and of obtaining supplies of water and of warm air. 291 
losses sustained by fires in England, compared with the small injury 
lone by fires in France. He said, that this difference seemed to 
him to arise, chiefly, from the different modes of building (then) em- 
ployed in the two countries, especially with regard to statr-cases, and 
to the passages between different sets of rooms; but he farther took 
into account, the contrast prevailing between the two nations in the 
fashion of ornamenting and of furnishing their houses—He remark- 
ed as to the first point, namely, the mode of building in the two coun- 
tries, that in England their stair-cases were commonly wholly of wood, 
running from the bottom of a house to its top, and that when a fire 
found its way to such a stair-case, it naturally spread in succession 
to every floor in the house, in consequence of the means of commu- 
nication thus offered, (and especially, he might have said, where an 
upward draught of air assisted.) ‘The Doctor then added, that it 
was a farther aggravation of matters, that passages of the same ma- 
terials occurred to conduct the fire from room to room. He noted 
also, that the English had much superfluous wood-work in their 
houses, by way either of wainscoting or of ornament. In France, 
on the contrary, he remarked, that their stairs were so constructed 
as to be in effect incombustible, including the railings ;* and equal- 
ly so their passages from one set of rooms to another set; and 
that in general their floors were formed of stucco, tiles, or other safe 
materials. He farther said, that where in their respectable houses a 
portion of their apartments had wooden floors, yet as the furniture of 
these apartments usually consisted solely of hangings or curtains, car- 
pets, pictures, and other loose articles, these might easily suffer, with- 
_ out injury to the room containing them.—I may add to what Dr. 
Franklin thus stated, that though, in France, the ceilings of the 
rooms in common houses, and the ceilings of garrets in almost all 
houses, are (so far as I recollect) generally of wood, yet fire can 
seldom reach these ceilings from below; or, should it reach them, 
‘many of them would be found liable to little important damage, upon 
a principle to be mentioned under the next head.—To this head I 
shall immediately proceed, since Dr. Franklin’s suggestions on our 
general question speak sufficiently for themselves, as to their applica- 
tion on the present occasion. 
* The construction of most of the stair-cases in France, (by an intermixture of 
wood-work, bricks and mortar, with iron railings,) is worthy of universal attention 
for certain situations, as being easily imitated at little cost, and of much importance 
in several points of view. Their stair-cases are sometimes made of stone, but never 
of wood alone, unless in the form of ladders. 
