FRESH AIR. 
11 
instances of the wholesale destruction of human life by con- 
finement in small spaces are well known. Within the last 
few years the captain of a sailing 1 packet between Ireland and 
Liverpool, whilst in a storm, shut down his passengers in the 
hold of a vessel, and when opened again, a large number 
were found dead. The inhalation of less quantities of car- 
bonic acid produces a depression of the vital powers of the 
system, which lead to those diseases known as scrofula and 
consumption. In the annals of French Hygiene the case is 
recorded of a village in the Pyrenees remarkable as exemplify- 
ing the influence of impure air on health. The village was 
one built in a small valley or depression of the hill, so that 
there was no ventilation or entrance from the backs of the 
houses at all, and the doors all opened into a court formed by 
the houses. Though situated on the mountains and inhabited 
by shepherds and their families, this village was remarkable 
for the prevalence of scrofula and consumption, and its great 
mortality. Providentially, a fire consumed one side of the 
village, and advantage was taken of this occurrence to build 
the houses above, on the side of the hill. No sooner was this 
done than the health of the inhabitants began to improve. 
The change was so great that the authorities determined on 
pulling down the other side of the old village, and rebuilding 
it on the top of the hill. The consequence has been that 
there is now no healthier village in the district where it is 
situate. 
The case is the same in all our towns and cities : where 
the population is thickest, and human beings are crowded 
together, there disease and death prevail most. I might 
illustrate this assertion by the returns of the Registrar- Gene- 
ral, and the reports of the Medical Officers of Health for 
London and the Provinces. In the parish of St. James, 
Westminster, there are three districts, in one of which there 
are 130 persons living on an acre, in the second there are 
260 on an acre, and in the third 430 persons on the same space. 
In the first district there are 11 deaths only in the 1,000 every 
year; in the second there are 22 deaths; in the third there are 
25. The death in the whole district from consumption is one in 
every 344 of the population. The death in the whole of London 
is one for every 371 of the population ; but to show how 
fearfully the overcrowding of the third district tells on the 
life of the community, the death from consumption in the 
third district is one in every 280 of the inhabitants. 
Another form in which the direct effects of carbonic acid on 
life is most fearfully seen is the suffocation of children in bed. 
Between two and three hundred children are annually found 
dead in their beds in London. This suffocation occurs in 
