and of ohtaining supplies of water and of warm air. 29 1 



losses sustained by fires in England, compared with the small injury- 

 done by fires in France. He said, that this difference seemed to 

 him to arise, chiefly, from the different modes of building (then) em- 

 ployed in the two countries, especially with regard to stair-cases, and 

 to the passages between different sets of rooms ; but he farther took 

 into account, the contrast prevailing between the two nations in the 

 fashion of ornamenting and a^ furnishing their houses. — He remark- 

 ed as to the first point, namely, the mode of building in the two coun- 

 tries, that in England their stair-cases were commonly wholly of wood, 

 running from the bottom of a house to its top, and that when a fire 

 found its way to such a stair-case, it naturally spread in succession 

 to every floor in the house, in consequence of the means of commu- 

 nication .thus offered, (and especially, he might have said, where an 

 upward draught of air assisted.) The Doctor then added, that it 

 was a farther aggravation of matters, that passages of the same ma- 

 terials occurred to conduct the fire from room to room. He noted 

 also, that the English had much superfluous wood-work in their 

 houses, by way either of wainscoting or of ornament. In France, 

 on the contrary, he remarked, that their stairs were so constructed, 

 as to be in effect incombustible, including the railings ;* and equal- 

 ly so their passages from one set of rooms to another set ; and 

 that in general thelv floors were formed of stucco, tiles, or other safe 

 materials. He farther said, that where in their respectable houses a 

 portion of their apartments had ivooden floors, yet as the furniture of 

 these apartments usually consisted solely of hangings or curtains, car- 

 pets, pictures, and other loose articles, these might easily suffer, with- 

 out injury to the room containing them. — I may add to what Dr. 

 Franklin thus stated, that though, in France, the ceilings of the 

 rooms in common houses, and the ceilings of garrets in almost all 

 houses, are (so far as I recollect) generally of wood, yet fire can 

 seldom reach these ceilings from below ; or, should it reach them, 

 many of them would be found liable to httle important damage, upon 

 a principle to be mentioned under the next head. — To this head I 

 shall immediately proceed, since Dr. Franklin's suggestions on our 

 general question speak sufiiciently for themselves, as to their applica- 

 tion on the present occasion. 



* The construction of most of the stair-cases in France, (by an intermixture of 

 wood-work, bricks and mortar, with iron railings,) is worthy of universal attention 

 for certain situations, as being easily imitated at little cost, and of much importance 

 in several points of view. Their stair-cases are sometimes made of stone, but never 

 of wood alone, unless in the form of ladders. 



