io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



matter that it would not be tolerated in a sitting-room for a moment. The amount 

 of space allowed in bedrooms and dormitories is frequently altogether insufficient. 

 Doors and windows are tightly closed, and there is practically little ventilation 

 going on for six or eight hours of sleeping time, whereas in sitting-rooms the ad- 

 mission of air is promoted by persons passing in and out. 



This steady nightly poisoning goes on in many public institutions, I am afraid, 

 in the "houses" of some public schools, and the dormitories of charitable institu- 

 tions. They are well ventilated during the day, closed at night, and the allow- 

 ance of cubic space is quite insufficient to supply fresh air enough with the very 

 small influx which can take place. 



Night nurseries, again, especially in large towns, are liable to be grossly over- 

 crowded. I have seen a small, low room in the attics of a London mansion used 

 as a sleeping apartment for five or six children and a nurse which had not space 

 or ventilation enough for two persons. 



Without indorsing the whole of the pathology suggested in your excellent 

 paper, I am sure you are right in attributing a large proportion of ill health, con- 

 tagious disease, and especially the increased virulence of this, to air fouled by 

 organic matter. 



Prof. W. H. Flower writes : 



I am not sufficiently acquainted with modern physiology to know whether all 

 the scientific details of the paper are correct, but I quite agree with you in the 

 very great importance of the subjeot being pressed home upon all classes. How, 

 for instance, could people travel in a railway carriage with perhaps six or more 

 companions shut up together for several hours, and insisting on keeping all the 

 windows closed, as they often do, if they were made to realize that the air which 

 they are breathing must necessarily be passing in and out of the lungs, not only 

 of themselves, but of all their fellow-travelers as well, over and over again in the 

 course of the journey, and each time becoming more and more contaminated ? 



I have always thought, though I have not medical experience enough to prove 

 it, that the greater prevalence of tuberculosis and other lung disease in cold over 

 warm climates is owing, not so much to difference of temperature, as to the fact 

 that in the former there is a greater tendency to breathe impure air for the pur- 

 pose of warmth. My theories on the subject are, however, rather staggered by 

 the thought of rabbits, sand-martin, etc., passing a considerable part of their lives 

 at the bottom of burrows, where anything like ventilation seems absolutely im- 

 possible, and yet remaining perfectly healthy. 



Mr. Lawson Tait writes : 



What can I add to an article, so lucidly written, save that I agree generally 

 with it, and hope that it may be productive of great good, as it well may? 



Contemporary Review. 



Dr. Junker expresses, in the narrative of his travels in Africa, a somewhat 

 favorable opinion of the intellectual qualities of the negroes among whom he trav- 

 eled, and pronounces them capable of higher moral development. He everywhere 

 found the upper classes, princes and nobles, the most highly endowed with intel- 

 lectual qualities. This he attributes to the fact that the negro ruler is compelled 

 to think and act in his capacity of judge, lawgiver, and captain. He notices, too, 

 the wonderful fluency of speech acquired from the custom of making long ora- 

 tions, embellished with simile and metaphor, in their public assemblies. 



