t possibilities of dampness, one of the most
healthy countries in the world, as already pointed out in Chapter I.
This fact not only emphasizes the small effect of surface waters and
damp soils in promoting disease, but also magnifies the value of
cleanliness for which the Dutch people are so famous.

_Damp soils._

Why is it, then, that damp soils and damp cellars are objected to?
Chiefly, because of the inconvenience and discomfort they occasion. A
damp cellar means conditions favorable to the development of mildew and
rot; prevents vegetables from keeping a normal length of time; accounts
for moldy, decaying odors throughout the house, and is generally
disagreeable. One is tempted to say that such a condition is also
unhealthy, and it is quite possible that a person living over a damp
cellar which contains accumulations of decaying vegetables, and
breathing air loaded with organic compounds, may gradually lose his
normal vitality, and become thereby more readily susceptible to specific
diseases, but the diseases themselves will not come from the dampness
alone.

[Illustration: FIG. 2--Bad conditions about a dwelling.]

The discomfort and inconvenience, however, are quite sufficient reasons
to make it eminently desirable to have the house and the cellar dry.
With this in mind, the selection of the house site should be carefully
made. Instinctively, and with reason, the immediate neighborhood of low,
swampy, marshy ground, of stagnant ponds, or of sluggish streams should
be avoided. It should not be necessary to warn prospective builders that
low land, subject to inundation, even though this may happen only
occasionally, is not a wise choice of a building site. Figure 2 shows an
inundation in a small village of New York State in 1889. Floods are
expected each spring and counted on as a part of the year's experience.
The resulting exposure and the inevitable effluvia following the
receding waters are both objectionable factors in hygienic living.
Similarly, the vicinity of a stream carrying organic matter, such as
sewage from a town above, should undoubtedly be avoided on account of
possible odors in summer. Not long ago, the writer was told by the owner
of a productive farm, situated below a small city in New York State,
that in the summer time the windows of his house had all to be kept
tightly shut at night, because of the effluvia from a stream a thousand
feet distant, which carried the sewage from the city abov