How to Live | Page 7

any simple and cheap way of drying
house air which is too moist, as is often the case in warm weather.
[Sidenote: Humidity]
In the cold season, indoor air is often too dry and may be moistened
with advantage. This may be done, to some extent, by heating water in
large pans or open vessels. But for efficient moistening of the air, either
a very large evaporating-surface or steam jets are required. The small
open vessels or saucers on which some people rely, even when located
in the air-passages of a hot-air furnace, have only an infinitesimal
influence. Vertical wicks of felt with their lower ends in water kept hot
by the heating apparatus yield a rapid supply of moisture. Evaporation
is greatly facilitated if the water or wicks are placed in the current of
heated air entering the room. By a suitable construction, the water may
be replenished automatically. In very cold dry weather, the air-supply
of an ordinary medium-sized house requires the addition of not less
than 10 gallons of moisture every 24 hours, and sometimes much more.
Some authorities doubt any ill effects from extreme dryness. This is a
subject yet to be cleared by experimental research.
[Sidenote: Freshness]
It is obvious that fresh pure air is preferable to impure air. Air may be
vitiated by poisonous gases, by dust and smoke, or by germs. Dust and
smoke often go together.
Lighting by electricity is preferable to lighting by gas, as some of the
gas is liable to escape and vitiate the air.
[Sidenote: Tobacco Smoke]
A very common and at the same time injurious form of air-vitiation is
that from tobacco smoke. Smoking, especially in a closed space such as
a smoking-room or smoking-car, vitiates the air very seriously, for
smoker and non-smoker alike.

[Sidenote: Dust]
As to dust, the morbidity and mortality rates in certain occupations,
particularly those known as the dusty trades, are appreciably and even
materially greater than in dustless trades.
An accumulation of house-dust should be avoided. The dust should be
removed--not by the old-fashioned feather duster which scatters the
dust into the air--but by a damp or oiled cloth. Dust-catching furniture
and hangings of plush, lace, etc., are not hygienic. A carpet-sweeper is
more hygienic than a broom, and a vacuum cleaner is better than a
carpet-sweeper. The removable rug is an improvement hygienically
over the fixed carpet.
[Sidenote: Bacteria]
The bacteria in air ride on the dust-particles. In a clean hospital ward,
when air was agitated by dry sweeping, the number of colonies of
bacteria collected on a given exposure rose twenty-fold, showing the
effect of ordinary broom-sweeping.
[Sidenote: Sunlight]
The air we breathe should be sunlit when possible. Many of our germ
enemies do not long survive in sunlight.
Section II--Clothing
Air may be shut out not only by tight houses but also by tight clothes. It
follows that the question of clothing is closely related to the question of
ventilation. In fact it is a reasonable inference from modern
investigations that air-hygiene concerns the skin quite as much as the
lungs. Therefore the hygiene of clothing assumes a new and hitherto
unsuspected importance. A truly healthy skin is not the waxy white
which is so common, but one which glows with color, just as do
healthy cheeks exposed to the open air.
[Sidenote: Porous Clothes]

The hygiene of clothing includes ventilation and freedom from pressure,
moderate warmth, and cleanliness. Loose, porous underclothes are
already coming into vogue. But effective ventilation, namely such as
will allow free access of air to the skin, requires that our outer
clothes--including women's gowns and men's shirts, vests, vest-linings,
and coat-linings--should also be loose and porous. Here is one of the
most important but almost wholly neglected clothing reforms. Most
linings and many fabrics used in outer clothes are so tightly woven as
to be impervious to air. Yet porous fabrics are always available,
including porous alpacas for lining. To test a fabric it is only necessary
to place it over the mouth and observe whether it is possible or easy to
blow the breath through it.
[Sidenote: Air-baths]
At times we can enjoy relief from clothing altogether. An air-bath
promotes a healthy skin and aids it in the performance of its normal
functions. Not every one can visit air-bath establishments or outdoor
gymnasia or take the modern nude cure by which juvenile
consumptives are sometimes treated (even in winter, after becoming
gradually accustomed to the cold); but any one can spend at least a
little time in a state of nature. Both at the time of rising in the morning
and upon retiring at night, there are many things which are usually
done while one's clothes are on which could be done just as well while
they are off. Brushing the teeth, washing the