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Table of Contents

By environment is meant everything outside the body that affects it; taken in its complete meaning the word might include everything that is or ever was in the whole universe. It is possible to consider here a few only of the many environmental and personal factors affecting the health of individuals.

The home constitutes the important part of environment for most persons, and for children in particular, since they spend the greater part of their time in or about it, and get there the foundation on which their health in later years depends. For persons employed away from home, industrial and occupational hygiene is hardly less important; but those subjects are too extensive to be considered here.

Most people live where they must, and few have any part in planning the construction of their own houses. In choosing a house, however, one should remember that rooms where sunshine never enters are unfit for continued occupation. For children in particular fresh air and sunshine are essential, and it may be economy in the end to pay a comparatively high rent for an apartment having sunshine during at least a part of the day. Ignorance and carelessness, unfortunately, can spoil the best living conditions, and sometimes even in the country fresh air and sunshine are excluded from sleeping and living rooms.