HEAT AND VENTILATION. 



who are very poor, and find it liard in cold cimates to secure fuel enough to keep them 

 selves warm — the tight air-stove is perhaps the best thing for them under such circum- 

 stances, which can be introduced into their humble abode. But in such rooms as they 

 are generally obliged to occup}', they suffer much less for the want of ventilation than 

 those who live in houses where all the windows and doors are so nicely fitted, that the 

 external air is entirely excluded. In many of the coal-stoves which have lately been in- 

 troduced, the coal burns so slowly, that the carbonic acid gas, which is generated (being 

 half as heavy again as the atmospheric air,) cannot ascend through the smoke-pipe and 

 chimney-flue with the temperature which is generally maintained a few feet from the point 

 of combustion. Dr. Ure, one of the most scientific writers of the day, says that "carbonic 

 acid gas cannot ascend at the temperature of 250 deg. F." but regurgitates into the apart- 

 ment through every pore of the stove, and poisons the atmosphere. " I have," says he, 

 " recently performed some careful experiments upon this subject," and find that when 

 the fuel is burning so slowly in the stove as not to heat the iron-surface above the 250th 

 or 300th degree of Fahr., there is a constant deflux of carbonic acid gas from the ash-pit 

 into the room. " I shall, (he says,) " be happy to afford occular demonstration of this 

 fact to any incredulous votary of the pseudo-economical, anti-ventilating stoves now so 

 much in vogue. There is no mode in which the health and life of a person can be placed 

 in more insidious jeopardy than by sitting in a room with its chimney closed up with such 

 a choke-damp — vomiting stove." ' 



"AVe could quote language and facts of a similar character from a great variety of the 

 most reliable authors, but if we can induce any of our readers to observe the consequence 

 in their own dwelling of these modern machines, we shall have gained more than by sim- 

 ply inducing them to peru.se these opinions, however reliable they may be. In most of 

 our churches, public halls, school-houses, court-rooms, places of public amusement, of- 

 fices, stores, work-shops, &c., we meet in this section of the country, the same unwhole- 

 some atmosphere; and almost the only variety to be observed in the mode of heating the 

 room is in the form of the stove. If you enter a public hotel, the first thing you meet in 

 the office or bar-room (if in winter,) is a large box-stove. If you go to the dining-room, 

 you meet the same thing again, with perhaps a hundred feet of smoke-pipe crossing the 

 room at different points; and the offensive character of the atmosphere gives you a 

 sense of fullness in the head, while perhaps a disposition to vertigo compels you- to leave 

 the public rooms and retire to the one allotted to you. Then you will probably find a 

 neat little elegant gothic pattern red-hot by way of showing you a little variety, and if 

 you are compelled to lower a window for your relief, and wake up at midnight with a 

 severe cold, you may console yourself with the fact, that your beautiful little stove is of 

 the latest and most approved fashion, and consumes less fuel than any one ever before in- 

 vented. If you stop long in the place, and stay over the Sabbath, and have been properly 

 educated, you will of course go to church, and it is your own fault if you do not find one 

 of beautiful proportions, handsomely finished, and elegantly decorated. The stove will 

 be larger than the one at your hotel, and one will be placed in each corner of this splendid 

 edifice. The sexton will fire up as often as is necessary, and keep you perfectly warm. 

 It is true the air may soon become very disagreeable, and the eloquent voice of the speaker 

 sound dr}' and husky; if he cannot relieve it by moistening his vocal organs quite fre- 

 quently with cold water, you may not be at all pleased with its tones, silvery and agreea- 

 ble as they were at first. But do not blame him. He is suifering for the purpose of keep- 

 the audience p:>rfectl>j warm, and if you see a considerable proportion of the con 

 asleep, particularly if the house is fall, do not wonder at it, for the atmos 



