Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1891 — Airing Rooms. [ARTICLE]

Airing Rooms.

It is a great mistake that the whole house, particularly the sleepingrooms and the dining-rooms, receive little ventilating and purifying of air, when it can be done with so little trouble and no expense. A pitcher of cold water placed on a table or bureau will absorb all the gases with which the room is filled from the respiration of those eating or sleeping in the apartment. Very few realize how important such purification is for the health of the family, or, indeed, understand or realize that there can be any impurity in the rooms, yet in a few hours a pitcher or pail of cold water—the colder the more effective —will make the air of the room pure, but the water will be entirely unfit for use. In bedrooms a pail or pitcher of water should always be kept, and changed often if anyone stays in the room during the day; certainly be put in fresh when the inmates retire. Such water should never be drunk, but either a covered pitcher or glass bottle with a stopper should be used for drinking water, and always be kept closely covered. Impure water causes more sickness than even impure air, and for that reason, before using water from a pump or reservoir for drinking or cooking, one should pump or draw out enough to clear the pipes before using it, particularly in the morning, after the water, has been standing in the pipes all night.— Ileartb and Hall.