LECTURES. ' 149 



imperious necessity, a corrupt luxury, or a want of faith, hope, and 

 contentment in the providence of the Creator. 



Dr. Keid then turned his discourse to the physical evils attendant on 

 liuman life, and explained the magnitude of that resulting from de- 

 fective ventilation. Man rosi)ired, on an average, twelve hundred times 

 an liour during the whole period of his existence. The lungs contained 

 millions of cells, and if i)ure air were not supplied all these provisions for 

 Hie and health were more or legs useless ; the hlood hccame changed 

 in its qualities ; the brain, the eye, the ear, and every tissue and fibre 

 of the human frame were more or less affected. The result varied in 

 every degree — from the most trifling headache, listlessness, or langor, 

 to every variety of fever, scrofula, consumption, or even, in extreme 

 cases, to sudden and immediate death. 



In large cities and in all populous districts a proper system of drain- 

 age and external cleansing were the true remedy for periodical evils 

 too often attributed to wrong causes. These being secured, the right 

 ingress and egress of air in individual buildings and habitations be- 

 came the next desideratum. 



Few cities, comparatively, large or small, were cleaned to the 

 extent necessary for the right preservation of health ; nor was it to 

 be expected that this subject would receive adequate attention till the 

 united efforts of medical men, engineers, architects, and agriculturists 

 slioidd be brought to bear upon it. Great progress had been made, un- 

 questionably, in recent years ; but a more systematic, combined, and 

 harmonious effort was desirable than was in operation, either in this 

 country or in Europe, so far as I have had the opportunity of observ- 

 ing. The medical profession was responsible for pointing out the 

 sources of disease and death, but, without the aid of the agriculturist, 

 it was, in general, found impossible to obtain the funds necessary for 

 effective cleansing ; and what could be done in this respect where a 

 good system of engineering did not afford an ample supply of water 

 and the requisite drainage, or where a defective architecture did not 

 provide the proper facilities for the removal of refuse ? In London, 

 after the experience of upwards of a thousand years, the authorities 

 had at last become convinced that the condition which the river attains 

 from the drainage thrown into it is an evil of the greatest magnitude, 

 and a reference to the newspapers of the day would show the deter- 

 mination to reduce this evil, tliough nothing effectual can be done 

 under an ex[)enditure of millions of pounds. Is it not the case, that 

 in this city the continued drainage into the canal may become more 

 and more objectionable every succeeding year, and is there not abun- 

 dant evidence that a right system of drainage and sewerage, with 

 })roper attention to the ventilation of drains, would here lessen disease 

 and suffering ? In Paris the whole atmosphere is sometimes tainted 

 with an ammoniacal odor; and who has ever crossed the "Unter den 

 Linden," in Berlin, at least when in the condition in which it was 

 a few years ago, without being admonished of what had still to be 

 done in that city. Modern chemistry has not yet developed and ex- 

 plained all the varieties of malaria, natural and artificial, that inter- 

 fere witli the preservation of a pure atmosphere, but it has most em- 

 phatically pointed out many of their sources in innumerable habita- 



