IMPERFECTIONS OF SHELTER. 181 



civilized state, since it implies a certain control over the animal appetite 

 and personal self-denial. Though great improvements in both of these 

 will doubtless hereafter be made, when the principles of their operation 

 -are more generally and better understood, they must, even in their pres- 

 ent condition, be regarded as having reached a higher perfection than the 

 check by resorting to shelter. The art of constructing dwelling-houses 

 may be said to be yet in its infancy in all parts of the world, E . . 

 and yet in no particular is the physical condition of females perfections of 

 and children, and especially of the sick, more nearly touched. shelter - 

 It is only within our own times that attention has been drawn to the 

 proper methods for the admission of warmth, and air, and light ; the hy- 

 gienic influences of furniture and decoration are unknown, beyond, per- 

 haps, a popular impression that it is unhealthy to be in a recently-paint- 

 ed apartment, inexpedient to sleep in a chamber where there are flowers, 

 and unpleasant in summer to have a carpet on the floor, because it looks 

 warm, and is thought to generate dust. The owner of a palace, on which 

 wealth has been fruitlessly lavished, finds, on a cold day, that he can 

 not obtain from his parlor fire the necessary warmth unless by alternate- 

 ly turning round and round. The testy valetudinarian sits in his easy- 

 chair, tormented by drafts coming in from every quarter. In his vain 

 attempts to stop the offending crevices, it never occurs to him that his 

 chimney is a great exhausting machine, which is drawing the air out of 

 the room, and that his means of warming and ventilation are the most 

 miserable that could be resorted to, since radiation can warm only one 

 side of a thing at a time, and fresh air under those conditions can only 

 be introduced by drafts. 



To warm rooms by contrivances such as the open fire-place or stove 

 is obviously unphilosophical, since the effect of these is to ex- of artificial 

 haust the air of the apartment. The modern method of warm- warmth, 

 ing by furnaces, which act by throwing air duly moistened and of the 

 right temperature into the rooms, and therefore by condensation, is clear- 

 ly a better system, since it not only puts an end to all drafts, the 

 tendency being to force air out through every crevice instead of drawing 

 it in, but it possesses the inappreciable advantages of giving uniformity 

 of warmth, a perfect control over the degree of heat, and likewise over the 

 nature of the air, which need not be drawn from the cellar, or the con- 

 taminated impurity of the street, but by suitable flues from the free and 

 clear air above. Ventilating contrivances which can cheaply and effectu- 

 ally force a supply of artificially cooled air in the summer, and warm air 

 in the winter, into dwelling-houses, are still a great desideratum. 



By the aid of diet, clothing, and shelter, we are able to effect an almost 

 complete compensation for the changes of diurnal and annual temper- 

 atures, and even to occupy any climate of the globe. It is the manage- 



