1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



271 



" 3. Let ebambcrs be provided below each court, tliat the air may enter 

 difTusively, and as imperceptibly as possible, the ditTusioii bc4n{; regulated by 

 perforated zinc or porous cloth at every place represented by the red dotted 

 line in the plan of tlie courts. 



" -4. Let a mild hot water apparatus be procured, and let it be arranged in 

 such a manner that by the mere opening or shutting of a valve, it may be 

 made to atford any proportion of wai'mth, such as the circumstances of the 

 moment may require. I must here remark, that though ventilation may be 

 induced without warming the air before it enters the court, still the two 

 questions are inseparably connected, more especially as in an apartment not 

 ■ventilated, the vitiated air stagnated around the person produces part of that 

 warmth which ought to be procured from other sources, and which is required 

 to a greater and greater extent, the more freely the air is snppUed. To some 

 constitutions the absence of olTensive currents, and the supply of air at a 

 proper temperature, are as important as a supply of pure air. 



" 5. Let the entrance of the air to the court be regulated by a single valve, 

 so that the amount may be proportioned to the state of the eiternal atmo- 

 sphere and the fluctuating attendance, so that the effect produced ui)on the 

 person may in all cases be as nearly as possible the same, whatever ch.anges 

 may ensue, either on the attendance at the court or in the external atmo- 

 sphere. 



" 6. Let the foul air also be discharged through a single aperture, a valve 

 being provided there also, to be used under particular circumstances, 



" 7. One external discharge from each court may be provided, but one 

 alone for both would be preferable, but also more costly, from the cuttiugs 

 required in the roof. 



" 8. The external discharge should be protected from the action of currents 

 of air by a cowl, or any equivalent modification of the cowl. 



" 9. The galleries should be supplied with pure air from the fresh air 

 chamber. 



" 10. A commnnication shoidd be established between the cesspool in the 

 kitchen and the adjoining drains. 



" All the above points are essentially connected with the ventilation of the 

 courts aloue, and would cost, as nearly as I can estimate, about 1,925?. In 

 stating this sum, it may be proper for me to mention, that a precise estimate 

 cannot be formed, as the precise facilities or difficulties that may lie met with 

 in following out the underground cuttings must necessarily modify the result. 

 But I do not consider that there would be a difference of 100?., which might 

 be either less or more than the sum mentioned, acconUng to details that 

 could only be ascertained as the works proceeded. I ought also to observe, 

 that my estimate is foimded principally upon the cost of similar works exe- 

 cuted in the Queen's Bench and Bail Courts, Westminster, in the Insolvent 

 Debtors* Court, and in various other buildings in Loudon. 



" I shouhl not consider the report complete did I not submit for your con- 

 sideration, that it would be advisable that some minor arrangements should 

 be made for the ventilation of the hall, staircases, and some of the principal 

 apartments in connexion with the courts. In places where the principal 

 room has been ventilated without some attention being paid to lobbies and 

 contiguous apartments, the contrast between the air where ventilation has 

 been introduced and where it has not often leads to complaints that would 

 not otherwise be made, and to the introduction of ventilation in these minor 

 apartments at a future period at a considerable increase of cost. An addi- 

 tional sum of 150/. or 200?. would enable the ventilation to be greatly im- 

 proved in all the places now referred to. 



" Again, in all buildings constructed in the usual manner there is a defect 

 observed in the movement of air near windows in cold weather, which can 

 be remedied entirely only by double windows ; this not being essentially 

 connected with the general arrangements for ventilation, though most impor- 

 tant in preventing local discomfort in the seats next the windows, is brought 

 before your notice as a separate question, that can be considered either at 

 present or at a future period. 



" Lastly, in making the above report I have to mention, that I have had 

 the advantage of communicating with Mr. Mountague, who has assisted me 

 in obtaining the information required as to the present state of the buildings ; 

 and I have the satisfaction to state, that he is of opinion that the several 

 •works may he executed without interfering with the character or stability of 

 the building. 



" I have the honour to remain, my Lord and Gentlemen, 

 " Your verv obedient servant, 



" D. B. Reid." 



Sir P. Laurie seconded the motion. He trusted the Court would be unani- 

 mous in recommending the adoption of Dr. Reid's plans. It was universally 

 admitted that he had successfully applied them in the ventilation of both 

 Houses of Parliament, an object of paramount importance, which had often 

 been attempted and as often failed. The best evidence that Dr. Reid had 

 been completely successful in his operation on the Houses of Parhameut 

 ^vas to he found in the fact that at the conclusion of his labours they had 

 rewarded his talent and perseverance with a compUmentary gratuity of 1,000?. 

 over and above the stipulated compensation. 



The report was confirmed uem. con., so that this complaint will soon be 

 effectually removed. 



THE MIASMA OF AFRICA.— NIGER EXPEDITION. 

