And so to take the “bull by the horns” and begin with the practical first--one of the best ways to get proper lighting is to have sufficient outlets for electricity, portable lamps with oil and enumerable fixtures with gas. This will deal specifically with electric light, yet the general principals will apply to all other lighting. LIGHTING Good lighting can mean good health. Eye strain is often the cause of depleted systems, indigestion and things that lead to other calamities. Many a doctor would better analyze a home to see what could afflict the sufferer than analyze the patient! Flickering lights strain the eye, because it cannot adapt itself to the rapid variations in intensity. So the flickering light must go. Lights that are too bright hurt the eye, lights that are dim cause strain, all in turn having disastrous effect on sight and on health--these too must perish. The best sort of lighting, of course, is the diffused light which without glare is sufficient for reading, etc. Here, though, the distribution may be so imperfect that the glow is dispiriting and consequently a light softener in the guise of a lamp shade or frosted dulled glass helps the situation. The indirect lighting system, is popular to-day. When buying this type you must be sure to get them as dust and bug proof as possible. The simpler they are the easier to keep clean, of course. Money can be saved by having outlets at frequent intervals, so that lamps can be attached at the point needed, rather than having to light many lamps at various ridiculous places in a room as contributory lights. Fixtures which have lights set obliquely in them are hard on the eyes, lights are not meant to shoot light in your face but to supply aid quickly and politely to the eye. Fixtures should have their globes, in the perpendicular. HEIGHT OF LIGHTS Lights should be high enough only to cast a direct light on the subject in hand. The reading lamp must help the reader, not impede him. Try over and over again until it is placed correctly. The shade should be such that it not only directs and diffuses the light, but softens and subdues and makes it a pleasant thing to the eye. Very often dim lights can be magnified by a reflector. Never, though, can a reflector actually increase the light, that is to say, the reflector doesn’t increase the electric power or size of lamps but simply reflecting more than absorbing, the light gives you its fuller value. REFLECTION You are probably aware that certain colors absorb or reflect in varying degrees. Usually in the papering of rooms no account is taken at all of this perfectly honest color vagary. Consequently, a dark room is often somberly decked in deep chocolate paper and therefore you get something like 4% reflection whereas in that room white would reflect about 70% and a wall yellow painted would reflect about 62%, thereby saving the necessity of just that much more lighting.