The Arizona Sentinel

WASTED SUNBEAMS.

Suggestive Article on the Sunshine Wasted on House-Tops.

The relation of sunshine and oxygen to health was not at all understood a century and a half ago. No one knew that it was the oxygen of the air that purified the venous blood of its effete matter, and that the same element was absorbed by the corpuscles and conveyed through every part of the system for use in its complex chemical processes. No one knew the disinfecting power of oxygen out of the body, nor, until quite recently, that the sunshine itself was one of the most valuable disinfectants in nature.

Within late years we have learned that contagious diseases are vastly more curable and less liable to spread, when treated in shelter-tents than in our homes, or hospitals; and we are more and more caring for the ventilation of our dwellings and school-houses and churches, preferring the sunny side of our houses for sleeping-rooms.

We are building our cities with wider streets and providing access to clear sunshine and pure air in extensive parks. We are, moreover, demanding more scientific and faithful plumbing and looking out better for the condition of our cellars. But we have not reached the limit of what is possible or desirable in this matter.

Can not architectural ingenuity contrive some method of using the thousands of acres of house-tops, so that roofs, now so useful in affording indoor protection, can be made additionally useful, at certain seasons, by affording out-door recreation and protection from invalidism? Can not the same skill contrive new designs for the upper and most salutary stories of our dwellings, playing-rooms and sunning-rooms, adapted for the winter season, but so fashioned that too intense beams can be excluded in summer?

In the more spacious dwellings, the upper floors could be revolutionized; ventilating shafts introduced; broad windows made to run the width of the house both front and rear; ready accessibility to the roof afforded; and at least a part of these floors made attractive to children and invalids. A pleasure resort might ornament each residence; neighborly consent could widen the range, and turf and flowers brighten the plain. For the higher grade of tenement houses, such fresh air facilities would probably be hailed with delight by the inmates. Summer moonlight evenings could have a new aspect; and round a family-lantern groups might gather, to read, sew or engage in games, and thus a home-felt pleasure could quiet restless spirits, craving questionable or illicit amusements.—Youth's Companion.