and beaten in what seems a
very thorough manner, though it is  hardly probable
that  more than a quarter of  the adherent  mould,
organic matter, and dust  is ever driven out.   The
moisture that has settled in every thread of  the carpet
is  dried little, if  any,  by this  beating and shaking.
Meanwhile floors are scrubbed, and when the surface
of the boards appears  dry, the  carpets are replaced—
often on the same day as their removal.
    From five to ten days are, in reality, necessary for
the thorough  evaporation of the water  that has been
sucked up by every crack and loose joint in the long-
seasoned boards.  Spaces of an eighth to a half of an
inch  are  very common  between the  boards  of an
ordinary floor, and these are filled with dust and mould
and other impurities which absorb water readily and
                         31 
give it up slowly.  The injurious effect of shutting in
all  this moisture by  the laying  of carpets  may be
imagined.  One can scarcely conceive anything  more
nauseating  and  unwholesome  for  a person  whose
respiratory organs are at all  affected than the fumes
from  a  soft-wood floor just scrubbed with  soap and
water.  It means a rich harvest  of unwholesome or-
ganic matter before the next  cleaning  day comes—
in  six  months  or  six  years,  according as the  mis-
tress of the  house is  a  careful or a negligent  house-
keeper.
    The injurious evaporation from  damp carpets and
from  damp floors through the carpets, begins in earn-
est when fires are made, and the winter is nearly over
before it stops, even in the best heated houses.   Octo-
ber, November  and December are  the  months most
fraught with danger  in  our  latitude, the house from
top to bottom being filled with poisonous exhalations
and infected with  disease-germs.    Is it any wonder
that this is the season of typhoid  pneumonia, scarlet
fever, diphtheria and  kindred diseases !
     Statistics show that diphtheria is mostly confined
to  children  from five to fifteen years of age.  This is
just the age when they are most in the habit of play-
ing, running and rolling on  the floor, especially when
it is  unpleasant outside, laughing,  crying or talking
the while,  and  breathing more  often  through the
 mouth  than through  the nose.  It is unavoidable that
 they should take in  with every breath  quantities of
 poisonous organic  particles  which, in  their romping
 and  games, they have  stirred up from  the  carpet.
     These injurious particles settle in the throat, irri-
                         32 
fating the sensitive mucous membrane with which it
as well as the nostrils, is lined, until inflammation and
soreness ensue, offering just the kind of soil needed by
the inhaled mould and spores for their most rapid and
abundant growth.  The  result is unhappily too well
known to require description.
    The membrane of a child's  throat, as, in fact, its
skin in general, is more tender and sensitive than an
adult's; and as children spend much of the time play-
ing on  the  floor, and are  always, even when erect.
obliged  to breathe the lower strata of air, they neces-
sarily inhale, and  are  affected  by, the  dust  of  the
carpet.  Grown people breathe less frequently through
the mouth, and their respiration is in a stratum farther
removed from the floor.
    When a  case of diphtheria becomes malignant,
the patient  is a  source of contagion, as every breath
or cough sends out from the diseased throat particles
of the deadly fungous growth that is eating  away the
very life of  the child.  Other children, whose  throats
are nearly always ripe  for  the infection, on inhaling
these particles, become themselves liable to attacks of
the disease.   < iirls are more subject to diphtheria than
boys, for the reason that they spend more of their time
playing in the house.
    A lucifer match  may start a fire  that eventually
destroys a hundred houses in a thickly-populated dis-
trict.   The original cause of the conflagration was the
one small match and the one building set  fire by it;
the remaining ninety-nine caught the fire  from the
first house.  So with  diphtheria  and other contagious
diseases, one  careless  and  untidy  housekeeper, or
                         33 
the want  of  sanitary laws, may, through negligence
or  ignorance,  provoke  a  contagious  disease  that
will spread  far  and wide, killing hundreds in  its
course.
    A word must be said here about  the importance
of properly salting a child's food.   Cooks often send
the dishes to the  table insufficiently seasoned, leaving
that to be done according to each one's taste.  Grown
people easily supply what is lacking, but very young
children are unable to attend to their  own wants and
are often  neglected  by  their mothers or  nurses.  In
consequence, they eat much of their food  unsalted or
salted  insufficiently, and their systems are, as a result,
rendered more open to  the attacks of many forms of
disease, either through contagion or otherwise.
    Neither  insects, mould or  mildew  wTill grow  on
anything that contains an appreciable amount of salt,
and if  the human  system is  well supplied in this
respect, it has a safeguard against many diseases. Salt
should, however,  be taken in moderation, as too much
is decidedly  injurious, though  in a  manner  quite
different from too little.
    If carpets were discarded,  house-cleaning  would
lose its terrors, and with proper  care in the brushing,
drying and airing of all fabrics used in the house or
on the person, diphtheria would be unknown, as well
as  scarlet  and typhoid fevers, which  are  probably
caused  by the same poisonous  organic matter that
gives rise to diphtheria.
