Economy of Fuel. 321 
erease the severity of the cold in the halls and passages by requiring a - 
constant supply of fresh air from without. 'To pass from the parlour 
_ into the open air, seldom occasions much sensible inconvenience, be- 
cause the person is suitably prepared by supernumerary garments, 
hats, bonnets, and hoods, coats, cloaks and belts, gloves, mitts and 
Overshoes—to encounter the frosty rigor of the winter. But when 
we merely pass from the parlor to the “hall,” or through the stair- 
case to a chamber, we scarcely think of a similar precaution, and 
consequently encounter a fearful hazard by exposing ourselves to the 
Opposite extremes of summer and winter temperatures without the 
slightest change of apparel. Nor are these exposures always of short 
duration. They not unfrequently extend toa length of time, during 
which no prudent person would venture to remain in the open air, at 
the’same temperature, as the entry in which we stand, perhaps con- 
versing,—or giving directions—or reciprocating compliments, or pay- 
ing cold civilities. We retire at night to our lodging rooms which 
have been all day in a freezing state, and load ourselves with numer- 
ous and heavy coverings to keep off the cold,—or we sink into mas- 
ses of feathers and down for the same purpose, thus stifling and en- 
ervating ourselves in the most effectual manner, instead of enjoying 
the elastic and refreshing curled hair matress which proved so agrea- 
ble and healthful in summer. Or, we cause a fire to be lighted in the 
ng and heat up our lodging rooms for the former part of the 
night, only to become more sensibly dreary and comfortless in’ the 
morning. We descend to the breakfast parlor, and find that want 
of i: or want of skill, in a domestic, has allowed the fire to remain 
inactive till a late hour, or in removing the ‘dust and ashes” under 
which the family had been humbled on the preceding day, he had 
‘found it convenient to’ throw up the sash and admit a copious supply 
of cold-air, which now begins to riot about the room, and at length 
takes full possession, driving from the house even that remaining ves- 
tige of comfort which the walls, warmed by yesterday’s 4 
had hitherto afforded. The true purpose of heating apartments is not 
merely, to allow the occupants to derive heat from a direct exposure 
to fire, much less from a contact with the source of heat. _ It is to sup- 
ply in. winter that equable temperature to our persons which nature 
has provided in summer. ‘The means, too, of communicating it, ought 
to be similar, and that is, chiefly, through the warming influence of 
the air in which we move, and by the respiration of which, the due 
_ temperature of the vital organs is — Although these truths 
Vou. XXIII.—No. 2. 
