exasperated by hot, close apartments and hot regimen, and, therefore, the best means of preventing diseases from cold is to avoid the contrary extreme.

Those persons who have a window open in the bedchamber, or an adjoining apartment, need not be under any apprehension of suffering by a current of air being immediately directed upon them whilst in bed, because, if the upper sash be open, the current will be considerably above the level of the bed; but if the lower sash be open it will be prudent to draw so much of the bedcurtain as to prevent the wind from blowing upon the person in bed. But the danger of catching cold from such current is more apparent than real, for if the head and body be properly covered there is no hazard; and one advantage of thus admitting air is, that persons who are in the habit of lying very warm will, by this expedient, find themselves much less oppressed and heated by a load of bedclothes, as the lungs, like the funnel of a stove, discharge the heated and foul air by means of the cool air admitted by every inspiration.

The ventilation of nurseries is a subject of vital importance. The apartment for children should be without carpet, and the bed without curtains. Wherever there is any quantity of curtains to a bed it is injurious. The effect of want of ventilation upon the rearing of children was very strikingly shown in the Dublin Foundling Hospital some years ago. Between the years 1781 and 1791 19,420 children were received into that institution, and of these 17,420 died. This great mortality was partly owing to the use of improper food; but the defects of ventilation were a strong

reason.

The importance of a knowledge of the properties and uses of the atmosphere is very happily elucidated by the following anecdote. It is said that Dr. Darwin one day at Nottingham spoke thus to a large number of people around him ::- -"Ye men of Nottingham, listen to me. You are ingenious and industrious mechanics. By your industry life's comforts are procured for your

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selves and your families. If you lose your health the power of being industrious will forsake you. That you know; but you do not know that to breathe fresh and changed air constantly is not less necessary to preserve health than sobriety itself. Air becomes unwholesome in a few hours if the window is shut. Open those of your sleeping rooms whenever you quit them to go to your workshops. Keep the windows of your workshops open whenever the weather is not insupportably cold. I have no interest in giving you this advice. Remember what I, your countryman and a physician, tell you. If you would not bring infection and disease among yourselves, and to your wives and little ones, change the air you breathe. Change it by opening your windows several times a day."

There are two kinds of ventilation, natural and mechanical. Chimneys and fireplaces may be considered to belong to the former; valves, fans, and other contrivances to the latter.

The air which has been breathed becomes very warm, and rises to the upper part of the room, where it accumulates, and when it cools descends again on the heads of the inmates, unless means be taken for its removal. The most effectual method to accomplish this object is to make an opening close to the ceiling, and through the breast of the chimney. Two, three, or four bricks only need be removed. Into the vacant space a ventilator is to be placed. This is so constructed that it may be opened to any required distance, or closed at pleasure.

A ventilator on the same principle has been invented by Dr. Arnott. The door is so finely balanced as to be self-acting, and opens without assistance as soon as there is any heated air at the top of the room.

Another mode of admitting fresh air to a room consists in taking a pane of glass from the window-the further from the fireplace the better-and replacing it with a piece of perforated zinc of the same size. Another plan of admitting air is to remove part of the panel

of the door, and insert in its place a piece of perforated zinc provided with a flap.

A very simple method of ventilation adopted at Winchester College School, at the Town Hall of Basingstoke, and several large buildings in Hampshire, by Mr. Sharpe, C.E., is, we are informed, found to answer completely. After the system had been in action the first season at the Winchester College the head master, Dr. Moberly, said 'he scarcely knew what the headache was, but prior to the ventilation being effected he had seldom been a day without it.

The vitiated air is drawn from the building through openings in the ceiling communicating with air trunks in the roof; these trunks are connected with the upright shaft of metal constructed in the chimney, which is heated by the fire used for warming the building by this means the air in the shaft is sufficiently rarefied to produce an upward current. In the summer season a small gas-light is burned in the shaft; the gas is lighted at a small door at the bottom of the metal shaft, and produces a sufficient draught for ventilation in the summer. Fresh air is admitted through plates of perforated zinc let into the skirting round the room, which are under control by the means of slides: these can be so managed as not to cause an uncomfortable draught.

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When," remarks Mr. Lloyd, we consider the number of lives annually sacrificed by attendance on the sick bed, not only in contagious diseases, but also in numerous others, where continued occupation of one room necessarily so contaminates the air as to make it poisonous to delicate organisations, worn with fasting, watching, and anxiety, we must be impressed with the immense importance of mitigating, if we cannot subdue so serious a drawback on human health and happiness. Hospitals, barracks, and other such rooms require peculiar attention to the ventilating arrangements, or they become nurseries of disease."

Dr. Ure states that

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an apartment may be conve

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129

niently disinfected by placing on a shelf or support near the ceiling a small basin or pipkin containing chloride of lime, having set over it a glass or earthenware funnel with muriatic acid diluted with about its weight of water, the beak of the funnel being partially closed with a cork, so that the acid may drop slowly down on the chloride. Eight ounces of good chloride thus treated, with ten ounces of muriatic acid, will suffice to fumigate and sweeten the air of a common-sized chamber.

After these statements we cannot be surprised to hear of the accidents which frequently follow a want of precaution in closing out the fresh air.

It is stated that, at a Christmas meeting in the Highlands, thirty-six persons danced the whole night in a small room with low ceiling, keeping the windows and doors shut. The atmosphere of the room was noxious beyond description, and the effect was that seven of the party were soon after seized with typhus fever, of which two died.

In the First Report of the Health of Towns Commission it is stated that eighty journeymen tailors. worked in one room, "close together, nearly knee to knee," in a room so close that "new hands" fainted away-the men were in a continual perspiration, and large tallow candles "melted and fell over " from the suffocating heat. "Those not accustomed to the place generally lost appetite, and had recourse to drink as a stimulant, gin being taken instead of food, while a considerable portion of the working hours of every day was lost by the neglect of the ventilation of the place of work."

It has been given in evidence that "the closer the ventilation of the places of work, the worse are the habits of the men working in them."

K

CHAPTER IX.

SIGHT AND HEARING.

"These mirrors take into their little space
The forms of moon, and sun, and every star,
Of everybody, and of every place,

Which, with the wide world's arms embraced are;
Yet their best objects and their noblest use
Hereafter, in another world, will be

When God in them shall heavenly light infuse,
That face to face they may their Maker see.
Here are the guides which do the body lead,
Which else would stumble in eternal night;
Here, in this world, they do most knowledge read,
And are the casements which admit most light."

"This is the slowest, yet the daintiest sense,
For even the ears of such as have no skill
Perceive a discord and conceive offence,

And, knowing not what's good, yet find the ill."
SIR JOHN DAVIES.

SIGHT.

Ir is well known that nothing more certainly impairs the sense of vision than debauchery and excess of every kind. Those, therefore, who would preserve their sight unimpaired must exercise temperance in all things.

A long continuance in dark rooms, or frequent and protracted exposure to a blaze of light, is highly injurious. As a general rule, the eye should never be permitted to dwell on brilliant or glaring objects for any length of time. Hence in our apartments only a