    Adults, more than children, are subject to typhoid
fever, for in their case the lining of the  throat is less
tender and less easily irritated  by the inhaled mould
                         34 
particles.  These pass down  to  the stomach, either
directly or in  eating and drinking, and  the poison
enters the system through the digestive organs.
    In  many  farm-houses  and  village cottages, the
best room, or parlor, is only opened on the occasion of
a party, or in honor of some especially favored guests.
Accordingly, the room is rarely heated, and  when  a
fire is  made, the  state of the atmosphere, from the
drving of accumulated moisture and mould,  beggars
description.  AVhole days of continued fires and ample
ventilation would  be  required to render  the room
habitable.  The guests, then, take their lives  in.  their
hands when they enter such a parlor, and their enter-
tainers, all unconscious, share the peril with them.
35 
CONSUMPTION.
    Consumption also is to be ascribed to the mode of
life prevailing among civilized nations.  No physicians
have ever yet been able to cope with the disease, for the
reason that none have perceived the all-important influ-
ence exerted upon our respiratory system by the nature
of the atmosphere which we breathe. They have disre-
garded the wonderful vitality and insidious  action of
mould, mildew and other forms of microscopic fungi,
which always flourish in houses furnished with carpets
and  upholstery.   The cause of consumption does not
differ in  kind from that already given for  hay-fever
and diphtheria.  The same agents operate in destroy-
ing the lung tissues as  those which irritate  and clog
the nasal passages and bronchial  tubes.
    I do not believe  that consumption, or any other
disease of the  respiratory organs, is  transmitted  by
inheritance.   The lungs are  as perfect  in  their struc-
ture at birth as the hands,  feet,  or any other part of
the body.  To be  sure,  the  lungs  of a  child born of
consumptive parents may be less  robust  than those of
the offspring of a perfectly healthy man and woman.
This weakness could, however, be outgrown under the
proper conditions.  The disease itself invades the lunos
only during life, and, of course, the stronger the con-
stitution  is  originally,  the  more  readily will it  be
repelled.
     Young and growing children are rarely attacked
                        36 
by consumption, because they keep their lungs sound
by abundant exercise, often in the  open  air, running,
jumping,  shouting and laughing, and  keeping the
sponge-like pores of their lungs clear by  vigorous res-
piration.   Indolence and inactivity  are  largely to
blame for the disease.
    Indians, when brought into a state of civilization
and led to adopt  the  domestic customs of white men,
living in carpeted  houses instead of  roaming the
woods and prairies,  become liable to its attacks before
one generation has passed.
    A laborer in the fields, on  catching cold, suffers
some  little annoyance from  the  flow of thin, watery
mucus from  the nose;  but as he  keeps on  working
and taking in copious draughts of fresh air, this emis-
sion soon ceases and the nasal passages are restored to
their  normal condition.   But let  the same man be
confined in a carpeted room, on catching such a cold,
and he will  not  get rid of it so  easily.  The mucus,
which had before run as water, will begin  to  thicken
from  the admixture  of mould-fragments, and  spores,
lint and dust; the air  passages,  from  the nose  down
to the throat, and perhaps to the lungs themselves.
will become  clogged, and  he may find  that his cold
has developed into catarrh, bronchitis, asthma, or even
consumption, so  rapid  is  the advance  made by the
parasitic fungous  growth which  has spread from the
carpet to his respiratory  system.   The mould has
obeyed the law  of its nature, and gained  a  foothold
wherever the requisite conditions were  offered.
    According to the part which  it attacks, the victim
has bronchitis, catarrh, hay-fever, deafness, asthma or
                         37 
consumption, and if no vigorous opposition is made to
its ravages, on the part of the patient, death ensues.
The wheezing sound peculiar to the breathing of asth-
matic sufferers is due to the passage of air through
air-tubes clogged with the deadly fungous growth.
    However many opposing theories may be main-
tained in explanation of consumption and  diseases of
the throat, the facts of the case remain unaltered.  At
death the air-tubes collapse, as does a balloon on the
escape of the inflating gas, and no  post-mortem exami-
nation  of throat and  lungs can  be  satisfactory, as
throwing light on the exact  nature of their maladies.
But if careful study could be made of the  respiratory
system of a living consumptive  or asthmatic patient,
the truth of  the above statements would be confirmed.
    Those who would be sound in wind  as well  as
limb must not shrink from  hard work or  exercise in
the open air.  No system   of parlor-gymnastics will
suffice.  The very exercise which some people take so
conscientiously in their chambers only adds to their
throat  or lung troubles, through  the stirring up of
particles of  mould from the  carpet  or  furniture, or
even from the clothes of the  one exercising, causing
the speedy vitiation of the confined atmosphere of the
room.
    Gladstone would never have  attained to such a
hale and hearty old age, if  he had brought his logs
into  the parlor  to  chop. No exercise can  be more
wholesome than  the vigorous  handling  of  an axe.
With everv stroke the air is driven through the lunos
in a miniature cyclone, clearing away obstructions and
imparting vigor to the tissues. 
