Re: [GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation
- Original Message - From: "Eva M. Löfgren" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Girlsown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 10:38 PM Subject: [GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation > Barbara Dryden wrote: > > The conflict between a middle/upper class link between fresh air and > > health and the lower orders' belief that night air will kill you seems > > eternal. In Elizabeth von Arnim's books (the German ones) there is a > > lot about the stupid peasants sealing themselves into their houses and > > sewing their children into their clothes while Elizabeth believes the > > children would be healthier if they got some fresh air. > > > Not only class but geograpical/climatical differences. When you live in > a cold climate you can't sleep with open windows for most part of the > year - you need to keep the rooms warm. Yes indeed - geography is certainly important. When they get malaria in Little House on the Prairie, it is blamed on the night air and it you live in a mosquito ridden swamp (as many people still do), then keeping your windows closed is probably quite sensible (as well as having all the netting). I don't know about Real Life, but in the dramatised versions of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's life, there are always scenes where she begs to be allowed to open the windows and the nurse compromises with opening the bedroom door. So maybe it wasn't just The Poor who were prejudiced against the night air. And perhaps poor people houses didn't have very well-fitting windows anyway so there may have been enough natural drafts. Nicky -- Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm
[GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation
Barbara Dryden wrote: The conflict between a middle/upper class link between fresh air and health and the lower orders' belief that night air will kill you seems eternal. In Elizabeth von Arnim's books (the German ones) there is a lot about the stupid peasants sealing themselves into their houses and sewing their children into their clothes while Elizabeth believes the children would be healthier if they got some fresh air. Not only class but geograpical/climatical differences. When you live in a cold climate you can't sleep with open windows for most part of the year - you need to keep the rooms warm. Even upper classes in Sweden in earlier days - mostly living in wooden houses - had double glazing inserted in the autumn and the whole windows sealed up for the winter. The rooms were aired for spring cleaning. I'm not sure about the winter temperatures in the Alpes, but I guess that that open dormitory windows might not have been advisable in practice other than for short periods each day. Sleeping in very cold air is not very healthy, not even if you don't suffer from asthma or similar troubles. I haven't read von Arnim, but I have a feeling that neither she nor EBD had much understanding of the traditional ways of Continental - or even British - peasants to adapt to climate and living conditions. I've never heard about children being sewed into their clothes in Sweden, but poor people didn't have many changes a hundred years ago. Eva Margareta, waiting for the approaching winter and hoping we won't get any temperatures below -10 this season. -- Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm
[GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation
I pickedup in a second hand bookshop a book on "How To Keep House," by Mrs C S Peel, dated 1902, which contains some comments on health care and prevention of illness, including the importance of your drains, which I thought might be of interest: "Everyone will agree that it is more important for a house to be sanitary than to be beautiful ... for upon this depends our health, our comfort, and our very lives... No sewgae system has been devised which is not apt to get out of order at some time. Smells are usually the first sign of such derangement, but not invariably so. Sore throats are a furtehr and more unpleasant item of evidence, while blood-poisoning and typhoid are the worst... It is only of late years that it has been fully recognised how much sunlight affects our health, not only by the vigour that it gives to our persons, but by destroying the germs of disease that are everywhere abroad. It is therefore necessary to have as much light in all parts of our houses as possible, and to avoid keeping out the beneficial rays of the sun by heavy curtains and thick window blinds... As with light so also with air... all windows, both in bed and sitting rooms, should be open for as long a time as possible every day... In the case of infectious diseases... proper precautionary measures shpuld be taken to prevent the spread of the disease among the unaffected inmates... Disnifecting after the illness is over is now usually done by the sanitary authority; but all wall-papers in the infected houses must be carefully stripped, and not covered up by new ones... Lastly, it is of the greatest imposrtance to see that the servants are housed among sanitary surroundings; for, having been accustomed to a less hygienic mode of living at home, they are apt to ignore some of the simple but highly important rules of health. Their rooms should be properly ventilated, even against their will, and it should be seen to that their quarters are kept as clean, dry, light and fresh as the other portions of the house." At the end among the advertisements for other books is one entitled "From Cradle To School", by Mrs Ada S Ballin, which is described as "An indepensable manual for mothers, dealing with questions of their own health and the health management and up-bringing of their children." It dealt with subjects including vaccination and sickness, and quoted reviews call it "quite a blessing to mothers", and say "No mother and no nurse should be without it". Lisa S -- Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm
Re: [GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation
