72 SCIENCE IK SHORT CHAPTERS. 



summer, far better ventilating work than the existing lire-holes 

 opening in the wrong place. 



I thus expound my own scheme, not because I believe it to 

 be perfect, but, on the contrary, as a suggestive project to be 

 practically amended and adapted by others better able than my- 

 self to carry out the details. The feature that I think is novel 

 ;md important is that of consciously and avowedly applying to 

 domestic ventilation the principles that have been so success- 

 fully carried out in the far more difficult problem of subter- 

 ranean ventilation. 



The dishonesty of the majority of the modern builders of 

 surburban " villa residences" is favorable to this and other 

 similar radical household reforms, as thousands of these 

 wretched tenements must sooner or later be pulled down, or 

 will all come down together without any pulling the next time 

 we experience one of those earthquake tremors which visit 

 England about once in a century. 



CHAPTER XIT. 



THE FUEL OF THE SUN. 



I OFFER the following sketch of the main argument which is 

 worked out more fully in the essay I published in January 

 1870, Tinder the above title, hoping that many who hesitate to 

 plunge into a presumptuous speculative work of more than 200 

 octavo pages ma}^ read this article, and reflect upon the subject. 



The book has been handled in a most courteous and indul- 

 gent spirit by all the reviewers who have noticed it, but none 

 have ventured to grapple with the argument it contains, 

 although every possible opportunity and provocation for doing 

 so is designedly afforded. It all rests upon the question which 

 is discussed in the first three chapters viz., Whether the 

 atmospnere which surrounds our earth is limited or unlimited 

 in extent ? If my reasoning upon this fundamental question 

 is refuted, all that follows necessarily falls to the ground. If I 

 am right, all our standard treatises on pneumatics and meteor- 

 ology, which repeat the arguments contained in Dr. Wollaston's 

 celebrated paper, must be remodelled. At the outset, I 



