the careful regulation of diet, the relaxation from business, and change of scene. Free public baths are not as common either in Europe or America as they should be. In the city of New York there are only eight; in Brooklyn three; in Philadelphia two; in Boston twenty. There are none in Baltimore, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, or San Francisco. These baths are floating baths for men and boys in one compartment, and for women and girls in the other; they are usually moored near some of the public docks; in Boston they are near the bridges, which are numerous in that city; in any event, they are necessarily near one or more of the sewer outlets. When intercepting sewers shall have been established for the better purification of our great harbors, this disadvantage will be obviated. It has been alleged, not without a show of reason, that the absorption of sewage matters, by reason of the immersion of the body in the waters of our harbors, was itself more harmful than the uncleanliness of the bather; but this is certainly an exaggeration; and, moreover, absorption by the skin is very slow, and the great reduction of the temperature of the body consequent upon the saline bath compensates in some measure for the evil. It is not, however, irremediable. Mr. Charles Slagg, C. E., of England, has proposed a very ingenious scheme for providing filtered-water swimming-baths in impure rivers. He proposes to place floating baths in the current of a river, "and by means of tidewheels to utilize the motive power of the current to pump water into the bath from a well into which the river-water enters through a filter in the bottom of the vessel." This scheme is doubtless practicable, but has not been tried in this country, and the writer has seen no account of its having been tried elsewhere. The public baths have not as yet been heated, nor have any been constructed except floating baths. Dr. Bell suggested some years ago that large manufacturing establishments could easily furnish the necessary facilities for heating the water for public baths. He estinated that the waste water of a five hundred horse-power steam-engine would be sufficient to "furnish baths for twenty-six hundred persons daily, at an average temperature of 70° to 75° Fahr." It is not probable that this plan could be made available. Since the city assumes the responsibility of providing free public baths at all, it would seem eminently proper that it should provide them with the necessary appliances for accomplishing their intended purpose. The furnishing of a suitable tank, and a steam-boiler for hot water, would not appear to present an insuperable obstacle. The greatest difficulty consists in obtaining the necessary appropriation from the city treasury. Without special discussion of the physiology of the human skin, or particular mention of the details of its anatomy, it may be stated that all living animals cast off and renew their cutaneous appendages in some way. Reptiles cast off the entire skin each year, quadrupeds shed their hair and portions of their epidermis, the "molting" process is more or less constant in birds, crustaceans cast off their shells in whole or in part, according to species, and fishes their scales. The epidermis of man, although more gradually thrown off, is yet as constantly undergoing that process. The blood circulating through the skin is cooled by indirect contact with the air, and it parts with certain of its salts and water by means of the sweat-glands, with which it is numerously supplied; if, then, from any cause the sweat-ducts (pores) become obstructed, a local sore or a general disease is the result: a local sore if but few are obstructed, and general disease in exact and definite proportion to the number of glands involved. Numerous experiments have been made by physiologists tending to show the effect of closure of the sweat-ducts upon lower animals, by covering the skin with an impermeable coating, and death was the invariable result, the duration of life after the coating only varying according to the thoroughness of the application. Dr. Flint quotes from Laschkewitch the case of a child who was covered with gold-leaf in order to represent an angel in the ceremonies attending the coronation of Pope Leo X. This child died a few hours after the coating had been applied. The effect of the closure of a smaller number of sweat-ducts is, as before stated, to produce a local sore, which is manifested in the form of a cutaneous eruption. It follows, then, that the application of water has a general tendency to assist the natural process of throwing off the epidermis, and, by dissolving and carrying off the perspiration, assists in keeping open the pores of the body, which, although not the only drains, are yet highly important ones. So in all ages its use has been accounted a great benefit. There are, however, thousands of human beings who do not