ficently furnished us with certain faculties, by means of which we acquire and cultivate a knowledge of surrounding objects, and improve our condition to the utmost extent, which circumstances will permit. One of the first things demanding our attention, is a knowledge of the constitution of the air we breathe, for, by neglecting it, we may be exposed to the most fatal injuries. This air is a fluid composed chiefly of two elementary gases, one called oxygen, and the other nitrogen. Of nitrogen there is much the largest proportion, but oxygen is the element of vital consumption, and is infused in the nitrogen only to modify its strength. The two combined are drawn every instant into the lungs, and there the oxygen undergoes an entire change. Dispersed through the air-tubes of that organ, it performs its office upon the blood, and, having done so, returns by the breath a very different material. It is no longer the healthgiving oxygen, but a noxious, a poisonous gas, called carbonic acid. It is no longer fit for supporting life; and if drawn into the lungs again, its effect is annoying, and, if persisted in, destructive of existence. Many of you, doubtless, have heard of that dreadful affair, the Black Hole of Calcutta. Á barbarous prince of India having captured some English prisoners, put 146 into a room, eighteen feet square, with only two small windows, and there they were confined during a whole night, suffering the most excruciating tortures, from breathing again and again the foul air of the place; in the morning only twenty

three were found alive. This was indeed a rare case of suffering on a large scale; but from a general ignorance or carelessness as to the necessity of inhaling pure air, an immense deal of suffering and loss of life is quietly going on; and it is only now, that the subject is beginning to attract the attention of philanthropic minds. Lately, a most important series of documents has been published in the form of a Sanitary Report by the Poor-Law Commissioners, which discloses some appalling facts on the mischief arising from want of proper drainage in towns, and also want of due ventilation.* We are told that in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and all large cities, where the working classes are congregated in small apartments, many persons, young and old, are annually smitten with fever and other diseases, a large proportion of whom would not have been affected at all, had they lived in airy well ventilated lodgings, or wrought in well ventilated workshops. It is mentioned as an extraordinary and melancholy fact, that the annual slaughter in England and Wales, from preventable causes of typhus fever, appears to be double the amount, of what was suffered by the Allies in the Battle of Waterloo. The loss to society arising in this way, from medical attendance, widowhood, and orphanage, it is impossible to tell. But the direct loss is not all. Living or working in an overheated or impure air weakens the body, and introduces a taste for stimulants; the system seems to require * See a few of those facts as given in the Appendix, No. III.—ED.

exhilaration. In London it has been ascertained, that the bad air in workshops leads to the constant tippling of porter and gin. One person who gives his evidence in the Sanitary Report, mentions that the heat and foul air in the tailors' work-rooms depress the energies, and make many drunkards. It is common, he says, for the men to take a dram of gin before breakfast, about seven o'clock in the morning; again there is a dram of gin or beer at eleven o'clock; again at three o'clock; again at five; and to finish, there is an adjournment to the public-house in the evening. We are farther informed that this kind of life, injures health and shortens life; few London tailors are known to live or work beyond forty-five years of age, and all are old men at fifty. It is clear, therefore, that this order of workmen sacrifice from thirteen to fifteen years of their life; and not only so, but they die poor, or in wretchedness, and their families find their way to the workhouse. My friends, is the exhibition of these facts not most distressing? How much better would it be to make an effort to prevent such calamities-to adopt means for ensuring, under Providence, a continuance of agreeable and sound health, temperance, and the blessings of a good old age! How much better, I say, would it be for these men, to be put in a way of saving their earnings, and attaching themselves to some such excellent institution, as that which you have formed, and when no longer able to work, retire on a competency which they had honourably

realised!* (Loud applause.) A signal instance of the evils caused by atmospheric impurity, has lately been seen in Glasgow, and that I shall allude to, because it embraces the new and effective contrivance for ventilating buildings. In Anderston, a suburb of that large city, there is a building of great size, once a factory, I believe, and stands adjoining the factory of Messrs Houldsworth and Sons. In this edifice there are seldom fewer than 500 inhabitants, divided into numerous families, each occupying one apartment, on one of the various floors. This hive of human beings was never free of fever; sometimes as many as fifty cases occurred in twelve months, and the number of deaths, caused most distressing cases of widowhood and orphanage, felt, I dare say, severely by the public charities of Glasgow. The condition of the tenement, at length attracted the attention of an able medical gentleman, Dr Fleming, who was not contented with attempting to cure the fevers; he very properly, and I may say nobly, attempted to prevent them from occurring. He considered, that much of the disease arose from the inmates breathing foul air. Many sleeping in one room, they soon consumed the oxygen, or vital part of the atmosphere,

* In the Sanitary Report, to which Mr Chambers here refers, we observe it mentioned, that if a proper system of ventilation had been established in a large work-room, in which 200 tailors are employed, the money saved in gain of labour, could not have been less than L.100,000; sufficient, independently of better health, to have purchased an annuity of L.1 per week for comfortable and respectable support, during a period of superannuation, commencing soon after fifty years of age.-ED.

and the carbonic acid which came from their lungs, was used so frequently, that they may be described as having for hours together inhaled a fluid, little else than an aërial poison. All ordinary means of ventilation being out of the question, both from the nature of the building, and the ignorance of the inhabitants, the doctor fell on the expedient of ventilating the apartments, by the agency of a furnace in the factory adjoining; I mean the furnace of a steam-engine,the plan was this:-On each floor there is a large passage, giving access to the numerous apartments, and along each of these passages a large metal pipe has been suspended near the roof. From this pipe, branch off a number of small pipes, one leading into each room, and opening near the ceiling, or perhaps over the bed. The large pipes in the passages, all descend and meet in a pipe considerably larger, and this largest or main pipe proceeds to the furnace adjoining. Before entering the furnace, there is a sliding valve or door upon it, and by lifting or depressing this, a lesser or greater rush of air through the pipes, can be produced. You will now see that the furnace draws its air from the large building. The breathed air, of five hundred human beings sleeping in these confined apartments, is carried off safely and silently, first, into the small, then, the large pipes, and, lastly, into the furnace, where it is consumed. I should state that there is no provision here, for the supply of fresh air to keep up the circulation, and so far the plan is rude and