Microbes and Carpets

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 138, 19 May 1892, Page 4

Microbes and Carpets

In our endeavour to be comfortable in this Vale of tears there is a tendi ency to over look the elementary laws of hygiene, and in no respect, perhaps, more so than in the superabundance of curtains and carpets — those non-patented contrivances for hindering; the free circultaion of fresh air and stultifying nature's automatic arrangement; for the dnodorisation and disinfection of our homes. Carpets are always objectionable when they are not designed to permit of easy removal for cleansing purposes without the necessity of turning j a room topsy-turvy. In most houses the carpets fonly comes up once a yea*, by which time it is as- full of i microbes and accumulated filth as its interstices will allow. No wonder then, if our rooms preserve a musty smell in spite of periodical opening of windows and vigorous sweepings, which only displace a portion of the dust to settle promptly elsewhere in some less accessible spot. Fixed carpets are even more object'onable and unwholesome in bedrooms, for there they absorb the fetid emanations of the night, and soak up various decomposable materials for iuture use. The ideal would be a polished wooden floor garnished with rugs in sufficient number to give en aspect and ieeling of comfort, while admitting of easy exposure to tbe salutary influence of air and light. Rugs, carpets, and curtains ought to be frequently shaken and hung up in the air if they are to remain sweet, not once a month or year, but twice or thricJ a week, if not;oftener. At this price only can we hope to deprive confined spaces of tbeir native unwholesomeness, and the sooner housewives lay this maxim to their hearts and act upon it tbe better,— Hospital Gazette.