children-yet I would not chill the health-seeker of to-day, by insisting upon the vital importance of every one's breaking away abruptly from all present customs as regards the selection and preparation of food. To a considerable degree the usage of genera tions has, beyond question, adapted our systems to the use of cooked foods-has even rendered them somewhat unadapted to the instant use of uncooked foods-so that a radical and complete change, abruptly made, would result in temporary digestive distur bance, which (however advantageous the results of the change, finally, if persisted in with faith and courage) would render it impracticable for some persons, more especially since this temporary physical inconvenience would be added to the social inconvenience arising from placing oneself so markedly at variance with all about him. No one can form a just opinion of this last item until he attempts a radical change in his dietetic habits: it presents the greatest check imaginable to rapid progress in this direction.

A reform, however, which is at the same time leasible and, in most instances, sufficient, speaking generally, and which, as elsewhere remarked, already has its hundreds of thousands of adherents in this country alone, would be the adoption of the "fruit and bread," or the ordinary vegetarian diet even—banishing all doubtful dishes, condiments, spices, hot drinks-stimulants all-making a lunch (or two, even) in the course of the day, of fruit, with a biscuit or two at one of them, perhaps; and at eve, when the tired ones are rested, a regular "full meal.

consisting of various bread dishes-wheat, corn, rye and oatmeal, with various admixtures of the same, which may well furnish a different flavor (several, indeed) for every day in the month-fruit, milk (for those with whom it "agrees"), vegetables and nuts. Following this direction, and aiming constantly, but mfortably, to maintain the balance between diet and labor-between the food eaten and the needs of the organism for nutriment-one may not only enjoy, as he ought, the pleasures of the table, but, in very many cases, absolutely and largely increase these pleasures, in the aggregate, considering, more especially, his exemption from sickness with its occasional involuntary fasts, and, with many, the quite frequent periods of slight, or non-satisfaction, through nausea and lack of appetite arising from an injudicious dietary. This regimen lessens by one-half the housewife's burdens, as well as the cost of living, while it adds immeasurably to her health and that of her household.

CHAPTER XVI.

MALARIA-SEWER GAS.

THESE are very vicious companions, and cause a deal of mischief. The scientists have much to say of the prevalence, and of the deleterious effects of sewer gas, from faulty plumbing, etc.; but they do not insist upon, scarcely indeed mention, the plain fact, that if this insidious destroyer can, as is now known, get into a dwelling through a foot of stone or brick wall, it can and will get out through an open window; and that, in any event, if there be abundant ventilation there will be such dilution of these gases as to render them comparatively innoxious. It is not so much the letting in of bad air, but rather the confining of it-the breathing of it, "pure and unadulterated"-that causes disease. There is more malaria in a close bedroom in the most favored mountain-region, and in the alimentary canal of a constipated or drug-swallowing dyspeptic, than about the swamps and bayous of Louisiana or the dreaded Roman Campagna, where wrapped in a single blanket, the author has slept night after night-to prove his faith in the theory, as well the theory itself. The "Roman fever," so alarming to visitors of the holy

city, is the joint product of stuffy hotel bedrooms and a diet better suited to the climate of Iceland than Italy.

"I have lately spent a summer in a country place whose delicious air is a just source of pride to its inhabitants," says an observing writer, in Our Continent. "They told me how doctors sent their patients there from a distance, and how even consumptives had had their fell disease arrested by the tonic effects of the pure air and invigorating breezes, and then I found the very people who thus glorified in them shutting out every breath of air and every ray of sunshine from their houses because of flies! In returning the calls of neighbors, I was struck the moment I entered their houses with that close, unwholesome, 'stuffy' smell which we generally associate with the homes of the ignorant and unneat classes alone, but which is often to be noticed in those of a class far above them. As I looked at the outside of the different houses in the place, it was difficult to realize that they were really inhabited. Every blind was carefully closed, and not one sign of life visible; and yet, unfortunately, life was going on behind those closed windows-life which needed every advantage to make it healthy and enjoyable. Does it never occur to you, you housekeepers whose minds recoil from soiled house-linen, fly-specks on paint, and every species of uncleanliness-does it never occur to you, you so-called neat women, that there is one thing absolutely dirty in your cleanlyswept and carefully-dusted houses, and that is their

very air? You who would blush with shame at the idea of anything unclean worn on your person, or taken into your mouth, do you not know you are taking in uncleanliness with every breath you draw; and that unclean air is making your blood, and through its means, your entire bodies impure? . . . . Many a woman is regretting this summer that she is unable to have a change of air for herself and children by going to the seaside, the country, or the mountains. Why not try the effect of change of air at home? If air makes such a difference to your health as you ad mit, why not let it do its best for you wherever you are?"

It would be hard to find, in any community, a person so ignorant as not to know that the lungs require good air. "Oh, yes, of course, I know we must have pure air." Yes, indeed. Nevertheless, ninety-five families in every hundred, in city and country, though always ready to say this, suffer every day of their lives for want of it. This arises from a lack of definite knowledge (1) as to the true office of airof the fact that it supplies the major portion of the body's nourishment, since an ordinary person could live six weeks or more without eating, and as many days without liquids of any sort; while as many minutes without oxygen is certain death; and (2) as to what constitutes "pure air in the home." Says Prof. Huxley: "But the deprivation of oxygen, and the accumulation of carbonic acid, cause injury long before the asphyxiating point is reached. Uneasiness and headache arise when less than one per cent. of