TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 131 



The author presented a short report of a case which disproved the 

 opinion that this deposit is found only in coal miners and moulders in 

 iron work. The individual was William Ritson, set. 77, many years 

 inmate of the Tynemouth Union Workhouse. He had been employed 

 from an early period of life as a lead miner, continuing at the employ- 

 ment till within ten or twelve years of his death. During the middle 

 period of his life he had been at sea for five years. 



On the Amount of Air required for Respiration. By Dr. D. B> Reid. 



From a very extensive series of experiments made upon the respira- 

 tion of upwards of a hundred individuals, who placed themselves suc- 

 cessively in an apparatus for this purpose; from trials made upon greater 

 numbers varying from 3 to 234, in apartments specially constructed 

 for the purpose ; and from observations made under his direction in the 

 House of Commons every day that Parliament had met during the 

 last two sessions ; Dr. Reid contended that the amount of air usually 

 allowed for respiration, in public buildings and private dwelling-houses, 

 was far below the standard required for sustaining either the bodily or 

 intellectual faculties in health and vigour. He remarked that great 

 errors in estimates upon this point had arisen from a variety of causes ; 

 more especially — 



1. From the extreme difficulty of calculating and regulating pre- 

 cisely the supply of air in apartments constructed in the usual manner. 



2. From the supply of air having been determined hitherto not by 

 precise experiments upon the person, but from calculations, which, 

 from the state of science, are at present necessarily imperfect. 



3. From the amount of air required to sustain the functions of the 

 skin, and to facilitate by gaseous diffusion the I'emoval of the matter of 

 insensible perspiration having been in a great measure overlooked. 



4. From neglecting the influence Avhich even an excessively minute 

 quantity of some gaseoxis and volatile substances difflised through the 

 atmosphere may exert in gradually undermining the system. 



Dr. Reid's communication contained a variety of details in reference 

 to the constitutional peculiarities of different individuals in respect to 

 air, and he contended that they differed as much in this respect as in 

 reference to food and drink, exercise, temperature, clothing, &c. 



In adverting to the influence of heat, light, and electricity, he brought 

 forward a number of instances showing that the effiect of light upon 

 the human constitution is as important in its action as in the power it 

 is known to possess upon the vegetable kingdom, and referred more 

 particularly to a case pointed out by Sir James Wylie, in one of the 

 largest barracks, where there were three cases of disease among the 

 soldiers whose apartments looked to a dark and dull court, for one 

 among those who were necessarily exposed to a bright light, the tem- 

 perature, food, clothing, and discipline, being precisely the same. 



In concluding. Dr. Reid contended, 1. That the supply of air should 

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