Healthy Homes.

Manawatu Herald, 31 March 1894, Page 3

Healthy Homes.

The following is the text of the Interesting and instructive lecture delivered reeeritly ft.t Wesley Church by Dr. Gresswell, of the Board of Public Health, Melbourne i — I am here this afternoon, not to deliver a very formal lecture, but, as I hopej to speak in plain words on somejplain matters of fact. Healthy Homes : Let us first consider the object aimed at in the constructing of our homes. The object primarily is to obtain shelter. We don't like continued exposure, excessive heat, Cold, light, violent winds or heavy rains ; and lower animals show openly enough dislikes of a similar kind. But, while sheltering ourselves in our homes against inclement elements of the weather, we must be careful not to exclude ourselves too much from the outdoor light atrdiotltaqbr akj, otherwise we baiinot enjo^'healtli .We must also , obtain healthy ; sites, or at least protect ourselves against uuhealthiness of the sites of our homes. You would not hy ohoice erect your home on a malarial soil, and if compelled to live on such ft soil, you would do your best to avoid unhealthy emanations arising- from such soil. Then, too, there are many poisonous matters given off from our bodies into the air, atid it will not do to allow them to accumulate in the home. All animals, ourselves included, may be likened in many ways to furnaces, of slow combustion. In the case of the furnace th}eire ! are required both fuel and fresh air, Otherwise there will be ii'o fire; the production o| -warmth, of light, of ash and of smoke results from the burning process, the combustion ; and if the ash be allowed to accumulate in the furnace in top "large amount, or if the smoke be not allowed to escape, the fuel ceases to. burn, the fire goes out. So also it is with ourselves and other animals. Food or fuel and fresh air are required, otherwise animal lifJ3 will cease; while warmth, and in the case of some animals, light and ash, and in the case of higher animals, smoke are produced as results of the burning of the food introduced into the body. Just as with the furnace, so also with living animal; the ash must be/removed at pretty regular intervals, or ihere will be imperfect burning, and in the -animal ill health ; and it may be added in the case of man and most lower animals the utmost care needs to be exercised in disposing of that ash in a proper manner, for it is poison, and must not be allowed again to enter the body. To realise the analogy drawn between the production of smoke from the furnace and the production of smoke from the body, attention may be given to a simple experiment. If a cold substance— a substance such as a. stonebe placed in the flue of a furnace, various matters will condense upon it, such as water and other substances of complex constitution. So too if we breathe on a cold substance some of the breath or smoke, as it may be called, will condense upon it, drops of water will appear and may be colin. a bottle, and various matters of complex constitution which will be present in that water will render it discolored and offensive. (To be continued.)