    Last year at this time there was a  great flocking
of consumptives to Berlin,  on the announcement of
Professor  Koch's consumption-cure.  The  newly dis-
coverd lymph was made to fill columns in every news-
paper, and large head-lines called the reader's attention
to the wonderful discoverv.  Jenner and his  vaccine
were  for the time  in danger of being eclipsed by the
more  modern discoverer and his lymph.  Side by side
with the announcement of this medical  discovery ap-
peared, with  equally large head-lines, dispatches from
South Dakota, describing the uprising  of the Indians
and their ghost-dances.
    I often thought, while  these two topics were fur-
nishing so much copy for the press, that  if sufferers
from consumption would turn  their faces  toward the
West,  instead  of  toward Berlin,  and  would betake
themselves to the  scenes of these  hair-raising pranks
of the Indians, they would stand a better chance of
being benefited.  One raid of the  red-skins and a life-
and-death chase of four or five miles would have done
more  to clear  and invigorate their lungs—provided
the disease had not been too long  neglected—than all
the lymph or other medicines ever made.
    Some will say. in opposition to  the preceding pages,
that consumption and other diseases of the respiratory
system are common among many races that never saw
a carpet or any upholstered furniture, and  have never
even had a dwelling worthy of the  name.  This is very
true:  but some clothing  is worn by nearly every race
on the globe, and mould and other varieties of fungus
are found everywhere.   The inhabitants of the torrid
zone are, it must be noted, generally indolent, and often
                         39 
live simply on  what nature offers them, without any
effort on their part.
    When I was in the army I slept on a rude bed made
of hay confined by a rough frame of boards.  During
damp weather the hay was always mouldy and needed
to be changed often on that account.   All clothing and
blankets were necessarily very damp and mouldy; but
from this circumstance I suffered no injury, owing to
the active life imposed upon me. Brisk exercise and
the vigorous  respiration  accompanying such exercise
kept my lungs in a clear and healthy condition.  If I
had led an indolent life  at this  time, such as is com-
mon among many savage  races. I  should have been
soon affected.
    Sailors scarcely ever take a cold while at sea, and
if they do, it is soon cured, the thin, watery discharges
drying up of their own accord.  But if a sailor takes
cold when on shore, and lodging in an ordinary carpet-
ed dwelling, the case is different; mould, lint and dust
are present to change the watery mucus into a thick
clogging  mass which seriously retards  the restoration
of the membrane to its healthy condition.  The sailor
never has such an  experience  at sea—a  fact  which
proves conclusively the existence of  certain dangerous,
unwholesome conditions in our dwellings.
    Air,  water and salt play each an important part in
what  may be called the earth's circulatory  system.
Each is necessary for the purification of the other two,
and all are needed for the sound and wholesome con-
dition of  the earth.   A shower purifies the atmosphere;
free circulation of air helps to keep water from stagna-
ting ; salt renders wholesome the vast oceans of water.
                        40 
into which the rivers are  constantly emptying their
floods for purification ; and the winds that come to us
from over salt water bring health and strength with
them.  The ebb and flow of the tides is a kind of vast
respiration, carrying off1 impurities and bringing back
renewed health and vigor.   The important office which
the unceasing activity of air and water and the purify-
ing action of salt are intended to fill  in  the human
system, is thus indicated  to  us  in  the  operations of
nature.
11 
IXFLUEXZA.
    The  prevalence throughout the Aliddle and  New
England  States, at the present writing, of a distemper,
almost epidemic in its nature, and called by many the
grippe, but in reality a kind of influenza or catarrhal
fever, makes it especially appropriate to say a few words
concerning the latter disease.
    The  causes which led to it are of  the same nature
as those  already discussed.  The  unusual  number of
moist and rainy days during the last  summer left our
dwellings in a very damp and unwholesome condition
when the time  came for starting fires in the fall—or,
rather, the time when we ordinarily start them.   (Conse-
quently the accumulated dampness of the past summer
has not been dried, and people have continued to live
and breathe and sleep in rooms which, in ordinary years.
are in a tolerably suitable  condition for habitation by
this time.  They do not realize the damp, mould-infect-
ed condition of their  dwellings, or if they  do, are not
alive  to the danger which they incur in living in them.
    The  present distemper is more prevalent and more
fatal among the poorer classes than among the wealthy
and well-to-do professional and business classes, differ-
ing in this respect from the grippe, which attacked the
higher orders of society with  perhaps even  greater
violence  than the lower.
    The  explanation of  this  is  simple:  the poorer
families have profited by the warm weather to save fuel,
                        42 
and have kept up no regular fires, as they are ordi-
narily compelled to do from the coldness of the weather.
In the houses of the wealthy, on the other hand, fur-
naces or steam boilers have been going much as usual,
being, however, kept down to the lowest point.