bathe, except, perhaps, the hands and face; such persons are usually of the laboring-classes, whose perspiration is very free, sufficient in quantity to enforce its passage through the ducts, and prevent obstruction. In towns and villages throughout the United States not furnished with a general water-supply, bath-rooms are the exception, and in winter the only bath taken is a sponge or towel bath. In summer the male inhabitants of such villages usually seek the nearest lake or watercourse. Baths are divided first, according to the medium employed, as air, vapor, sand, mud, or chemicals, etc.; second, a subdivision of the media; but, as the water-bath only is within the scope of this article, the first need not engage our attention. Water-baths are classed as plunge-baths, foot-baths, hip-baths, showerbaths, and sponge-baths; they are divided into cold baths, 42° to 70° Fahr.; tepid baths, from 72° to 82° Fahr.; warm baths, from 83° to 98° Fahr.; hot baths, from 99° to 112° Fahr. and upward. Dr. Forbes has given a more complicated division, viz., cold, cool, temperate, tepid, warm, and hot; it is evident that such divisions are purely arbitrary, and can easily be multiplied until there are as many divisions as there are degrees upon the scale. The four divisions first named will be found to answer every practical purpose, since in reality all baths are relatively cold or hot according to the sensations of the bather, if he be in health; but even in health there is considerable variation in the temperature of the skin, and a still greater range in disease. A bath the water of which is 22° below the temperature of the skin may fairly be considered a cold bath, although as high as 75° Fahr. The cold baths used by the Romans were not usually of a very low temperature, as appears from Vitruvius, the chill" being taken off by the fires beneath the bath-room. The first effect of a plunge into a cold bath is that of a shock to the system; the skin hardens and contracts, and the minute blood-vessels, being compressed, are diminished in size; to this stage succeeds that of reaction, a stimulant impression upon the cutaneous nerves-the blood-vessels again dilate, a general glow appears upon the surface of the body, and this reaction continues for a longer or shorter period, according to the degree of temperature of the water in which the body was immersed. If the immersion be long-continued, and the stage of reaction passed, a general feeling of chilliness comes on, the lips become blue, the teeth may chatter, and the skin again contracts, leaving little hillocks around the point of insertion of the hairs. This appearance is commonly known as "goose-flesh." Sea-bathing is a cold bath in mineral waters; it differs from the ordinary cold bath only in being more stimulant; the "shock" and the "reaction" are each more distinct than in a cold fresh-water bath. In surf-bathing there is a mechanical force added by the action of the waves, which still heightens the shock and the reaction. A certain amount of exercise, as preliminary to a cold bath in fresh or salt water, is beneficial; in fact, if the heat of the body be great at the time of the plunge, the shock will be less marked and the reaction will be more lasting. The practice of waiting to "cool off" before taking the plunge in the sea is a bad one, and founded neither on experience nor reason. The ancients always used the cold bath immediately after coming from the hot, as a means of contracting the open pores, and preventing the bather from taking cold. Delicate persons, invalids, and children under ten years of age, should not use the cold bath except by advice of a physician, and no bath should be taken immediately after a full meal, nor should it be prolonged. It may be added that, immediately upon quitting the bath, the skin should be rubbed with a towel until a ruddy, healthful glow is produced, and the bath can not be refreshing unless this shall have been accomplished. Persons taking sea-baths should be guided by this rule, and the not uncommon habit of taking repeated baths within a few hours of each other, or that of spending the interval between the rapidly recurring baths in wet garments, can not be too pointedly condemned. Nature has shown her abhorrence of such practices, as is well attested by the blue lips, the shivering, and the bleached ap pearance of those following them. The shower-bath, when used with cold water, is objectionable, and should only be taken in accordance with the advice of a physician. Warm baths, as may be inferred from the statements made concerning cold baths, are at first stimulating and then relaxing in their tendency. They have been employed from time immemorial as a means of refreshing the body after fatigue, as well as for the power of solution of the various substances obtaining a lodgment on the skin, which power is greater in hot than in cold water. The oily secretion usually