The Hygiene of the House.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 May 1906, Page 167

The Hygiene of the House.

Dr. Somerville Hastings lecturing at the Institute of Hygiene, London, on " The Hygiene of the House," said that everything about a home should conform to the requirements of health, comfort, and economy of service. A craze for grandeur had fastened itself, like an mcubus, upon middle and even working-class family life. The best rooms, the most roomy and best-lighted m the all-too-small dwellings were set apart and dedicated, like temples, for the occasional worship of the unattainable in regard to artistic environment. The prim orderliness of these sacred apartments was neither a thing of beauty nor a source of comfort to the true home lover, who entered in a state of suppression and unrest, and finally banished himself to metaphorical freedom to enjoy his pipe in the kitchen or elsewhere. What should be the one bright spot in the home was turned mto a garnished dungeon, devoted to musty odours, damp, and mould while the family was cribbed, cabined, and confined in the gloomy back sittingroom of smaller proportions and insufficient window space. The unhygienic fashion which demanded thick pile carpets, heavy curtains, immovable articles of furniture, cornices, mouldings, cupboard tops, and similar dust collectors, which formed the most potent factor m the creation of that reign of topsy-turveydom known as the ' spring clean," was a very potent evil, but very difficult to deal with. Each part of a room and its contents must be so constructed that every surface .whether of floor, wall, ceiling, or furniture, should lend itself to easy methods of cleaning at frequent intervals. Once set this up as a canon of housekeeping, and the canons of art would accommodate themselves so that we should not only have the house wholesome but the hotise beautiful.