and offices or small towns could do much to avert consumption and to keep their health by the adoption of such a sleeping-out place, at least during the spring, summer and fall months.

The window of an ordinary second-story room is cut down to the floor and replaced by a door; the floor of the little sleeping-out porch is supported by wooden brackets attached to the sides of the house; the two ends are boarded up with thin boards, with

To

these little structures bring most of the benefits to be obtained by sanatorium treatment, at once and at small cost within the reach of the invalid who cannot leave his home. tell such a patient to live out of doors when he must either walk or drive in order to remain out is of little avail, as he can spend but few hours in this way without fatigue; but, if he only has to step out of his room, he will soon form the habit of reading, writing, in fact, living out of doors, without

or without glass casings, supplied with dark shades; an overhanging shingle roof completes the structure, and by its over-hang prevents the rain from beating in directly on the patient. An awning is a great additional comfort against sun and rain.

The second-story balcony is the most practical and successful agency I know of in inducing invalids to acquire the out-of-door habit, and when, in addition, the details of the patient's daily life, as to food, rest and exercise are under the control of a wise physician,

finding it in the least irksome, specially when he begins to realize in his own person how powerful an influence fresh air when continuously applied has upon his health.

Another advantage of the properly constructed second-story porch is the wide range of its usefulness, for it is suitable for the treatment of all the stages of the disease, from the incipient case to the bed-ridden invalid. Early cases can perfectly well follow out the open-air treatment, and live and sleep out on one of these second-story balconies,

though they may prefer in some localities tent life or the open shanty, which will do quite as well for them; but for the far advanced and acute cases the second-story porch is much to be preferred, as the bedridden patient can more easily be nursed when within easy access of the other members of the household and of a comfortable room and bath room than in a tent or open shanty.

It is evident also that the dangers of infection for the other members of the family are greatly reduced if the invalid can spend almost the entire time on the open-air porch. When the invalid has selected an ordinary veranda for a sleeping-out place his bed should be placed in a corner, if possible, so that he is sheltered from the wind on two sides, at least, and far enough back to prevent the rain from beating on the bed. One end of the veranda can thus, with a bed, a rug, a table and a chair, be turned into a sort of open-air room where the patient can spend not only the nights, but most of the days, as well. A slender bowed switch will do to attach the often indispensable mosquito net, or the entire end of the veranda can be screened off for this purpose.

The open lean-to or "shack" is the best construction for applying the open-air method when camping or in the country and at a distance from houses. Such a shack is practically like a sleeping-out veranda described above, with the house removed. It is closed on three sides, open in front, can be built of rough boards and roofed with rubberoid or

some of the waterproof roofing papers, or shingled, as desired. Its depth should be sufficient, when combined with a marked projection of the roof, to keep the rain from beating in. If intended for cold weather, as well, it should have a small room at the back, with a stove, where the patient can get warm, wash and dress. A row of such shacks under one roof, in the proximity of a cottage where patients can go for their meals, makes an ideal and cheap small sanatorium. The cost of an open-air shack is, perhaps, less than a tent, with a fly, platform, etc., and these little buildings are much more desirable. Is every invalid benefited by sleeping out? The majority of invalids are, undoubtedly, benefited by sleeping out of doors, but some cannot and should not. There is no danger in trying the experiment. If the patient sleeps as well out of doors as in a well-ventilated room, he may continue to do so, but many do not, and cannot get accustomed to sleeping out. They are disturbed by the light, the wind, the changes of temperature, the storms, the early morning noises, and cannot get habituated to these things. Such patients will do better to live out all day and sleep in a well-ventilated room.

Sleeping out at night, though beneficial, is not apparently as necessary to the patient who lives out all day and sleeps in a wellventilated room at night as it is for those whom the necessity of earning their living compels to be indoors most of the day. To these sleeping out at night is almost a necessity, if they are to preserve their health.

Facts About Man.

The average weight of an adult is 140 pounds. The average weight of a skeleton is about 14 pounds, and the number of bones is 240. The skeleton measures one inch less than the height of the living man. The average weight of the brain of a man is 31⁄2 pounds; of a woman, 2 pounds II ounces. The average number of teeth is 32.

The average height of an Englishman is 5 feet 9 inches; of a Frenchman, 5 feet 4 inches. and of a Belgian, 5 feet 634 inches. The average weight of an Englishman is 150 pounds, of a Frenchman 135 pounds, of a Belgian 140 pounds.

A man breathes about 20 times in a minute, or 1,200 times in an hour. He breathes about

18 pints of air a minute, or upwards of seven hogsheads in a day. He gives off 4.08 per cent. carbonic acid gas of the air he respires.

