272 BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 



that "the polluted atmospheres of overcrowded un- 

 ventilated barrack rooms has been, in times past, 

 a potent cause of disease and mortality in the British 

 army", . . . that " the importance of this, as bearing 

 upon the efficiency of the army, appears to have 

 been hitherto very imperfectly appreciated", and that 

 "stagnant air, especially in sleeping- rooms, is a 

 poison ". They recommended that 600 cubic feet per 

 man should be provided as soon as practicable, and 

 that arrangements should be made to renew the air 

 within this space at least twice in every hour. But 

 this minimum of 1200 cubic feet of fresh air per man 

 per hour is insufficient. It would lead to 0.06 per 

 cent of respiratory carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 

 and the air would then get too hot and moist; and so 

 a minimum of 1200 cubic feet has long since been 

 discarded. 



If the soldier's air ration was so disgracefully small 

 in 1 86 1, it was doubtlesss rather worse than better 

 prior to that period ; for a previous Royal Commission 

 on the sanitary state of the army had also recom- 

 mended 600 cubic feet of space per man, and that 

 circumstance is likely to have had some effect in in- 

 creasing the space allotted to the soldier shortly before 

 1861. 



It is certain that from 1861 there was a steadily- 

 progressing improvement in the provision of cubic 

 space and ventilation in barrack rooms, and that by 

 1869 there was little, if any, accommodation under 

 500 cubic feet per man ; but the 600 cubic feet limit 

 was by no means general it became so a few years 

 afterwards. 



Now the best available indication we have of the 

 effects of foul air upon human beings is provided by 

 diseases of the lungs, and notably by consumption ; 

 but I should be disposed to select the non-fatal con- 



