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ON THE "PROGRESS OF  ARCHITECTURE IN RELATION TO VENTILATION,
  WARMING, LIGHTING,  FIRE-PROOFING,  ACOUSTICS,  AND THE GENERAL
  PRESERVATION OF HEALTH."       y
-v-
 D. B. REID, M. D.,
            BY D. B. REID, M. D., F. R. S. E.,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF EDINBURGH, ETC., ETC., ETC.
FIRST LECTURE.
    Professor Henry introduced Dr. Reid to the audience, and, in ad-
 verting to his plans for ventilation, quoted an extract from some recent
 proceedings of the Royal  Institution in London,  where  Dr. Bence
 Jones had given certain statistical details showing the great reduction
 of mortality in an hospital which Dr. Reid had ventilated, and that
 the mortality increased again when the ventilation was suspended.
    After responding to the remarks of Professor Henry,  Dr.  Reid
 claimed the indulgence of the audience in entering on a course while
 still imperfectly acquainted with this country, and perhaps not yet
 fully acclimated to it, as the experience of personal illness for the last
 fort-night had taught him.
   Dr. Reid then commenced his first lecture with a general sketch of
 the position in which man is placed on this globe.   With his natural
 wants at first supplied  in a congenial climate, he was still, at a very
 early period of history, like a traveller without a guide in respect to
 many departments of physique, except those external senses which an
 omnipotent creator had given him wherewith to steer his course in the
 material world.  Increase of knowledge, arts, and manufactures gradu-
 ally accompanied an increasing population.  New climates, new wants,
 and new occupations stimulated his ingenuity and rewarded His inven-
 tion as much as it increased his comforts. Dwellings in caves or clefts
 of rocks, such as are described in the Sacred Scriptures, as well as tents
 and huts,  the primitive abodes of man, soon gave way in  many places
 to more systematic habitations, though these are still to be found away
 from the scenes of civilization.  Monuments and public temples then
 arose in Cyclopean,  Egyptian, Druidical, Indian, Chinese, and Mexi-
 can architecture.  The Greeks, with the finest eye for beauty and pro-
 portion, excelled all their predecessors ; the Romans added a goro-e-
 ousness and luxuriance of ornament that competed with, without rival-
 ling, the severe and more scrupulous taste of Grecian architecture; and
then followed a host of styles that have multiplied indefinitely, in 
148
LECTURES.
which the  spire and the dome, the pointed and the circular arch are
continued with endless modification, to the crystal palace and iron
buildings of modern times.
  But during all this period comparatively little attention was paid
to the question of air, which has been so much the subject of later in-
vestigation.  Buildings were at first too imperfect  in  their structure
and fittings to form those air-tight receptacles that have multiplied
so largely in our day.   The  same resources and machinery were not
available  for their construction.   The habits and occupations of the
people were different.   Few read, and still fewer wrote, till the press
began to diffuse its influence among mankind.  The  illumination of
rooms at night with an artificial daylight  by means  of gas is but a
recent invention.
  But with all these inventions the duration of human  life has not
increased, except in  local and  special  instances.   Passing over the
times of the ancient patriarchs, human life seems still, on the whole, to
have been diminishing from the time when it is generally supposed to
have been reduced to threescore and ten.  How many places are there
where from a quarter to a half of the population now die within from five
to ten years ; born, as it were, to pass through an infancy of suffering
and sorrow, and then to disappear from this transitory scene.   And
then, if we look to adults, is it  not true that many, so far  from at-
taining threescore and ten, are cut off before they are twenty-five?  An
age of fifty years is beyond the average, and threescore and ten, or up-
wards, is still more rarely attained.  But is there any just foundation
for the belief that threescore and ten is the allotted period for man's
existence ?  Is the passage from  the Psalms correctly interpreted to
which this alleged maxim is usually ascribed ? He contended that it
was not;  that  Biblical critics usually attributed this psalm to Moses,
believing that it was written by  him in the wilderness,  when the
Israelites were exposed to great suffering, and as yet he had met with
no clergyman of any denomination who was disposed  to insist on the
popular interpretation usually ascribed to it.  He thought the subject
one of great practical importance ; that the question should be set on
a right footing ; that if it were not only possible, but probable, that a
marked extension of five, ten, fifteen, or five-and-twenty years could
be given  to human  life by  attention  to  the moral,  religious,  and
physical elements that entered into it, nothing would contribute more
to place the whole subject of the care  of health,  the increase of
comfort, and the prevention of disease on a better footing.   It would
regulate, or at  least affect, the period of  infancy and education, the
time of entering on business, and form an element in all subsequent
concerns of life.  Above all,  it would be one of the strongest checks
upon that system of fast living and that  incessant strain upon the
nervous system that was  so  marked in thousands  and  tens  of thou-
sands of cases, especially in populous cities, whether  we looked to
London  or Paris, to New York or St.  Petersburgh.   Vain would
the attempt be to extend the duration of man's life if the nervous
system  was exhausted, whether  from  an honorable  ambition, an 
LECTURES.
149
 imperious necessity, a corrupt  luxury, or a want of faith, hope, and
 contentment in the providence of the Creator.
   Dr. Reid then turned his discourse to the physical evils attendant on
 human life, and explained the magnitude of that resulting from de-
 fective ventilation. Man respired, on an average, twelve hundred times
 an hour during the whole period of his existence.  The lungs contained
 millions of cells, and if pure air were not supplied all these provisions for
 life and health were  more or less useless; the blood became changed
 in its qualities;  the brain, the eye, the ear, and every tissue and fibre
 of the human frame were more or less affected.  The result varied in
 every degree—from the most trifling headache, listlessness, or langor,
 to every variety of fever, scrofula,  consumption, or even, in extreme
 cases, to sudden and immediate death.
   In large cities and in all populous districts a proper system of drain-
 age and external cleansing were the true remedy for periodical evils
 too often attributed to wrong causes.  These being secured, the right
 ingress and egress of air in individual buildings and habitations be-
 came the next desideratum.
   Few cities,  comparatively, large or  small,  were cleaned to the
 extent necessary for  the  right preservation of health ; nor was it t&
 be expected that this subject would receive adequate attention till the
 united efforts of medical men, engineers, architects, and agriculturists
 should be brought to bear upon it.   Great progress had been made, un-
 questionably, in recent years ; but a more systematic, combined, and
 harmonious effort was desirable than was in operation, either in this
 country or in Europe, so far as I have had the opportunity of observ-
 ing.   The medical profession was responsible for pointing out the
 sources of disease and death, but, without the aid of the agriculturist,
 it was, in general, found  impossible to obtain the funds necessary for
 effective cleansing; and what could be done in this respect where a
 good system of engineering did not afford an ample supply of water
 and the requisite drainage, or where a defective architecture did not
 provide the proper facilities for  the removal of refuse ?  In London,
 after the experience of upwards of a thousand years, the authorities
 had at last become convinced that the condition which the river attains
 from the drainage thrown into it is an evil of the greatest magnitude,
 and a reference  to the newspapers of the day would show the deter-
 mination  to reduce this evil, though nothing  effectual can  be done
 under an  expenditure of millions of pounds.  Is it not the case, that
 in this city the continued drainage into  the canal may become more
 and more objectionable every succeeding year, and is there not abun-
 dant evidence  that a  right system of drainage and sewerage, with
 proper attention to the ventilation of drains, would here lessen disease
 and suffering ?   In  Paris the whole atmosphere is sometimes tainted
 with an ammoniacal odor; and who has  ever crossed the "Unter den
 Linden," in Berlin,  at least when  in  the condition in which  it was
 a few years ago,  without  being  admonished of what had still to be
 done in that  city.   Modern chemistry has  not yet developed and ex-
 plained all the varieties of malaria, natural and artificial, that inter-
fere with the preservation of a pure atmosphere, but it has  most em-
phatically pointed out many of their sources in innumerable habita- 
150
LECTURES.
tions  in  cities, villages and  populous districts, as well as the means
of correcting them.   It was a self-evident  proposition that the first
step in all effective  ventilation is to start  with a good atmosphere;
but such was  the apathy, indifference, and  sometimes the ignorance,
on this point that it often became a most troublesome question to deal
with  in a satisfactory manner, particularly where tracts of ground
had become saturated wdth debris in a perpetual state  of putrefactive
fermentation,  or where  streams or  stagnant water were loaded with
similar materials.  In the  great theatre of the globe  itself, the gen-
eral purity of the atmosphere was sustained by the mutual relations
of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdom ;  by the per-
petual rotatory currents flowing  from the equator toward the  poles
and from the  poles  towards the equator ;  by that great peculiarity in
all gases and vapors which constantly led to their diffusion through
each other, however  different in  specific gravity, so that  nowhere on
the surface of  the earth where there was free access to the  external
atmosphere could any accumulation of any noxious product take  place
without a process of dissipation and dilution being immediately com-
menced ; and  by the chemical action of the air, which was  perpetually
lending to oxidate or burn all malarious products.   But how largely
wrere  these natural agencies counteracted,  within as well as without
doors, when there was a deficiency  in the supply of air, or an excess
in the material of decomposition.   Many were the districts in which
a rich and luxuriant vegetation consumed the products that gave rise
previously to fever and ague.   Travellers have expressed  their  great
surprise at  the total absence of these  diseases under circumstances
where they had anticipated  their severe operation, and traced, subse-
quently, to the action of special plants the conservative influence that
guarded them from  danger.   Let this lesson,  said Dr. Reid, not be
neglected ; let it be  applied in full force,  and the facts  be studied
and developed with an untiring assiduity, till miasma  shall be largely
overcome in all cities subject to its influence, and the  water-lilly and
other aquatic plants shall have improved  the condition of all  accu-
mulations of  water in their vicinity, as much as an  active and vig-
orous vegetation purifies  the air that moves upon the land.   If he
dwelt more upon this point  than might  at first appear  requisite, it
was because its importance, though admitted, was by no means ade-
quately estimated.   He did not consider that there was any question
connected with the material world that promised greater  blessings to
large cities and  populous  districts  than  those that would flow from
professional investigation and practical experience in this department,
combined with the information available from former ages, and the
practice of different  nations.  It had been  demonstrated  that a large
proportion of  the deaths that filled  the annual bills of  mortality arose
from preventible causes ; and in making any estimate  on this subject,
it ought never to be forgotten that every death indicated many cases
of disease and suffering that were  never registered in the ordinary
tables.  How great, then, is the question at issue, and how many and
how  varied would the channels be  through which  its right solution
would affect society ?
   Dr. Reid then showed by  experiments  the fundamental  principles 
LECTURES.                       151
of ventilation, illustrating the tendency of the air to assume rotatory
movements, and thus induce the removal of vitiated and the supply of
fresh air whenever expansion or any other cause produces a disturb-
ance in  the atmospheric balance.  The effect of the human frame in
inducing such currents was then pointed out.   The body always ven-
tilates itself if the natural currents it determines are not impeded by
the architecture which surrounds it.
  A special ventilating shaft has been constructed in this Institution
for the illustrations, and a connexion is established between it and a
tube and chamber in  the  experimental table, by which a ventilating
power is brought to bear on any visible vapors used in explaining the
principles and practice of ventilation.
                      SECOND LECTURE.

   Dr. Reid commenced this lecture with different illustrations of the
 movement of air.  Mechanical means—as pumps, fanners and bellows,
 or a current of air or water, the action of heat, the impulse of steam,
 and the repelling power of electricity—had  all been employed with
 the view of' moving air;  and  all these forces  had been practically
 applied in  sustaining ventilating operations, with the  exception of
 electricity.   This agent, hitherto, had only been used experimentally.
   For  all  ordinary purposes, no power was so generally useful and
 available for ventilation as that arising from the action of heat on air
 or other gases.  Referring to  the ventilating shaft connected  with
 the  experimental table at which he lectured,  it was shown  that  a
 column of heated air in the interior could not balance or resist the
 pressure of the colder air in the apartment from which it was supplied,
 air being admitted freely  into it  from the external atmosphere.  It
 was not strictly accurate to say that heated air ascended, in describing
 this movement in a technical manner.  It was more correct to  state
 that air, when warmed, became expanded, and lost its power  of bal-
 ancing  the  contiguous air, which then  pressed in upon it on every
 side and forced it upwards.   The right understanding of this point
 was essential in the study of all the more familiar phenomena  of ven-
 tilation.  It was  then shown, that on establishing a free communica-
 tion with the lower portion of the heated shaft, a flexible tube could
 be made to  carry a ventilating power  in  any direction, and, at the
 fixtures connected with the table, flame, smoke  and various colored
 vapors were made to move  upwards, downwards, laterally, and in other
 directions, according to the position  in which the apparatus used at
 eack was placed,  and the  amount of power brought to bear upon the
 materials employed.
   The tendency of  air, when falling  in  temperature, to  descend to  a
 lower level, was  then pointed  out.  This was illustrated practically
 by the  exhibition of a heavy,  cloud-looking vapor, that was  poured
with facility from vessel  to vessel and rolled along  the table  in  a
continuous stream, as if it  had been an ordinary liquid.  It was formed 
152               ,        LECTURES.
by the action of nitric acid, mercury, and alcohol, and used frequently
in giving indications of aerial movements that would otherwise have
been invisible.  Though the materials that became the principal object
of attention in ventilating operations were of great  tenuity, it was
never to be forgotten that they might,  in numerous respects, be treated
in the same way as water and other liquids.
