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VENTILATION OF HOSPITALS. 
ferred to this committee. M. Woevstin criticises the present 
method of ventilation of hospitals, and asks how it is that, 
while certain doctors assert that a supply of eight to 
ten cubic metres of air per bed and per hour are sufficient to 
keep a ward in good conditions of ventilation, others insist 
upon a supply of twenty and even sixty cubic metres, while 
some even fix eighty as the minimum quantity. He accounts 
for these immense discrepancies in the following manner : — 
In a ward containing, say, ten beds, the warm air is intro- 
duced between the two ranks of beds by means of five ori- 
fices in the central passage, while the vitiated air is drawn off 
through other orifices behind the beds. Thus, says M. 
Woeystin, a number of currents are formed from the inlets 
to the exit passages, which do not sufficiently draw away the 
intermediate layers of air, and thus cause many regions or 
currents of air not sufficiently ventilated, which become 
veritable reservoirs of infection ; and this he believes to be 
the true reason of the increasing demand for a larger amount 
of fresh air. The introduction of a greater quantity of fresh 
air, according to M. Woeystin, only increases the rapidity of 
the currents, and has little effect upon the strata of air which 
lie above and around them, between the inlets and ports of 
evacuation ; the object, therefore, should be, not to introduce 
masses of air, but to make better use of that which is ad- 
mitted. To remedy this, M. Woeystin suggests the applica- 
tion of a well-known system — that of wire-work, or gauze ; 
he recommends that the orifices for the introduction of fresh 
air should be covered by such a screen, reaching from the 
floor to the ceiling, and that the exit holes should be protected 
in like manner, so that the movement of the air should be 
graduated and dispersed over the entire contents of the ward. 
The importance of this question cannot be overrated; all 
the world knows what relief has been obtained of late years, 
in the case of fevers, by a free use of fresh air, and the sub- 
ject has been tested in a very remarkable manner in France, 
both in towns and in camps. Patients have been placed 
under tents where the supply of fresh air wes constant, and 
the temperature low, with an amount of success that gives 
immense importance to such experiments. It must not be 
forgotten, however, that draughts do not supply wholesome 
ventilation; and the shutting off, or rather the attenuation of 
them, must conduce to the comfort and well-being of the 
sick . — Food Journal. 
