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The Ministry of Health and Healing
dry site and prevent the danger of disease from dampness and a foggy,
unwholesome atmosphere. This matter is often too lightly regarded.
Continuous ill-health, serious diseases, and many deaths result from
the dampness and malaria of low-lying, ill-drained situations.
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When constructing homes it is especially important to secure
thorough ventilation and plenty of sunlight. Make provision for a
current of air and an abundance of light in every room in the house.
Sleeping rooms should be so arranged as to have a free circulation
of air day and night. No room is suitable as a bedroom unless it can
be thrown open daily to fresh air and sunshine. In most countries
bedrooms need to be supplied with conveniences for heating, that
they may be thoroughly warmed and dried in cold or wet weather.
The guest room should have equal care with the rooms intended
for constant use. Like the other bedrooms, it should have air and
sunshine and should be provided with some means of heating to dry
out the dampness that always accumulates in a room not in constant
use. Whoever sleeps in a sunless room, or occupies a bed that has
not been thoroughly dried and aired, does so at the risk of health,
and often of life.
In building, many make careful provision for their plants and
flowers. The greenhouse or window devoted to their use is warm
and sunny, for without warmth, air, and sunshine, plants will not live
and flourish. If these conditions are necessary to the life of plants,
how much more necessary are they for our own health and that of
our families and guests!
If we want our homes to be the abiding place of health and
happiness, we must place them above the tainted vapors and fog of
the lowlands, and give free entrance to Heaven’s life-giving agencies.
Dispense with heavy curtains, open the windows and blinds, allow
no vines, however beautiful, to shade the windows, and permit
no trees to stand so near the house as to shut out the sunshine.
Sunlight may fade the draperies and carpets and tarnish the picture
frames, but it will bring a healthy glow to the cheeks of the children.
Those who have senior citizens to provide for should remember that
these especially need warm, comfortable rooms. Vigor declines as
years advance, leaving less vitality with which to resist unhealthful
influences, hence the greater necessity for the elderly to have plenty
of sunlight and fresh, pure air.