Public health

The location of the home of the working-man is often determined by considerations over which he has no control. Cost of land and distance from place of labor must influence the selection. If possible, however, the house should not be located in a low, damp place, nor on made earth. In cities, many low tracts, and even the beds of small streams, marshes, and lakes, are filled in with general refuse, such as street sweepings, back-yard rubbish, ashes, and garbage. Such soil, unless thoroughly under-drained, must be unfit for the location of habitations. It is damp, and will for years be filled with the products of decomposition arising from the putrefaction of the garbage deposited there. Houses built in such locations must be damp, musty, and unhealthful. The inmates of a house built in such a place are likely to suffer from malaria, bilious fever, and rheumatism, even if they do not fall victims to the more dreaded diseases, typhoid fever and consumption. The house should also be far from marshes and other low lands, whose surface is covered with water in the spring and early summer, and then exposed later. Such situations are likely to be malarious. Neither should the home be located near manufacturing establishments which usually have much garbage about them, such as breweries, tanneries, glucose factories, rendering houses, and oil refineries.

The site should be one which is naturally well drained; and whether this be the case or not often cannot be decided in cities without consulting maps which show the original lay of the land before any grading had been resorted to, though the position and course of neighboring streams and the location of springs may suggest valuable information. The slope of the land should be from the house. Extra precaution must be taken when it becomes necessary to build at the foot of a hill which is covered with houses from which the surface water and under-ground drainage flows toward the home. The location of neighbors' out-houses, with reference to the proposed home, should also be taken into consideration. While an intelligent man will not neglect the sanitary condition of his own premises, his neighbor's cesspool or privy vault may drain into his well and poison his drinking-water. Have the house upon a place high enough, and as dry as possible. Avoid, whenever practicable, narrow streets, which are devoid of sufficient sunlight and pure air. The width of the street should be twice the height of the houses along

it, and no street, even in the business centres of cities, should be narrower than the height of the houses. In many of the older cities, however, the streets are narrower than this.

The best soils upon which to build are gravel, marl, and limestone; for in these the drainage is likely to be better than in others.

A due amount of shade around the home renders it more healthy, but the shade should not be dense enough or close enough to the house to obstruct the air and light.

THE CELLAR.

Every dwelling-house, even that which has but one room in it, should either have a cellar, or should be raised sufficiently high from the ground to allow a free supply of air under it. The walls of the cellar should be perfectly water and air tight. It is better, in making the excavation, to remove the earth a foot, on all sides, further than the line on which the outside of the wall will stand; then, after the walls have been built, pack the space with clay or gravel. In this way the walls of the cellar are more likely to be kept dry. If built of brick the walls should be hollow, consisting of a thin outer wall two or three inches from the main wall. The two are firmly held together by occasionally placing a brick across from one to the other as the walls are being built. Unless this is done, moisture will pass through a brick wall, it matters not how thick it may be. The cellar floor should be of concrete, about six inches thick, and covered with Portland cement or asphalt. If the soil be very damp, tiling should be placed under the cellar floor, and carried out beneath the wall to a larger tile which passes around the house and leads off into some suitable receptacle.

It is absolutely essential to a healthy house, that its cellar should be free from dampness and ground air. In order to secure these requisites, the walls and floor of the cellar must be well built, even if it becomes necessary, on account of increased cost, to deprive the superstructure of some of its ornamentation.

The cellar should be well supplied with light by having windows above ground, or by sunken areas in front of the windows. The window-sashes should be hung on hinges, so that they may be easily opened when the cellar needs an airing.

If the cellar is to be used for several purposes, as the location of the heating apparatus and the storage of fuel and vegetables, it should be divided into compartments, the temperature of which may be kept at different degrees.

Basement bed-rooms are almost universally unhealthy, and should be used only in cases of absolute necessity. It is also best not to have the kitchen in the basement, especially if the room directly above be occupied. If stationary wash-tubs be placed in the basement, they should have a metallic or porcelain lining, and the pipes which conduct the refuse water from them should be thoroughly trapped.

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