to Health and Comfort. 
213 
1878.] 
than that which comes from the walls, our new houses are 
quite as healthy during the first year, or the first season's 
occupation, as afterwards. No preliminary drying out is 
needed as a rule. Our summers or winters are dry enough 
to take up all the moisture which wails may give, without 
overlading the air with humidity ; although it is noticeable 
that new houses require more fuel to warm them the first 
winter than afterwards, as the supply of heat must be suffi- 
cient to evaporate an excess of moisture, and the conductivity 
of the walls is somewhat greater before they are thoroughly 
dried out. Few dwellings are completed for occupancy at 
the end of winter or of summer — residence generally begins 
with the beginning of summer or of winter, and the seasons 
when the dampness of walls would be dangerous from the 
existence of a humid air are not those when new houses are 
generally first occupied. 
§. Although not direCtly related to the subject, I will 
mention here one curious demonstration of the effeCt of 
atmospheric humidity and impurity which is peculiar and 
common in England. All American readers or observers 
become aware of the great importance attached by the 
English public, as a people, as writers, and as a govern- 
ment, to the relative purity of illuminating gas ; but it is 
not generally known, or even asserted, that the cause in 
England which makes the impurities of gas obvious, and 
renders them seriously objectionable, is to be found in the 
air of the room, and not alone or even mainly in the gas 
itself. The sense of oppression from the burning of gas in 
dwellings in England is one that can be appreciated only by 
being felt ; any description fails to convey to the mind of 
the untravelled American the burden on the breathing func- 
tions which results from gas burning in a humid and impure 
air. It is enough to say that throughout England gas- 
lighting is regarded as only suitable for shops, work-rooms, 
warehouses, public rooms, and such other places, within or 
without of doors, as demand light for passengers, rather 
than for occupants. When halls are lighted by gas, the 
chandeliers (“ gasoliers ” is the English word) and bracket 
lights are not considered to be well arranged unless “venti- 
lated in other words, provided with especial means — air- 
passages or outlets — for removal of the gases of combus- 
tion, with the accompaniment of a volume of heated air. 
The dwellings — dining and drawing rooms, passages, and 
chambers — of the more wealthy are lighted nearly uni- 
versally by candles of wax, sperm, or some prepared fatty 