present on the skin is almost insoluble in cold water, but soluble in hot water. The débris of the epidermis, the saline products from the evaporation of the perspiration, and the impurities collected from without the body, are more easily removed. Invalids and delicate persons can bathe in warm or tepid water without injury, providing the skin be sponged with cold water immediately afterward, and then rubbed with the towel. Fleshy persons can reduce much of their superfluous weight by the protracted use of the warm bath, and it follows that persons naturally thin should not remain long in the water, but that their bath should be limited to that necessary for cleanliness. It should be remembered that thousands live without the bath, and to all appearance are reasonably healthy, and that, however valuable it may be as a factor in the problem of how to live long and comfortably, it is not an absolutely indispensable one. Whatever form of bath be used, it is proper that it should be followed by the application of a warm oil. It is difficult to give a satisfactory reason why this practice should have been omitted after having been used by all nations for countless ages. The particular oil to be used may be according to individual preference, but olive-oil, which can easily be perfumed, would appear to be the least objectionable. In the use of soap there is great danger of obtaining soap manufactured from diseased animal fat on the one hand, or of being so strongly alkaline as to affect the epidermis on the other. These difficulties are best avoided by the selection of soap made from olive-oil, the white castile soap being taken as the type. The construction of the bath-room and its appliances will be discussed under the head-CONSTRUCTION OF DWELLINGS. CONSTRUCTION OF DWELLINGS. 1. Selection of a Site.-The selection of a healthful site for the building of a city has been deemed of the greatest importance in all ages except our own; indeed, the ancients were especially solicitous in that regard, as is shown in the historical narratives of the laying out of ancient cities, from the founding of Lycosurus in Arcadia, as described by Pausanias, to the building of Alexandria by Dinocrates under the orders of Alexander. In Hippocrates's "Airs, Waters, and Places," the relative healthfulness of building sites is thus laid down: "Those [cities] which lie to the rising of the sun are all likely to be more healthy than such as are turned to the north, or those exposed to the hot winds, even if there should not be a furlong between them. In the first place, both the heat and cold are more moderate. Then such waters as flow to the rising sun must necessarily be clear, soft, and delightful to drink in such a city, for the sun in rising and shining upon them purifies them by dispelling the vapors which generally prevail in the morning. The persons of the inhabitants are, for the most part, well colored and blooming. The inhabitants have clear voices, and in temper and intellect are superior to those which are exposed to the north, and all the productions of the country in like manner are better; but such cities as lie to the west, and which are sheltered from winds blowing from the east, and which the hot winds and the cold winds of the north scarcely touch, must necessarily be in a very unhealthy situation: in the first place, the waters are not clear. . . . And in summer cold breezes from the east blow and dews fall; and in the latter part of the day the setting sun particularly scorches the inhabitants, and therefore they are pale and enfeebled, and are partly subject to all the aforesaid diseases, but no one is peculiar to them. Their voices are rough and hoarse, owing to the state of the air, which in such a situation is generally impure and unwholesome, for they have not the northern winds to purify it; and these winds they have are of a very humid character, such being the nature of the evening breezes" (Sydenham Society's translation, London, 1849). And Vitruvius has laid down in the clearest manner his opinion upon this subject in his work on architecture, written about twenty-five years before the Christian era: "In setting out the walls of a city, choice of a healthy situation is of the first importance; it should be on high ground, neither subject to fogs nor rains; its aspects should be neither violently hot nor intensely cold, but temperate in both respects. The neighborhood of a marshy place must be avoided; for in such a site the morning air, uniting with the fogs that rise in the neighborhood, will reach the city with the rising sun; and these fogs and mists, charged with the exhalations of the fenny animals, will diffuse an unwholesome effluvia over the bodies of the inhabitants, and render the place pestilent. A city on the seaside, exposed to the south or west, will be insalubrious, for in summer mornings a city thus placed would be hot, and at noon it would