Ve. 216.] 405 



-^piration of each adult person, at ten cubic feet per minute.* Others 

 before him have estimated it as low as two cubic feet. I coincide 

 with Dr. Reid in his statement of the amount necessary for the 

 attainment and preservation of perfect health; but the latter estimate 

 is entirely too low. If we take the average of these two extremes, 

 (six feet,) we shall find that the ten persons in the cellar of 50 

 Pike-street would render its seven hundred feet of air, unfit for the 

 support of health, in less than ffteen minutes. Now, suppose them 

 io retire and close the door and window at ten o'clock at night, 

 what must be the condition of the air of the room, when they rise 

 at five the next morning? 



Is it astonishing that the dispensary is called upon, very frequently, 

 to extend its aid to these inmates? and should there not be some remedy 

 for this dreadful state of things? The whole of these premises, 

 besides the cellar, is in a condition unfit tor human habitation, and 

 yet crowded to a melancholy degree. A sanitary law that would 

 reach this case, and be well applied, would save a large amount of 

 life, health, money and morals. The same may be said of hundreds 

 of other places, of which this is a fair average sample. There are 

 many places still worse. 



An inquiry into the amount of air allowed to children in schools, 

 to the inmates of prisons, and to laborers in work-shops, will exhibit 

 a degree of neglect^ or ignorance, in relation to this vitally impor- 

 tant subject, in individuals having the training and guardianship of 

 -these classes, truly lamentable, as v/ell as surprising. For examples. 



One of the Public Infant Schools of this city, having an average 

 • attendance the year round, of two hundred children, v^^as for a long 

 -time, and until recently, kept in the basement of a church, the 

 ■dimensions of which were 46x30x8^ feet, equal to 11730 cubic 

 feet. The proximity of the adjoining buildings rendered it so dark 

 in a sunny day, it was difficult to see to write on a slate a short 

 distance from the windows. A large stove warmed the room in 



* '' If we look to the fact that less than half a cubic foot of air passes through the 

 lutif^s of an adult in a minute, this estimate may at first appear excessive, but if we 

 remember, that at each expiration, a quantity of air is admitted, which mingles with 

 an additional portion of air largely exceeding its own bulk, and that there are twenty 

 such expirations in a minute, wliile provision is likewise required for the air that 

 affects the surface of the body, and for the endless variety of minor effects produced 

 by furniture, lightning, heating, refreshments, JiC. ; where no peculiar adaptation 

 ■for these purposes have been introduced beyond those usually observed, it will be 

 seen that the estimate is by no means immoderate. The real qu'es'ion is not, what 

 the constitution can bear, but that amount which is conveniently accessible in ordi- 

 nary habitations, and which is essential for the wants of the sysiem.'- — Illustra- 

 tions OF THE Theory and Practice of Ventilation, by David Boswell 

 Reid, M, D. 



