184 LECTURES. 



but tlie House had no sooner met and tried it for a few days than they 

 declared it was not fit for the transaction of business with the lacility 

 they had been accustomed to in the previous house during the preced- 

 ing fifteen years ; and accordingly the ceiling was lowered in the 

 centre, and on every side, the lateral portions of this new ceiling cut- 

 ting the windows into two parts, the lower portions solely remaining 

 available to the House. Dr. Reid then entered on a number ot other 

 points connected with churches and schools which he had been called 

 upon to alter, sometimes increasing the power of sound by lowering 

 the ceiling and other arrangements, and on other occasions diminish- 

 ing excessive sound by providing means for its esca])e or absorption. 

 He then adverted specially to the lecture room of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and complimented Prof. Henry on the arrangements 

 adopted, saying that it was one of the very few lecture rooms where 

 the voice could be enunciated and heard without effort on the part of 

 the speaker and hearer. 



Dr. Reid then adverted to the great progress of acoustics in later 

 years, though it had not yet received the same proportionate attention 

 as optics, and gave a number of illustrations of the effects of the voices 

 of different public speakers, from Wellington and Peel to O'Connell 

 and IShiel ; pointing out also the leading peculiarities in the voices of 

 Jenny Lind, Rubini, Catalani, and in the violin of Paganini, which 

 he described as wielding the power of an Orpheus in modern days, 

 and as having exceeded in his opinion rather than fallen short of the 

 almost fabulous terms in which it was often mentioned. 



A brief review of the whole question of architecture was then taken, 

 and the necessity shown for combining utility and economy, as well 

 as true beauty^ and harmony of structure. The great questions of 

 acoustics, lighting_, warming, and ventilating might be mutually in- 

 terwined or accommodated to each other, and ])erfected with the 

 design and decorations as much as was necessary, before any building 

 was commenced. The principal desiderata necessary for the future 

 progress of architecture were next adverted to ; the importance of 

 establishing colleges or special curricula in existing schools for civil 

 and naval architecture, and the immense amount of valuable infor- 

 mation and experience at present lost from the want of such establish- 

 ments were i)ointed out; universal education in the elements of science 

 was urged as equally important to health, arts, and manufactures, and 

 the extended organization of architectural, agricultural, polylechnic, 

 and industrial institutions. 



Dr. Reid then referred to a paper that he had recently published on 

 a college of architecture in the American Journal of Education, edited 

 by the Hon. Henry Barnard, and thanked his audience for the interest 

 they liad taken in his exposition of the views he had advocated. He 

 concluded his lectures with the following outline of the course of study 

 recommended lor students of architecture : 



