HAMIIyTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 21 



Each adult should have sufficient floor space to allow him looo 

 cubic feet of air, and provision should be made to have this 

 changed at least three times an hour to maintain a healthful 

 condition. 



How to keep the proportion of carbon dioxide as low as 

 possible then, becomes theallimportant problem of ventilation; 

 in other words to get rid of the foul air, and admit a sufficient 

 supply of pure air at the proper temperature, and the per^ 

 centage of moisture most suitable for breathing. We agree 

 then that ventilation may be considered as the disposing of 

 impure, and the admitting of pure air to take its place. It is 

 of so much importance that stock raisers have been compelled 

 to give much attention to it of late years. They have found 

 that stock thrives much better in well ventilated stables than 

 in foul ones. Manufacturers have turned their minds to it 

 from a financial point of view also, for it has been found that 

 men do more work when working in pure air, besides the 

 factory inspector insists on certain conditions of ventilation. 

 The worst ventilated buildings we have to-day are our houses, 

 churches, schools and offices. In the summer these are easily 

 ventilated by means of the windows, but this is impossible in 

 winter in our cold and variable climate, and therefore be- 

 comes a serious question. 



We have in the city a building inspector, whose duty it 

 is to see that buildings are safe from fire and substantially 

 built. But is there ever a thought given to ventilation ? Per- 

 haps ten die from the effects of bad ventilation to every one 

 who dies from the cause of fire. I have been in a number of 

 the hundreds of houses which have been built, or are under 

 construction, and have not found any provision for ventila- 

 tion, except that made by poor material or careless workman- 

 ship. In very few cases is even the bath-room ventilated. It 

 may therefore be true that many people owe their lives to the 

 carpenter more than to the doctor. Again, take the churches, 

 except by the windows and doors, what provision is made ? 

 Worse even than the houses, the air becomes pointed on Sun- 

 day morning, is passed over the heated iron of the furnace, 



