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Show PASSION FOR THE "PARLOR" Medical Officer Finds Fault With Custom Cus-tom of Using Poorest Rooms for Sleep. In the course of lectures on personal per-sonal hygiene at the Royal Sanitary Institute, Prof. H. R. Kenwood, medical medi-cal officer of health for Bedfordshire, dealt with "The Home." Much might be done for the prevention of tuberculosis tuber-culosis by the improvement of the home, he said, according to the London Daily Telegraph. Wherever there was dirt there was also degradation. But it was the really invisible dirt in the form of germs in the atmosphere or ground that was the most harmful. It was essential in dealing with these to make the acts of cleansing as simple as possible, and there should be no heavy pieces of furniture to move; no nailed-down carpets, but movable strips and squares and light washable curtains. It should be remembered that there is no such thing as dry cleaning. Dusting was a mere disturbance dis-turbance of particles unless a damp cloth, tea leaves or wet sand were employed. Was there, he asked, anything more absurd than to find a little house in a shabby genteel street with its bedroom bed-room accommodation overtaxed and the best apartment used as the parlor par-lor that holy of holies, with its odor that might be called sanctimonious, and occupying cubic space that could be far better used? This passion for the parlor was almost like the fetish of the uncivilized. Direct sunshine, with its regenerative regenera-tive power and germicide effects, should not be reduced by heavy cur-: tains. It was the soundest of investments invest-ments to make the home as healthy and attractive as possible. The cuckoo type of parent, depositing its children at school and expecting them to learn everything there,, should realize that the true influences in youth are those of the home itself. |