  The quantity of air  desirable  for ventilation then came under con-
sideration.   For  each  respiration the actual amount required was
small.  From twenty  to thirty cubic inches were sufficient  for this
purpose ; but the expired air  contaminates immediately a much larger
amount of  the  surrounding atmosphere.   At the same time  the sur-
face of the  body is continually  exhaling  vitiated  air in  the same
manner as  the lungs.  Further, almost all kinds of clothing soon
become  more or  less  charged with animal exhalations, and  require
some addition to  the ordinary supply, particularly if dyed with cer-
tain chemicals and exposed where they may have  imbibed moisture.
It is also equally  important to notice that every variety of tempera-
ture, electrical condition, and humidity in  the atmosphere produces a
corresponding influence on the  sensations as affected by the  amount
of air brought in  contact with the body in a given time.  Further, not
only are there great varieties of  constitution in different individuals,
but even in the same person.  Before and after dinner or any other
refreshment, before and after exercise, and  under many other  circum-
stances, very different quantities  of air become agreeable or disagree-
able, and refreshing or oppressive.  Lastly, minute and variable por-
tions of impurity from smoke and  manufactories,  or from  terrestrial
exhalations, often modify the  amount of supply that is desirable for
all constitutions.
  It will not be surprising, accordingly, that there is perhaps  nothing
in respect to which there is a  greater difference of practice than in the
amount of air given for ventilation, even where we assume  that its
effect is not still further modified by its mode of introduction  and dis-
charge, and the efficiency with which it has the opportunity of acting
in passing through the apartment to be ventilated.
   It is surprising with how small a proportion of air existence can be
maintained for a long period when the system is comparatively inactive.
Dr. Reid then described an experiment, in which he had been hermeti-
cally inclosed in  a case that was  not broader than his  shoulders,
deeper than his chest, or longer than himself;  and stated that he had
continued there for upwards of an hour, the attendants being  ordered
to take  him out whenever he ceased  to answer questions  or to give
distinct replies.   During the whole of that period  he had not been
particularly incommoded,  after getting over a feeling of oppression
that  attended his  first  respirations.  Apprehensive, however,  of
some subsequent injurious effects when the oppression he expected did
not increase so rapidly as he  had anticipated, he directed  the case to
be undone before  any indications were  given such as would have led
his assistants  to  have anticipated this order.  Nor did he suffer so
much as he had expected from the effect subsequently, though head-
ache and restlessness continued for some days to a degree that prevented
him from renewing his observations to the extent he had  desired. 
LECTURES.
153
This experiment was important  in  corroborating the fact that life
might often be sustained for long periods, even in limited quantities
of air, where animation was not temporarily suspended.
   On  the  other hand,  at  different times and under other circum-
stances, he had suffered more from air not nearly so  much contami-
nated  as it was in this instance, and adverted particularly to the fact
that the intensity of vitality was often very different in different indi-
viduals, and  also in  one  and the  same individual  at different
times.  To impress this upon the attention of the audience, an experi-
ment  was then shown,  in which  a common candle, a  wax candle, an
oil lamp, a spirit  lamp, and a gas  lamp, were kindled at tne same
level under a large glass shade, all  communication with the external
atmosphere having been cut off.  In  a short time the air became so
vitiated that the common candle ceased  to burn.   Subsequently the
wax candle  was  extinguished, then  the  oil  lamp ; the spirit  lamp
came  next in order,  and last of  all, but  long after the  others had
ceased to burn, the gas  lamp was also  extinguished, struggling pre-
viously in the form of a long  pale-blue flame.  In the same manner
death  took place among different individuals, even from the very same
causes, in very different periods of time, some sinking  without a mur-
mur where the bystanders  scarcely noticed the causes that deprived
them of life,  while others sustained themselves throughout a long and
painful struggle.
   Dr.  Reid then described the manner in which experiments on respi-
ration had been made with small quantities of air, and the peculiari-
ties of the apartments constructed at his lecture room at Edinburgh
for researches on respiration and ventilation, where the amount  of air
supplied to numbers, varying from one  to two hundred and  fifty,
could be precisely ascertained and controlled.   Sometimes one or more
individuals were placed in an air-tight  box, containing a definite
amount of air.  On other  occasions one  hundred  individuals or up-
wards were placed in an air-tight  room  with  a  porous  floor and a
porous ceiling, the cavities  below and  above communicating with
chancels by which air  could be  made to enter and be withdrawn in
any  required proportion.
   From these experiments and others the  conclusion was drawn that
ten cubic feet per minute is an ample allowance of air for an adult—
far more than he generally has in ordinary habitations, but not more
than every ordinary structure should have the means of providing at
a minimum.   Dr.  Reid  was prepared  to  admit that  a less amount
would generally sustain health, but asserted that it would not give
the comfort and maintain the constitution in such good condition as
a larger allowance.   In extreme  atmospheres, loaded  with moisture
or charged with special  impurities or malaria, and at comparatively
elevated temperatures, there was no limit to  the  amount of increase
that  proved  grateful  to particular  constitutions.  He had, in some
cases, given forty,  fifty, and even a  larger number of cubic feet per
minute with advantage, but there the velocity  of the air acted essen-
tially as a cooling power from the great amount brought to affect the
body in a  given time.  Such velocity was  not desirable where an
equivalent effect could be produced by cooling the air previously.  But 
154                       LECTURES.
in looking to this question as one that  had to regulate  practice in
construction and the appliances used in connexion with ventilation,
he was satisfied that ten cubic feet per minute for each  person would
be amply sufficient, wherever it was possible to control the tempera-
ture and the hygrometric condition of the air to be used.
  The practice of merely determining the amount of cubic or super-
ficial space to be given for each soldier in a barrack, each patient in a
hospital, or every criminal in a prison, and leaving every other question
or means of  ventilation to accident, had  never  been satisfactory, and
was now  abandoned in all the best buildings for these  and other
purposes.  No dependence whatever can be placed on such a provision
beyond the actual amount  of pure air they may contain before occu-
pation. The true question is,  to determine the amount of pure air
that can be made to pass through wards, cells,  or any other spaces in
a given time, with  a maximum of the ventilating  power  in action,
valves or  other  arrangements reducing the effect  to  any  desirable
standard.
  In  cases with  systematic  ventilation properly applied, a  man in a
room  densely crowded may have more  air than one  in a confined
area with  ten times as  much space for his  own occupation.  Rooms
in different habitations vary as  much  in the amount required at  dif-
ferent times  and seasons as many public buildings.  Further, there is
nothing more deceptive to those who  have not studied the subject
practically than the numbers of persons that  can stand on a given
space.  In special trials, made with  the view of determining  the
numbers that can be accommodated on a floor of known size, several
cells were selected  at the  prisons at Perth, in Scotland, and able-
bodied men  (engaged at that time in completing the building of the
works) were requested to stand  in them as close as they conveniently
could.  Seventy were then counted in  one  cell having a floor of
seventy-two  feet, and ninety in  another  having a floor of ninety-two
feet.   He had repeatedly  seen at the  bar of the House  of Peers,
in London, and  in many other  places an individual standing upon
each  area of one foot.  When the body of the late Duke of •Wel-
lington lay  in state at Chelsea  hospital, previous to  the funeral, he
had seen a more dense crowd than he had ever witnessed on any pre-
vious  occasion.   Many were literally crushed to death in  this crowd,
and numbers who escaped death had the appearance of persons who
had fallen into  a stream of  water  and been  thoroughly drenched.
The morning was cold, calm, and gloomy, such as would  have suited
the description many foreigners  give of a London atmosphere at that
period. There was no  fog, however, though a small cloud of vapor
hung  heavily over the  densest  part of the crowd.  It should be re-
membered, then, that in cases of great interest, all rooms, public  and
private, are liable, generally or  locally, to have like numbers crowded
into them, and  it becomes, therefore, imperative on those who desire
ventilation to state  the  number to  be provided for, rather than the
mere  area of the floor.
  In the chambers for Congress the floor space allotted for individual
members was upwards of twice as much  as that given at the Houses
of Parliament in London, taking into consideration that occupied by 
LECTURES.
155
the benches or individual seats.   This, however, was not an unmixed
gain in the House of Representatives at Washington, since the large
area of occupation necessarily increased  the difficulty of hearing and
of seeing the expressions of countenance during the progress of debate.
   In explaining the estimate given of the amount of air desirable for
ventilation, it was stated  that a temperature of sixty-five to seventy
would  generally be found most acceptable, and a supply of moisture
in the air, such as was  indicated  by a wet-bulb thermometer (the
hygrometer in common use) when it  showed a temperature five degrees
below that of the ordinary thermometer.
   The  methods of determining the  quality of the air  in  ventilated
apartments then engaged attention.   None was so pre-eminently
available as that of going out of doors where the atmosphere was pure,
and then comparing the effect there  with that of the apartment under
examination.   Important as this mode was, it was not,  however, suf-
ficiently precise, nor could it always be put practically in  operation
with convenience while differences of temperature and a want of sensi-
bility in the nostrils,  or a loss of the sense of smell from cold, inter-
fered with a correct  decision.  It was  a matter of great practical
importance, accordingly,  that  some accessible and  convenient test
should be available that would at all times and seasons give an indi-
cation  that would tell the purity of the atmosphere.
   For  this purpose Dr. Reid had introduced an instrument called the
carbonometer, which was then explained.   It admits of a great variety
of forms.   That shown in action consisted of a bent glass tube attached
to a phial  containing water, a few drops of lime wa-ter being placed
in the  angle of the bent tube.  On taking out the stopple from the
phial a portion of the water slowly escaped.   This caused  a flow of
air from the apartment under examination through  the lime water,
which  becomes more or less turbid,  according to the amount of car-
bonic acid  in  the air.   But carbonic acid is  invariably present in a
very marked proportion in all ordinary atmospheres contaminated by
respiration, the combustion of ordinary lamps or candles, or the escape
of vitiated air from a  fire flue.  Any excess beyond that in the atmo-
sphere renders the amount of lime water used slightly opalescent,
milky, or turbid and chalky, according to the amount.   Forty speci-
mens of air were shown, contaminated with  various  amounts of car-
bonic  acid.  A syringe may be used instead of a phial of water to
cause  the  movement  of air, or a few drops  of lime water may  be
poured into a phial containing  air to be examined, making compara-
time experiments with fresh air.
                      THIRD LECTURE.

  This lecture was devoted to the warming, cooling, moistening, and
drying of air, and  the exclusion  and correction of external vitiated
air.
  Great progress had been made in recent years in elucidating many
of the properties of heat, in tracing its operation on different kinds 
156                        LECTURES.
of matter, and in perfecting and economizing the apparatus by which
it could be rendered available for the practical purposes of daily life.
The intimate connexion that had been proved to exist between heat,
light, electricity, magnetism, and chemical action, had opened up new
sources of investigation ; but much remained to be done ; for we were
as yet scarcely beyond the mere threshold of discovery.  In one and the
same experiment an  acid might be employed in conjunction  with
water to disintegrate and separate one by one the primitive molecules
of a mass of metal, developing heat by the chemical changes thus in-
duced, discharging electricity, which could be conveyed _ through  a
proper conductor, producing  light  on  making or breaking contact
with the wires employed to manifest the electrical action, and impart-
ing magnetic power to iron and other materials.
  We were no longer restricted to the ordinary fire-place, and though
nothing could rival its agreeable cheerfulness  and general utility,
steam and hot wrater apparatus had given facilities that were unknown
in former days.
  The common fire radiated in the room in which it was placed in
the same manner as the sun shone  upon the earth, and would prob-
ably always continue the favorite in ordinary apartments.   It had a
peculiar charm in the  ever-varying  features of its luminousness that
no other invention had equalled.  The grand  desiderata in respect to
it  were the right adjustment of its position in respect to  altitude
above the floor, which should not exceed from six to ten inches;  the
introduction of no  more iron than was  absolutely necessary for sup-
porting the fuel  below and in front; the size of the chimney, which
was generally, till lately, four or more times larger than was requisite
or desirable,  wasting  a great  amount  of air, and  ventilating  at  a
wrong level, unless  special provision was made to counteract this de-
fect.  Many experiments were then described that had been made in
reference  to fire-places and  flues, and  one  illustration minutely ex-
plained, where a flue nine  inches square, and about twenty feet high,
had worked four ordinary  fire-places.   These were afterwards closed
above and in  front, so as to be converted into furnaces,  and, when in
full operation with the same flue, each  was found capable of melting
iron with facility and  rapidity.   A register or valve was preferred
near the top of the smoke flue, or, at least, at a considerable elevation
above the fire.  A special experimental illustration was then given of
a circular fire-place, three feet  in diameter, the  red-hot fuel being
visible and accessible all around it, and the products of combustion,
accompanied  by a  blue flame,  descending in the form of a circular
wreath in the centre of the fire,  and traversing the floor below, which
was well warmed before they escaped into the chimney.
