On IVomerCs and Children'' s Clothes catching Fire, 1 1 3 



■to furniture, is recommended for this purpose; and if such 

 were known in the family by the name of the Stifling-cloth^ 

 it probably would as readily be used when there was occasion 

 for it, as fire-engines or buckets now are. Care must be 

 taken to procure baize of a close texture. Where the con- 

 venience of a baize cloth cannot be easily procured, as ia 

 cottages, &:c. a cloth cloak, or a blanket, will answer much 

 the same purpose. 



May we not attribute many of the melancholy events 

 which have happened of late, to the modern practice oi' fix- 

 ing fire-grates more forward than formerly, and to the pre- 

 vailing custom of wearing muslin dresses ? B. F. 



To Mr. filloch. ■ 



Your readiness, sir, to contribute to the welfare and hap- 

 piness of our fellow creatures, by inserting a former com- 

 munication on this subject in your Magazine for March, 

 induces me to trouble you with a request that the following 

 may he published in like rlianner. 



The females and children in every family should be parti- 

 cularly told and shown, that flame always tends upwards, and> 

 consequently, that as long as they continue erect, or in an 

 upright posture, while their clothes are burning — the fire ge- 

 nerally beginning in the lower part of the dress — the flames 

 meeting additional fuel as they rise, become more powerful 

 in proportion ; whereby the neck and head, being more ex- 

 posed than other parts to the intense and concentrated heat, 

 must necessarily be most injured. In a case of this kind, 

 where the suficrer happens to be alone, and cannot extin- 

 guish the flames by instantly throwing the clothes over the 

 head and rolling or lying upon them, as mentioned in mv 

 former Idler ; she may stdl avoid oreat agony, and save her 

 life, by throwing herself at full length on the floor, and 

 rolling herself thereon. This method may not extinguish 

 the flame, but lo a certainty will retard its progress, pre- 

 vent fatal injury to the neck and head, and afford oppor- 

 tunity For assistance ; and it may be more practicable than 

 the other tw the aged and infirm. I am, sir, 



July 1, J 80S. , E. V. 



Vol. 31. No, 1^2. July 1808. H XX. On 



