276 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



inspectors of schools, " with all our scientific progress 

 we are practically ignorant, we might say helpless, 

 in regard to the right ventilation of schools." And 

 even in spite of much work which has been done 

 since that time, very little appreciable progress has 

 been made in this most important and indeed essential 

 matter ; for it has been clearly shown that the mental 

 activity and general alertness so necessary for the 

 scholar are dimmed and almost destroyed in badly 

 ventilated schools. The work done by my late friend 

 and pupil Carnelley for the Dundee School Board, and 

 the continuation of the work, by Drs. Anderson and 

 Haldane, published in the Philosophical Transactions, 

 have done much to show the importance of proper 

 ventilation both for schools and for private dwelling- 

 rooms. In my opinion the Board of Education ought 

 to insist upon regular determinations of the amount of 

 chemical as well as of bacterial impurities in all schools, 

 and to fix limits of such impurities which must not be 

 exceeded. To show that this latter is not an imprac- 

 ticable proposition I need only mention the fact, to 

 which I shall subsequently refer, that, through the 

 labours of the committee of which I was chairman, an 

 official limit has been placed upon the amount of air- 

 impurities contained in weaving sheds in the Lancashire 

 cotton mills. 



I may now shortly describe the work I accomplished 

 with regard to the drainage of the Palace of Westminster. 

 Great complaints had for many years arisen that foul 

 smells were noticed in the various rooms both of the 

 Lords and the Commons. A committee, of which I 

 was the chairman, was appointed to go into the whole 

 subject. It is scarcely credible that on inquiry it was 

 found that there were not any plans of the drainage of 

 the Houses of Parliament to be found, either at the 