  In England, though the open fire was usually accompanied by the
production of smoke from the bituminous coal in common use, consid-
erable progress had been made  in the introduction of smokeless fuel
during the last  twenty years.   In  many buildings, soft coke or an-
thracite was employed, and Dr.  Arnott had recommended a fire-place
in which the fuel was  kindled at the top in  the same  manner as a
candle, all the smoke  being  consumed when the proper coal was em- 
LECTURES.
157
ployed, and sufficient attention paid to the construction and manage-
ment of the grate.
  In explaining the peculiarities of stoves, Dr. Reid insisted strongly
on the excellence of those long used in the north of Europe, that were
of considerable size, and  had a  pure porcellaneous surface.  They
were  much larger  than the  iron stoves usually employed  in  this
country and in England, extent of surface compensating for the want of
intensity of heat,  and the  atmosphere they  afforded being more
grateful  to the lungs  and nostrils.   Much ingenuity and skill were
undoubtedly displayed in many of the stoves made in this country
and the accompanying drums, but, as a general  rule, the great ma-
jority he had seen were, when placed in the lower part of any building
for general  purposes, usually provided with pipes or channels for the
ingress and egress of air that were far too small.   They gave accord-
ingly a sharp  current  at a high temperature rather  than a large
volume of a mild atmosphere.  They were also generally without the
means of supplying themselves with  air from the  house itself, instead
of from the external atmosphere, an  object of great practical import-
ance in heating halls, passages, and  public buildings previous to any
occupation, or  where a small amount of ventilation was sufficient.
   Steam apparatus was then adverted to, the use of which Dr. Reid
considered could be largely extended with advantages to individual
habitations, even where the power of using a common fire was secured
in the usual manner.  It could be made to assume any desirable form.
The principal difficulty in ordinary habitations was the boiler within
doors.  Great improvements had been made in modern boilers, so as
to reduce largely any risk  of accident, but the improvement consid-
ered most desirable was, that in  which one boiler should be provided
for a  number of houses, and built  in connexion with facilities for
water  baths, washing, &c, and  from which steam for heating or cul-
inary purposes could be supplied to each individual habitation in the
same manner as gas, by special pipes.  Steam, or steam power, could
be  rented  in  many places for  manufacturing purposes, and there
was no reason why similar facilities  should net be extended to ordi-
nary habitations in cities and villages.
   Steam could be made to afford any required temperature, according
to the form of apparatus used.  With extended metallic rings, plates,
or projections from the surface of a steam pipe maintained at 212°,  a
much  lower temperature could be secured, corresponding with the
amount of material in connexion with the pipe, and this form of ap-
paratus, or hollow  metallic  cases with a limited supply of steam,
necessarily  gave  a  milder temperature.  He  did  not consider a  tem-
perature of 212° objectionable when  the air was pure, though he pre-
ferred a milder warmth; but higher temperatures, arising from the use
of hi^h-pressure steam, he had often seen attended with disadvan-
tageous  results,  increasing  with the  elevation  of the temperature
sustained.
   The action of the hot-water apparatus was then explained and illus-
trated by a glass model, in which colored water was thrown into cur-
rents by the action of  heat, the warm water giving off caloric where-
ever it was desired, and then  returning to the source of heat for  a 
158
LECTURES.
fresh supply.  This heating apparatus was preferred to the high tem-
perature stove and the steam pipe wherever a mild and continuous
heat was desirable, and where it was not required to carry the pipes
or apparatus containing the water  to a very high  level, the strain
upon the joints of the apparatus being in proportion  to the altitude of
the column of water they contained.  The  water could be maintained
continuously at any required temperature under  212°.   Gas stoves
had been introduced in many places with advantage where a  small
chamber was to  be heated, and where there was  no convenience for
any other arrangement.  A  most pernicious practice was, however,
prevalent where  they were used,  the  products of combustion  being
permitted to mingle with the air of respiration in apartments not pro-
vided with ventilation.   Thousands upon  thousands suffered annu-
ally where gas lights or stoves not ventilated formed the  only source
of warmth.
  Dr. Reid then pointed out the comparatively ineffective results that
arose from the action of heating apparatus that conveyed warm air too
quickly to the ceiling of the  rooms instead of distributing its power
on or near the floor.   Railroad cars frequently presented a tempera-
ture above 212° at the ceiling, while on the floor the thermometer
might be down to  the  freezing point.   They gave an extreme illus-
tration of numerous buildings where the introduction of arrangements
for securing the full action of warm air  at a lower level would add
equally to comfort and to economy.  The peculiarities  of external
warmth arising from the rays of the sun were then contrasted with
that developed by artificial means.   Saussure made an experiment  in
which  air had been raised to a temperature of 210° by merely ex-
posing a cork case with glass cover to the direct rays of the sun, and
preventing the cooling influence of the circumambient air.   The rays
of the sun did not directly warm the air, but the ground, from which
heat was transmitted to the air resting upon it.  In the torrid zone it
would  probably  be practicable, even  without the  use of lenses  or
reflectors, to develop heat sufficient  to produce a  limited  amount of
steam.   A patent had lately been taken out for  concentrating the rays
of the sun upon boilers in such climates.  The great practical lesson
which  all these  points taught was that we should endeavor to warm
the lower stratum of air effectually in individual buildings.  If this
primary point be secured, the upper  portion will soon  acquire the
necessary temperature from the natural ascent of warm air.
  The cooling of air was in some countries, and at  particular seasons,
as important a question as the warming of air in temperate and cold
climates.  In India habitations were sometimes built under  ground,
the family occupying a lower and lower flat or series  of apartments as
the external heat increased.  The  construction of buildings so as  to
take full advantage of the  shade, and of the basement  in making
channels of supply, was seldom made  a sufficient object of attention.
The production of oold by the evaporation of water was largely intro-
duced in many places with advantage ; but where  the air  was highly
charged with moisture this method was disadvantageous, tending to
saturate it to an  extent that interfered with the  natural exhalation
and evaporation from the surface  of the lungs and of the body.   By 
LECTURES.                       159
 taking in air through apertures in turrets, or even by apertures ele-
 vated as  much as was found practicable in different buildings above
 the level  of the  ground, great relief was often given.   The warmest
 atmosphere in sunshine was generally at the surface  of the ground,
 where no peculiar current or other  special  cause gave it  a different
 position.   In all cases where a ventilating power was available, the
 simplest method of producing a cooling effect upon the body consisted
 in inducing a  current.   A draught or current was agreeable or dis-
 agreeable, dangerous or salutary, in proportion as it was  adapted to
 existing circumstances.   The fan in a lady's hand  and the punkah,
 or large  fan used in India, were very different from the  ventilating
 shaft or other instrument used to act on hundreds or thousands at the
 same time;  they differed essentially in this, that  while  the former
 merely agitated the same air again and again, changing that portion
 in direct contact with the face or the whole of the body, the latter, in
 producing a similar effect, entirely changed the atmosphere charged
 with products of respiration or exhalation.
   The use of ice, however effectual  in  cooling air,  was generally too
 expensive.   Underground  channels cooled  by a stream of  water,
 removed  or  stopped when too  much moisture was  communicated to
 the air, were the most valuable and available means of reducing tem-
 perature ;  and  where hot-water  apparatus  was provided  for winter
 use, it might often be used as a cooling apparatus in summer by run-
 ning a stream of cold water through it.  The artificial evaporation of
 ether and water in rams could be also rendered useful  in the produc-
 tion of cold, but no such apparatus had as yet come into general use,
 though perfectly successful in special experiments.
   Moistening air was a comparatively simple matter, though  often
 neglected.  Very pure water should be selected for this purpose, and
 the evaporation  should not be permitted  under any circumstances
 where the water was apt to be decomposed.   A porcelaneous or mar-
 ble surface was  preferred for evaporation.   Iron was  to be avoided,
 and steam from  ordinary boilers, contaminated by oil or  gases from
 corroded  metals, was  not to be used.  Special copper boilers, set
 apart exclusively for this  purpose, and block tin tubes, for the  con-
 veyance of the steam, were preferred  in large buildings, where an
 atmosphere had to be provided for thousands at  the same period.  The
 steam prepared in this manner was also used to assist the heating ap-
 paratus.  Whenever a thermometer with a bulb moistened  with water
 indicated  a difference of not more than five degrees lower than the
 ordinary thermometer, the addition of any further increase of moisture
 should be arrested.
   Drying air is an operation for which no satisfactory process has yet
 been pointed out sufficiently economical to  admit of its general prac-
 tical application when air is warm and  largely charged or saturated
 with moisture.   When  the temperature is lower, and the application
 of a sliglit elevation of temperature is not objectionable, the increased
 solvent power which the air thus acquires gives  it practically a drying
 effect.   In the sick chamber, in new buildings where the plaster was
 not dry, and in all limited or confined atmospheres where it was im-
portant to remove moisture, nothing was more effectual than newly 
160
LECTURES.
prepared lime.   Dr. Reid had used  this largely in many buildings
occupied soon after completion, distributing, in one case, cart loads of
quicklime in the air channels and in the different apartments where
the pressure of public business induced the authorities to occupy courts
of law the day after very extensive alterations  had been completed,
without waiting either for the drying of the plaster in the usual man-
ner,  or for painting  and decorations.   When a building  was sur-
rounded with an external malarious atmosphere, by a right system of
drainage this could in general be removed, at least from the immedi-
ate vicinity.  Where the drainage was not sufficient, an active system
of vegetation became the next resource.  If temporary or other causes
prevented this being carried to a proper extent, the antiseptic power of
caustic lime could be applied with great success.  He was prepared to
point out many opportunities where this agent ought to be used in all
cities he had hitherto  examined.  Numerous  other chemicals could be
rendered available, particularly choride of5 lime, muriate of zinc, and
other substances.  Their effects were seldom, however, obtained to the
extent they were capable of producing, from a want of knowledge on the
part of  those who applied them of the chemical details  essential to
their full operation.  Where vitiated emanations were traced within
a building to any special drain, close chamber, room,  or other space,
either in  the  basement  or elsewhere, a  special ventilating power
should  be brought to bear  on them in  the same manner as the venti-
lating shaft exhibited had been brought to act upon all the mate-
rials used in the illustrations given at the experimental table, unless
the cause  was altogether temporary and easily removed.
                     FOURTH LECTURE.

  The ventilation of individual  rooms and  habitations formed  the
most important question connected with sanitary improvements. These
were the places where the great mass of mankind spent the larger por-
tion  of their time; where they were born and where they died;  there
they generally spent the period of their infancy and childhood, wheir
days of suffering and sickness, and recruited their daily strength with
food and by reposing from their labors.  A vitiated atmosphere at home
corrupted the condition of the blood more than any other cause, inas-
much as it had a more continuous power of operation.  The effect of
each ^individual  inspiration might indeed  be trifling, but when re-
peated twelve hundred times an hour for days, and months, and years,
and brought in direct action upon the blood itself in the lungs, it  was
to be expected that it should soon affect every fibre of the living frame.
  In  studying the ventilation of individual rooms and habitations,
it was recommended  that the rotatory movements of air in a confined
atmosphere should be examined when an inequality of temperature
was induced,  and that these movements should be rendered palpable
by chemicals producing  heat and smoke.   Franklin had made use of
this expedient, and had it been more generally attended to, ventilation
would have made much  more progress than it had  done.   Experi- 
LECTURES.
161
 mental illustrations  were then given of these rotatory movements.
 In the external atmosphere the general ventilation of the  globe de-
 pended on such movement.  In the  smallest space that man could
 examine they could likewise be traced.   A peculiar argand lamp was
 then shown, in which hundreds of circular rings appeared  when the
 air and gas were permitted to enter in special proportions.  They
 afforded an  example  of  minute rotatory currents indicated  by the
 movement infiuitesimally small particles of incandescent carbon.  The
 audience were invited to  examine these individually at the end of the
 lecture, as they could not be seen at a distance. Bearing in mind the fact
 that the living body, unconsciously to the individual, ventilates itself
 when this operation is not opposed by an air-tight or ill constructed
 apartment, an aperture for the ingress and  egress of air in a proper
 position,  and  of  the right dimensions, is  the great desideratum.
 While  a window serves  this purpose, and  a porous  curtain diffuses
 the entering and out going air, it has taken a long time to carry con-
 viction of the importance  of additional resources in the comparatively
 air-tight structures of modern times, charged  with products of com-
 bustion from gas and respiration, as well as other varying impurities.
 But when it is  recollected that a thousand different circumstances
 arising from the peculiar  position, form, structure, arrangement, fur-
 niture, and occupation of rooms, as well as their aspect in relation to
 the  sun,  prevailing  winds, local  influences acting  on the air, the
 position of doors and windows, constitutional peculiarities, and many-
 other details that might be enumerated, in addition to the changes of
 the  season, the time of day or night, and the number of persons pre-
 sent, all contribute to modify the effect required, it will be obvious
 that the window alone is  not sufficient for every ordinary apartment.
   The great desiderata, in addition to the window, at least in rooms
 subject to a  great variety of occupation, are the following :
   1.  A special flue, from  the highest  portion of the room, for the dis-
 charge  of vitiated air.
