The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

From the New England Farmer.

Health.

Lime as an antidote to contagion, a preservative against infection, and a means of purifying vaults, is not so much used as it should be. By means of this simple but powerful agent, together with a due attention to cleanliness and ventilation, the air in jails, hospitals, ships, &c., may be rendered comparatively sweet and salubrious. A quantity of it, while hot and quick, sifted every day or two into the vaults of back houses, would greatly contribute to comfort and health.

We should think it a very serious matter if we were forced to eat tainted provisions, or drink filthy water; and yet seem very well satisfied with taking a substance into our lungs which is fit only to support the respiration of reptiles accustomed to "feed on the vapors of a dunghill." And this we suffer, while the remedy is at hand, and almost as cheap as the scrapings of the street!

The walls of cellars, dairy rooms, sitting rooms, and indeed of all apartments, which are much occupied by human beings should be well coated with good caustic lime white wash, at least once a year. The time for its application should be just before the heats of summer become fervent and oppressive. "In London," says Willich's Encyc., "a Society is organized for the Cure and Prevention of Contagious Fevers in the Metropolis," and they have appropriated a certain sum of money for purifying the tainted habitations of the poor. Their method consists simply in washing the walls of the room with hot lime, which will render the place perfectly sweet.

In the villages of New England, the practice of white washing the walls and ceiling of dwelling apartments is very common; in cities less so. The walls of the apartments of our more opulent citizens are usually decorated with costly paper, or something else, which would be spoiled by white washing; and if they prefer decorations to health, they must submit to the unwholesome annoyance of a contaminated atmosphere.