we can estimate very accurately the amount of carbonic acid in the air, the increase of carbonic acid is taken as an index of the impurity of the atmosphere. The average amount of carbonic acid in the outer air is four parts in ten thousand. Professor De Chaumont found by his experiments that, whenever the amount of carbonic acid in the air of a room exceeded the amount in the outer air by more than two parts per 10,000, the air of the room was not fresh, that is, say, that the foul organic matter in it and the excess of moisture were sufficient to make the room stuffy. Hence, two parts of carbonic acid per 10,000 of air, over and above that in the outer air, are taken as the limit of respiratory impurity. As an adult breathes out, on the average, six cubic feet of carbonic acid in ten hours, it is clear that, in order that the air of the room in which he is may be kept fresh, he must have 30,000 cubic feet of air in the ten hours, or 3,000 per hour. In this climate we cannot change the air of a room more

than three or four times per hour without causing draught, and so each person ought to have from a thousand to 750 cubic feet of space, the air of which should be changed three or four times per hour respectively. The way in

which this space is arranged is also a matter of some importance. For instance, the air above a certain height is of little use for purposes of ventilation, if combined with too small a floor space. To take an extreme case-a man standing on a square foot of ground, with walls 3,000 feet high all round him, would be in 3,000 cubic feet of space; but it is quite obvious that he could not live in it. But, even without any enclosure at all, and without any limit as to height, it is not difficult to conceive a place overcrowded. For instance, all the inhabitants in the world, men, women, and children, could stand upon the Isle of Wight; but it is quite certain that they could not live there, even if it were only for the want of air. So it is usual, in estimating cubic space, to dis

regard the height above eleven or twelve feet. It is also obviously of importance that the floor space should be properly distributed; but, about this, so far as dwelling-houses are concerned, there is no need to enter into particulars. We are not able to insist on anything like 1,000 or 750 cubic feet of space in all instances, and amounts varying down to as low as 300 cubic feet per individual are adopted. In the case of a family living in one room, which is so small as to afford less than 300 cubic feet per individual, it is usual to consider that the limit of overcrowding which should be allowed by law has been reached. We cannot have, as a general rule, rooms so large that the air does not require changing while we are in them. Thus, for instance, a person in a bedroom for seven hours consecutively requires about 21,000 cubic feet of air if the atmosphere is to be kept fresh. Supposing him to have this without change of air, he would require a room, say, 70 feet long by 30 wide and 10 high. This makes it quite

clear that in rooms such as we have there must be a change of air.

In studying ventilation from a practical point of view, the chief agents that we have to consider are the winds, and movements produced in the air by variations in its density,, usually brought about by variations in its temperature; the property of the diffusion of gases by means of which the air is brought to a uniform composition when the temperature is the same throughout, being one which, practically speaking, does not affect the question much. With artificial methods of ventilation, in which the air is forced in a certain direction by machinery, we have little to do, as few of them are suitable for use in dwelling houses. The wind, as an agent of ventilation, is powerful, but its disadvantage is that its action is irregular. When all windows and doors can be opened, a current of air which may be imperceptible, is quite sufficient to change the air of a house in a very short time, and houses that have windows on both sides are for

this reason much more healthy than houses built back to back, which can never have through ventilation. This is the direct action of the wind, which may generally be utilized in large rooms with windows on opposite sides, like schoolrooms, by opening that which is nearest to the direction from which the wind comes, a little way at the top, and also opening the one which is diagonally opposite to it at the top a little further than the first one. The direct action of the wind has also been utilized for ventilating large houses by Silvester's plan, which consists in having a large cowl, that always faces the wind, at the top of a pipe leading down into cellars in the basement of the house, where the air can be warmed by stoves, and allowed to ascend into the house. By this plan the holds of ships are frequently ventilated. But the aspirating action of the wind is, perhaps, of greater importance. When the wind blows over the top of a chimney, or over a ventilating pipe, it causes a diminution of pressure of the column