LECTURES. 181 



the directions of Dr. Keid in different classes of ships. Those intro- 

 duced in two of the Queen's yachts were specially mentioned, and that 

 in the Minden, the hos})ital ship used during tlie former Chinese war. 

 He referred also to three steamers he had ventilated for an expedition 

 to the Niger. Emigrant ships and packets were then mentioned, and 

 it was strongly urged that were nothing more done than the intro- 

 duction of a single ventilating tuhe from stern to stern, a great and 

 important improvement would he secured. By this, with appropriate 

 power apertures, and with valves, vitiated air could he extracted from 

 any part of the ship in the line of the tube. 



At the same time he deprecated the idea that this should he the only 

 improvement introduced where many were crowded in cabins or small 

 spaces. A ventilating tube should be supplied to every individual 

 cabin or place occupied by passengers, and indeed to every isolated 

 portion or cavity of the ship. And in large vessels, with crowded 

 decks, the officers should be instructed in the best methods of con- 

 verting the ladder ways and cargo hatches into ventilating shafts in 

 proportion to the numbers present. Nor was it difficult to construct 

 temporary air pumps or fanners to assist in the discharge of vitiated 

 air, though it would be much better to have these made on shore and 

 kept in readiness for use on shipboard. 



The important question of quarantine was then introduced and 

 its relation pointed out to the subject under consideration. The 

 want of systematic ventilation in ships and the deficiency of chemi- 

 cal information in respect to the necessity of removing moisture^ 

 to a certain extent, at least, from different articles of merchan- 

 dise, occasioned an annual loss in this country alone that would 

 probably, if he was correctly informed, be counted only by millions if 

 all the circumstances of the case were fully taken into consideration. 

 It was most important that an effective quarantine establishment 

 should be maintained, and that hospitals should be so constructed 

 that all the vitiated air from them should be passed through fire, or so 

 altered, at least, by heat or chemicals, as to prove as unobjectionable 

 as air escaping from an ordinary habitation. The introduction of 

 ventilation that would remove the vitiated air from each patient 

 laboring under a severe form of any disease rendering nim liable 

 to quarantine, was peculiarly important in quarantine hospitals. It 

 would contribute not only to the health of the patient and to that 

 of the attendants and of the other patients in the same ward, but 

 would tend very much to relieve those without from all apprehension 

 as to the escape of any dangerous atmosphere from the precincts of 

 the hospital. But it was still more important to the public, to the 

 merchant, and to the sailor, that a right system should be adopted 

 in the shipping of all goods prone to convey disease from an infected 

 port, or develope it during a voyage. He contended that this object 

 would be greatly promoted by simply drying, to a certain extent^ 

 before shipping them, special classes of exports, and by the intro- 

 duction in all ships of a ventilating tube from stem to stern, such as 

 had been explained. 



Another important measure that should be adopted at all great 

 mercantile ports consisted in providing a portable ventilating appa- 



