502 Life of Count Riimford. 



the Count endured as he walked the streets of London 

 and read the placards and advertisements in the jour- 

 nals. He found his own name attached to many boasted 

 improvements announced to the public, in connection 

 with certain stoves, grates, etc., that were exposed for 

 sale. The name of Rumford had become a synonyme 

 of Reform. He wished to preserve it from contact 

 with quackery or fraud. He adverts, but very mildly, 

 to this annoyance in this Essay, as follows : 



" As I am extremely anxious not to injure any man, 

 either in his reputation for ingenuity, or in his trade, or 

 in any other way, I shall not say one word more on 

 this subject than what I feel it to be my duty to the 

 public to declare, namely, that I am not the inventor 

 of any of those stoves or grates that have been offered 

 to the public for sale, under my name." 



The twelfth Essay, which also is very brief, is entitled 

 " Of the Salubrity of Warm Rooms," of which the 

 Count shows himself a most earnest champion. He 

 draws the distinction between fresh or cold air, and pure 

 or wholesome air. He exposes the folly of sitting in a 

 room which has a large blazing open fire roasting one 

 side of the body, while blasts of cold air are coursing the 

 apartment ; and he explains the remarkable fact that we 

 are not capable of feeling, or rather are not conscious of 

 feeling, both heat and cold at the same time, though we 

 are really subject to them. He shows how streams of 

 cold air are always pernicious, and that the danger from 

 them is greatest when we are least sensible of it. He 

 insists that sudden changes from hot rooms to the cold 

 air, so far from being dangerous to health, are harmless, 

 as well as often pleasurable, confirming his position 

 by the examples of the Swedes and Russians, who, 



