Open fireplace nearest to natural mode by which earth is warmed and ventilated--Origin of diseases--Necessity of pure air to life --Statistics--General principles of ventilation--Mode of Lewis Leeds--Ventilation of buildings planned in this work--The pure-air conductor--The foul-air exhausting-flue--Stoves--Detailed arrangements--Warming--Economy of time, labor, and expense in the cottage plan--After all schemes, the open fireplace the best. XXXVII. _CARE OF THE HOMELESS, THE HELPLESS, AND THE VICIOUS._ Recommendations of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities--Pauper and criminal classes should be scattered in Christian homes instead of gathered into large institutions--Facts recently published concerning the poor of New-York--Sufferings of the poor, deterioration of the rich--Christian principles of benevolence--Plan for a Christian city house--Suggestions to wealthy and unoccupied women--Roman Catholic works--Protestant duties--The highest mission of woman. XXXVIII. _THE CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORHOOD._ Spirit of Christian Missions--Present organizations under church direction too mechanical--Christian family influence the true instrument of Gospel propagation--Practical suggestions for gathering a Christian family in neglected neighborhoods--Plan of church, school-house, and family-dwelling in one building--Mode of use for various purposes--Nucleus and gathering of a family--Christian work for Christian women--Children--Orphans--Servants--Neglected ones--Household training--Roman Catholic Nuns--The South--The West--The neglected interior of older States--Power of such examples--Rapid spread of their influence--Anticipation of the glorious consummation to be hoped for--Prophecy in the Scriptures--Cowper's noble vision of the millennial glory. APPEAL TO AMERICAN WOMEN. GLOSSARY OF WORDS AND REFERENCES INTRODUCTION. The authors of this volume, while they sympathize with every honest effort to relieve the disabilities and sufferings of their sex, are confident that the chief cause of these evils is the fact that the honor and duties of the family state are not duly appreciated, that women are not trained for these duties as men are trained for their trades and professions, and that, as the consequence, family labor is poorly done, poorly paid, and regarded as menial and disgraceful. To be the nurse of young children, a cook, or a housemaid, is regarded as the lowest and last resort of poverty, and one which no woman of culture and position can assume without loss of caste and respectability. It is the aim of this volume to elevate both the honor and the remuneration of all the employments that sustain the many difficult and sacred duties of the family state, and thus to render each department of woman's true profession as much desired and respected as are the most honored professions of men.