    The condition of  the  imperfectly dried or wholly
unclried dwellings has been going from bad to worse, as
the dampness clinging  to carpets, bedding, garments
and all fabrics and absorbent material  has generated
poison,  and caused the growth  of mould  to an ever
increasing extent.
    A lawn is hardly ever so parched and dry that a
shower  will not start the green grass  almost  imme-
diately.  So the parasitic fungous growth that lurks in
some  corner of every one's respiratory system may be
kept under control year after year by sufficient exercise
and  the  avoidance  of  a  malarial atmosphere.  But
when once the proper conditions of damp, foul air and
floating impurities are present, the reinvigoration and
spread of this unwholesome growth is rapid, especially
in the case of the aged and the indolent, until the very
bottom  of the lungs is  reached, if the  danger is  not
vigorously combated, and the patient is choked  and
strangled to death.
    If a swamp or stagnant pool, although open to sun
and air and every breeze that blows,  is the  cause of so
much malaria, and is so fraught with danger to human
life and health, how much more poisonous must be the
evaporation from the stagnant moisture in our soiled
carpets and other textile fabrics, in close rooms which
may seldom or never receive a thorough airing ?
    The action of moisture on dyed stuffs ought to re-
                        43 
ceive some attention.  Many poisonous aniline dyes are
used in carpets, upholstery, wearing apparel and fabrics
generally.  It is even impossible to tell how  deadly
poisonous some dyes may be.  Their preparation and
use are, in many cases, a secret known only to the manu-
facturer,  and it may well be that many a  carpet or
piece  of  wearing apparel gives  off,  when  damp, un-
wholesome  or deadly fumes.   AVe at least know that
the smell of wet clothing is often sickening  in the
extreme.
    All that is necessary in order to drive  away the
influenza is a hot fire in furnace  or stoves, kept up for
ten or even twenty days. Let each  room in turn be
converted into an oven, or something resembling one,
while the members of the family seek another part of
the house.  By this process the house will be speedily
and surely rid of all undue moisture.
    The  change to colder weather, which has set in as
this goes to press, will doubtless cause people to follow)
in a measure, the above directions.  They will keep up
good  fires and thus drive out  the cause of the recent
illness.
    To sum up the matter briefly, influenza is a com-
plaint similar to hay-fever and is to be ascribed to the
same  cause.   But the fungous  growth which operates
in both instances is  more irritating and troublesome
in the former, because of the-lateness of the  season:
no Indian Summer days  intervene to dry up the flow
of mucus  and  relieve  the  patient.  In  the  case  of
grippe, however,  an  exactly  contrary  condition  of
atmosphere and temperature is to be noted.
    On  that Christmas  day of  1885), which just pre-
                         44 
ceded the outbreak of the epidemic that was to visit
all sections of our country like a plague, the air was
as dry and balmy as on a beautiful May day.  On that
and a number of preceding days the mercury went up
to 75° or more, even in the shade, and what wind there
was  came gently  from the  south, with  no rain or
dampness whatever.
    People congratulated one another on having such
fine weather for the holidays, little thinking that  just
this fine weather was bringing to life countless millions
of microscopic  insect germs,  prematurely  hatched,
which were  being inhaled  with every breath,  and
that  before three days should  pass  a  large propor-
tion  of  the  inhabitants  of the  country,  north,  east
and   west, would  be stricken  with   an  epidemic,
the like of  which  had never  before  been known
among  us, carrying  death  in its  course  and  the
undermining  of many  a  strong constitution.  All
agreed that  such a balmy  Christmas day had never
been seen before, and the oldest inhabitant  could not
recall another instance of such a continued high tem-
perature at that time of year.
    If on some Fourth  of July, when  the  crops are
well started in the fields, the mercury should suddenly
drop to o0°, people might congratulate themselves on
their  welcome escape from the oppressive heat usually
characteristic  of the day.  But on learning, immedi-
ately  afterward, of the total ruin of crops wherever
this temperature had prevailed, they would cease to
look  upon such unseasonable  weather  as a blessing.
Yet  it  would be  no  more  unseasonable  than  the
weather which we  experienced on Christmas, 1889.
                        45 
    While a sudden change to cold, dry weather  will
necessitate the building of fires, and thus hasten the
drying of moisture and the consequent cure of influ-
enza,  it is otherwise with the  grippe.  From  five to
fifteen days, and in  some cases  weeks, are required to
expel the  disease from the system, even with the mer-
cury  below  zero.  The germs  in the open air are
quickly killed, but those in the system and in warm
dwellings more slowly.   A very heavy death-rate from
grippe was noted on some of the coldest days.
    It should be borne in mind that this  disease owes
its origin to insect germs which  no process of drying
can kill, while the influenza is  to be  ascribed  to a
vegetable or fungous growth which  can be subdued
by drying.
40 
PULMONARY  DISEASES  IN  CATTLE.

