298 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
when we contemplate the physical wrecks which have resulted from 
the continual stress on muscle and nerve involved in our efforts to 
extend the blessing of intellectual culture to the rising generation. 
The brain, abnormally excited, affords no compensation for a debil¬ 
itated frame. The extra demands made by cerebral development 
tend only to exaggerate the suffering incidental to an unwise 
stimulation of mental power. 
Proper ventilation is impossible unless our buildings are so con¬ 
structed as to permit of the best processes being carried out in their 
integrity. Many of the finest buildings in this country, considered 
merely as architectural beauties, are uninhabitable during winter 
in consequence of defective managements for heating and airing 
the several apartments. It is doubtful whether any process yet in 
operation fully meets the demand for ventilation; but probably the 
Ruttan s^'stem, which comes nearest to success, may, after a series 
of tentative experiments, become sufficient for all purposes. Mr. 
Leeds, in the Sanitarian^ presented a plan for which he received a 
premium at the Vienna Exposition. The veteran architect insists 
that sunlight and its substitute, warmth, are absolutely essential to 
all natural systems of ventilation; and, of course, none other can 
be effected. The best contrivance will be that which utilizes with¬ 
in doors the forces now operating on the earth’s surface, by the 
winds in their circuits and the sun’s rarefying power to remove im¬ 
purities from our dwellings. He would have the floors and walls 
kept warm, and he claims that cold air for breathing would not, un¬ 
der such circumstances, be found hurtful. With all deference, we 
believe that the pupils would attain better results, supposing his 
design reduced to practice, if the atmosphere, as well as the dwel' 
ling itself, could be brought to such a temperature as the sun gives 
at noonday in autumn. It is indeed too true that in manj’- build¬ 
ings, private as well as public, upon which large sums have been 
expended, a difference of from 12° to 15° may be found between 
the heat of the room at six feet from the floor and that of the floor 
itself. Not long since a teacher said, when speaking of a very 
costly structure, that the children taught there must stand upon 
their heads if their feet were to be kept warm and their brains cool 
during tuition. Scarcely any man has ever sat in our average pub- 
Uc buildings without realizing a similar condition. We are con¬ 
stantly reminded that the blood circulates more vigorously and that 
