GH Road-making and'Ventilation. 215 



will certainly for some time prevent any perception of the tainted nature 

 of the air within, but after a time all this will be exhausted. The discharge 

 from the surface of the human body (even though soap and water be 

 regularly used, and you well know this would be supposing too much ), in 

 perspiration alone, is equal to nearly 2 lbs. weight per day. Much of this 

 matter is certainly nothing but water ; but there is animal matter of an oily 

 nature in it too, as appears from the stains which it leaves upon linen, ex- 

 tremely offensive to the smell. By it the dog is enabled to trace out his 

 master ; and some persons are in such high odour as to be more agreeable 

 a few paces off' than very close. Now conceive all this exhaling from the 

 bodies of so many sleeping persons, their pores all open, and no mode of 

 carrying off" the foul air, and you will admit, from what has been already 

 said on the subject of air, that this sleeping family is in great want of a free 



circulation of it So much to show the importance of fresh air ; but 



how are you to obtain it in your contracted and crowded sleeping-rooms ? 

 By the following simple plan, recommended by Dr. Meyler : — Put a tube, 

 or make some kind of opening, in your ceiling, to let out the tainted air, 

 and let there be at the same time a free admission of air from below, either 

 through the door or a tube at the bottom of the room, conducted to the 

 outside and turned downwards. Thus one tube will bring in the fresh and 

 the other will take out the foul air. This, surely, is a simple plan for pro- 

 moting health. The windows also should be open by day, and always as 

 high up as possible, particularly where there is no ventilator ; yet not one 

 in twenty cabins in many parts of Ireland has a window in the sleeping- 

 room, and if it has, that window is nailed so that it cannot open ; such a 

 one, or a pane of glass built into the wall, v/ill admit light, it it true, but it 

 should admit and let out air also. The putridity of the air is increased 

 too, in many cases, by a stagnant pool of water and a dunghill at the very 

 cabin door." 



We have quoted these passages, because we are convinced that many 

 gardeners are not so fully aware of the importance of this subject as 

 they ought to be ; nor do we think it would be venturing too far, to 

 state that some of the employers of gardeners may not be much better 

 informed on the subject than their servants. It is evident from this tract 

 that Mr. Doyle, who, from his own description of his bed, must be, if not 

 an independent gentleman, at least what in England is called respectable, 

 arrived at his knowledge of the importance of air by accident, " For a 

 month or two after I was married," he says, " my wife and I were regularly 

 tucked and pinned up in bed under a close covering of thick damask cur- 

 tains by an old servant maid, who, I suppose, thought that we should have 

 taken cold without them. The weather at that time was severe ;. and as 

 the bedstead was high, and the bed pretty large, we did not feel the want 

 of more air than the crevices of the curtains (in spite of Molly's pre- 

 cautions) were allowed to admit ; but after a month or two the air became 

 warmer, and, of com'se, more rarefied, and Mrs. Doyle, moreover, com- 

 menced a course of curtain lectures, which very few men are well disposed 

 to hear, particularly if they deserve them. Then I began by degrees to 

 open the curtains, in order to let the whole room have the benefit of 

 Mrs. Doyle's orations, and to cool the fidgets which the heat and the 

 lecture together used to excite in me. The air which I received in ex- 

 change used to relieve me wonderfully, and from that time to this (Doctor 

 Meyler's book having enlightened my wife as well as myself) we have never 

 had the curtains drawn either in winter or summer. The consequence has 

 been, cool refreshing sleep, instead of feverish and laboured breathing in 

 bed, and lassitude in the morning, the usual effects of confined and impure 

 air." (p. 28.) 



The succeeding article is on fevers ; recommending _ the necessity of 

 keeping dunghills, and all similar matters which are liable to send- out 



P 4) 