   2.  A special aperture  for the ingress of a warmer or colder atmo-
 sphere, when the external temperature, dust, noise, or any other cause,
 renders a supply by the windows objectionable.
   3.  The means of extending the diffusion of the entering air so that
 it shall not impinge offensively on tny individual.
   4. The means of applying a force or power to the ventilating flue,
 (heat is the most available for all ordinary purposes,) which shall in-
 crease the discharge  to any required extent, and cause fresh air to
 enter by any channel  provided for  this purpose.
   5. The exclusion of all vitiated air  from the basement of the build-
 ing, or  any other source,  either by the action of a ventilating flue or
 other equivalent measures.
   These objects can, in general, be attained with facility and economy
 in building a new  structure, without interfering with the usual de-
 tails of construction  to any objectionable  extent.  It forms a most
important addition when the passages and staircases can be converted
into means for the general supply and discharge of vitiated air, warm-
 ing the air by an apparatus  placed there at the  lowest available level,
 and introducing a large internal window above every door communi-
           11s 
162
LECTURES.
eating between the passage or staircase and individual rooms.  These,
when open or shut to the required degree, allow the air in the pas-
sages and staircase to be used as a milder climate, whether in the heat
of summer or the severity of winter—a perpetual ingress of fresh air
and discharge of vitiated  air being constantly maintained in the hall,
passages, or staircase.
  Dr. Reid then adverted to some models and to a series of diagrams,
with which he illustrated, practically, the various methods adopted in
experimenting on the subject, and in the  construction of apartments
where ventilation was introduced under very different circumstances,
from which we select the following examples :
  1. In this case, the ventilating aperture was immediately below the
ceiling  and above the window.   A valve regulated the amount of
opening.   The air entering or escaping by this aperture must  pass
through a plate of perforated zinc about one foot deep, and extending
the whole breadth of the window.  Area of aperture through the wall
nine inches square.
  2.  A room having a ceiling universally  porous, the air entering be-
tween it and an air-tight roof, and two apertures communicating with
this cavity and the external air which descends from one part of the
ceiling and escapes at another.
  3.  A room where  the  fresh air  is supplied from the whole surface
of the wall in which the  chimney  is placed, excluding  those portions
foelow the level of the fire-place ; vitiated air escapes by a special flue
.contiguous to the chimney.
  4.  A room in which, when crowded, fresh air can be admitted  freely
through a porous door from  a prepared atmosphere in  the passage,
vitiated air being permitted to escape  by a large  panel or window
;above the same  door.
  5.  A house having a special ventilating shaft capable of acting on
all or any of the individual rooms, and of having its power increased,
when necessary, by  the action of heat.
   6. A house in which all the vitiated air-flues are  led into one large
flue  descending to the basement,  passing then  laterally into an ad-
joining shaft, whose altitude (from the  basement to the roof) gives  it
 great additional power when the^fire is  kindled at the lower extrem-
ity-
   7. A house in whieh fresh air is supplied to the passage, stairs, and
principal apartments,  from a special turret on the shaded side  of the
 house, while  a discharging shaft, as in No. 6, commands the  escape
of vitiated air.
   8. A house in which the heating apparatus (hot water) is so arranged
 as to present a warm surface on the floor of the staircase and principal
apartments.  Similar arrangements  can  be made  with steam  appa-
 ratus.
   9. A series of habitations  supplied from a general source with a
 ventilating power,  and  a  steam tube in every house, and  in  every
 room of each house, where it is desired,  in the same manner as houses
 are supplied at present with water and gas from one common source.
   10. A series of diagrams, showing the imperfections of ventilated 
LECTURES.                       163
apartments, under different circumstances, when not constructed with
the resources explained.
  In all these examples, whether apertures alone were made in humble
apartments, or an extensive series of arrangements in first-class habi-
tations, nothing was done incompatible with the free use of an ordinary
window, or the action of  a  stove or open fire-place.  The only pecu-
liarity that required attention  was, that there should  be an ample
supply of air in proportion to the demands made upon it.  There was
then no conflicting action between fire flues and the ventilating flues.
  It was strongly recommended that the shaft or flue for the escape
of vitiated air should always  he  constructed so  that external wind
should have no effect in producing a back current.  No external top
is better for this  purpose than that recommended by a committee of
the  American Academy of Sciences at Boston.  It  differed from  the
cone in common use in this country, in having an addition above the
top of this cone which  expanded the aperture slightly above the line
of the ordinary discharge. The ordinary form of cone of Mr. Emerson
had the advantage of being more simple, though not so powerful in
producing a draught.  It ought to be  recollected, however, that such
terminations to ventilating shafts or flues were principally important
in counteracting the influence of wind.   They had no power in a calm.
If heated by the sun, they would promote ventilation ; if cooled by the
state of the atmosphere below the temperature within doors, they would
 retard ventilation.
   Dr. Reid concluded this lecture by a brief exposition of the condi-
tion of the habitations of the people in different cities in Europe, and
illustrated by a drawing the numbers often crowded on a given space
in many of the humbler  dwellings, and  houses of refuge for the des-
 titute.
   Bad  ventilation was by no means  confined to the abodes of the
poor.  None suffered  more at  times from this cause than the opu-
lent in palatial  edifices where extreme illumination  and air-tight
construction prevailed,  though their  wealth  gave them great  ad-
vantage in other respects.   But greit  improvements had been made
in all classes of habitations within the last twenty years, however de-
fective individual  examples might  be.   It was in vain, however, to
insist on ventilation where there was  a deficient supply of warmth
and food.  The general condition and health of the people was greatly
influenced by the air they breathed, and this, in the course of time,
affected the appetite ;  then the health gave way rapidly from the com-
bined influence of bad  air and want of nourishment.   The low tone
of the constitution induced a craving for unwholesome stimuli which
affected the system still more powerfully.  In  one house inspected, near
St. Paul's cathedral, in London, one hundred  and twenty-three per-
sons were found crowded in a few rooms; and in another, thirty or forty
people  were occasionally  found in  a single  room.   So great was the
crowding of the poor in many of the most  populous cities, that  the
question had been publicly taken up, and model lodging houses in-
troduced, which, with the supervision of licensed  lodgings, promised
to be of inestimable value in improving the condition of the humblest
portion of the population.  He found that model houses had also been 
164
LECTURES.
 constructed in different cities in this country, some of which he had
 inspected with much interest.  He did not know many questions con-
 nected with the material well-being of man more important than that
 of improving the condition of the  dwellings of the people.  It was
 every day becoming more and more a moral, a religious, and a politi-
 cal, as well as a physical  question.  Many were driven to the very ex-
 tremes of socialism in its most repugnant forms as often from the want
 of proper habitations as from any other cause.  If the family system
 and the home circle were essential to the foundation of a nation's pros-
 perity and happiness, then too much importance could not be attached
 to the improvement of the habitations of the  people.  Wherever the
 laws, the institutions, the state of morals and religion, and the re-
 sources of a country led to their being carefully made, the effects were
 manifest in the external aspect of the people,  to say nothing of the
 many other blessings that flowed from this source.  But let them look
 to the other picture, and there it would  be  seen  that if this object
 were neglected, whether from defective legislation, imperfect adapta-
 tion, or careless and indifferent landlords and proprietors, vice and in-
 temperance were certain to mark the results. It was by no means desired
 to attach an exclusive importance to this question of the habitations of
 the people.  It was only one of  many causes that contributed to their
 elevation and comfort, or to their misery and degradation.   But view-
 ing this matter in a practical manner, it was obvious that the greater
 the degree to which science perfected and economized the means of com-
bination and improvement, sustaining at the same time all  the pecu-
 liarities and associations of individual families, the  greater would be
its success in promoting the best interests of the people.
  Dr. Reid then adverted to the general appearance of the population
in different European countries, and remarked that he had nowhere
seen such marked specimens  of sturdy and robust health and comfort
as the Swedish guard, at Stockholm, presented when he visited that
 city.  The soldiers were not tall, but they had a firmness, density, and
compactness of limb and muscle which he had never before witnessed
in any body of troops ; while their countenances evinced a composure,
along with an entire absence from care, dissipation, or fatigue, that
manifested at a glance the high condition of their health.   It would
be important  if in every city there was at least one trained band of
men who could be seen from time to time, and give an example of
the appearance that human nature ought to present amidst the mass
of inferior constitutions that appear in cities, whether arising from
bad air or any other cause.
                      FIFTH LECTURE.

  On this occasion, Dr.  Reid commenced with a reference to his pre-
ceding lecture on individual rooms and habitations, and called  the
attention of the audience to  numerous cases that had come under his
notice, both in this country and in Europe, where a great amount of 
LECTURES.
165
 vitiated air  prevailed  in  the  upper portion of different  buildings.
 There vitiated air was prone to ascend by passages and staircases from
 other apartments, and if the roof or ceiling of the attics had no adequate
 discharge, the moisture of respiration was condensed during the cool of
 the night, though the warmth of the sun gave an elevated temperature
 to this space during the day.  He had seen numerous houses where dry
 rot from vitiated air had entirely destroyed floors in the attics, while
 the lower floors were comparatively sound.   In public buildings the
 same tendency was equally manifested under parellel circumstances.
 An example  was  cited of a church in  Scotland,  near Edinburgh,
 where the upper  part  of a  long ladder was found so completely de-
 cayed that it was  broken with facility by the hand,  while the wood of
 the lower portion was perfectly sound.   This church had been venti-
 lated apparently  by  apertures in the ceiling, but  there was no dis-
 charge  above in the roof, so that they were totally useless, except in
 so far as they permitted the air in the roof to add its volume to that
 below ; but at  night the  moisture of respiration condensing on the
 timbers of the roof, which were finally entirely destroyed by the dry
 rot.  In London  a very marked case occurred in the new post office,
 where,  a few  years after it had been occupied, large quantities of a
 brown fungus were found in the roof extending in branches sometimes
 ten, twelve, or sixteen inches long, and as thick as a man's finger.
 The products of respiration and of the gas lamps below had formed the
 food that supported the growth of the fungus.
   The ventilation  of public buildings was the next  subject of consid-
 eration.  The same principles were applicable there as in the ventilation
 of individual habitations ; but the numbers crowded in a given space,
 the fixed position and comparative restraint that necessarily accompa-
 nied many of the duties of official life, the long sittings of a judge in
 court, of a member of the legislature, according to the public business
 transacted, the ever-varying numbers present, and the changes of the
 external atmosphere  during long protracted investigations and de-
 bates—all conspired to render a degree of control and power of venti-
 lation requisite that was not needed in ordinary apartments.  Further,
 in public buildings, large  halls, corridors, and passages were often
 necessary,  besides numerous individual apartments applied to  very
 various purposes, and subsidiary to the principal assembly rooms for the
 transaction of public  business.   These varying in  number from one
 or two to hundreds, and sometimes covering  several acres of ground,
 in many cases required to be ventilated  in unison with the principal
 assembly rooms; and without the adoption of some general system for
 the whole, the warming and ventilating would be equally defective and
 incongruous  with  the architectural character of the  building were
 the different  portions of it erected without reference  to  any general
 plan.
   The first point to determine, in the construction of a large building,
in reference to warming and ventilating, was the number  of  apart-
ments, halls, and passages that were to be used in such a manner,  or
so arranged that they must be subject to one system of  ventilation  to
maintain uniformity of action.   Then came the determination of the
question, how far  it was necessary or desirable to  unite the  varied 
166                        LECTURES.
groups of apartments and of individual rooms that required the power
of independent action in a more comprehensive  scheme,  that would
economize and facilitate  the whole operation, without sacrificing the
special requirements of each separate control ?
  These preliminaries being settled, the next  step was to determine
whether a ventilating shaft, put in action by heat, should  be resorted
to for the necessary power, or a mechanical  instrument sustained by
a steam engine or any equivalent force.
  Where offices occupied by a few individuals only were to be venti-
lated, and where they were only required for very brief periods, neither
large shafts nor machinery might  be requisite,  if proper apertures
for the ingress and  egress of air were  arranged, as in well-ventilated
individual habitations, with smalt ventilating  shafts or flues.
  A shaft being made to operate on the vitiated air to be discharged,
tended, more or less, to produce  a comparative vacuum in the apart-
ment to be ventilated, and hence the origin  of the term Vacuum ven-
tilation.
  An instrument moved by mechanical power, and acting directly in
expelling vitiated air, produced a similar effect.  But when it  was
made to ventilate by blowing in fresh air, it tended to create an excess
of pressure within the apartment it  ventilated  ; air then escaped out-
wardly by open doors  and  windows,  as well as by any appointed
channels, if they were not extremely large.   This was termed Plenum
ventilation.
  In the most perfect form  of ventilation, the ingress and egress of
air were so  nearly balanced that there was little or no  tendency to
the  air being drawn inwards or pressed outwards at doors or other
apertures not provided for  its  regular ingress or egress.  The  less
the tendency to either plenum or vacuum ventilation the better.  And
even where shafts  alone, or instruments alone, were  used,  it  was
always desirable to reduce the tendency to a plenum or vacuum as much
as possible by the right adjustment of supply and discharge.  In  law
courts, theatres, or assembly rooms  of great complexity, and having
numerous entrances to galleries, to  seats on the floor, and to special
places allotted for  particular purposes, and still more  if they were
subject to great fluctuations of attendance, a plenum  and vacuum
power was combined where the greatest perfection of effect was desired.
