Systems of Warming and Ventilating Buildings. 335 



Southern Europe, of course we can draw no parallel,) but knows 

 more of the comforts of a fire, than England does. Germany and Rus- 

 sia, our two great competitors, have long been possessed of superior 

 winter comforts to ourselves ; and even the poor diminutive beings 

 within the Arctic Circle, contrive, by means of a few heated stones, 

 and a half-buried hut, to procure more of the real enjoyment of 

 warmth, than an Englishman, with all his boasted dexterity in art, 

 has ever been able to command. In order to put this part of the 

 subject in its proper light, it is only necessary just to trace, by 

 way of illustration, the history of English fire-side -pleasures, through 

 the period of a December day," pp. 11, 12. 



We have often, with this writer, admired the real enjoyment and 

 comfort of an Esquimaux hut, as described by Captain Parry, 

 and have been surprised that the ingenious mode of warming it by 

 heated stones and burning blubber has never found its way into our 

 drawing-rooms ; but the fact is, as IMr. Boyce elsewhere deplores, 

 that we are Avoefully bigotted to ancient usages. Our author then 

 proceeds, in the same strain of eloquent gaiety, to expatiate upon 

 the miseries of the bed-room and breakfast-parlour. It would be in- 

 justice to our readers to resist the quotation. — "The first sensationof 

 which you areconscious,on awaking, is that it is' abitter cold morn- 

 ing ;' and, with an anxious look at the frosted panes, and a glance at 

 the empty grate, you flatter yourself that, by dressing very expedi- 

 tiously indeed, you may yet indulge for another half-hour, in the 

 enjoyment of your comfortable dormitory ; but time flies quickly 

 with the happy ! and when you are really risen, you find that a full 

 hour of the day is passed, which no after-exertion can absolutely 

 recover. At length, quite dressed, and half frozen, you descend to 

 the breakfast parlour, and, with all the impatience of long repres- 

 sed desire, rush, shivering and open handed, to the bright, spark- 

 ling, happy looking fire-side. The first greetings of this loved ob- 

 ject are not, however, quite so kind as might be wished ; for in a few 

 moments, you begin to feel the effects of the sudden transition, in a 

 tingling sensation about the extremities of your swelling fingers, 

 till, as if by a torpedo shock, you find your power over them gone; 

 while the exquisite pain, conquering all ideas of dignity, sends you 

 dangling them, and dancing in agony round the room." p 13. 



It will easily be understood that a gentleman gifted with the 

 literary acumen displayed in the above quotations, is not 

 likely to waste his time and talents upon the minutiae of mechani- 

 cal details; he accordingly tells us that he has contrived a stove for 

 heating houses, not liable to many of the disadvantages of those in 

 common use, the construction of which it would be superfluous to 

 describe, as all particulars respecting it may be learned at No. 57, 

 Connauglit Terrace, Edgware Road. 



But although Mr. Boyce has not enabled us to explain the prin- 

 ciples of his discovery or the construction of his apparatus, there 



