is usually the case—­rapidly vitiates the air of the room, and may cause fainting or even suffocation.  If the apparatus is properly adjusted, and one makes sure of the ventilation, heating the water and admitting fresh air before entering the tub, no distress need be anticipated.  There are also gasolene and kerosene heaters, and an electric coil placed in the water is the safest and cleanest but not the quickest or cheapest scheme of all.  Its cost is from $5 to $20.

None of these heating attachments is sure to prove fully satisfactory, but any one of them is likely to add a great deal to the serviceableness of the bathroom.  To many wholesome people one ideal of living is to be able to take a dip whenever one wants it, not merely when one can get it.

A seat of wood, in natural finish or white enamel, is a handy appurtenance to the tub.  It will cost us 50 or 75 cents at a department store, or we can pay four or five times as much for a fancier quality at the supply house.

BATHROOM FITTINGS

Of soap holders there are innumerable designs:  nickel plated or rubber.  The latter will hardly be chosen.  A sort that will come as near as any to permitting one to grasp the soap without sending it to the far corner of the room has a grooved bottom and is retailed for 45 cents.  A sponge holder at the same price will keep that useful article within reach, and for the towels there are bars, rings, and projecting arms.  Nickel-plated brass or glass bars are preferred, as the rings are elusive affairs for both hands and towels, while the projecting arms are usually unsubstantial, and if placed too high, constantly threaten to stimulate the artificial-eye market.  The bars, if strongly attached to the wall, sometimes are a friend in need when one is getting in or out of the tub or regaining equilibrium after balancing on one foot.

A mirror of good plate but simple design should be in the room, not necessarily over the lavatory, but better so.  Nice ones may be had for $3 or more.  There are tooth-brush and tumbler holders galore, and some one of these arrangements will be found useful.  The kind that provides for a toothpowder box, and has numbered compartments for brushes, is best, though there is something to be said for the retention of such articles within the private domains of their individual owners.  An attachment for toilet paper may be had for a quarter or for a dollar, and a workable one is worth while, as is a good quality of paper.  A glass shelf, costing anywhere from $1.75 to $12, is almost a necessity, but there are better places than the bathroom for the medicine cabinet.

A single-tube shower-bath attachment of the simplest sort is a lot better than none, and need not cost over 50 cents.  The more adaptable kind, with two ends, will be found ticketed at about $2.  Thence up to the elaborate fittings at $250 there are many variations.  Sitz baths and footbaths are rather superfluous in the ordinary bathroom, but we can spend a hundred dollars for the one and half that for the other without being taken for plutocrats.