   Having determined on the leading arrangements for the supply and
discharge of air, the amount to  be  given  per  minute, the apparatus
required for heating, cooling and moistening, and any of those end-
less varieties of contingencies which each  individual building might
require,  whether from the purposes  to which it was to be applied, the
locality in which it was  to be placed, or the climate to which it was
subject,—the  details  of the supply and  discharge, the  position of
valves, and the precise  arrangements required  for the ingress and
egress of air, should then be planned.  This, in general, will be found
to require  much  more  attention than was formerly given to such
questions.   It is the rock of difficulties in all disputes where separate
authorities  are  responsible  for decoration and structure,  and for the
comfortable and effective result of ventilation. If the architect do not
profess ventilation, or the authorities do not confide that department
to him, it will be obvious that  if no right mutual understanding be 
LECTURES.                        167
amicably and accurately carried out, then an imperium in imperio will
interfere at every step.   If the  architect have supreme power, then
he  must necessarily become  responsible for the ventilation, particu-
larly if he controls and  determines  the apertures  for ingress and
egress, and the amount  of diffusion given to the  entering air.   The
ventilator  cannot be responsible for his plans if he disapproves of
alterations which the architect  may  carry into effect.   Again, if
the ventilator shall  have the directing  authority, the architect may
say that he will not  be  responsible for the appearance of decorations
and their  general  effect if they are adapted for ventilation  in  a
manner of which he does not approve.   It will be obvious, then, that
until schools or colleges of architecture shall give the future student
the opportunity of applying himself to  this subject  as  much  as its
importance demands, we must consider this  branch in a state of transi-
tion.  When the architect does  not profess to attend to ventilation, it
cannot receive from him that full assistance and development which
could otherwise be given in the original design, and in harmonizing all
the conflicting claims of the different departments of the profession.
  Dr. Reid then gave experimental illustrations of the action of ven-
tilating shafts worked by heat, of steam ejected from a  small  glass
boiler,  and of different classes  of instruments for the movement of
air, pointing  out more particularly the difference between  the air-
pump, the screw, and the fanner.   In  speaking of instruments alone,
he gave a  decided preference to the two latter, from the simplicity,
continuity, and equality of their action ; though, in particular case3,
where air at a higher pressure than usual was necessary,  he  preferred
the air-pump.
   At the same time, wherever a ventilating power was essential, and
the  difficulties to contend with were not  great, he recommended the
shaft as abundantly sufficient for all ordinary purposes ; stating that
any common laborer could be taught to attend to it, and that it merely
required to have a proper supply of fuel from time to time; whereas,
with an instrument worked with an engine  the constant attendance
of an engineer was essential.  That was the result of his experience.
He had been the first, so far as  he was aware, to introduce large fan-
ners, worked by steam engines,  fitted  up expressly for ventilating
buildings, and still recommended their use as much as before, under
 similar circumstances ; but he could point out places where they were
not necessary, and  where  the substitution  of a shaft would effect a
considerable annual saving.
   In respect to the course which  the  air  should  take in passing
 through any apartment to be ventilated, much should depend on the
special difficulties to be overcome in each individual case. The ascend-
ino- movement was preferred for all  ordinary purposes.   He had used
that movement more extensively in  public buildings  than any other,
though in old buildings, where  it had to be applied under great limi-
tations, there were often many difficulties to be  met.  Among  these
the most  formidable in general was  the want of sufficient diffusion
for the entering air. In the late House of Commons, which was  made
the basis of experiment for determining  the accuracy of his views and
the test of their application to the new houses of Parliament, he had 
168
LECTURES.
been led to the conclusion that the restrictions which the state of the
walls and the time for applying his plans in this building necessarily
imposed on him, universal diffusion through a porous floor was the only
scheme of supply that met the realities of the case.  This arrangement
for the  supply he introduced accordingly ; and, for fifteen successive
years, after which the building was pulled down in consequence of the
progres of the new works, the government and the House uniformly sup-
ported it,  notwithstanding some obvious disadvantages that were met
by peculiarities of details. The House of Peers, also, after it had been
sustained for three successive years, requested that similar  arrange-
ments should be introduced into their chamber;  but  the  means
allowed for this purpose did not permit the  views to be applied as
completely as in  the House of Commons—the  progress of the new
works leading the authorities to expect that  they would soon be en-
abled to occupy the new House of Peers.
   Tables were then presented, showing the observations that had been
made every hour during the sittings of the House of Commons for
fifteen successive years.   Large diagrams were also shown  explana-
tory of  all the peculiarities of  the arrangements  adopted in the late
House of Commons, and  of the experimental buildings previously con-
structed by the Lecturer at ldinburgh in reference to the ventilation.
In the  temporary House of Peers  arrangements were  made  that
enabled a large movement to be  tested whenever the weather gave a
suitable temperature, according  to which fresh air was permitted to
descend from  one part of the  ceiling and ascend to another.  This
was independent of the usual arrangements adopted there.  A similar
movement had also been in use in his lecture-room at Edinburgh from
the time it was constructed in 1833 ;  but there he did  as he pleased,
and gave a supply and discharge by a large aperture having an area
of several  hundred superficial feet. The wall  of one side was left out
in reality, so  that  air  descending from the  contiguous  apartment
moved in one broad current  to  the class-room.   A movement of sup-
ply and discharge by the ceiling requires  a  very large  amount of
apertures, otherwise much of  the air passes from  the aperture of
supply to  the  aperture of discharge without doing any good to the
ventilation of the lower part of  the room, where alone it  is essential
to have  fresh air.   Again, there  are  cases where a direct descent is
preferable to all other movements.   These occur principally where
there are peculiar difficulties connected with the supply and the con-
dition of the floor.  At one period he (Dr. Reid) was under the impres-
sion that such a movement might have been the best for the old House
of Commons ; but, on investigating the circumstances that led to this
view, it was found that  the whole arrangements  for  the  ventilation
had  been improperly changed  and  neglected  during his  absence,
and, with the sanction of the  government and the members of the
House of  Commons who  attended the investigation, everything was
restored to its former position.
   Descending ventilation could  be rendered perfectly successful even
in a crowded assembly, but never without a much larger supply than
was requisite with an ascending movement.  He had made  the experi-
ment repeatedly with individuals, and in a room specially constructed 
LECTURES.
169
for testing this and other questions connected with  architecture, and
the result was invariably the same.  Descending ventilation was also
inapplicable where lights were introduced that were not specially ven-
tilated.  Where the products of gas and oil lamps were added to the
products of respiration the amount of ventilation requisite was so large
as to  preclude  a proper supply without  a movement  of air so
great as to be objectionable on this  ground alone, and, at the same
time, very expensive.
   In some experiments, in  which a number of the members of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh took a part, one of the clubs formed of
members of the society dined in one of the experimental rooms he had
constructed.   Fifty attended on this occasion, including the president,
Sir Thomas Brisbane, the late Lord Cockburn,  and other  gentlemen
connected with  literature and science.   The hotel-keeper at whose
establishment the club were in the habit of dining was well  acquainted
with the habits of those who were present, and stated next day, when
he presented  the bill,  how  much he was  surprised at the amount
of wine taken on this occasion.   This, at  least, was the  point that
principally attracted his attention.  After providing rather more than
a good average supply, he had to send a carriage for more,  and again,
as the evening advanced, he  had to send a second  time for further
supplies.   The dining room at his hotel  was not  then,  at  least,
ventilated, and  gas and vitiated air from  respiration soon satisfied
the appetite.   But in a room supplied with a large and flowing stream
of air, the natural powers of the constitution were not subdued, and,
what is curious, none  of those  present were at all aware that they had
taken anything unusual till they were informed of it next day.   Many
is the unrefreshing meal and  subdued appetite  that  destroys the
strength of the constitution in apartments  loaded with the vapor of
respiration and exhalation.   Travellers, and, indeed, all persons,
should  be charged only half  fare when  they partake of refreshments
in an ill-ventilated apartment.
   If one wishes to see and  study the  practical  importance of this
question, let  him go to ill-ventilated boarding-houses, schools, mili-
neries,  manufactories, and  refreshment rooms, particularly  in the
crowded localities of  large cities, and he will there trace  one of the
causes of impaired health which affects great numbers  of the  popu-
lation.   So thoroughly  is this now understood in many places, that
cases have been  cited where  workmen  have struck for more wages
in newly ventilated manufactories; the proprietors not perceiving that
they could, in general, obtain an equivalent value from the  exertions
of those who were in better health and strength than the  ventilation
previously permitted.
   Diagrams were then pointed out illustrative of the general mode of
dealing with the ventilation of large buildings, special reference being
made to the  houses of  Parliament, in  London, and  to St.  George's
Hall, at Liverpool. 
170
LECTURES.
                      SIXTH LECTURE.

  In this lecture details were given as to the arrangements made at
the late House of Commons, and contrasted with the provisions founded
on them that had been executed for the application of his plans in the
new  houses.  It was only right, however, that he  should tell the
audience that they were not completed under his directions; and that
his plans there met with so many obstacles from alterations, to which
he objected, that, in the  year 1845, he considered it  his duty to  call
the attention of the government to  them, and to the necessity of an
investigation.  It being evident that he could no longer be responsible
for the result, or  for the cost, unless  sustained in the  arrangements
authorized by the government and Parliament at the time his plana
were adopted.  He continued that it would be altogether out of place
in so brief a course, to detain the  audience  with any minute state-
ment of his own,  or of others, on such a subject;  but it  would be
equally obvious that he could not pass over this subject without some
notice of the principal incidents that had occurred in so great a work,
and he would, therefore, only give a very general outline of the case,
and place in the hands of the secretary of this institution a copy of the
evidence he was finally called upon to  give openly and publicly at the
bar of the House of  Commons in respect to it, after  demanding this
or some equivalent opportunity in vain during the six preceding years.
   The investigation he asked  for was instituted in  1845, and in the
following year  a committee of the  House of  Commons took  up the
question.  The committee included members of all political parties; the
late Sir Robert Inglis was chairman, and Lord Palmerston and Lord John
Russell were both members.  After due investigation the committee
passed resolutions that were in every respect satisfactory to him, and
they also renewed, as a committee, their expressions of opinion as to
the satisfaction given by the plans in the house they then occupied.
But  in  the meantime new proceedings were instituted in  the  House
of Peers, and after this renewed investigation by new referees, and by
a committee of which the Marquis of Clanricarde was chairman, in a
manner that did not permit, as Dr. Reid had then stated publicly
in official documents, a proper investigation ; a resolution was carried
in the one house  of Parliament, the House of Peers, that virtually
negatived the resolution unanimously  adopted previously by the com-
mittee of the House of Commons, and gave an authority to the archi-
tect  over the ventilation  to which he,  Dr.  Reid,  could  not assent.
From the day this was officially communicated to him by the govern-
ment he never once acted at the new houses, except under protest,
though he gave such advice as the government still  required from
him, till  he succeeded in being called to  the bar  of the House of
Commons.  But  in the  meantime the mayor and corporation  at
Liverpool had adopted, in the  year  1841, the same year in which his
plans had been adopted for  the new houses, parallel plans for their
great building, St.  George's  Hall, and the  new assize courts.  In
1846 the Liverpool committee inquired into the disputes at Parlia-
ment, and  coinciding with the views of the House of Commons, and 
LECTURES.
171
not with those of the House of Peers, continued the support they had
all  along accorded, and, in 1855, when  the whole works were com-
pleted, declared their  satisfaction with the result.   A committee of
the House of Commons  also had previously reported their  success.
Further, in an arbitration, in  1853, when a new investigation took
place that lasted for thirty days,  the arbiters sustained him in every
legal privilege and award connected with his case, of which, at the
new houses of Parliament, an attempt had been made to deprive him,
founded  on the evidence of the  architect, with  whom he  differed.
  If  any one should  think that even with this brief statement he
had dwelt too much on this subject, he requested them to remember
that he could not say  less without appearing to evade a case that had
led more to the study and progress of ventilation than any other with
which he was acquainted; .which had  materially assisted  in support-
ing the views he had previously expressed, and explained in his Illus-
trations of Ventilation, published by Messrs.  Longman, of London,
as to the right method of proceeding with the study of  architecture
and ventilation for the future,  as well  as to the mode of  meeting the
difficulties attending  a state of transition in  making preparation for
systematic ventilation.
  The late houses of  Parliament, the new houses, St. George's Hall,
and the new assize courts at Liverpool, a building in which there were
upwards of a hundred public and private compartments, and the ex-
perimental rooms and lecture room  he had previously constructed at
Edinburgh,  presented in their combined  history the most  extended
illustration of the applications of his  views.  The obstacles opposed
to them  at  one  place, and their  execution in another, under such a
variety of circumstances, exclusive of  law pleas,  arbitrations, parlia-
mentary, professional and other inquiries, called forth facts  which
elucidated the progress of all the leading questions affecting warming,
lighting, ventilating,  drainage, and acoustics, in connexion with the
progress of modern architecture,  and the difficulties they had  to en-
counter.
