Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 4.djvu/80

70 3. That it shall be so placed that the direct rays of the sun shall have free admission into the living apartments; because the sun's rays impart a healthy and invigorating quality to the air, and stimulate the vitality of human beings as they do those of plants, and without sunlight human beings, as well as plants, would sicken and die. The aspect, therefore, should be southeast.

4. That the lookout from the living apartments shall be cheerful, lively, and interesting; because much of the time of the family must be spent indoors, and a cheerful lookout is as necessary to render indoors attractive and even endurable in the daytime as society is in the evening. The prospect, therefore, should be as extensive and varied as possible.

5. The apartments should admit into themselves a great quantity of light; because light is essential to the health and vigor of the inmates. The window openings should, therefore, be large; but, as the greater the surface of glass, the colder the rooms in winter, and the hotter in summer,

6. The window-openings should be well splayed, as well outside as inside, so as to do with as little glass as possible.

7. The windows should be so arranged as to admit the direct rays of the sun at the times when the apartments are in use; because it is when the apartments are occupied that they require the cheering and invigorating influence of the sun's rays. For instance, the breakfast-room window should admit the early morning rays; the dining-room windows, one should admit the morning rays for breakfast-time, and the other the noon rays for dinner-time; and the drawing-room windows, one should admit the morning rays for callers, and another the evening rays for company; and the bedroom windows should, if possible, admit the early morning rays.

8. The interior of the apartments should provide wall-space for the arrangement of furniture; because, without wall-space no manner of furnishing a room can make it either handsome, elegant, or comfortable. The windows, therefore, should be few, and they and the door and fireplace should be so arranged as to provide as much wall-space as possible.

9. In the bedrooms, the window, door, and fireplace, should be so arranged that the bed can be fixed entirely out of the draught, and not have to be placed between the window and door, the window and fireplace, or the door and fireplace; because a cold draught playing on persons while sleeping is often dangerous to life, and always destructive of comfort.

10. The doors of the apartments, besides not admitting cold air when shut, ought not to admit cold air when open; because the draught thus produced not only destroys the comfort of the apartment, but produces lumbago, rheumatism, neuralgia, etc., in the occupants. The doors should, therefore, open out of a warmed lobby or corridor.