HOW FLOORS SHOULD BE SWEPT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10235, 2 January 1894, Page 2

HOW FLOORS SHOULD BE SWEPT.

(Berne Scientijique.)

M. Bard, of Lyons, lias * topped absolutely the sweeping of floors in hor-prital wards. He has the floors covered with a coat of a solution oc paraffine in petroleum, which makes them impe.ia.-table to anythin-. and gives them a, brown tint. A single ajplimtion lasts two years. Thus prepared, tho floors stand very well wiping every day with a damp cloth, moistened by some antiseptic solution. TliO sumo process ( an be applied with advantage to barracks, schoolrooms, and other placet'. In private dwellings, where the floors are covered will: caipet, there should be substituted for the cr..iinary sweeping the use of mechanical brushes, which, instsad of making tho dust fly, collect it in special boxes, from which it can bo thrown into tha fire, the great destroyer and purifier of ail germs. This mods of sweeping ia especially requisite in the lower storeys of houses, since microbian germs are found in greatest number ia tho josver layers of the atmosphere, They are tea times mere numerous in tho centre of Paris, in the vicinity of tho Seine, than ou higher ground. Ia every house, considered separately, the air ef the upper storeys ia incontestably purer aad freer from microbes than that of the lower storeys.