KIDD'S OWN JOUENAL. 



207 



question" itself into the hands of the post- 

 man. What an agony of suffering is thereby 

 spared him! He may say, in words, 

 11 written," what would have choked him 

 outright if he had attempted to "speak" 

 them aloud. How many "little secrets," 

 too, known but to " two " fond hearts, pass 

 through the post ! 



The postman, in a word, is a valued friend 

 of ours. He holds in his hand, daily and 

 hourly, what makes our life not only an 

 endurable but a "happy" one. We ever 

 greet him with a smile ; and whenever we 

 meet him, we delight to do him honor. 



THE DISADVANTAGES OF GAS. 



Not half a century has passed since 

 the announcement of an invention which may 

 be said to have brought London, for at least 

 half the twenty-four hours, out of darkness 

 into light. The feeble glimmer of oil lamps, 

 the glare of torches, the shouting of linkboys, 

 and the lanterns always at hand with the 

 greatcoats and umbrellas — themselves then 

 a novelty — were in full force fifty years ago, 

 but have now given way to a nightly illumi- 

 nation, splendid, and happily adapted to 

 great cities. 



When the discovery had been appreciated 

 and adopted ; and when the smell, the head- 

 aches, the drowsiness, the closeness, the 

 injury to the eyes that appeared to attend the 

 use of gas, had seemed for a time to qualify 

 its value, a fresh triumph came in the dis- 

 covery of means by which it could be tho- 

 roughly purified and divested of its injurious 

 properties. We were assured that it could 

 be made comparatively harmless to the eyes 

 and to the lungs, and certainly there was a 

 great improvement, and a great difference 

 between good and bad gas. 



But now comes the experience of fifty 

 years. We have competition, we have gas 

 used for everything, in quantities hardly 

 imagined by the sanguine inventors. We 

 have thousands of miles of gaspipes, and 

 almost as many jets as there are lungs in the 

 metropolis. It is time we should ask whether 

 the system is perfect. Is our gas as good as 

 it might be ? Have we duly availed ourselves 

 of the means discovered for its purification? 

 We may also ask whether so great a boon is 

 not necessarily attended with some draw- 

 backs ? Nobody can have seen the paving 

 of our streets disturbed, as it all is disturbed 

 once or twice a year, without perceiving with 

 dismay that the whole subsoil of the metro- 

 polis is saturated with some black, stinking 

 ingredient, of a most sickening nature. It 

 tells its own tale ; for common sense assures 

 us that, where the effluvium from such soil 

 can reach the lungs, it must impair strength 

 and shorten life. 



As to its effect on vegetable life, we have 

 heard repeated instances of healthy trees 

 suffering by the approach of this underground 

 foe. As the evil is cumulative, what will it 

 come to ? The question has recently been 

 answered in some remarks by Dr. Letheby, 

 addressed to the City Court of Sewers, on the 

 subject of his report on the City Gas Com- 

 panies. " Then, again," he says, " there is a 

 quantity of ammonia, which holds in solution 

 a large quantity of tar, and whenever there 

 is a leakage in the streets, it oozes out. 

 During the last fifty years, where it has got 

 into the public roads, it has rendered the soil 

 near to it so offensive, that you can hardly 

 move the pavement without doing a great 

 deal of harm. What it may be in twenty 

 years hence I cannot say, but / think it vnll 

 be almost unsafe that you should then disturb 

 the pavements at ally In twenty years, or at 

 all events at the end of this century, we shall 

 not be able to move the ground under our 

 feet without the same results as if we were 

 opening a common sewer ; but, as waterpipes, 

 drains, and, more than all, the gaspipes them- 

 selves, are frequently in want of repair, the 

 ground must be disturbed, in winter or 

 summer, as may be, and that for whole streets 

 at a time. 



Thus far it has been found impossible to pre- 

 vent this leakage, on account of the continual, 

 but unequal subsidence of the soil in which 

 the pipes are laid. The only thing to be 

 done is to take the most stringent measures 

 to compel the utmost possible purification of 

 the gas itself. Perhaps a still more palpable 

 proof of the deleterious properties of the gas 

 now in use is to be found in its effects upon 

 many substances in rooms were it is used. 

 Dr. Letheby says, " There is not a library 

 in the metropolis the books on the upper 

 shelves of which are not tumbling to pieces 

 from this cause ! " 



The destructive effect of gas on furniture 

 and perishable substances, is a matter of 

 universal complaint, and is only tolerated 

 because furniture in London is commonly 

 changed very soon, and few shopkeepers 

 keep large stores of perishable substances. 

 It is the oil of vitriol that does the mischief; 

 and Dr. Letheby says, that so highly is the 

 gas of one company charged w ith sulphuret, 

 that he has obtained 21 grains of oil of 

 vitriol from 100 cubic feet of gas. Now, if 

 the gas of this metropolis be so destructive 

 to inert matter, how much more must it be 

 so to the vital organs ! It is true that gas is 

 only one of the many deleterious agents at 

 work in this metropolis. Dr. Letheby finds 

 the snow itself, apparently so fresh from the 

 purer regions of the sky, charged with sul- 

 phuric acid in combination with ammonia ; 

 and he has found the same with regard to 

 the leaves of trees. But if mischiefs are so 



