490 



Of Chimney Fireplaces. 



well as by every other sign of perfect health, that they 

 suffer no inconvenience whatever from their closeness. 

 There is frequently, it is true, an oppressiveness in the 

 air of a room heated by a German stove, of which those 

 who are not so much accustomed to living in those 

 rooms seldom fail to complain, and indeed with much 

 reason ; but this oppressiveness does not arise from the 

 air of the room being injured by the respiration and 

 perspiration of those who inhabit it ; it arises from a 

 very different cause, from a fault in the construction 

 of German stoves in general, but which may be easily 

 and most completely remedied, as I shall show more 

 fully in another place. In the mean time, I would just 

 observe here with regard to these stoves, that as they 

 are often made of iron, and as this metal is a very good 

 conductor of heat, some part of the stove in contact 

 with the air of the room becomes so hot as to calcine or 

 rather to roast the dust which lights upon it ; which never 

 can fail to produce a very disagreeable effect on the air 

 of the room. And even when the stove is constructed 

 of pantiles or pottery-ware, if any part of it in contact 

 with the air of the room is suffered to become very hot, 

 which seldom fails to be the case in German stoves con- 

 structed on the common principles, nearly the same 

 effects will be found to be produced on the air as when 

 the stove is made of iron, as I have very frequently had 

 occasion to observe. 



Though a room be closed in the most perfect manner 

 possible, yet, as the quantity of air injured and rendered 

 unfit for further use by the respiration of two or three 

 persons in a few hours is very small compared to the 

 immense volume of air which a room of a moderate 

 size contains ; and as a large quantity of fresh air 