The conflict between a middle/upper class link between fresh air and health and the lower orders' belief that night air will kill you seems eternal. In Elizabeth von Arnim's books (the German ones) there is a lot about the stupid peasants sealing themselves into their houses and sewing their children into their clothes while Elizabeth believes the children would be healthier if they got some fresh air. There's an incident in (I think) The Master of Maryknoll where the Buckinghams are forced to spend the night in a cottage and joke that the windows have probably never been opened. The first example would be late nineteenth century, the second 1950s. Natasha wrote Or, more likely, one wandering around the house opening windows, and the other quietly closing them. -- Barbara Dryden -- Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm
Re: [GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation
Thanks so much for typing all that out, Lisa - fascinating reading! I loved the bit about forcing servants to open windowns "even against their will", you can just imagine a skirmish between mistress and maid. Or, more likely, one wandering around the house opening windows, and the other quietly closing them. Natasha - Original Message - From: "Lisa Spurrier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 6:27 PM Subject: [GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation I pickedup in a second hand bookshop a book on "How To Keep House," by Mrs C S Peel, dated 1902, which contains some comments on health care and prevention of illness, including the importance of your drains, which I thought might be of interest: "Everyone will agree that it is more important for a house to be sanitary than to be beautiful ... for upon this depends our health, our comfort, and our very lives... No sewgae system has been devised which is not apt to get out of order at some time. Smells are usually the first sign of such derangement, but not invariably so. Sore throats are a furtehr and more unpleasant item of evidence, while blood-poisoning and typhoid are the worst... It is only of late years that it has been fully recognised how much sunlight affects our health, not only by the vigour that it gives to our persons, but by destroying the germs of disease that are everywhere abroad. It is therefore necessary to have as much light in all parts of our houses as possible, and to avoid keeping out the beneficial rays of the sun by heavy curtains and thick window blinds... As with light so also with air... all windows, both in bed and sitting rooms, should be open for as long a time as possible every day... In the case of infectious diseases... proper precautionary measures shpuld be taken to prevent the spread of the disease among the unaffected inmates... Disnifecting after the illness is over is now usually done by the sanitary authority; but all wall-papers in the infected houses must be carefully stripped, and not covered up by new ones... Lastly, it is of the greatest imposrtance to see that the servants are housed among sanitary surroundings; for, having been accustomed to a less hygienic mode of living at home, they are apt to ignore some of the simple but highly important rules of health. Their rooms should be properly ventilated, even against their will, and it should be seen to that their quarters are kept as clean, dry, light and fresh as the other portions of the house." At the end among the advertisements for other books is one entitled "From Cradle To School", by Mrs Ada S Ballin, which is described as "An indepensable manual for mothers, dealing with questions of their own health and the health management and up-bringing of their children." It dealt with subjects including vaccination and sickness, and quoted reviews call it "quite a blessing to mothers", and say "No mother and no nurse should be without it". Lisa S -- Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm -- Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm
[GO] BD:Violets: Drains and sanitation
I pickedup in a second hand bookshop a book on "How To Keep House," by Mrs C S Peel, dated 1902, which contains some comments on health care and prevention of illness, including the importance of your drains, which I thought might be of interest: "Everyone will agree that it is more important for a house to be sanitary than to be beautiful ... for upon this depends our health, our comfort, and our very lives... No sewgae system has been devised which is not apt to get out of order at some time. Smells are usually the first sign of such derangement, but not invariably so. Sore throats are a furtehr and more unpleasant item of evidence, while blood-poisoning and typhoid are the worst... It is only of late years that it has been fully recognised how much sunlight affects our health, not only by the vigour that it gives to our persons, but by destroying the germs of disease that are everywhere abroad. It is therefore necessary to have as much light in all parts of our houses as possible, and to avoid keeping out the beneficial rays of the sun by heavy curtains and thick window blinds... As with light so also with air... all windows, both in bed and sitting rooms, should be open for as long a time as possible every day... In the case of infectious diseases... proper precautionary measures shpuld be taken to prevent the spread of the disease among the unaffected inmates... Disnifecting after the illness is over is now usually done by the sanitary authority; but all wall-papers in the infected houses must be carefully stripped, and not covered up by new ones... Lastly, it is of the greatest imposrtance to see that the servants are housed among sanitary surroundings; for, having been accustomed to a less hygienic mode of living at home, they are apt to ignore some of the simple but highly important rules of health. Their rooms should be properly ventilated, even against their will, and it should be seen to that their quarters are kept as clean, dry, light and fresh as the other portions of the house." At the end among the advertisements for other books is one entitled "From Cradle To School", by Mrs Ada S Ballin, which is described as "An indepensable manual for mothers, dealing with questions of their own health and the health management and up-bringing of their children." It dealt with subjects including vaccination and sickness, and quoted reviews call it "quite a blessing to mothers", and say "No mother and no nurse should be without it". Lisa S -- Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm
