A guide to the choice of a site for residential purposes : high-lying, dry sites remedial and preventive of disease, and promotive of health and the enjoyment of life, from the evidence of a wide range of eminent authorities in therapeutics, climatology, etc. : considerations founded on geological facts and the benefits derived from residence on high-lying sites on the chalk, which alone, of all sub-soils in the Home Counties, can always be relied upon for dryness, even in an elevated situation / by a member of the Geologists' Association.

  • Gilford, William.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to the choice of a site for residential purposes : high-lying, dry sites remedial and preventive of disease, and promotive of health and the enjoyment of life, from the evidence of a wide range of eminent authorities in therapeutics, climatology, etc. : considerations founded on geological facts and the benefits derived from residence on high-lying sites on the chalk, which alone, of all sub-soils in the Home Counties, can always be relied upon for dryness, even in an elevated situation / by a member of the Geologists' Association. 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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    the Greensand at Reigate was always troubled with asthma in the moist climate of South Devon, and is free from it in the drier climate of Reigate. '*In regard to rainfall and pleasure-traffic, a very important question is, * What is the character of the subsoil of a place ?' A heavy rain on a porous soil may be much less of an inconve- nience to foot-passengers and pleasure-seekers than a much smaller rainfall on a heavy clayey soil which the rain neither soaks through nor readily evaporates from.—Dr. Moseley. Defective nutrition arising from exhausted vitality being at the root of consumption, the climatic question admits of little controversy; a cool, dry, sunny, and moderately stimulating climate is the one best adapted for restoring vitality and warmth.—Dr. Moseley. If it be necessary in the eyes of the farmer that his fields should have a dry subsoil, that his crops may live and thrive on their surface, how much more obviously necessary is it that the ground on which our houses stand should be so dry that the people who live in those dwellings should be healthy and strong 1 The primary care of the man who is determined that his house shall be warm and dry, should be devoted to seeing that his site is naturally a dry one. Art and skill may do much to improve a malarious, a marshy, or a merely damp site, but such a piece of ground can never in the nature of things be so satisfactory as one which possesses a naturally dry subsoil.— ''Land;' April 1882. Elevated Sites are drier and warmer than lower Situa- tions. Dampness, the especial bane of all delicate constitutions, should be guarded against by choosing a somewhat elevated situation upon a dry subsoil.—Dr. Scoresby Jackson on Me- dical Climatology,