    These are caused by mouldy hay, grain or other fod-
der.  In my boyhood it was one of my tasks, during the
harvesting of the hay, to follow the mowers and stir and
spread  the  freshly-cut grass  for drying.  This work
was always begun early in the morning in order that
the hay might be dry enough  to stack or put in the
barn before night.  Not infrequently a sudden shower
defeated our plans, and the hay had to  go through the
same drying  process the next morning.  On  these
occasions I always  found it  mildewed  underneath,
when  it was  first shaken out, and if showers came
several days in succession, the same thick mould was
always found on the following morning on the under
side of the hay.  Frequent stirring and exposure  to
the sun and air would dry it,  but the mould, too, was
dried, and adhered to the hay.   Consequently, when the
hay was finally put away in the mow, it was often mixed
with  large quantities  of dry  mould.  Hay is  never
entirely free from mould, and I have often been nearly
suffocated  by  it when  "mowing away "-—to use a far-
mer's expression—so that, though strong and robust, I
was frequently compelled to seek the nearest  opening
for fresh air.
                       47 
    Stalls for horses and cattle, especially in country
barns, are commonly so built that the animals stand
facing  the barn floor.  When  hay  is thrown down
from the  mow,  preparatory  to  feeding, suffocating
clouds of powdery dust, composed of pulverized mould
and its  spores, rise into the air.  The men can relieve
themselves by going to the door for a breath of fresh
air, but the animals must stand and endure it.
    Very often the threshing and winnowing of grain
is  done on the barn floor, with  horses,  and perhaps
cows also, standing in their stalls, with their noses in
the thickest of the chaff and dust which fill  the build-
ing in such volumes as to render it often  impossible to
see from one side to the other.   I was, of course,  too
young to understand the injury our horses and cattle
must suffer in breathing such an atmosphere, but it is
clear to me now why pleuro-pneumonia is so common
among cattle on  a farm.  It was our custom, moreover,
to feed to the cattle  corn-stalks which were kept  piled
in  shocks near  the  barn,  exposed  to  the weather.
Toward the middle of a shock the stalks were found
more and more thickly covered with  blue mould and
were fed to the cattle in that condition; this could not
be otherwise than harmful to the cattle.
    ATould grows everywhere under proper conditions,
even in the open fields and in woods.   Out on the west-
ern prairies, where so many cattle die in severe winters,
they are forced to subsist almost  entirely, in the winter
season, on mildewed tufts of grass, which reveal on the
lower side a thick coating of blue mould.   The same
condition is observed  under the  bunches of  forest
leaves  in winter, when the snow is scraped off and the
                        48 
leaves turned up to the light.  On this kind of prov-
ender cattle on the plains have to depend during much
of  the winter, while cows and horses that are sheltered
in  bains are often  fed on mouldy hay  or grain.  The
consequent prevalence  of  pleuro-pneumonia  among
cattle is not to be wondered at.
    It was formerly the custom and may be still, in
shipping eggs from the West to New  York or other
eastern  cities, to pack them in oats, filling barrels in
this way. I remember a grocer of my acquaintance who
had such a large retail business that he kept five horses
for running his delivery wagons.  On one occasion his
hostler fed these horses with the mouldy oats which had
come from the West as packing.   The result was the
death of four of  the animals  within a week, Avhile the
fifth was made so sick that he had to be sold as useless.
    Another reason  why pleuro-pneumonia, glanders
and other diseases  are so common among cattle is that
their systems have not  sufficient salt to counteract the
poisons  which they take in  through stomach or lungs.
When fed on dry winter fodder, cattle manifest an eager
craving for salt, and on being shown  a handful, will
make the most violent efforts to get at it.   It may be
given them mixed with their hay or  grain, or thrown
to  them in the yard.   AVhen it is fed  to them out of
doors, the dull, stupid looking cows and oxen will dis-
play all the life and alertness  of a mettlesome horse, so
great is their desire for salt, and if the one feeding them
would escape being trampled  upon, he must throw out
a handful  and  run,  and then another, repeating the
process  until the animals have lost the edge of their
appetite. 
    Sheep show an equal  fondness  for salt, and  it
should be given to them, as well as to the cattle and
horses, as often as once a week.  On  our farm it was
the custom to do this every Sunday morning.  The
action  of salt on  all vegetation, and hence on such
fungi as mould and mildew, is to kill  it.  Its presence
always checks the growth of unwholesome vegetable
and animal parasites.
50 
THE  MODEL DWELLING-HOUSE AND
             ITS  FURNITURE.

    Whether built of stone, brick or wood, dwelling-
houses  should be of  such perfect  construction that no
external moisture or air could enter, except by the will
of the  occupants, through doors, windows, or other
means  of ventilation expressly provided.  Inside walls
should be finished in hard wood or plaster and painted,
while, from time to time, a coating of lacquer should
be applied, to preserve the perfect  smoothness of the
surface.  No paper should ever be allowed on  the
walls.
    It is probable that the time will come when some
kind of opaque glass, porcelain, or other glazed earth-
enware will be  generally used  in interior house  con-
struction, both  for  walls and  floors.   Even  now we
sometimes  see a room whose walls are of glazed  tiles
to the  height of three or four feet, the remainder being
of hard-finished plaster. Tiles for floors are constantly
coming more into favor.  The material used should
be in all cases of such a nature that no moisture, dust
or vermin could penetrate or find lodgment there.