 Mr. J. F. Daxiell lately read a paper at the Royal Institution, " On the 

 spontaneous evolu/ioii of siiljiliirretted hi/drotjnH in the u-alers on the luestern 

 coast of Africa anil elsewhere." He commenced by observing, that this sub- 

 ject was now interesting on two accounts — 1, because it would recall to the 

 mcmbei^ of that institution the experiments of Sir Humphrey Davy on the 

 subject, and which led him to advise the adoption of ship protectors'; and, 2, 

 in consequence of the Niger expedition, fitted out to visit and endeavour to 

 introduce civiUzation on the western coast of Africa. Tiie effect produced 

 on copper sheathing by the presence of suljihurettcd hydrogen in the waters 

 o:i that coast, was, he premised, well known to every one informed respecting 

 vessels visiting it, and it was a fact that a cruise of nine months on the wes- 

 tern coast of Africa injured the copper sheathing of a vessel as much as four 

 years' w-ear in any other part of tlie world. The lecturer sliowed a piece of 

 sheathing taken from the bottom of a Government frigate that had not been 

 many months on the African station, and also a piece from the Royal George, 

 sunk at Spithead, and which had been under water CO years ; the former was 

 eaten through in ven- many places, and so thin all over that he might push 

 his thumb through it, while the latter was tough and in excellent condition. 

 Ilis attention had been directed to the subject by the Lords of the Admiralty 

 sending him 10 bottles of water, from as many different places on that coast, 

 extending from S deg. north of the Equator to 8 deg. south, to analyse, and 

 to report on the component parts thereof, and the accompanying table was 

 the result : — ■ 



Sierra Leone, per gallon 



Volta 



] Bonny River 



JMooney 



'Gaboon 



jLobez-bay 



jCongo River (Mouth) 



jCongo River (35 miles inland) 



(Uaugo 



iLagos 



All the bottles were hermetically sealed, and he had no doubt the water 

 was in every way as good as when taken from the rivers. On drawing the 

 cork, he was immediately struck with the smell of suli)huretted hydrogen, 

 and adopted the general idea that it arose from animal and vegetable decom- 

 position, but it had since appeared to him that such was not entirely the case. 

 The gas extended a distance of 15 or 16 deg., and in some places as far as 40 

 miles to sea. covering therefore a space of 40,000 square miles. Now what 

 could the origin be .' He thought that it arose from the action and reaction 

 of vegetable and animal matter brought from the interior of the rivers upon 

 the sulphates in the sea water. With this idea he gathered last autumn some 

 leaves from a shrubbery and put them into three jars ; into one of which he 

 poured some plain New River water, into the second some of the same water 

 in which three ounces of common salt had been dissolved, and into the third 

 the like water, in which some crystallized sulphate of soda was dissolved. 

 To the covers of the jars he fixed inside some litmus paper, and placed them 

 in a cupboard, the temperature of which varied from 70 to 100 or 110 deg. 

 The effect was, that in the first the litmus paper was perfectly white, and the 

 smell by no means unpleasant ; in the second the paper was quite white, and the 

 smell similar to that of a preserve ; hut in the third jar, in which a sulphate 

 was present, the paper was nearly black, and the stench was horrible and 

 nauseous in the extreme, as every one knew the smell of sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen gas to be. Now sea-water contained sufficient sulphates to produce this 

 effect, under peculiar circumstances. But a more interesting part of the sub- 

 ject was the miasma so injurious to life on the marshy shore of Western Africa. 

 Some persons said that if science cannot point out a remedy, it is useless to 

 investigate the causes, but he did not so think ; if science could not point 

 out a remedy, still it could point to something as a palliation of the evil. The 

 presence of the injurious gas was easily tested by the roughest hand, so that 

 places in which it abounded could be avoided ; and if imperative duty rendered 

 it absolutely necessary to go to those places, then plentiful fumigations of 

 chlorine gas would effectually destroy the sulpliuretted hydrogen. The effect 

 of this gas was not only visible on the Western coast (rf Mrica, but in many 

 places elsewhere, although not to so great an extent. Might not the jiuigle 

 fever of India, the periodical fevers of New York and Charleston in America, 

 and the minor diseases on the coast of Essex, be traced to the effects of this 

 deleterious gas ? It was a well known fact that tlie ships in the mouth of 

 the Medway consumed more copper than other ships. Chlorine gas then 

 destroyed the injurious gas, and it was easily made, and the materials very 

 cheap ; the Government had plentifully supplied the African Expedition with 

 the materials necessary for the most perfect chlorine fumigations, and he had 

 the pleasure of believing that his report founded on the analysis of the waters 

 submitted to him, and the precautions taken, had imparted confidence not 

 only to the gallant men who composed that expedition, but also to those who 

 bad interested themselves in its welfare. 



