HO USE- V EN TIL A TION. 60 1 



could be realized, not an atom of fresh air would be admitted during 

 the hours of sleep. So little is the necessity for good air understood, 

 that we find au able writer on health sanctioning, if not advocating, 

 sleeping with the mouth under the clothes. His argument is that birds 

 sleep with their heads under their wings, and he might have added, 

 many animals with their noses buried in their fur; forgetful, however, 

 that the feathers (and hair) form a natural respirator to warm and 

 equalize the temperature of the air that passes freely through. There 

 is therefore no analogy in a process for warming a constant supply of 

 perfectly fresh air, and one for breathing the same air over and over 

 again, and charged ad nauseam with organic impurities. Miss Night- 

 ingale approaches the subject of night air from the side of reason, and 

 common-sense, and experience. She says : 



"Another extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night air. What air can we 

 breathe at night but night air? The choice is between pure night air from with- 

 out and foul night air from within. Most people prefer the latter. An unac- 

 countable choice. What will they say if it is proved to be true that fully one- 

 half of all the disease we suffer from is occasioned by people sleeping with their 

 windows shut? An open window most nights in the year can never hurt any 

 one. This is not to say that light is not necessary for recovery. In great cities, 

 night air is often the purest and best air to be had in the twenty-four hours. I 

 could better understand in towns shutting the windows during the day thnn 

 during the night for the sake of the sick. The absence of smoke, the quiet, all 

 tend to making night the best time for airing the patients. One of our highest 

 medical authorities on consumption and climate has told me that the air in Lon- 

 don is never so pure as after ten o'clock at night." 



These are the words of sound sense and experience. We shall only 

 have to add to them, by-and-by, that it is not necessary to encounter 

 the oftentimes great risk of sudden changes in temperature during the 

 night, if we arrange one principal source of admission day and night 

 to the house, and warm the air admitted. We may further remark 

 that if there be the least ground for shrinking from night air, it is be- 

 cause of the often sudden and unforeseen change in the temperature, 

 the very point overlooked in moving from fireplace to window in 

 modern drawing-rooms. 



Latterly some attention has been directed to a plan for diiFused 

 ventilation, adopted by Mr. M. Tobin. This plan consists of a series of 

 vertical pipes placed along the walls, delivering fresh air in an upwai-d 

 current. In a multitude of pipes there is safety much more so than 

 in a multitude of counselors on this subject. Commenting upon this 

 plan of course many critics claim priority of invention, and superiority 

 in their modes of application, and the interests of the public thus goto 

 the wall without any result. It is a pity that it cannot be made intel- 

 ligible that whoever first opened a window or a door, for the express 

 purpose of admitting air, originated ventilation ; and that whoever 

 first made a deeper recess for the lowest sash-bar, so that when the 