be scorched. A city, also, with a western aspect would even at sunrise be warm, at noon hot, and in the evening of a burning temperature. Hence the constitutions of the inhabitants of such places, from such continual and excessive changes of the air, would be much vitiated. This effect is likewise produced on inanimate bodies: nobody would think of lighting his wine-cellar from the south or west, but from the north, an aspect not liable to these violent changes. In granaries whose aspects are south of the east or west, the stores are soon ruined; and provisions, as well as fruits, can not long be preserved unless kept in apartments whose aspects are north of the east or west. Those who change a cold for a hot climate rarely escape sickness, but are soon carried off; whereas, on the other hand, those who pass from a hot to a cold climate, far from being injured by the change, are generally strengthened. Much care, then, should be taken so to set out the walls of a city that it may not be obnoxious to the pestilential blasts of the hot winds" (Gwilt's translation, London, 1860). The science of pathology was brought into requisition as an aid in the determination of the healthfulness of proposed sites for cities and permanent encampments. Animals were killed after they had for some time drunk the waters and fed upon the herbage grown upon the site. The livers were inspected, and if diseased the site was rejected. As the ancients were thus particular in the selection of sites for a city, it is reasonable to suppose that they were equally careful in choosing sites for their public buildings and dwellings. Vitruvius, with his usual minuteness, has left us his recommendations: "Natural consistency arises from the choice of such situations for temples as possess the advantages of salubrious air and water; more especially in the case of temples erected to Esculapius, to Hygeia, and such other divinities as possess the power of curing diseases. For thus the sick, changing the unwholesome air and water to which they have been accustomed for those that are healthy, sooner recover; and a reliance upon the divinity will be therefore increased by proper choice of situation. Natural consistency also requires that chambers should be lighted from the east; baths and winter apartments from the southwest; picture and other galleries which require a steady light, from the north." It is proper to note that a marsh-site is not necessarily unhealthy, provided it can be thoroughly drained. Many places in America are now free from malaria that were once very miasmatic, owing to the better drainage adopted in late years. The great prairies of Illinois, that were once checkered with ponds and marshes, and very unhealthful, have, owing to the cultivation of the soil, and subsoil drainage, materially changed in character. The height at which the "ground-water" or residual moisture in the alluvium becomes station ary, determines in great part the healthfulness of the site, and therefore no building-site should be chosen where the ground-water is not stationary at a point lower than the proposed foundation of the new house, or where it can not be made so by drainage. 2. Foundations. - All loam should be removed, and the bed-stone laid down to the solid earth whenever possible. If the earth be at all damp, a drain-pipe should be laid outside the wall a few inches lower than the bed-stone, and the basement covered with four or five inches of good concrete, upon which the floor may be laid. It is obvious that the drain-pipe should not be laid so near the bed-stone as to affect the security of the wall. If the ground-water still remain in the soil near the concrete, no amount of that material will make a dry cellar; the only remedy in such a case is to lay additional pipes for ventilation which shall be connected with the kitchen or other regularly heated flue. "Damp-proof courses" of impervious bricks are frequently used to keep out the external wet from basements, but are practically useless where the moisture rises inside the foundation-walls. 3. Walls. Impervious bricks should not be used for outside walls, above the groundcourses, for it is quite necessary that transudation of moisture and carbonic oxide should take place from within outward. It is, however, an excellent practice to use impervious bricks for party walls, for precisely the opposite reason. An area should be constructed about the outer wall, of greater or less extent according to the amount of space available, extending down to the level of the bed-stone. A dry-area wall has been recommended where the space is limited, but it is obvious that the "dry" area, which is really an additional wall, is itself objectionable unless ventilated at the top and bottom, and it is therefore clear that the wall would be quite as well without it. In the construction of walls the aim should be, not only to exclude the external moisture from the dwelling, but by means of the porosity of the don, 1874) recommends that the hollow walls be constructed as shown in the cut, with Mr. Jennings's patent bonded bricks. 