have the same advantages as the professional man, who in the office can transact business relieved from all the annoyances which, of necessity, attended the processes of working for bread and living within the same four walls.

The industrial classes would profit by this reform, and every class of the community would also profit by it, in some if not an equal degree. As things now are the private work-rooms are foci of the spreading diseases. In these rooms, where lie the victims of scarlet fever and other contagious diseases, clothes are made which are to cover the bodies of the wealthier classes and to carry those particles of diseases which flourish wherever they are introduced, when those who are susceptible to their influence are exposed to them.

III.

CENTRAL AUTHORITATIVE PREVENTIONS.

The whole subject of Central Legislative action in regard to industrial diseases requires to be recast. The English were the first people to endeavor to do away with some of the evils connected with industrial pursuits, and in 1802 the first Legislative Act concerning the labor of children was passed, an Act from which all similar legislation relating to industrial occupations has taken origin. The time has come for revision of what has been done.

Revision of Factory Labor.

The Legislature might with advantage enlarge the powers of the certifying surgeon in the factories, to enable him to be of service beyond the mere duty of certifying as to age. In the Factory Act age is treated as though it were another term for strength, which we all know is a fallacious idea, and what is really wanted is, the correction of so great an error. To the health and the life of the operative, it is essential that the authority of the surgeon should be extended, and that strength as well as age should be brought into consideration. It is essential, I mean, that a surgeon when he sees a child put to a work which it has not the strength to carry out, should be able to say, "This shall not be; this child must be set to another and easier task." In further exercise of useful duties, it seems important that the powers of the

factory surgeon should extend to the correction of other sources of danger, to the supervision of the health of the adult operatives, and to the direction of the sanitary condition of the factory.

There are some other directions in which it would be wise to extend the powers of the factory surgeon. He ought to be enabled to carry out his duties in workshops as well as in factories. I think his power ought to extend further even than this; that it ought to reach into those places called work-rooms in private houses. In small shops and work-rooms more injury is inflicted than in the factory, and to let the young remain unprotected from the most dangerous forms of labor, on the mere pretence that they do not work in a place legalized as a factory, is a legislative failure of the saddest character.

To the application of remedies for each one of these errors we might surely, without hesitation, demand the service of the Legislature.

A legislative reform is required in regard to the regulation of age at which half-time work should commence. The teachings of science are clear, that no child of either sex should be put to work at too early an age. Twelve years is the earliest age at which any labor should be commenced. Even then the kind of labor ought not to be indiscriminately left to the choice of the employers; it ought to be placed under the wise direction of educated medical men who know what can and what cannot be borne by the laborer.

COOPER MEDICAL COLLEGE,

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL

and is not to be removed from the Library Roon by any person or under any pretext whatever.

CHAPTER VII.

PREVENTIONS OF SOCIAL AND PSYCHICAL DISEASES.

I.

RULES FOR PERSONAL PREVENTIONS.

THE personal rules which require to be carried out in order to keep in check the social and psychical causes of disease embrace all those various attentions to domestic, individual, and scholastic life which tend to make existence truly agreeable, chaste, cleanly, and free from care.

Warming and Ventilation.

In addition to the attention which should be paid to the drainage of the house, a point already considered, in addition to the raising of the house a little distance from the ground and the construction of it with materials which will not absorb and retain water, the house should be so planned in all its parts as to equalize the temperature of the various rooms as far as possible. Pointed roofs are opposed to this arrangement by presenting too large a surface for cold and evaporation, the chamber or attic immediately beneath such a roof being always seriously affected by external extremes of moisture and temperature.

The ventilation of each apartment or floor should be independent and derived from the outside air, not drawn from the baseinent by a staircase shaft. The circulation of air should include warming, so that the heat from every fire in the house may be used as a ventilator and a warmer.

The difficulties to be overcome in ventilation and warming are still very great. Many plans have been tried and found wanting; some for ventilation simply, others for warming simply, and others again for combining the two. It cannot but be conceded

that those plans succeed best which accomplish the one by the aid of the other.

It must be remembered that the amount of air required by each adult person is 3,000 cubic feet per hour. Children need almost as much, owing to the more rapid breathing and the quicker chemical changes which their growth and development demand.

Such a consumption of air would require the contents of a room ten feet square to be changed three times every hour.

Space is not everything in ventilation. Some persons think that because rooms are large and lofty, the matter of changing the air may be more or less left to take care of itself. This is a mistaken view, for the height of an apartment may be a real disadvantage, the upper part becoming a species of reservoir for impure air which cannot escape and which, as it becomes cooler, sinks and diffuses into the common air below.

It follows that there should be an abundant supply of fresh air, and also means of exit for the used air. The rate of movement in the air admitted should never exceed 5 feet per second. If it do, draughts are felt, and we know by experience the serious evils which follow in their train.

The chimney-shaft, protected by an Arnott's or similar valve, is the best exit for the air of a room.

Pure Air, Light, Water.

A leading principle in the construction of the healthy house is to put into it, for building purposes and for furnishing purposes, as little as possible of all substances that hold and retain those specific particles of disease which, being set free, spread by diffusion, and excite their specific diseases. Thus, in all constructions porous materials are bad; absorbing materials are bad; materials such as thatch and straw for roofings are bad. In furnishing, woollen and fluffy materials are bad; heavy curtains to beds and windows are bad; carpets which cover the whole of a room are bad. In a word, all materials that catch dust, keep dusty, hide dust and, on being shaken, yield clouds of dust, are bad.

Light should be freely admitted into all parts, cupboards and closets as well as sitting- and bed-rooms, for sunlight is in itself a potent purifier. One great evil of the gloomy cloister-like style of building is that the darkness hides lurking dust.

All water for drinking purposes should be filtered. Cisterns are at present a necessity, and should therefore be kept as pure as possible by periodical cleansings.

Summary of Healthy Essentials for the House.

(a) Separation of the house from direct contact with the earth.

(b) Complete separation from the sewer or cesspool.

(e) Freedom from collections of damp and dust.

(d) Separation, by air communication, between floor and floor.

(e) Unobstructed and instant drainage.

(f) Equalization of temperature.

(g) Independent ventilation of rooms, with utilization of every fireplace for warming and ventilation.

(h) Free admission of light.

(i) Perfect filtration and cooling of water.

Summary of Healthy Essentials for the Bedroom.

1. The bedroom, as the apartment in which a third portion of life is or ought to be passed, should be the room most carefully provided for, in relation to sanitary requirements.

2. A bedroom should always be cheerfully furnished. The furniture should be light and incapable of holding dust. The walls should be distempered, of a light bluish-gray or sea-green color. A southern aspect for the window is best.

3. Each sleeper ought to be supplied with 1,500 cubic feet, at least, of breathing space.

4. Air supplied for bedrooms ought to be drawn immediately from the outside, and should never be permitted to enter from inside passages, or be carried upwards from the basement. The "costless" ventilation plan, of Mr. P. H. Bird, is an excellent one for accomplishing this end; better still, is a fire-stove, which warms and delivers pure warm air freely and systematically into the room.

5. Free exit should be made for the air by the chimney-shaft. 6. An equable temperature of 60° Fahr. should be maintained in the apartment during its occupation.

7. Daylight should, when it is present, at all times be freely admitted into the bedroom. It should be shielded from the