The average of the pulse in infancy is 120 beats per minute; in manhood, 80; at 60 years of age it is Co. The pulse beats of females are more rapid than of males.

The weight of the circulating blood is about 23 pounds. The heart makes four beats while we breathe once. Five hundred and forty pounds, or one hogshead, of blood pass through the heart in one hour. One thousand ounces of blood pass through the kidneys in one hour.

The lungs of a man have 174,000.000 cells, which would cover a surface thirty times greater than the human body. - Clipped.

F

OR persons who have not the facilities for sleeping out doors at home and who cannot afford to build a sleeping veranda, there are cheaper arrangements whereby a good supply of fresh air may be obtained during one's slumbers. A number of such devices were described at length in The Outdoor Life last October. In the New York Medical Journal for March 4 Drs. S. A. Knopf and W. B. McLaughlin have an article along the same lines making some excellent suggestions for those who would avoid a poorly ventilated bedroom. Illustrations which add to the clearness of the text

SLEEPING SHACK.

are reprinted here by permission of the New York Medical Journal.

The writer of The Outdoor Life article laid stress on sleeping with the head out the window and described various unpatented devices to aid one in comfortably doing so and without chilling the room. He pointed out that some of the schemes tried resulted only in poor ventilation - at least poor in comparison with sleeping outdoors. Among other things, he said:

"If the window is large enough, the head of the bed can be removed and the bed laid on the window sill, and pushed out under some sort of awning.

"One patient constructed a box with cloth

sides, which fitted into the lower half of the window and over the head of the bed, extending across bed and just below the shoulders. The ventilation was poor. Another's plan was to have a stove-pipe running from this box through the upper part of the window and containing a lighted jet to produce a current of air. Another planned to have this box cover the entire window, with the window open above, as well as below, to obtain an air current. The box was to be constructed of light wood and cloth, and attached to the window frame by hooks or buttons. The floor of the box was to lie on the bed and to contain an opening for the patient's head. The floor and lower side cloths were to be rainproof as a provision against blowing rain.

"These boxes on the inside do not necessitate a special bed, but their ventilation does not equal the open air.

"Another is planning to attach an awning to the head of Dr. Dunham's bed and have it collapsible, to be drawn in during the day to avoid being conspicuous."

With the window tent suggested by Drs. Knopf and McLaughlin the patient's bed, instead of being at right angles with the window, with the head outside, is parallel with the window. While it is admitted that the window tent has not been long enough in use nor tried by a large enough number of people to make any positive statement as to results, it is declared that the ventilation is as nearly perfect as can be produced with so cheap a device.

One patented device, the aerarium, was described in The Outdoor Life.

Drs. Knopf and McLaughlin point out that "nothing will increase the patient's chances for recovery as much as sleeping at night in a pure, cool atmosphere."

"An ingenious device for that purpose," continues the article, "has recently been described in Outdoor Life, under the name of aerarium. It is to be used in connection with Dr. Dunham's bed, which is a cot constructed so that the head of it protrudes through the window. This aerarium is a long, double outside awning so arranged as to keep up a rising current of air without draughts over the head of the patient. From

the description it seems that the arrangement is excellent, since it can be applied by a carpenter to any window in a short time.

Those of us familiar with the conditions. of the consumptive poor in a large city will, however, agree on the difficulty of making such a device practical and popular among this class of patients. In a New York tenement house, for example, the protruding of a cot through the window would attract unpleasant attention, and, with the phthisiophobia that exists in many minds, the unfortu

constructed that air from the room cannot enter nor mix with the air in the tent. The patient lying on the bed, which is placed parallel with the window, has his head and shoulders resting in the tent. By following the description closely it will be seen that the ventilation is as nearly perfect as can be produced with so cheap a device.

"In the lower half of an American window is placed the frame to which is attached the awning, stretched over a quarter circle, with a radius of forty inches.* The frame of the

nate sufferer might be obliged to seek other quarters. The cost of the aerarium will also bring it beyond the reach of the poor, and since the device is patented, it would be imprudent to endeavor to copy it with a view of producing a cheaper apparatus.

"The writers of this article have endeavored, by presenting to the profession the window tent for the open-air treatment at home, to overcome the objections indicated.

"The window tent is an awning which, instead of being placed outside of the window, is attached to the inside of the room. It is so

tent does not quite fill the lower half of the window; a space of about three inches is left for the escape of the warm air in the room. By lowering the window this space can be reduced to one inch or less, according to need. On extremely cold and windy nights there need not be left any open space at all above the tent frame. The patient's breath will rise to the top of the tent and the form

* When there is a recess, so that the bed placed parallel to the window cannot be moved close to the window sill, the tent has to be made correspondingly longer and the bottom flaps made long enough to reach under the mattress.