4. Heating and Ventilation.-It is not known when houses were first artificially heated; there are, however, numerous legends concerning the discovery of fire, of which one of the best is that given by Vitruvius: "A tempest, on a certain occasion, having exceedingly agitated the trees in a particular spot, the friction between some of the branches caused them to take fire; this so alarmed those in the neighborhood of the occurrence that they took to flight. Returning to the spot after the tempest had subsided, and finding the warmth which had thus been created extremely comfortable, they added fuel to the fire excited, in order to preserve the heat, and then went forth to invite others, by signs and gestures, to come and witness the discovery." It is doubtful if the present century has added very much to the long list of inventions of heating apparatus proposed by Franklin and Rumford, with the exception of the inventions of Galton and Morin, although for many years the subject has been faithfully studied. Mr. Pepys informs us under date of February 15, 1664-'65, that he went "with Creed to Gresham College. ... But it is a most acceptable thing to hear their discourse, and see their experiments; which were this day on fire, and how it goes out in a place where the ayre is exhausted, which they showed by an engine on purpose." The subjects of heating and ventilation are perceived, upon reflection, to be intimately connected with each other, and are therefore properly treated of at the same time. The methods of heating dwellings, in use in America at the present time, consist of open grates or "fireplaces," furnaces, heaters, and stoves. Warm water and steam, although much used in heating public buildings, are but little used for dwellings. Parkes states that heat is communicated by radiation or convection. Heat is radiant where it is directly emitted from the flame or incandescent substance. Convective heat is that transmitted by the motion of the particles of a heated object. Radiation is accomplished by means of open fires, and convection by the various patterns of stoves and heated pipes. The open fire is at the same time the most pleasant to the eye, and that most healthful of all methods now in use. Its superiority in a sanitary point of view arises from the fact that the open fire is one of the best-known means of ventilation, and at the same time it is admitted that radiant heat is more beneficial in its effects upon the human body than the convective. The success of an open fire depends FIG. 1.-HOLLOW WALL FROM EASSIE. a, vamped brick; largely upon the care with which the grate and b, d, straight; c, rafter drip. wall to allow the escape of internal moisture. Hollow walls are therefore recommended as fulfilling the necessary conditions. Mr. Eassie ("Sanitary Arrangements for Dwellings," Lon chimney have been constructed. The grate may be, and usually is, dispensed with, where wood is burned in the large fireplaces. There is great diversity in the relative velocity of air-currents in different chimneys, out of proportion to any apparent difference in their SMOKE FLUE shape. The location of the house, the prevailing winds, the height of the chimney with respect to the surrounding buildings, govern the "draught" in a high degree. The direction of the air-current is quite likely to be downward in an unheated chimney. Some examinations recently made by the writer gave the following results: In a chimney with one side connected with the flue of a furnace, on a still day, there was a slight downward current of thirty-five cubic feet per minute. The current was not sufficient to turn the fan of the anemometer, when placed a few inches in front 130 to 200 cubic feet per minute. The amount of ventilation in an ordinary house being almost wholly dependent upon the chimney, it is therefore of the utmost importance that it should be properly constructed and finished. An open grate requires from 500 to 600 cubic feet per minute of fresh air. This is usually supplied through the crevices of the doors and windows. No other form of heating apparatus has as yet been devised which will abstract the same quantity of air from a room; it is consequently the best system of ventilation. The objections urged against it are, in the first place, the dust from the coal and ashes, and, in the second place, its greater expense. As the advantage to be derived from it is so much greater than its attendant evils, the first argument can have but little weight; and, as to its expense, it has been well said that any system of ventilation at all worthy of the name costs something, and the expense is therefore a necessary AIR FLUE FIG. 2.-FRONT ELEVATION, SHOWING SMOKE AND AIR of the fireplace. At this time the inward cur- |