  A  diagram was then  explained,  illustrating the numerous  rooms
subjected to the action of a single shaft  at the late houses of Parlia-
ment, and the manner in which it was applied in acting, at the same
time, on the chihiney flues, on the drains  in the vicinity, and on vitia-
ted air when accumulated in the  contiguous court-yards.  Plans and
sections were also shown, illustrative of the works executed under his
direction at the new houses, which were incorporated with the princi-
pal portions, till he refused to be  responsible, and ceased to act, except
under protest.  The  sections explained the  portions of  the Victoria
and the clock towers set apart for the supply of fresh air from a great
altitude, the central air  chamber under the central hall, the leading
channels from it to the House of Peers, to the House of Commons, and
to other parts of the  building, and  the  passage  for vitiated air from
several hundred different places, and from all the smoke  flues to the
central tower above the central hall, which had  been introduced ex-
pressly at his suggestion, but subsequently so reduced and cut off from
important channels that it formed one  of the principal causes of dis-
pute. 
172                       LECTURES.
  The plans showed the general disposition of the fresh air chambers
in the vaults, and the great smoke and vitiated air flues in the roof.
  Dr. Reid then concluded his remarks on the new houses of Parlia-
ment, stating that though alterations had been made  in his plans
every succeeding year had confirmed him in the opinion that they
could not depart in any material  point from the principles  he  had
advocated or the practice he had introduced without injury to the ven-
tilation.   He added that he had reason to believe that this conclusion
would be placed beyond all question whenever the evidence  taken at
arbitration should become better known ; referring to the numerous
works he had executed, and to the extent they had influenced others,
he mentioned one architect, Mr. Thomas Brown,  who had applied his
plans in forty-eight public and private buildings.
  A large plan was then brought forward sjiowing the details of the
principal works executed under his direction at George's  Hall, Liver-
pool.  The principal air channels were about 400 feet  long, and of
such magnitude that any one could walk in them without  inconveni-
ence.  A central engine commanded the movement of air, and drove
four instruments that directed currents north or south, east or west, as
might be required.  The great hall, the courts of  law,  the minor
courts, the library, the concert room, had the combined advantages of
a plenum and vacuum movement. Heat was given by coils of hot water
apparatus, the principal  coils  being each forty feet in length, ten in
breadth and six in depth, and auxiliary coils of steam pipe were placed
locally, whose action was brought  into play principally  in very cold
weather.   Many portions of the structure showed special modifications
in the design of the interior for ventilating purposes.  All the smaller
apartments had fire-places supplied with a soft coke that gave no smoke,
and the flues were all carried into four large shafts in the angles of
the great hall.  No. windows were ever opened in the great hall, law
courts, or concert room, but in most of the minor rooms  and offices
windows  were  made in the usual manner.
  When  air is supplied to large buildings, or, indeed, to any habita-
tions by a fixed and definite channel, it is very desirable, if it be not
introduced from a great hight, to pass it through a  gauze in winter,
in such towns as London and Manchester, so as to exclude a large por-
tion of the soot that usually accompanies it at such periods.  By taking
the additional precaution of making it traverse a heavy artificial shower
of water, which is still more purifying, if charged previously with as
much lime as it  can dissolve, the air becomes much more refreshing.
  Thus, then, in public buildings of the highest importance the great
objects are, the supply of the purest accessible atmosphere; the purifi-
cation of the air when requisite ; the exclusion of all sources of local
contamination ; the power of warming by a mild heat; the power of
cooling ;  valves and channels that admit of air being changed in tem-
perature at a moment's notice, or,  at least, sooner than numbers can
pass out of or into the building ventilated; means for moistening air;
the ventilation of lamps, or the adoption of a system of lighting  that
excludes the products of combustion ; the introduction of a plenum or
vacuum power, or of both, for regulating the supply  of fresh air and
discharge of  vitiated air;  and the adoption of the  most extensive 
LECTURES.
173
measures practicable for securing the supply of air with the gentlest
movement, and through a very large diffusing surface, which is more
and more agreeable in proportion as it approaches universal  diffusion
from every perpendicular surface.   The diffusion may, in some cases,
be given at the ceiling, under certain circumstances of breadth and
height, excepting such area as may be reserved therefor the discharge
of vitiated air.
  Leading facts wefe afterwards pointed out in reference to  other
classes of buildings,  in which his plans had been introduced, from
which the following selection is made:
  The Chapel Royal, at St. James's Palace, is ventilated by a metallic
shaft, worked by a series of gas lights, and the principal fire-places
discharge vitiated  air into the same flue, with which  they communi-
cate by copper tubes.  There is an ascending movement of air in the
body of the chapel, but in the  Queen's gallery the fresh air  descends
from the ceiling and spreads horizontally over the seats.
  At the Pavilion, in Brighton, ventilation was effected by the intro-
duction of an iron shaft, heated by gas, and attached to one of the
turrets in the vicinity of the Minarets.
  At Buckingham Palace, in ventilating some of the state apartments,
a central shaft, having an area of twenty-seven feet, was formed where
only two feetg>f discharge had previously been  provided, exclusive of
doors and  windows.  A back staircase, eight  feet in diameter, was
appropriated for the discharge of vitiated air from the basement and
contiguous offices, which had previously flooded the state apartments.
  At the opera, in  London, a  discharge two feet in diameter was
replaced by another of seventy-five superficial feet area, but nothing
was done for the better supply of fresh air, except at the Queen's box.
The proprietors would not agree to give a proper supply.
  At the Old Bailey the whole  of the arrangements were adapted to
the action of a large fanner, eighteen feet in diameter, which was worked
by a steam engine.
  In churches, the spire or tower was brought into action  as a venti-
lating power, whenever permission was given for this purpose; and
when the church was surrounded by a grave-yard or other source of
vitiated air it was  recommended that the spire should be  so divided
within that one part might supply fresh air from  a considerable alti-
tude above the level  of the ground, the other portions being used for
the discharge of vitiated air at a higher level.
  In prisons, Dr. Reid had used the ventilating shaft principally, and
preferred an ascending movement in the individual cells,  allowing
the prisoner the control of the window to a limited extent.
  In barracks for soldiers great  suffering  was often experienced from
defective ventilation, and  the men often  became practically familiar
with this question from the extent to which their arms and  accoutre-
ments rusted in some places  compared with others, entailing on them
a degree of labor, in preparing for parade, of which they  made more
complaints than of its influence on their health.
  In schools, he preferred the action of  a single ventilating shaft suf-
ficient to control the ventilation of every  apartment  in the  building,
and urged also the general adoption of one regulating discharge from 
174                      LECTURES.
each room.  Illustrations were taken from  schools in Westminster
and other places, and cases  cited where excessive  crowding had  led
to six times the number originally intended being accommodated in
particular schools.  In this  country his own observation, as well as
the concurring testimony of different reports he  had seen, led him to
the conviction that much was still to be done before the ventilation of
schools could be considered on a proper footing.   The supply was, in
general, too small, the means of discharge not sufficiently powerful,
and the ascent of the warm entering air so rapid, that much of it escaped
by the ceiling without doing any good, unless made to descend to  the
floor by opening the discharge there, and closing the aperture above,
when the  products of respiration descended along with it.  The diffu-
sion of heat, also, was rarely  general and equal,  and hence it was
often impossible to give sufficient fresh air without opening the win-
dows at times when the  state of the  external atmosphere indicated
that they ought, if possible, to be closed.   In some more recent cases
the diffusion of heat had  been  very much extended and improved,  but
not the ingress of air.
   In hospitals much required to be done,  more especially where con-
tagious diseases  were treated ;  he considered that great improvements
might be  made in such cases by causing  all the expired air and ex-
halations  to pass directly from each individual patient lb a ventilating
flue, where, by the action of heat, every noxious emanation could be
entirely destroyed, so as equally to save life within doors and relieve
apprehension without.   In this country, at the  New  York  Hospi-
tal, he had seen  arrangements that were  in  advance of most  of  the
plans  usually adopted in Europe ; but he  had not hitherto observed
any hospitals where the views  he  recommended for quarantine hos-
pitals  on shore   and others for contagious  diseases had been  intro-
duced.
   In chemical lecture rooms, experimental class  rooms,  and in all
manufacturing operations, where acrid, poisonous, or  irritating gases
and vapors were diffused,  he recommended that provision should be
made for  the direct removal of every offensive product  without per-
mitting  it to escape into the general atmosphere, illustrating  this
department of the subject by a large  plan  of the ventilating shafts
and flues introduced at his former class-room in Edinburgh.
   From these illustrations it would be  seen that the course he recom-
mended  was a special adaptation in each  individual class of building
to the purpose for which it was erected, and in  unison with the style
of architecture adopted.  Air  could be made to move in  any direction
that might be required, and when in a proper condition as to tempera-
ture and moisture, and in sufficient quantity, many of the details were
often  matters of indifference.   But  the  economy of each  individual
movement was a very different question, and extensive  ventilating
movements could only be most successfully and economically combined
when  incorporated with the  original  design before  the building  is
commenced.
   Dr. Reid then passed  to  the subject of lighting public  buildings
and commenced his illustration by throwing a very powerful lime ball
light on the flame of candles,  lamps, gas-lights, burning alcohol, and 
LECTURES.
175
paper.  These, under the influence of the lime ball light, gave  a
shadow on  the adjoining wall which did not terminate  with  the
outline of the flame, but merged without any line  of demarcation at
the upper part  of each flame in a continuous ascending undulatory
shadow that reached to the ceiling of the lecture room.  The apparent
shadow arose from the refraction produced by the  heated current of
ascending vitiated air, and the necessity was then pointed out of all
lamps used  in public buildings being ventilated by special tubes, or of
ventilating  apertures being arranged for the discharge of vitiated air
above them, so as to prevent the recoil  and descent of vitiated air from
the ceiling.  In  an assembly  for the transaction  of business, in  a
church, in a school, in courts of law, and in other similar collections,
it was too often forgotten  that  the object  to be  attained by lighting
was not so much  to show a beautiful chandelier  as  to  illuminate  the
countenances of those who took a prominent part in  the proceedings.
  A  visible light  close to any object, or in the direct line of sight
between one  person and another,  interfered with distinct  vision.
In a light-house  the light was the  special object of attention, as in
fireworks,  and in  various optical, electrical, and  chemical experi-
ments; but in  public buildings, such as had been adverted to, the  less
the actual  flame or luminous  matter  was seen the  better, provided
the proper objects were well illuminated.   The more successfully the
diffused light of day was imitated, and  the light by night corresponded
with the light  required and given by day, the more satisfactory would
the result be.   But many were the buildings in  which the light by
day as  well as that by night was very  imperfectly adapted  to  the
necessities of the case.  In his experience, at least, he had often seen
the back of the  head illuminated more powerfully than the counte-
nance, and  a distraction of rays and beams of light utterly at variance
with  that harmony and unity of effect that was always manifested in
an  external landscape, when there was no disposition nor attempt to
gaze upon the  sun itself in its meridian splendor.  The different steps
in the progress of this question were  then explained; the successive
experiments made at Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London, and the final
acknowledgment of the principle that the products of combustion from
lamps, as well  as the heat they produced,  should be excluded or with-
drawn as much as possible from ventilated buildings, where the heat
was not rendered  useful in unison with proper  ventilation.  That
electrical lights,  oxygenated lights,  lime ball, and other lights  of
 great intensity, were not  so much required, at their present expensive
cost,  as a mild and diffused light illuminating the objects to be seen,
 and  which should not glare in the eye  of the observer.   That the
countenance should be illuminated by rays extending from  an ex-
panded surface, and rather from above downwards, than from below
upwards, always securing, directly or indirectly, as much  horizontal
light as was required.  That lights at a low level, as.foot-lights, such
as are common at theatres, give an unnatural expression to the coun-
tenance, and also interfere materially with distinctness of vision when
 hot currents of air are permitted to ascend from them, by the  ine-
 quality of the  refraction of light transmitted through such heated  cur-
 rents and the  contiguous colder air.   That the new resources placed 
176                       LECTURES.

at the disposal of architecture by the progress of practical science, and
particularly by the facility  which iron and glass afford in arrange-
ments for lighting and ventilation, call for a revision of the practice
of former days and for the more extended use of external illumination,
or the introduction of ventilated lamps.  That phosphorous was an
element that might be advantageously introduced for the purpose of
artificial illumination, the acid  formed by its combustion  being con-
densed by ammonia,  and returned again by chemical processes in the
form of phosphorous.  There was no objection to bright lights if the
rays from them were  sufficiently  diffused before they met the eye; but
until economy was attained  in their construction and management, a
double expense was incurred, first in producing them and subsequently
in moderating their intensity.
   The physical  effect of light upon  the constitution  was then ad-
verted to, and illustrations given from a barrack in St. Petersburgh,
where  a very marked example  was  presented of this influence in
the prevention of disease.  If  the  rays  of light  were  capable of
producing those  striking  and delicate results that were portrayed by
the daguerreotype  and the photograph, it would be unreasonable to
suppose that  their action  on the sentient fibres of an organized and
living structure  would not be still more marked.   The influence of
light was equally conspicuous on the animal and vegetable kingdom;
and the tint given to rooms could be used in some cases of disease as a
power  in assisting to  sooth  and  subdue an irritable temperament, or
in raising, in some degree,  the  spirits of those that were depressed.
