e body epidemic disease. If this be so, then
disease can be warded off by carefully prepared filters of cotton-wool.
I should be most willing to test their efficacy in my own person. But
apart from all doubtful applications, it is perfectly certain that
various noxious trades in England may be rendered harmless by the use of
such filters. I have had conclusive evidence of this from people engaged
in such trades. A form of respirator devised by Mr. Garrick, a hotel
proprietor in Glasgow, in which inhalation and exhalation occur through
two different valves, the one permitting the air to enter through the
cotton-wool, and the other permitting the exit of the air direct into
the atmosphere, is well adapted for this purpose. But other forms might
readily be devised."

LIGHT AND HEALTH.

Our dwellings ought freely to admit the sunlight. Diseases which have
baffled the skill of physicians have been known to yield when the
patients were removed from dark rooms to light and cheerful apartments.
Lavoisier placed light, as an agent of health, even before pure air.
Plants which grow in the shade are slender and weak, and children
brought up in dark rooms are pale, sallow, and rickety. It is a bad
practice to avoid the sunlight through fear of spoiling the complexion,
since the sun's rays are necessary to give to it the delicate tints of
beauty and health. Air is necessary for the first inspiration and the
last expiration of our lives, but the purity and healthfulness of the
atmosphere depend upon the warming rays of the sun, while our bodies
require light in order that their functions may be properly performed.
We know that without solar light, there can be no proper vegetable
growth, and it is equally necessary for the beauty and perfection of
animal development. Our dwellings should therefore be well lighted and
made as bright and cheerful as possible. Women who curtain the windows,
soften the light, and tint the room with some mellow shade, may do so in
order to hide their own faulty complexions. The skin of persons confined
in dungeons or in deep mines becomes pale or sickly yellow, the blood
grows watery, the skin blotches, and dropsy often intervenes. On the
other hand, invalids carried out from darkened chambers into the bright
sunlight are stimulated, the skin browns, nutrition becomes more active,
the blood improves, and they become convalescent. Light is especially
necessary for the healthy growth of children. There