     If, from considerations of expense  or otherwise,
wood  is used in the construction of  floors or walls,
every joint  should be perfect, if possible, and the im-
perfect joints calked as carefully  as a  ship's seams.
 Then, with the application of paint and a  frequent
                        51 
 coating of the hardest kind  of  varnish, the surface
 can be kept sufficiently smooth.
     To those who may object that the style of  house
 building described above is too  expensive, it may be
 stated that a coat of  whitewash, frequently  applied,
 protects the  walls  from harmful germs  and mould.
 No fine, hard-finished plaster  can be more wholesome
 than a fresh  coat of whitewash.
     Rugs or matting of some kind could be laid here
 and there, if desired, and these  should be  taken out
 daily, and, by  beating, shaking  and brushing, thor-
 oughly cleansed of all dust.   Every article of  fabric
 not in daily use should be kept until needed in a room
 especially designed  for such  storage, where  the en-
 trance of mould, moisture, dust, moths or other insects
 would be reduced.
     The seats  and backs of chairs, lounges and  sofas
 should be of wicker-work, cane,  prepared leather, or
 other material  which is impervious to  disease-germs,
 moisture or the finest particles of dust.  Nickel-plated
 wire could well be employed  in making seats  of all
 kinds, supplemented, if necessary for comfort, by nickel-
 plated springs.  No moisture or dust could settle in the
 material of chairs and sofas thus constructed, the nickel
 would not rust or  tarnish, and  it  could  be cleaned,
 when necessary, as  easily as a  piece of glass or earth-
 enware.
     Window shades should be made of some  kind of
fancy wire  gauze, or other material equally incapable
of harboring dust, mildew or moisture.
     Growing plants should find a place in the livino--
rooms of every house,  especially during  the  seasons
                        52 
 when the weather is not sufficiently warm  and dry to
 allow the free admission of outside  air.  At the same
 time some provision should be made for cleansing the
 air by means of pure water.   Large sponges saturated
 with water might be hung from the ceiling, enclosed
 in nickel-plated wire cages  with  a water receptacle
 attached, to catch any  drippings  from the sponges.
 These sponges should be  frequently cleansed in boil-
 ing water, and then hung up again, filled with a fresh
 supply of  clear, pure  water.  The  method of suspen-
 sion  could  be that employed in hanging  lamps, and
 the sponges could be raised and  lowered in the same
 way.
     In bed-rooms and other  apartments not occupied
 during the day, the  windows  should be  opened  in
 clear, bright weather, shades should be rolled up, and
 air and sun allowed free entrance.
     When  the above  rules are observed in domestic
 life, our dwellings will be free from  disease-germs, but
 not  before.  There will  be no mould-growing carpets
 or useless draperies to bring on periodical  illness and
 increase, by fully one-third, the cares and duties of the
 housekeeper.  Every breath drawn will be fresh and
 pure, headaches and other maladies caused by a viti-
 ated atmosphere  will be unknown, and cases of ha}r-
 fever,  typhoid  fever, diphtheria, catarrh,  and  other
 similar complaints will be reduced to a minimum.
     The objection may be  made that without carpets
 on the floors our dwellings would in winter be much
 like ice-houses.   But it is a well-known fact that mar-
ble, stone, glass and tiles retain the heat, after being
once well warmed, much  longer than even the thickest
                        53 
woolen carpet or any other material which  is  of a
porous nature.  The floors of hotel corridors and other
large buildings illustrate this.
     A marble or stone floor carries a reserve supply of
heat and helps to keep the temperature uniform. In the
summer, too, such  a floor  is preferable to any carpet,
being much cooler.   But its great point of superiority
is, of course, its freedom from injurious germs,  whether
animal or vegetable.   The danger of such germs in
the  clothing which we wear  remains to be  guarded
against;  but after we  once well understand the nature
of this danger, we can reduce it to a minimum  by
exercising reasonable care.
54 
        THE MODEL SICKROOM.

    It should contain the least  possible amount of
fabric of any kind.   Sheets and pillow-cases should be
of the finest linen, or, if possible, of some non-absorb-
ent material.   No  fabric having  much lint or long
fibres should be  tolerated in either  quilts  or blan-
kets.   Over  and around the  bed, on a frame de-
signed for  the purpose, should be spread a fine  silk
gauze or veil, to keep out,  as far as possible, any float-
ing dust, mould or bits of  lint from clothing.  The air
would thus be filtered before reaching  the patient.
    Invalids need  the very purest  air,  having no
strength to spend in resisting the  injurious action of
atmospheric impurities, while, as a matter of  fact, the
air of a sick room is generally impure almost  to suffo-
cation.  Sun and fresh air are excluded, the room is
more  than usually  well provided with every kind of
furnishing that is  soft to  the touch, but the lurking-
place  of disease and death, and the going and coming
of nurses, doctors  and friends  keep  the atmosphere
thick  with all kinds of noxious  germs  and dust.  It is
a wonder that invalids ever recover with so much to
contend against.
