ABSTRACT
In the bedroom, water played its part in the maintenance of a hygienic environment. Carpets, heavy drapes or blinds at the windows, curtains round the bed, flat-topped cupboards: all harboured dust and dirt, and the curtains also hindered ventilation, so all had to go. Equipping the bedroom was only half the battle, however. All agreed that good ventilation was the sine qua non of the healthy bedroom, and a few were content to leave this to an open window. As important as the admission of fresh air to a room was the matter of how best to remove it once it had become impure. Such air was usually referred to as ‘vitiated’ or, by Richardson, as devitalized. If bedrooms were particularly liable to become repositories of foul air, beds too were in danger of trapping injurious bodily emanations.
