5 ms·
I wonder if it had to do with tuberculosis, which is airborne? Tenements were designed with that in mind and in the USA houses built in the early 20th century o
by nemo44x 3y ago
I wonder if it had to do with tuberculosis, which is airborne? Tenements were designed with that in mind and in the USA houses built in the early 20th century often feature “sleeper porches”. Outside areas to sleep to get fresh air. This too was in part to avoid TB.
- Daub 3y agoMaybe. Certainly TB was a major killer at that time: https://nonprofitupdate.info/2010/10/21/10-leading-causes-of-death-in-1850-and-2000-2/ https://nonprofitupdate.info/2010/10/21/10-leading-causes-of... But the idea of 'bad air' (miasmic theory)' though Informed by microbe theory, had its roots in Hippocratic thinking which was derived from the observation that swampy areas were generally unhealthy to live. This was attributed to their bad smell and not the preponderance of mosquitoes (malaria). Fyi... The same miasmic theory gave rise to toilets that were designed to flush away bad smalls with water.