    Not only with the sick, but also with very young
children, from the time of birth  till they are able to run
and exercise, great care should be taken to provide pure
air.  In our ordinary carpeted houses  it would be well
to place a gauze canopy, like  the one  described above,
                         55 
over the baby's crib, when he is in it, and, if practica-
ble, a  similar  air-filter  should be over  his  face  at
other  times.
    Arery  young babies  are too weak to  resist the
harmful influence of atmospheric impurities and it  is
no cause for surprise that half of them die under the
age of five, from croup and  stomach troubles, largely
caused  by the inhalation or  swallowing of noxious
germs floating in the air.
56 
      EXPERIMENTS AND TESTS.

    Simple experiments, in proof of much that has been
written in the foregoing pages, can easily be made by
any one.  To render visible the microscopic particles and
spores of  mould present in any carpeted room, close the
shutters on a bright day, with the exception of a narrow
crack through which the sun may shine.  Then if the
narrow sunbeam thus admitted is not already seen to be
full of floating particles, it maybe rendered so by tapping
the carpet with the foot or shaking any garment that may
be at hand.   Dense clouds of what is commonly called
simply dust will appear to add substance to the beam of
light, and at the same time minute insects or animal-
cules may be  seen to dart and flash in the  light,  as a fly
darts this way and that in the air. The  air in our
houses, if kept within certain limits of temperature, is
always thickly populated with this microscopic animal
life, as is  also the air outside at  certain  seasons.
    The  animalcules are taken into  the  system in
great numbers with every breath.  When decomposing
animal or vegetable matter is exposed  to the air, they
settle upon it and  there grow and multiply until, in
some cases,  their presence becomes manifest to the
naked eye.
    These animal parasites also prey on living  matter,
whether in animals or in human beings, especially if
there is anything like gangrene or decay to attract them.
But if the body is entirely free from everything in the
                        57 
nature of decay, they are harmless, and, indeed, many
varieties of this microscopic population of the atmo-
sphere may be positively beneficial, acting as scavengers
or serving  some other good end in our Creator's  de-
sign, which is not yet understood by us.
    Some may assert that their dwellings are free from
the kind of matter described above, and that the test
mentioned  gives  no indication of its  presence.  The
fault, then, lies in the manner of  conducting the  ex-
periment; perhaps the room has not been sufficiently
darkened, or  the ray of light has been  too feeble.   In-
stead of a sunbeam, a strong ray of light from a dark
lantern will  serve the  purpose nearly as well.
     Every  form of animal life reproduces its kind by
means of an egg, and every vegetable or plant by means
of a  seed.  The vegetable may also, in many cases,
send  out what  may be called  an extension  of itself,
either by its root, as in the potato, or by a cutting, as in
the geranium.  So all varieties of fungi, whether large,
as mushrooms, or small, as mould and mildew, are
really plants ; and like plants they produce seeds which
drop on the ground, or on the floor, or are taken up into
the air and carried hither and thither, before finding a
resting place  suitable for germination.
     An atmosphere that is thoroughly dry and whole-
some for human beings is fatal to the life and growth
of fungi; the mould dies as the grass  would die on a
parched hill-side, and  the spores  and dead fragments
are then caught up into the air, on being dislodged, and
are  scattered through  the  room  or  throughout  the
house, ready  to spring to life again on meeting with
favorable  conditions.   Unwholesome  moisture, dark-
                         58 
ness and confinement, together with sufficient warmth,
are the  prime requisites for germination  and growth.
    After wiping the face with a towel and hanging up
the latter for the night, we find it, in the morning, sus-
taining  a growth of mould, as may be  seen by gently
shaking it in the path of a ray of sunlight.  The finest
handkerchiefs and other linen, after being  packed away
a day or a week, are found, on careful examination, in
the same mouldy condition.
    On frosty days the breath is plainly visible for a
distance of a foot or more from the face.  It is drawn
in from the  same distance, and consequently we  must
inhale many of the floating particles that come within
this limit.   The nasal passages  form  a kind of filter
for the  air, it is true, but not all  foreign  particles are
strained out  before  reaching the throat and lungs.
Many people, too, and children, as a rule,  breathe often
through the  mouth, while  the  habit of  breathing
through the mouth  in sleep is very common.  Every
movement in bed shakes a portion of  the mould-par-
ticles  from the bed-clothes into  the air.  Aly room  is
often darkened in the morning to keep  out the flies, so
that, when a beam of light happens to strike the bed,
I have  noticed how slight  a motion on my part would
send clouds of particles into the air.  A thump on the
sheet produces a very marked effect.
