EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 187 



who are well. Were a general knowledge of the 

 structure of man to constitute a regular part of a 

 liberal education, such inconsistencies as this would 

 soon disappear, and the scientific architect would 

 speedily devise the best means for supplying our 

 houses with pure air, as he has already supplied them 

 with pure water. 



That these remarks are not uncalled for, even as 

 fegards hospitals, may be conceived from the sub- 

 joined quotations from the Lancet of 29th Decem- 

 ber, 1832. After narrating a case of a patient who 

 was carried off by pleurisy, while under treatment 

 by Dr. Elliotson, in St. Thomas's Hospital, for dis- 

 ease of pylorus, the reporter gives his opinion, that 

 the pleurisy " was most likely occasioned by the ex- 

 treme draughts of this ward. There is a great cur- 

 rent of air in the ward ; and I have seen many per- 

 sons in it suffer very much indeed." In a note, it 

 is added, " The number of patients who are thus carried 

 off yearly forms a startling list to be laid before the 

 eyes of the governors of this institution. Such results 

 are shamefully frequent." I fear there are many 

 other hospitals as much in need of improvement in 

 this respect as that of St. Thomas's. 



As a contrast to the above case, it is gratifying 

 to observe the care which has been taken to effect 

 a thorough and safe ventilation in fitting up the new 

 surgical wards of the Edinburgh Infirmary, which 

 may serve as a specimen of what ought to be done, 

 not only with all public institutions, but I may add 

 with all private dwellings. In these wards fresh air 

 /s introduced by large circular openings in the floor, 

 and the vitiated air escapes by similar openings in 

 the roof. The apparatus is so constructed as to 

 admit of the air being heated in winter before it 

 enters the ward, by which means all danger from 

 cold currents is prevented. 



That the evils which sound physiology would 

 lead us to anticipate from frequently breathing im- 



