718 



REID, DAVID B. 



Physicians, and of the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh. Engaging, as most of the young physi- 

 cians of Edinburgh were in the habit of doing, 

 in dispensary practice, he was painfully im- 

 pressed with the great need of better ventila- 

 tion in the houses of the poor, and the lessons 

 taught him by his experience there were never 

 forgotten. While a student in the university he 

 had been assistant to Sir John Leslie, then Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Philosophy in the university, 

 and after his graduation he had taught inde- 

 pendent classes in chemistry, until he was called 

 by Dr. Hope to assist him in his chemical 

 course in 1827, and for five years had the entire 

 charge of the classes of practical and analytical 

 chemistry in the university. In 1832 he deter- 

 mined to resume his independent classes, and 

 erected a class-room and laboratory larger than 

 any in Edinburgh, which he opened in 1833, 

 und for the next seven years had about three 

 hundred pupils annually in his chemical classes. 

 In 1836 he was called to make such alterations 

 in the old House of Commons as should secure 

 its better ventilation, and in 1839 superintended 

 similar changes in the House of Peers. When 

 the Houses of Parliament were burned in 1840, 

 he was called from Edinburgh to direct the 

 ventilation of the new Houses. For five years 

 he continued in this work, though under serious 

 difficulties and constant annoyance from the 

 numerous changes to which his plans were sub- 

 jected by the builders. He finally refused to 

 be responsible for the success of the ventilation 

 unless his plans could be adhered to strictly, 

 and he himself sustained in enforcing them. 

 As a result of this, the House of Commons, 

 after a sharp contest, accorded to Dr. Reid all 

 that he asked, while the House of Peers with- 

 drew their House from his jurisdiction. He 

 never acted subsequently at the Houses of Par- 

 liament, except under protest, gaining a pub- 

 lic hearing at the bar of the House of Commons 

 in 1852, and carrying an award against the 

 Government at an arbitration the following 

 year. Dr. Reid was more fortunate in being 

 freed from interference in the application of his 

 plans of ventilation in the construction of St. 

 George's Hall, Liverpool, the largest public 

 building hi that city, containing upwards of one 

 hundred rooms, the ventilation of which was 

 perfect even when most densely crowded. His 

 plans were also introduced into numerous pub- 

 iic buildings, manufactories, and private habi- 

 tations. 



His system was based upon a new estimate 

 cf the quantity of air required for respiration, 

 and of the varied circumstances that modified 

 this amount. Its leading features in public 

 buildings consisted in his treating the whole 

 structure as a piece of apparatus, and securing, 

 whenever necessary, the power by engines, 

 shafts, or otherwise, of introducing an. atmos- 

 phere with the most gentle possible impetus, 

 with the greatest diffusion practicable, and of 

 the quality in respect to temperature and mois- 

 ture best adapted to the wants and numbers of 



the audience, while the most scrupulous care 

 was observed in taking the air from the purest 

 accessible source, and in reducing the amount 

 of impurities when present in such quantities 

 as to require attention. He made ventilation a 

 primary instead of a secondary question. His 

 difficulties in securing thorough ventilation and 

 pure air in the old House of Commons, which 

 had the river Thames, with its noisome vapors 

 on one side, a pestilential graveyard on the 

 other, and a hundred and fifty offensive factories 

 in the immediate vicinity, forced the question 

 of sanitary improvement upon his attention, 

 and in 1842 he was appointed one of the " Com- 

 missioners to inquire into the state of large 

 towns and populous districts in England and 

 Wales," better known as the "Health of Towns' 

 Commission." In this capacity he gave, under 

 the sanction of the Privy Council, a course of 

 lectures at Exeter Hall to one thousand teachers 

 on the necessity and means of improving the 

 sanitary condition of densely-populated districts, 

 lie also visited and superintended the introduc- 

 tion of improved methods of ventilation and 

 sewerage in most of the cities of the United 

 Kingdom, especially in court-house?, churches, 

 schools, ships of war, prisons, and tenement- 

 houses. He also made a report to Government 

 concerning the better ventilation of mines. So 

 zealous a sanitary reformer could not fail to 

 arouse the dislike and hostility of those who had 

 a vested interest in the wrongs which he so fear- 

 lessly exposed ; and it is no matter of wonder 

 that the " London Times" always the organ and 

 defender of hereditary and privileged abuse, 

 should have sought, by the most reckless false- 

 hoods and malignant misrepresentations, to 

 crush him. In this effort it was unsuccessful ; 

 its falsehoods and slanders, though never re- 

 tracted, were nailed to the counter by the re- 

 ports of the Committees of the House of Com- 

 mons, the investigations of the Admiralty and 

 the civic authorities, and the testimony of the 

 most eminent men of the nation, and in the end 

 Dr. Reid gained in reputation from the abuse 

 of the " Times." Having occasion to visit St. 

 Petersburg, on a mission connected with the 

 ventilation of some of the Government build- 

 ings there, Dr. Reid received letters from Lord 

 John Russell to the Russian authorities, and 

 was received with great attention by the Em- 

 peror Nicholas, and requested to direct the 

 ventilation of the public buildings and vessels 

 of war. The present Emperor subsequently 

 charged him with the application of his system 

 of ventilation to the war steamer General 

 Admiral, built in New York. 



In 1856 Dr. Reid came to the United States, 

 bearing official letters to the President from 

 Lord John Russell, and interested himself on 

 the subject of quarantine and on the improve- 

 ment of the sanitary condition of our large 

 cities. He subsequently removed to the West, 

 and after filling for a time a professorship of 

 applied chemistry in the University of Wiscon- 

 sin, made his residence at St. Paul, Minn. His 