    Another  experiment  may be performed by  caus-
ing some one to disrobe in a box-like compartment,
about four feet square and  six feet high.  If the  room
is darkened during this operation, and a ray of light
directed over the  top of the box, clouds  of  dust, lint,
broken  fragments of mould and its spores will be seen
                         50 
to issue from it and stream upward, like smoke from a
chimney.
    An apple, pear, nut or other fruit or vegetable that
has a worm-hole or crack of any kind in its substance,
soon becomes mouldy at the core; confined, moist air and
darkness are all that are needed to produce the fungous
growth, whether in the human system or elsewhere.
    When a garment or other piece of fabric, or a car-
pet has once harbored  any mould, it can not be entire-
ly freed from it any more easily than a garden overrun
with weeds can be entirely rid of them and their seeds.
A little carelessness or neglect will easily prove this.
    A black broadcloth suit or a velvet cloak that has
been packed away during the summer, if shaken in the
path of a sunbeam in  a darkened room, will give out
what appears to be white dust, but is. in reality, frag-
ments and seeds of mould, while mixed with  it may be
found some particles  of lint from  the garment itself.
That the dust is not all lint, is shown by the  color.
    Women,  while performing such  housework  as
sweeping and dusting, should wear fine gauze veils, as
they often do in the street: these should also be worn
on  railway journeys,  and it would be well if men
could wear them also.
    The constant presence of moisture in our clothing,
even when it does not give the slightest indication of
being damp, may be proved by standing near  a hot fire,
when the dampness may  be felt coming out  and seen
in the form of steam.
    It is the custom in some families to have the car-
pets taken up, beaten and stored in the  spring, and in
the fall they are considered all ready for replacing  on
                        60 
the floors.  They are, however, much  less fit for use
than if they had not been taken up at all.  Darkness
and confinement, with the inevitable dampness present
in the carpets at all times, have caused a rich growth of
mould, necessitating a thorough re-shaking and expos-
ure to  the sun and air.
    The  presence of moisture in a room and its fur-
nishings  at all  times can be proved by  heating the
room to a temperature higher than that outside.  Im-
mediately the window panes act as condensers, and are
soon covered on the inside with vapor, as when a person
breathes on a window-pane in cold weather.
    This moist  condition of  carpets and other fabrics
is extremely favorable to the growth of microscopic
fungi,  and consequently equally injurious to human
health.   There is no cause for surprise  that diseases of
the respiratory system are so common.
    The most important sanitary laws, respecting both
dwellings and the human system, should be taught  in
our schools, as those  who are now children will soon
have the care both of their own lives  and of the lives
of the next generation.
    If a  spittoon containing the sputum  of a  person
suffering  from bronchial affections is  put into a dark
closet for  twenty-four hours or more, it will be found,
on examination, to have produced  a growth of mould.
    Put some mucus into a small vial and cork it loose-
ly with a  roll of paper; in two or three days a harvest
of blue mould will be found in the vial.
    Salt is death to microbes and fungi.  If, then, salt
or something equally destructive to parasitic animal
and vegetable matter could without injury be taken
                        <;i 
into the lungs, in cases of consumption and other com-
plaints of the respiratory system, it seems reasonable to
suppose that it would prove beneficial.
    Just as plants grow the entire  year  in conserva-
tories, so our dwellings and our systems are hot-houses
for the growth of  mould.
    Our exhalations are not composed entirely of air
and vapor, but also of  refuse organic matter which is
thrown off  through the lungs and, after drying, settles
at last as a sediment on the floor, on articles of furni-
ture or on our clothes.
    Drain  pipes often  become clogged with the sedi-
ment  from muddy  water and refuse  which  passes
through them, so that a force-pipe is required to re-
move the obstruction.  In like manner our air passages
frequently  become stopped, and nothing but exertion
or even violent exercise on our part will clear them.
    Some  may doubt the presence of  unwholesome
germs in the  air, because they can not  see them. It
would be as reasonable to doubt the existence of the air
itself simply because we can not see it.
    Phlegm,  or  thickened mucus of catarrhal  dis-
charge, appears in some respects  like  freshly-mixed
mortar. AVater, lime, sand and hair are the components
of mortar.  In phlegm our system furnishes the water
and  a viscid, ropy substance, which takes the place of
lime in mortar, while dust and fragments of mould and
lint represent the sand and hair.  The act of breathing
helps to mix the ingredients, until the whole is of a uni-
form consistency.  If  the air  were perfectly pure, no
such  thickened phlegm would be possible.
     A fine gauze veil, worn over the mouth and nose.
                         02 
is a safeguard against contagion, acting as a filter and
catching most of the disease germs which would other-
wise be inhaled.
    Whatever part of the system air will reach, to that
part also will poisonous germs, whether  animal  or
vegetable, be carried.
    A pint of water and  half  a pint of salt form  a
mixture that  will kill  grass  or other  vegetation on
which it is thrown.
    The tests  and experiments given above are only a
few of the many that might be cited in proof  of what
has gone before.   They alone are given, however, be-
cause of their simplicity and ease of performance in
any household.
63 
 
2-J960 ifi* 
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