He had had, on different occasions, the opportunity of noticing the
effect produced in  this manner.   A room that was of a dead  black,
and another in which  pink and white alternated, were at the extremes
of the scale.
   The electric light was the most intense and penetrating artificial
light hitherto discovered ; and next to it came  the lime  ball light.
The electric  light was accompanied with a  perpetual vibration that
had not  hitherto been overcome ; but  the  lime ball  light could be
sustained indefinitely and with  great equality, by the use of appro-
priate apparatus.  The late Sir John  Leslie had estimated that the
brightest lime ball light had  only a one hundred and twenty-third
part of the power of an equal amount of solar radiation.
   This lecture was concluded with an account of some experiments he
had directed for  illuminating the hills  at Edinburgh on the occasion
of a public festival, when the scenery was made manifest by tons of
blue light and other deflagrating mixtures, fired by signals on selected
spots on  different hills.  Nearly a hundred persons were employed on
this occasion, and the magnificence and beauty of the effect produced,
where isolated landscapes started suddenly into view in the midst of
the surrounding darkness, and where the illuminating lights were not
seen, confirmed the views he had  advocated in reference to the lighting
of public buildings.   He did not mean to say that naked lights should
not be used, and that the light itself should not be visible in all kinds
of public buildings.   This was not requisite; nor was it so economical.
Lights, also, were pleasing adjuncts in the ball room and on all festive
occasions, where their sparkling  brilliancy added to the gaiety of the 
LECTURES.
177
scene.   In this respect the pure white wax candle, with its brilliant
flame,  was unrivalled,  except  by the small  gaslight burning with
similar lustre.   But he did maintain that the best style of lighting
is that which told least on the nervous system and on the health of
those who were engaged in public assemblies, and one that was, at the
same time, the best for  the transaction of public business.  The light
itself should be altogether concealed, or at least very considerably out
of the  direct line of vision.   He would  only add  that light trans-
mitted through ground glass was very offensive to some,  and that a
smoother and opalescent material gave it  a softness of tone that could
never  be  commanded  by the  ground glass.  Light radiated from
invisible burners, and, falling upon  convex plaster of Paris surfaces
and  solid flowers made of the  same  materials,  and tinged to any
agreeable tone, gave a very pleasing and diffused radiation, with which
any  desirable  amount of illumination could  be obtained  for public
biiildings.
                     SEVENTH LECTURE.

  In this lecture Dr. Reid commenced with an  explanation of the
manner in which fire-proofing interfered with the ventilation of some
public buildings, and  the method of obviating the defects arising from
this source.   The whole question of fire-proofing required revision.
An examination of the construction of different buildings said to be
fire-proof would exhibit a great diversity in the standard aimed at,
and in  the amount of security given  against fire.   Ventilation re-
quired the ingress and the egress of air.  Some systems of fire-proof-
ing contemplated the  entire prevention of such  movements when not
in actual occupation, and therefore valves (doubled, if necessary, for ad-
ditional security) were requisite to cut off all communication with the
air flues. The importance of separating contiguous rooms or buildings
by fire-proof walls and floors was universally recognized.  But the great
point desirable in public buildings was to use no combustible mate-
rials, or a portion so  small that even if on fire  it could not do any
material injury.  These  also  could  be charged with chemicals  of
different kinds, so as to diminish their ready accendibility.  Various
experiments were then made illustrative of the action of alkaline and
earthy salts in preventing or retarding the combustion of wood, cloth,
and other inflammable substances used in  building or  for furniture.
Many  fires originated  not merely from carelessness,  but  from an
ignorance of the first  principles of chemistry.  In the present state of
society, in which the extension of art and science had introduced the use
of so many new materials,  it was essential (hat the chemistry of daily
life should be made an elementary branch of general education.
  A  number of special facts were then  mentioned  in  illustration of
this  position.  It  would  give  increased power and facility in con-
ducting  operations of art, and  in  dealing with combustible and ex-
plosivcTmaterials. To  illustrate this, a portion of gunpowder was placed
in a  small copper cup, and covered with oil of turpentine.  The oil
of turpentine was then  inflamed.  It continued to burn above the
           12 s 
178                       LECTURES.
gunpowder, which was not at  first  in any way affected  by it.
The flame was blown out, and rekindled.   This was  repeated  sev-
eral times  in succession.   At last the gunpowder was exposed, the
level of the burning fluid having descended  below the  surface of the
central portion.   Still it did not fire;  it was  surrounded and enve-
loped in a vapor of oil rising rapidly from the portion below.  At last,
the oil being nearly consumed,  and the edge of the flame coming in
contact with individual  grains, they deflurated one by  one, and soon
afterwards the rest of the gunpowder exploded.
  This experiment was then varied by placing  a  small portion of
gunpowder on a flat brick, drenching it with oil of turpentine, and
sustaining  continually around  it a  small  portion of this fluid.  A
light was then  applied, when the oil alone was  kindled ; the gun-
powder acting as  a wick, and remaining totally unaffected so long as
there was any oil in the vicinity to be consumed.
  It was then argued that general instruction in chemistry would
give a similar power of control over many sources  of  fire, and  that
the principles he had explained in  connexion with  this illustration
could in many cases be practically  applied.  It would also lead to
the more extended use of fire-proof or incombustible materials in
all classes of building, by giving correct views as to their nature and
capabilities, and the advantages attending their introduction.
  The next subjects were  the ventilation of underground mines and
of ships.   These  presented peculiar and somewhat similar difficulties,
from  the comparative inaccessibility of the lower  portions of both to
the direct access of atmospheric air.
  In  the class of  mines to which he adverted,  the great difficulty lies
principally in the expense of making ventilating shafts, particularly
where springs of  water  interrupt their formation, or the presence of
fire-damp render  it important to have a larger amount of ventilation
than  would  otherwise  be  requisite.  Nothing would contribute so
much to the better ventilation of mines as the invention of machinery
and  apparatus for facilitating the  sinking of shafts.   The attention
of men of science and practical  engineers should be directed specially
to this subject.   Hitherto  he  had not had the opportunity of visiting
mines in this country, but he  had examined many mines in Great
Britain,  more especially in the  northern mining district, on which he
had  reported officially  when acting on a  commission of health for
cities and populous districts in England and Wales.   In some of the
most dangerous mines in  England  a very slight interruption to the
ventilation, or a fall of the  barometer, causing a rapid discharge of
fire-damp  from  the coal,  greatly  increased  the risk  of  explosion.
Hundreds  were at times subjected to the most horrible deaths, the mix-
ture of fire-damp and air in numerous mines constituting, at the mo-
ment of explosion, a kind of aerial gunpowder that equally surrounded
the body and penetrated to the interior of the chest.  In no range of
cases where ventilation  was an  absolute necessity would education  in
science do more good than in the mining districts.  It was not enough
to have a few able superintendents here and there.   Every mine and
every district of  a mine ought to be  much  more frequently examined 
LECTURES.
179
and reported on than was customary at present.  He had found in
some cases, even recently, that the fresh air intended for the supply
of "a pit, where there were hundreds of men at work, was contaminated
largely when the wind blew in  a particular direction from a large
heap of waste fuel of inferior quality that had been burning there for
many previous years.   He mentioned this merely as one of the numer-
ous instances which could be pointed out of the impossibility of check-
ing evils of great magnitude, where more intelligence did not prevail
in respect to the nature  of the materials which were employed.
  One of the shafts of access to the pit, or mine, was usually converted
into a ventilating flue, by kindling a large fire, not at the bottom of
the pit, but at one side, near the bottom.  From this a large flue con-
veyed the vitiated air and products of combustion to the  shaft, at a
sufficient distance above the lower part to permit them tocool on the way
to a degree which would allow men and materials to pass safely up
and down the shaft.  Dangerous atmospheres were sometimes diluted
with air, by proportionate ventilation, so as to take away all risk of
explosion; or discharged by a separate shaft, or by a separate channel,
into the ordinary ventilating shaft, far above the fire,  so as to  pre-
vent their coming in contact with flame.  Mechanical appliances were
used in some mines to promote ventilation, and advantage had  also
been taken in different places of the steam jet.  Choke damp (car-
bonic acid) infested numerous mines, and was frequently  a  cause of
death.  The Davy  lamp, though an invaluable invention,  was not
always to be  trusted, even with all the improvements that had been
suggested in  recent times.  An infinitesimally small particle of carbon
might be projected,  sufficiently hot from the  flame  of  the lamp,
through the wire gauze, by a sudden commotion of the air arising from
the falling in of any portion of the roof of amine, or any other cause,
and be fanned into an active combustion in an explosive atmosphere,
though ordinary flame is entirely arrested by the wire  gauze  pro-
posed by Davy.
   Again, in  many mines, partitions of wood  giving  way, from the
decay of the material, rendered the ventilation less effective ;  and, in
short,  from the length of the air courses, extending sometimes to ten,
twenty, or thirty miles, the  underground miner almost always worked
in an atmosphere more or less contaminated ; and he did not consider
that sufficient exertions were made at present, either  by  the extended
application of practical science, or by the education of the miner, to
place this subject on  the  footing demanded both by the  dictates of
humanity and by a true economy as a matter of business.
   The ventilation of ships had made less satisfactory progress, prob-
ably, than that of any other cases in which ventilation was so impor-
tant.   From the time of Dr.  Hales, who had long since  entered on
this question practically,  with great ability,  and at a  period when
much of the information now made accessible by more modern chem-
istry was not available, it had at different periods been taken up, and
again neglected.; and even in his own experience he had  seen it alter-
nately prosecuted with vigor, and abandoned by successive  directors of
the same board, according as their appreciation or want of information
as to the laws of health had dictated.  The sea  had  had  its "black 
180
LECTURES.
holes of Calcutta " as well as the land.  In some cases almost every
individual confined under deck, in a storm, had been literally suffo-
cated in consequence of the want of fresh air.   Even a very few years
ago a case of this kind had occurred in the Irish channel.  Still more
recently hundreds of Chinese had perished  on board ship from the
same cause.   During the late Crimean war, the suffering and death on
shipboard, during a storm in the  Black Sea, had been extreme.   In
one of the most crowded vessels, where defective ventilation added  its
horrors to disease, nearly a hundred perished in a single night. How
often was it  forgotten that a very small cause  would put out the fee-
ble flame of life, when  it had to struggle  at the  same time against
disease and  against a vitiated atmosphere, poisoning the very foun-
tain at which it should be  renewed at the  rate  of twelve hundred
respirations  every hour.  If it had been right in him to advocate the
cause of general education in the elements of science in speaking of
other cases where ventilation was necessary, it was still more essential
that it should not be forgotten as a means of promoting the purity
of the air of ships.
   On examining the condition of ships-of-war, packets and merchant
vessels, when his attention was first specially directed to this depart-
ment, he had not met with a single case in which any arrangements had
been made beyond the windsail, and occasionally a few copper or other
tubes, acting locally for the  supply or discharge of air, and not gene-
rally on the whole ship.  The effect of these was entirely dependent
on the state  of the wind.   There was no  ventilating  power that
could be  put in operation in calm  weather,  sufficient to meet  the
contingency of a storm when all side ports and  scuttles were  closed,
and even the very hatches battened down to prevent the ingress of
water from the deck.   In  experiments which  he had  made on board
the  Benbow, a seventy-two  gun ship, by the kindness of Admiral
Houston  Stewart, he had used a fanner that  sustained a plenum cur-
rent in a tube made of canvass about four or five  feet in diameter.
He had afterwards seen a small fanner introduced by Captain War-
rington,  who had been strongly impressed in a voyage from India
with  the necessity of the ventilation of ships.   But whether fanners,
screws, pumps, or  any other variety of mechanical  power was  used
for this  purpose,  a system of tubes or ventilating  channels  was
absolutely essential to admit of a  satisfactory effect  being insured,
particularly  on those occasions when ventilation was most imperiously
demanded.  A ventilating power worked by  heat  alone was not so
generally available on  board ship as other means ;  still, however, it
could be used with advantage in many cases when judiciously applied,
and the cooking stove could  often be rendered useful for this purpose
by intelligent officers.   In steamboats, the machinery and the fires
for the production  of  steam gave  twofold facilities  for ventilation.
It was inexcusable, therefore, that they should not be more systemati-
cally ventilated than they  generally  were.  Any amount  of appro-
priation, almost, could often be secured for the most superb cabin
decorations,  while a comparatively trifling sum  was as often denied
for the means of giving the pure breath of life.
   A diagram was then shown illustrative  of the plans executed by 
LECTURES.
181
the directions of Dr. Reid in different classes of ships.  Those intro-
duced in two of the Queen's yachts were specially mentioned, and that
in the Minden,  the hospital ship used during the former Chinese war.
He referred also to three steamers he had ventilated for an expedition
to the Niger.   Emigrant ships and packets were then mentioned, arid
it was strongly urged that were nothing more done than the intro-
duction of a single ventilating tube from stem to stern, a great and
important improvement would be secured.   By this, with appropriate
power apertures, and with valves, vitiated air could be extracted from
any part of the ship in the line of the tube.
