xt POLITICAL LIFE 275 



them with plaster of Paris, which when used for such 

 purposes was known as " daff." The shopboy, at 

 eighteenpence a week, went down into the dark cellar 

 where two sacks alike in appearance were placed side 

 by side, one containing plaster of Paris and the other 

 white arsenic. The boy took up his scoop and care- 

 fully measured out half a pound of white arsenic, which 

 he served to his customer, and the consequences were 

 what have been related. 



On another occasion I drew attention to the ventila- 

 tion of the House of Commons, and especially to the 

 deteriorating effect of the burning of gas on the 

 internal stone fretwork of the room and passages of 

 the House of Parliament. I advocated the complete 

 introduction of electric light, and showed that great 

 destruction was caused by the existing system. Mr. 

 Plunkett, who was then the First Commissioner of 

 Works, gave the usual official answer ; but this at any 

 rate was a beginning, and I commenced an agitation 

 which after a few years was effective, so that at the 

 present time the whole of the gas lights in the Palace 

 of Westminster have been replaced by electric illumina- 

 tion, with the exception of the House of Commons 

 itself, where the light is derived from gas-burners, 

 placed in the roof of the Chamber, and separated from 

 it by a glass ceiling, so that none of the products of 

 combustion can pass into the air of the room. 



Whilst describing the steps I took with regard to 

 the ventilation of the Palace of Westminster I may 

 refer to a question of more general importance, that is, 

 of the ventilation in schools, in a lecture which I 

 delivered before the College of State Medicine in 

 1889. The subject of house ventilation had interested 

 me for more than thirty years, and I had long been of 

 opinion that, in the words of one of her Majesty's 



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