The history of the house : the struggle for fresh air and light / by George M. Gould.

  • Gould, George Milbrey, 1848-1922.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The history of the house : the struggle for fresh air and light / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    world, light, air and sunshine is in every one of these two, three and four-room suites. But, of all the peoples of the world, the Japanese have solved the problem best. And that is the cause of their success, and of their coming success in all the world’s work. All success, national or personal, rests upon health ; and health depends upon the house, the purity of its air, its cleanliness, physical, personal and social. A typical Japanese house has plenty of air and light; it is far cheaper even than the Philadelphia model; it is what no cheap house in civilization is,—beautiful ! Three pairs of sapling tops were crossed in its original construction! The Japanese have learned how to clothe the body and keep it warm while keeping the air of their houses cool and pure. The air of all our houses and cars is too warm, and is impure. The poorest Japanese has plenty of light in his house; our poor have none. There is no filth on their floors, in their yards, or closets, while our people, even the well-to-do, are usually filthy. Pig. 38.—Kitchen of a three-room suite in Phipps’ Tenement; rent, $3.50 a week. The Japanese have no “beds” and so they have no bedbugs and other bugs. In every farmhouse of our land the air is dead, the windows closed, the rooms dark and stuffy. And so our death rate is far higher than that of the Japanese. They also have compulsory vaccination, while we allow the wild fools of anti-vaccination to kill thousands every year and maim thousands more. The Japanese and the Finns bathe the body daily. How is it with the rest of the world? And with all our money and “public works,” we can not put pure water into our houses. At least 50,000 of our people are killed each year by unnecessary typhoid fever, and the unnecessary disease costs us about $100,000,000 a year! Before we leave the Japanese house we should note that this first of all warlike peoples exhibits the first systematic and successful attempt, as Major Seamon has shown, to save its soldiers’ lives and health and to win battles by so doing. The housing of its citizens, especially of the more impoverished, should be the vital concern of every municipality, and of every good