Fresh Air, Exercise and Nutrition

Catharine Beecher noted a connection between poor air quality in European slums and the spread of disease. She advocated open fireplaces and improved home ventilation, stating the "first and most indispensable requisite for health is pure air, both by day and night." She felt windows should be kept open and bed chambers kept cold to improve resistance to disease. She researched cooking and heating stove design, and strongly opposed closed furnaces because they removed moisture from the air and could leak poisonous gases. Other advocates for clean air included William Alcott, who wanted to change the architecture of school houses to improve ventilation and add outside playgrounds where students could breathe healthful air.
Bibliography
The Cambridge companion to Harriet Beecher Stowe edited by Cindy Weinstein. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004. Introduction / Cindy Weinstein -- Stowe and race / Samuel Otter -- Uncle Tom's Cabin and the south / Cindy Weinstein -- Uncle Tom's Cabin and the American Renaissance: the sacramental aesthetic of Harriet Beecher Stowe / Michael T. Gilmore -- Reading and children: Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Pearl of Orr's Island / Gillian Brown -- Uncle Tom and Harriet Beecher Stowe in England / Audrey Fisch -- Staging black insurrection: Dred on stage / Judie Newman -- Stowe and regionalism / Marjorie Pryse -- Stowe and the law / Gregg Crane -- Harriet Beecher Stowe and the American reform tradition / Ronald G. Walters -- Harriet Beecher Stowe and the dream of the great American novel / Lawrence Buell -- Stowe and the literature of social change / Carolyn L. Karcher -- The afterlife of Uncle Tom's Cabin / Kenneth W. Warren.