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XXIX. Notices respecting New Booh, 



A Practical Treatise on Warming Buildings hy Hot Watery tvith some 

 remarks on Ventilation. By Charles Hood, Esq., F.Il.A.S., illus- 

 trated by numerous Wood-cuts, 8vo. London, 1837. 

 This is a practical and scientific treatise on an important subject, 

 which is every day attracting more and more public attention. The 

 inquiry is pursued in a popular manner, in order to render it intelli- 

 gible to all readers j all abstruse calculations and scientific techni- 

 calities have been avoided as much as possible. The merits of the 

 various kinds of apparatus employed are carefully considered, their 

 philosophical principles pointed out, and their utility displayed in a 

 practical manner, and illustrated by well-executed diagrams. One 

 of the most important chapters is that on ventilation, showing the 

 deleterious efiects upon the human frame of atmospheric air which 

 has been changed by the process of respiration, or by subjection to 

 the action of heat, or in any other way; and the necessity of suffi- 

 cient and good ventilation. " It has been proved by experiments," 

 says the author, p. 173, *' that air which has been once inhaled 

 loses about 10 per cent, of its oxygen, or nearly one half that it 

 contains, and acquires from 8 to 8^^ per cent, of carbonic acid gas. 

 This gas, it is well known, is as destructive to animal life as the oxy- 

 gen is necessary for its preservation, and, therefore, air cannot be 

 breathed a second time without serious inconvenience. For, as it is 

 found impossible to make atmospheric air contain more than 10 per 

 cent, of carbonic acid gas, it follows, that, if breathing a quantity 

 of air once impregnates it with 8i per cent, of this gas, if it be 

 breathed a second time, it can only receive H per cent. ; and there- 

 fore the remainder must be left in the lungs, where it exerts a most 

 deleterious effect. The noxious qualities of this gas are well known ; 

 the foul air of wells, which causes death in so many instances, con- 

 sists of this deleterious matter ; and it is extraordinary that the 

 heart and muscles of any animal that has been deprived of life by 

 breathing it, entirely lose their irritability, and become insensible 

 even to the powerful stimulus of galvanism." We have great plea- 

 sure in recommending this work to the attention of the public in 

 general. 



A Guide to an Arrangement of British Insects. By J. Curtis, Esq., 

 F.L.S., Author of British Entomology, 2nd edit., 8vo. London, 

 1837. 



In order to remedy the great inconvenience which students in 

 Entomology must have experienced of not having a compact 

 printed Catalogue of British Insects, Mr. Curtis has published this 

 useful work, with a view to enable them to arrange their cabinets 

 systematically ; to mark oft' their own insects so as to know instantly 

 whether they have a species or not, by which means their desiderata 

 will be shown, and they will be enabled to enrich their cabinets by 

 mutual exchanges ; to form labels for cabinets, and save much 

 time that would be required for writing them. It is also a systema- 