   At the same time he deprecated the idea that this should be the only
improvement introduced where many were crowded in cabins or small
spaces.   A ventilating tube should be supplied to every individual
cabin or place  occupied  by passengers, and indeed to  every isolated
portion or cavity  of the ship.  And in large  vessels,  with crowded
decks, the officers should be instructed  in the  best methods of con-
verting the ladder ways  and cargo hatches  into ventilating shafts in
proportion to the numbers present.   Nor was  it difficult to  construct
temporary air pumps or fanners to  assist in the discharge of vitiated
air, though it would be much  better to have these made on shore and
kept in readiness for use on shipboard.
   The important question of  quarantine was then  introduced and
its relation pointed  out to the subject under consideration.  The
want of  systematic ventilation  in ships and the deficiency of chemi-
cal information in respect to the necessity of removing moisture,
to a certain extent,  at least,  from different articles of merchan-
dise,  occasioned  an  annual loss in  this country alone that would
probably, if he was correctly informed,  be counted only by millions if
all the circumstances of  the case were fully taken into  consideration.
It was  most important  that  an effective  quarantine  establishment
should be maintained, and that hospitals  should be so constructed
that all the vitiated air from them should be passed through fire,  or so
altered, at least, by heat or chemicals, as to prove as  unobjectionable
as air escaping from an  ordinary habitation.  The introduction of
ventilation that would  remove  the vitiated  air from each patient
laboring  under a  severe form  of  any disease rendering  him liable
to quarantine,  was peculiarly  important in  quarantine  hospitals.  It
would contribute  not only to the  health of the patient and to that
of the  attendants and of the other patients  in the same ward, but
would tend very much to relieve those without from all apprehension
as to the escape of any  dangerous atmosphere from  the precincts of
the hospital.  But it was  still more important to  the public, to the
merchant, and to the sailor,  that  a right system should be adopted
in the shipping of all goods prone  to convey disease from an infected
port, or  develope it during a voyage.  He contended  that this object
would be greatly promoted by simply drying, to  a certain extent,
before shipping them, special classes of exports, and  by the intro-
duction in all ships of a ventilating tube from stem to stern, such as
had been explained.
   Another important measure  that should be adopted at  all great
mercantile ports consisted in  providing a portable ventilating  appa- 
182
LECTURES.
ratus that could be placed on the deck of any ship arriving in a very
bad condition, and capable of destroying all noxious effluvia escaping
from it, while maintaining as effective a ventilation as circumstances
might  permit.  It was  also strongly urged  that a steam-tug should
be* provided at such ports capable of meeting all extreme cases at once,
of discharging vitiated air  with a power that would make the effect
manifest in a few  minutes, and  also of applying warm, cold, or a fu-
migated atmosphere to the whole or any part of the ship.
  Finally, a special provision  should be made on the quarantine
grounds for the reception and purification of all suspected goods which
it might be necessary to land  or to destroy.   Many were the cases of
disease on shore that had been traced to materials or goods thrown
overboard.  By the action of a heating, fumigating, and ventilating
apparatus consuming  noxious  products, much valuable merchandise
might  soon  be restored, and worthless materials consumed without
danger.
  By these varied arrangements the sick could be at once conveyed on
shore to a proper quarantine establishment in a ventilated tug, mer-
chandise purified  on board ship or  on  shore, and the  public  good
secured with  the least  possible tax on the  mercantile interest.  It
was more  peculiarly the  province and duty  of the merchants them-
selves to have their goods so shipped and their vessels so  ventilated
as to reduce to a minimum the  chances of loss by detention at quar-
antine, to  say nothing of the claims of humanity; and the public could
not look on with apathy, either at  the loss of life  arising from pre-
ventible disease on board ship,  or the necessity of incurring extreme
expense beyond what was necessary for the most effective quarantine
establishment.
  In concluding these remarks, Dr.  Reid took occasion to notice the
general condition of the life of the sailor at sea, the hardships to which
he was so  often subjected, the magnitude of  the interests involved in
the right  construction,  management, and  efficiency of ships, and of
the practicability of immense improvement in this  department,  more
especially in the mercantile marine of all nations.  The diminution of
shipwrecks, and the prevention of loss were not the only objects requi-
site.  The service should be put on a better footing ; the public should
support nautical schools and schools of naval architecture,  on the
same principle that they recognized the importance of supporting or
contributing to the support of other departments of education.  It was
hard to tell what an extended navy and increased commercial relations
might  yet accomplish between man and man.  And were they to lose
sight of the  mariner in carrying out such national objects, even  if
it  were possible to attain otherwise the desired result,  was he to be
neglected, whether he might be the rough sailor before  the mast or
the accomplished officer, skilled in all that science could apply either
in the  management of his own ship, or in extending the boundaries
of human knowledge?   Where had there been recorded at sea or on
shore,  any memoir of a man of a more refined sensibility, of more
daring intrepidity, or of more heroic devotion, than that which char-
acterized Dr. Kane ; the intelligence of whose untimely death had just
arrived, and whose name would ever be cherished with admiration,
regret, and esteem, on both sides of the Atlantic. 
LECTURES.
183
                      EIGHTH LECTURE.

 _  The eighth and concluding lecture of this course embraced an out-
line of  a series of experiments on acoustics, and  a description of the
construction for acoustic purposes of different public buildings which
had been designed  by the lecturer or altered under his  direction.
After a  short exposition of the leading principles of acoustics, it was
contended, though there might be  no end to the  peculiarity of devel-
opments arising from the use of new materials, new designs, and new
decorations, that these principles were sufficiently well known to guide
construction, particularly if accompanied with  adequate provisions for
the escape of sound, after  it had effected the object desired—a point
that had not, so far as he was aware, met with adequate attention till
some of the experiments  had been made  which he  had  described.
Without this escape, or an equivalent absorption  of sound, which was
not compatible with many structures and decorations, sound continued
too often to reverberate and interrupt the  distinctness of succeeding
sounds.   He then described rooms  in various parts of Europe, where
the sound was audible from five to twelve seconds after the cause pro-
ducing  it had ceased to act; and added that in such places, supposing
only three  syllables to be pronounced in a second, from fifteen to
thirty-six successive syllables were constantly ringing in the ear and
modifying or destroying the enunciation of every succeeding word.
   In general, sound was most beautifully distinct and clear in a  wood
or on the surface of the ocean, no returning echo or reverberations in-
terfering with the sweetness or purity of each succeeding note.  If a
room were built of properly absorbing  materials, or lined with  those
that did not reflect sound, any form could be given to it that the archi-
tect  required.  It would  not be powerful  in  sustaining sound, but,
with adequate  power,  there would be no jarring  reflections.  If par-
allel reflecting surfaces were largely introduced and great altitude
given, dissonant  sounds would equally destroy  or mar both speech
and music.  Good effects were attained when the highest power of
reflection was given near the ear of the hearer and the voice of the
speaker, the sound that had done its duty being then  absorbed or dis-
charged.  The object  was attained in a still higher degree when the
reflection permitted  was induced by materials that had the power of
vibrating independently of the general structure.   Dr. Reid then de-
scribed  the  peculiarities of the acoustics in his  class-room, and the
trials made in it by members of government and of Parliament;  pass-
in^ then to  the old  House of  Commons, which he had treated as an
acoustic instrument, using glass and pine wood largely in the interior,
and combining universal  ventilation  with  the  means of escape, both
above and below, for the sound that had  done its duty.  The tem-
porary House of Peers he  had  treated in a somewhat similar manner,
but there essentially he had  introduced largely a resilient surface of
sheet iron on both sides of the house, immediately opposite the  most
important benches, where the tone  of speaking and hearing required
the highest attention.  In the new  House of Commons a different
series of arrangements  had been introduced  in opposition  to his views. 
184                       LECTURES.
but the House had no sooner met and tried it for a few days than they
declared it was not fit for the transaction of business with the facility
they had been accustomed to in the previous house during the preced-
ing fifteen years ; and  accordingly the ceiling was lowered in the
centre, and on every side, the lateral portions of this new ceiling cut-
ting the windows into two parts, the lower portions solely remaining
available to the House.   Dr. Reid  then entered on a number of other
points connected with churches and schools which he had been called
upon to alter, sometimes increasing the power of sound by lowering
the ceiling and other arrangements, and on other occasions diminish-
ing excessive sound  by providing means for its escape or absorption.
He then adverted specially to the  lecture  room of the  Smithsonian
Institution,  and  complimented Prof.  Henry  on  the arrangements
adopted, saying  that it  was one of the very few lecture rooms where
the voice could be enunciated and heard without effort on the part of
the speaker and  hearer.
  Dr. Reid then adverted to  the great  progress of acoustics in later
years, though it had  not yet received the same proportionate attention
as optics, and gave a number of illustrations of the effects of the voices
of different public speakers, from Wellington and  Peel to O'Connell
and Shiel  ; pointing out also the leading peculiarities in  the voices of
Jenny  Lind, Rubini, Catalani, and  in the  violin of Paganini,  which
he described as  wielding the power of an Orpheus in modern  days,
and as  having exceeded in his opinion rather than  fallen short of the
almost fabulous terms in which it was often mentioned.
  A brief review of the whole question of architecture was then taken,
and the necessity shown  for combining utility and economy, as well
as true beauty and  harmony of structure.  The great  questions  of
acoustics,  lighting, warming, and ventilating  might be mutually in-
terwined  or accommodated  to each other,  and perfected with the
design and decorations as much as was necessary, before any building
was commenced.  The principal desiderata  necessary for the future
progress  of  architecture were  next adverted  to ;  the importance  of
establishing colleges  or  special curricula in  existing schools for civil
and naval architecture, and the immense amount of valuable  infor-
mation and experience at present lost from the  want of such establish-
ments were pointed out; universal education in the elements of science
was urged as equally important to health, arts,  and  manufactures, and
the extended organization of architectural, agricultural, polytechnic,
and industrial institutions.
  Dr. Reid then referred to a paper that he had recently published  on
a college of architecture in the American Journal of Education, edited
by the  Hon. Henry Barnard, and thanked his audience for the interest
they had taken in his exposition of the views he had advocated.  He
concluded his lectures with the following outline of the course of study
recommended for students of architecture : 
LECTURES.                       185
CURRICULUM, OR COURSE OF STUDY RECOMMENDED FOR STUDENTS OF ARCHI-
                     TECTURE, BY DR. D. B. REID.

I. General Studies, referring to the materials of which the globe is
  composed, their power and capabilities, and their  relations to the
  human frame.

  1. Chemistry—history of the elements of which the globe is com-
     posed, and of their combinations.
  2. Mechanical philosophy, including the mutual relations of solids,
     liquids and gases.
  3. Heat, light, electricity, and magnetism.
  4. Mineralogy and geology.
  5. Meteorology.
  6. The general structure and physiology of the frame of man—prin-
     ciples of hygiene.

II.  Special Studies.

  1. The materials used in building,  natural and  artificial—their
     strength and  capabilities.
  2. The principles and practice of design and construction—the dif-
     ferent orders and styles of architecture.
  3. Outline of the history of architecture as a fine  and as a useful
     art—the monuments of antiquity—the peculiar works of modern
     times.
  4. Public buildings, including schools, churches, law-courts, prisons,
     hospitals, theatres, and gymnasia for exercise and recreation.
  5. Habitations for the people—extreme importance of the tenement
     question, and of  the right construction of the habitations of the
     poorer classes in all large cities ; its relation to the wants, habits,
     and morals of the inhabitants.
  6. Special buildings for trades, workshops, and manufactories.
  7. The construction requisite for acoustics, warming, cooling, light-
     ing,  ventilating,  fire-proofing, draining and sewerage, the collec-
    tion  and removal of refuse,  and the importance of due provision
    being adjusted for all these purposes before the execution of any
    building is commenced.
  8. The  selection of sites for buildings,  superficial drainage, the
    peculiarities required in different classes of foundations.
  9. The  special  architecture required in destroying noxious  fumes
    and  exhalations  from drains, manufactories, and other houses,
    and for facilitating the cleansing of large cities and villages, and
    the general preservation of the public health ;  the objects  and
    conduct of quarantine on shore.
  10. The  principles and practice  of decorations—the influence of
    colors.
  11. Plans, drawings,  and specifications;  architectural books  re-
    quired in conducting business accounts.
  12. Preparing estimates and measuring executed work. 
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LECTURES.
III.  It is presumed that the student will  carry on a systematic series
    of exercises in drawing perspective as well as plan drawing, in-
    cluding isometrical perspective, that he will equally pursue his
    mathematical studies in relation to every department of the pro-
    fession which he may have to cultivate, and engage as soon as his
    time permits, or so adjust his studies  as to enable him to become
    an apprentice to an architect, where he can see daily the realities
    of his profession.  On the whole, however, nothing  should be
    undertaken, if practicable, that will interfere with  the right
    prosecution of his studies.
IV. Lastly, a workshop and laboratory should be provided, in which
    the student shall have the opportunity of becoming practically
    acquainted with experimental chemistry, carpentry, and mechanics
    generally, and be enabled to test materials, and make or direct the
    construction of models that will facilitate all  his labors.
V