244 



fashionable places of worship. The glazing would serve to arrest the 

 escape of this life-giving principle, \-ioi prevent but arrest it, and the 

 invigorating effect of entering the building would be at once manifest. 

 The advantage of such bnildings to invalids, especially in cases of 

 incipient phthisis, is a matter now becoming notorious, through the 

 recently-published views of Mr. Paxlon and others ; but I do not see 

 that any of these gentlemen make the acknowledgment which com- 

 mon courtesy requires to Mr. Ward, with whom the idea originated. 

 In order to set that gentleman right with the public, I beg to refer the 

 reader to his work, published nine years ago.* After describing fully 

 the advantage of such closed glass houses as that I am now proposing 

 to erect, Mr. Ward goes on to consider the application of the same 

 principle to animal and human life, — an application which he justly re- 

 gards as of far higher importance than the scientific, amusing, or orna- 

 mental pnrposes to which the Wardian cases are now generally applied. 

 " With respect to consumption, could we have such a place of refuge 

 as 1 believe one of these closed houses would prove to be, we should 

 then be no longer under the painful necessity of sending a beloved 

 relative to a distant land for the remote chance of recovery, or too 

 probably to realize the painful description of Blackwood — ' Far away 

 from home, with strangers around him, — a language he does not un- 

 derstand, — doctors in whom he has no confidence,-^scenery he is too 

 ill to admire, — religious comforters in whom he has no faith, — with a 

 deep and every day more vivid recollection of domestic scenes, — 

 heart-broken, — home-sick, — 'friendless and uncared for, — he dies.'" 



2nd. Comfort- — The great discomforts of out-of-doors life in Lon- 

 don, arise from cold winds, rain, intense sunshine, dust, soot, filthy 

 smells, wet muddy ground, incessant noise, &c. Now one and all of 

 these disagreeables would be excluded from a glazed garden : cold 

 winds, rain, dust, soot, smells, and noise would of necessity be shut 

 out. The roof of green and corrugated glass would effectually obstruct 

 all disagreeable effects from the sun's rays, which, transmitted through 

 such a medium, would not injure the most delicately-sensitive skin; 

 and such glass, imlike all other kinds, would diminish instead of 

 increasing the temperature. The walks, made entirely of comminuted 

 shells, would be always dry, yet never dusty — ahvays fit for the thin- 

 nest sole to traverse with impunity and cleanliness, 



3rd. Safety. — There can be no doubt that a ramble in the streets 



* ' On tlie Growth of Plants in Closely-gla/ed Cases. By N. B. Ward. Lon- 

 don : Van Voorst. 1842.' 



