i88i.] 
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Analyses of Books . 
that the nation will listen to sound common-sense advice, such 
as that of our author, rather than to the teachings of sensation- 
alists. 
The outline-history of ventilation in this country is not with- 
out a melancholy interest. We are introduced to one Sir Jacob 
Ackworth, whilom Surveyor to the Navy, a man who carried his 
opposition to improvement and discovery beyond the boundaries 
of candour and honesty. Dr. Desaguliers had devised a machine 
for ventilating the holds and ’tween decks of ships, in place of 
the traditional wind-sails, which were of course useless either in 
a calm or a storm. Sir Jacob was requested to report on certain 
experiments at Woolwich. “ He began by throwing difficulties 
in the way, and he avoided witnessing an experiment when the 
Dodtor was present. When he did attend he chose a time when 
plenty of w T ind was blowing. He had his favourite wind-sails 
hoisted, and said to the Dodtor’s representative — ‘ I would have 
you work the engine, and see whether that will throw out so 
much air as our wind-sails do.’ The man with astonishment 
replied that the blowing-wheel was to be used when the sails 
were useless. . But Sir Jacob stuck to his prejudices, and would 
not stay any longer.” He afterwards wrote a report condemna- 
tory of the invention, without having ever seen it. 
In 1739 Mr. Sutton, a brewer, hearing of the anti-sanitary 
condition of the Fleet, devised an ingenious plan of making the 
fires of the ships’ coppers draw their supply of air from the hold, 
thus keeping up a thorough circulation whenever the coppers 
were in use. He, too, had to encounter Sir Jacob, who tried 
every expedient to thwart him. But Mr. Sutton was not to be 
tired out. An official experiment performed at Deptford, before 
the Lords of the Admiralty and several members of the Royal 
Society, succeeded in spite of Sir Jacob. Still, in the end, 
official obstrudtiveness and indifference carried the day. The 
system was not introduced, and two years after the decisive ex- 
periment the Lords of the Admiralty offered Mr. Sutton £100 
for the trouble and outlay which he had incurred I 
It must' not be supposed that Sir Jacob Ackworth is dead. 
We have known him, when commissioned to report on a system 
of sewage-treatment, carefully seledt a time of flood when the 
volume of water was far greater than the tanks could possibly 
receive. But Sir Jacob gravely took his samples for analysis, 
and as gravely published the results as a proof of the inefficiency 
of the process. On the other hand, in case of a method of 
dealing with sewage which he favoured, we have known him just 
as carefully seledt the most favourable weather. 
On another occasion, a certain person who is no chemist 
“ wrote to the papers ” that metallic Salts are incapable of precb 
pitating dissolved impurities from water. Sir Jacob at once 
printed the rash statement, and when a chemist of European 
reputation asked, in reply, for the evidence upon which this 
